KUALA LUMPUR (July 19): Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) have been urged to continue with their digital transformation journey even after conclusion of imposed restricted mobility resulting from the Covid-19 pandemic.

In a statement, group managing director of Genaxis Group and chief executive officer of IA Consulting Sdn Bhd (iAC) Nuraslina Zainal Abidin said with the expected return to business as usual as the pandemic continues to show signs of easing in the country, SMEs may find no urgency to implement digital transformation.

She said SMEs need to view digitalisation as a critical step to increase business and operational resiliency as well as enhance productivity during these unprecedented and challenging times.  

Genaxis and iAC, subsidiaries Dagang NeXchange Bhd, offer services ranging from system integration, consultancy and project management for IT, software and applications development, as well as other IT-related services.

Nuraslina said it is possible that SMEs do not fully understand the importance of digital transformation, and the small first steps they need to take to implement digital transformation.

“We observe that in large organisations, there is no deferment in digital transformation efforts. After conclusion of imposed restricted mobility, it is actually the opposite.

“Most large companies are accelerating their digitalisation initiatives. A typical five-year digital transformation journey, is now being accelerated to three years or less,” she added.

Nuraslina said companies who continue to pursue digital transformation need to focus on enhancing customer experience at every touchpoint with their customers on the digital platform.

She said this is to take advantage of the new norm where clients turn to mobile or internet platform to make purchases.  

SMEs will definitely benefit in reaching more customers and reducing operational costs by changing to digital platform to offer product or deliver services, she said.

“For SMEs to adopt digitalisation of business, they must first understand the business priorities that requires digitalisation either to help in lowering operational costs, acquiring new target customers,  launching a new line of product or services or optimising resource,” she said.

Nuraslina said most SMEs will opt for workers layoff due to cash flow constraints as a result from the pause of the last five months.

“Therefore, they need drastic measures to reduce costs and embark on a new business model,” she said.

Nuraslina highlighted that the pause during the pandemic should reset perspectives on the way SMEs have been running their business.

“We should take the opportunity to clean up, remove critical barriers for growth in our business and choose the right digital technology as the enabler to reach our new goals,” she said.