KUALA LUMPUR (Dec 28): As economies across the world start to emerge from lockdown, business leaders are reassessing their plans and projections to accommodate the new normal, and creating opportunities for startups.

In a statement, Amazon Web Services (AWS) head of startup ecosystem for Asia Pacific-Japan Gaurav Arora said many startups already possess one of the qualities that could prove most beneficial in the post-pandemic world — business agility.

“But being agile and moving fast is just the beginning. Startups also have to look for opportunities to pull unnecessary costs out of their business, forge new links to partners and customers, and ensure their employees are continually developing new skills.

“With this focus, startups can lay the groundwork to survive and thrive in the new normal,” he said.

Citing a Malaysian Global Innovation & Creativity Center (MaGIC) survey titled “Startups, Social Enterprises Need Support to Ride Out Covid-19 Impact”, Arora said less than 3% of the startups in Southeast Asia think they would survive for more than 12 months if the Covid-19 pandemic persists.

Arora said during these challenging times, AWS has seen companies of every size, including startups, express their desire to transform more quickly into the cloud as a way of breaking free of the legacy on-premises infrastructure that holds them back from trying new ideas.

“As consumers continue to embrace digital services, their behaviour change creates opportunities for agile startups that quickly innovate with cloud technology to deliver great experiences online.

“At AWS, we’ve been helping startups rise to meet this opportunity. One example is the platform of cloud-based solutions for retail and F&B businesses, StoreHub,” he said.

Arora added that since the implementation of the Movement Control Order (MCO), most Malaysian F&B businesses have been badly impacted, especially ones that rely heavily on in-person purchases.

“Within 48 hours of the Malaysian MCO being announced, StoreHub built and launched Beep Delivery, a food delivery feature for F&B establishments.

“By leveraging Amazon Elasticsearch Service, it enables users to find the products they want to buy from store menus, while Amazon CloudFront serves as a fast content delivery network service for sending menus to customers.

“Beep Delivery also utilizes Amazon Simple Notification Service (Amazon SNS) as the messaging service for delivery orders,” he said.

Arora said running a startup can be a stressful experience at the best of times, and one of the most critical factors underpinning their success is how well they manage their cash.

“AWS offers several ways for startups to save money on their cloud expenses.

“We work with startup customers to make sure they are using the most cost-effective pricing models and are not using more AWS services than they actually need.

“The AWS Trusted Advisor online tool helps startup customers reduce costs, increase performance, and improve security by checking their use of AWS services, and making suggestions to help optimise performance,” he said.

Arora said AWS offers a variety of free online education and livestreamed or on-demand training events for startups across Asia at every growth stage, including AWSome Days and the AWS Builders Online Series for early-stage founders new to the cloud.

“AWS Innovate conferences are for startups looking to accelerate their cloud skills,” he said.