The Guide: Digital Transformation in Singapore

Singapore is one of the countries that embraced the benefits of digital transformation. Since 2010, our Singapore government has asked enterprises to adopt digital transformation. And they have invested to help onshore and offshore companies offering digital solutions.

There are also grants and various incentives for Singapore businesses considering digital transformation. The “Innovative Credit (PIC) Scheme, now-defunct Productivity, and the Technology Adoption Programme.” are some examples. Recently, the government also introduced “the SMEs Digital Go Programme”.

These grants can be used to buy the software and hardware to digitize business processes. Also, these grants can help cover any training cost necessary for your employees. With new skills, your staff can use new tech tools and technology to do daily operations.

What is Digital Transformation?

It is a process to build in digital technology for various areas of your business. The main aim of digital transformation is to change how Singapore businesses operate. Which in turn help to deliver value to their customers for long-term growth. This process requires a cultural change i.e being open to testing new solutions and challenging the status quo. Also, ensure that your employees don’t get comfortable with poor results or any failure.

Digital transformation is important to all businesses including in Singapore. Regardless, small businesses or startups to large enterprises. It is an effective way for businesses to be relevant and compete in this digital era. A successful journey into digital transformation should begin with a problem statement. Followed by a clear opportunity. Then, an aspirational goal on what you want to achieve. It could be changing the way to do business or using the latest digital technologies.

The benefits of digital transformation

Business growth comes as good to every entrepreneur. But, it is important to understand that this success has a cost when reaching a given level. To address these challenges, Digital transformation entirely changes how your business operates. Here we look at some of the top benefits of digital transformation to your business.

1. Increased Transparency

As part of Digital Transformation, you may need an SAP or ERP system. This is for you to better understand the operation of your business’s processes. Such systems help you find patterns and trends that you may have missed before. With access to daily real-time data, your business’s operations can run smoother.

Another important aspect of business operations is ensuring transparency across all your teams. Like, the Accounting team and Customer Success Team can work together to address clients’ payment issues.

2. Enhanced Efficiency

Implementing an ERP system helps to increase the efficiency of your business operations greatly. This includes improving how employees communicate across different departments as well as the flow of data within the organization. The enhanced efficiency allows your business to run better, saving money, time, and resources over the lifetime of your customer.

3. Revenue Growth

Digital transformation helps organizations improve efficiency and effectiveness. Not to mention, reducing costs. Businesses can also grow their revenue over time by reinvesting their profit. Integrating relevant systems helps us to catch flaws quickly in key business processes. Businesses that act timely to address shortfalls can capitalize on opportunities, while digital transformation helps improve transparency and management of business aspects.

Both the management and employees can also enhance their best practices and grow their revenue through timely drawbacks recognition, evaluating the trends within business operations, and maximizing data-driven opportunities.

4. Cost Savings

Many organizations pay a lot of money and time while maintaining old legacy products and systems. Adopting digital transformation can save you money upfront and after the implementation. To improve your business’ speed and efficiency, you need to ensure you are able to quickly identify and address problems.

It is advisable to invest in the right ERP software as it guarantees several opportunities for cost savings and general operations. For instance, for product-based companies, getting good insights into raw materials timelines and volume needs can be easier. Digital transformation allows companies to order raw materials in a data-based manner, which can lead to cost savings.

5. Better Employee Culture and Engagement

With digital transformation, businesses can adopt Human Capital Management software to keep and attract new talent. Using such a system can help manage performance reviews, ensuring employees get the right training, coaching, and management support. It can also play a crucial role in employees’ individual performance.

Apart from maximizing human resource opportunities, this system can also improve the overall work experience in any organization. Integrating ERP software and other similar systems helps make the employee’s job more efficient, straightforward, and intuitive. As a result, employees are able to enjoy their jobs more when they are less stressed.

By providing transparent, more efficient, and seamless technology, these systems set your current and future team of employees up for great success. Adopting such systems helps an organization identify new trends and stay organized in its work. This helps improve employees’ productivity and makes them enjoy their time at your organization.

6. Better Operating Model

Depending on your operating model, digital transformation can help improve your IT infrastructure and change how your business operates entirely. Integrating new digital technologies and solutions helps open new opportunities. Thus, adopting a great ERP system helps in the optimization of your business’s reach and growth.

7. Better Customer Experience

Digital transformation helps improve customer experience by making it easier to recognize flaws in service delivery. For instance, if a customer contacts customer service to confirm a particular delivery that is delayed. The person in charge can get deeper into checking the order to determine what led to the mix-up. It also allows the Customer Service Agent to offer more insight into what led to the delay in delivery. This will help the customer understand the entire process better, which can help save the sale.

Utilizing the right ERP system allows you to integrate an ordering platform for your customer. With the integration of the system, customers could get visibility into the available and remaining inventory of products and services. This allows a business to create a simple and cleaner purchasing process that appeals to every customer.

8. Enhancing Competitive Advantage

Digital transformation helps improve the infrastructure of your business. Which in turn helps enhance the competitive edge that your business enjoys within your industry. But, businesses need to plan for how the new system’s functionalities and features would help make them stand out from their competition.

What are your core competencies and where can the new system help your business improve? The software you choose should have the same functionality and features as your business needs. The software should help you improve your skills so you can maintain a competitive edge.

To achieve sustainable growth, you need to step out of your comfort zone and start your digital transformation journey. It is important to have the right software programs and professionals to help you achieve a successful digital transformation in your business.

9. Flexibility

When digital transformation is implemented effectively, it helps you respond to the customer and market needs on time. The outbreak of COVID-19 has set a stage for the upset of traditional business practices in favor of IT transformation. With the effects of the pandemic, most businesses are aware of the importance of adaptability and flexibility in business. But, it is also advisable to choose the ideal software for your organization. You also need to integrate the software properly to ensure that your business operations are not disrupted as you transform.

10. Improved Supply Chain Management

One of the major benefits of IT transformation is ensuring that your business has more improved supply chain management. With good supply chain management, companies can get better visibility into their products’ microeconomics, and improve their management of their vendors. Microeconomics includes the entire journey from raw materials to delivering your products to customers, for example, if logistics and shipping are part of your key competencies, you need to think about how the department can meet your needs using the IT transformation process in ERP.

Types of Digital Transformation

With the new era of globalization and the latest technologies, digital transformation is one of the priorities in every business plan. It enables companies to change the competitive landscape, finding new effective ways to provide value to their customers. It also allows businesses to change the underlying economics within their industry.

Many people might argue that technological change is an obvious thing. Although, this time it is clear that it is happening faster than ever before. But even with the many benefits and changes, some executives are still hesitant to embark on an IT transformation journey, mostly because of concerns about disruption and other associated risks.

While technologies may pose serious threats even to established organizations, they also offer several unprecedented opportunities. Thus, many business owners are more afraid to miss growth opportunities than to be driven out of the market. The following are the main types of digital transformation:

• Process Transformation

In most cases, companies are targeting business processes while implementing digital transformation. Some of the new technologies in IT transformation can help businesses to reinvent their processes in new and effective ways. These solutions include machine learning, data source, analytics, and other technologies. Many businesses reinvent their process to reduce cycle times, lower costs, or increase quality.

A good example of this type of digital transformation is Airbus. Airbus has installed heads-up display glasses to enhance human inspection quality in planes. Also, process transformation can also be seen in food vendor shops like Domino’s Pizza, which have completely transformed their ordering process through the use of a software product.

Some organizations are also using technologies such as robotic process automation to help streamline processes at the back office, especially in legal and accounting firms. Process transformation offers businesses significant value, explaining why the adoption of technology in these areas is gaining popularity. CDO or CIO leads process transformation since they tend to direct their effort to specific areas in your business.

• Domain Transformation

Domain transformation is a digital transformation that targets an area that usually receives little focus but offers enormous opportunity. New technologies change the way services and products are delivered, leading to the creation of new competitors. Furthermore, it also eliminates industry boundaries. But, many executives fail to realize the real opportunity that these technologies provide to create new businesses beyond their current markets. This means that this form of transformation is more likely to offer a new value to the business.

Amazon’s Success

A good example of domain transformation is checking out how Amazon (the online retailer) works. The online store established a new market domain by launching AWS (Amazon Web Services). Today, AWS is the largest infrastructure/cloud computing service, shining in a domain that IT giants like IBM and Microsoft formerly held.

But, Amazon was only able to enter such a competitive domain due to a combination of solid IT capabilities that the company had developed in computing and storage databases. These IT capabilities were built to offer support to their core retail business, which increasingly required computing services to grow. In this case, you need to understand that Amazon Web Service is not a business extension or just an adjacency for Amazon but an entirely new market space. The new domain (AWS) now represents about 60 percent of the annual profit made by Amazon.

Some executives, especially those in non-tech businesses, may be tempted to take Amazon’s experience as unique, but their ability to get technology may be higher than other organizations. Other digitally-native organizations that share almost a similar experience of expanding into new domains include Google and Apple. This shows that with the latest technological advancements, gaps in technology are no longer seen as barriers in the digital world.

With enough resources, any company can gain access to new technologies necessary to unlock growth and achieve great results more efficiently and affordably. The latest technologies are being used to unlock new business domains. These technologies include machine learning, artificial intelligence, augmented reality, and IoT (internet of things). Fortunately, there are a variety of software development companies that can provide these technologies, rather than just traditional IT services providers like IBM or Microsoft.

• Organizational/ Cultural Transformation

Generally, successful digital transformation requires you to redefine cultural or organizational processes, mindsets, capabilities, and talent for the IT industry. Every successful organization understands that digitalization requires agile workflows and decentralized decision-making. It also requires a higher dependence on business ecosystems and a bias toward learning and testing.

Experian (a consumer credit agency) is a perfect example of a successful digital transformation. The agency transformed its organization by incorporating collaboration and agile development into its workflows. By carrying out a fundamental shift, they make their employees focus more on data rather than equipment.

Quoting another example. Pitney Bowes, one of the oldest postage equipment firms, successfully transitioned into being a ‘technology company’ According to its management, the company achieved this by promoting innovation as part of its culture. They also focused on shifting organizational values to ensure that they suit customer needs.

As you can see, it is clear that neither of the 2 examples focused on culture and organization. Instead, they focused on promoting digital mindsets, agility, innovation, and innovation skills in the organization to drive their growth. Pitney Bowes executives started its transformation by mainly focusing on customer-facing functionalities. Similarly, Experian also began its digital transformation journey with a lighthouse IT project to develop internal APIs. The company forced its teams of employees to adopt IT workflow practices.

But, progress in enterprise initiatives brought about organizational changes such as innovation and agile development over time. This means that organizational/cultural change is a long-term need for business success. With the rapid technology advancement, many industries will continually be forced to adopt digital transformation.

The importance of digital transformation in Singapore

Digital transformation is one of the most important skills in Singapore. It makes up 35% of an organization’s digitalization plans. Unfortunately according to a survey by Censuswide, it was found that 29% of employees said that tech skill is one of the most difficult skills to learn in the country. Followed by other important skills such as software development/programming/coding and machine learning/automation/AI.

With many Singapore companies emphasizing digital transformation, this area has also become a field that aligns with employees’ interests. Most employees also have an interest in other areas, including cybersecurity and data analytics. Apart from these, many employees also believe that teamwork, leadership, and creativity also promote business growth.

Singapore is working on developing policies to help the country grow faster in new digital capabilities, which is part of its goal of becoming a Smart Nation. The new capabilities will help both workers and businesses to emerge stronger, especially in this era of globalization and the latest IT advancement. While delivering the 2021 Budget speech, Mr. Heng Swee Keat (Minister for finance in Singapore) said that the government would create digital leaders to help this happen. This strategy involves creating local businesses that produce high-quality IT leaders, who can then compete globally and within the region. SMEs will also be able to access relevant digitalization advisory and resources.

The perspective of the local workforce on building a Smart Nation

The key pillars holding Singapore’s Smart Nation goals include building a digital society, government, and economy. Most employees also support the government’s plan of improving technology skills through their Smart Nation plans. Some also believe that government digital transformation plans will help in the digitalization of the different industries by developing digital infrastructure and culture. But, some employees see the government efforts as a double-edged sword that might hamper the digitalization of the industry. This is because the government will also be competing for the already scarce talent.

Generally, the government’s efforts to promote digital transformation in the local workforce and businesses are well accepted and agile. Most employees embrace the great flexibility that comes with digital work methods. All in all, the digital transformation is important in Singapore for two major reasons:

• Allows the country to remain competitive globally and regionally

• Helps address rising labor costs

The application of digital transformation in the Singapore Government

The Singapore authorities are advocates for using innovative technologies to improve how the government conducts business. Through GovTech, the government has developed a Smart Nation plan which focuses on delivering IT services to SMEs and other enterprises. Some of the main application areas of digital transformation in the government include:

IT Capability Centers

One of the major areas of application of IT transformation in the Singapore government is the establishment of five capability centers. These five centers will help the government learn how to use the latest technologies, and increase its engineering expertise. They will also help GovTech develop new services that are designed to benefit citizens. These innovative services and products can be deployed across the entire government through statutory boards and Ministries.

Cybersecurity

Cybersecurity is becoming an increasingly important part of digital transformation, as cyber-attacks become more common. The Singapore government is now investing in the development of comprehensive cybersecurity capabilities through the capability centers to support its plans. These cyber capabilities include blue-teaming capabilities, which help detect and quickly respond to cyber threats. They also include red-teaming capabilities, which help detect vulnerabilities in Smart systems and Government ICT.

Apart from building cyber-defense capabilities, the government center partners with various agencies to offer cybersecurity governance and implementation of secure architectures. It also works with these agencies to provide technical guidance to help create a fast and safer Smart Nation.

Application Development, Design, and Development

The capability centers use an “outside-in” approach that allows them to deliver government digital services that are focused on the needs of citizens. This supports the public sector’s digital transformation journey by providing resources and support. The center has a team of experts who are skilled in developing software and designing an effective user interface. These include User Experience, Agile, DevOps, quality engineering, and PaaS. This technology enables the Government to deliver digital services that are flexible, scalable, and reliable.

Artificial Intelligence and Data Science

The capability center utilizes artificial intelligence (AI) to develop smart platforms and extract data-driven insights. This enables them to support government policies and enhance the delivery of digital services. The center also plays a key role in helping public agencies undergo digital transformation. This is through empowering public workers and officers to improve their data skills. It also works with agencies to help support their data infrastructure and data strategies.

Internet of Things and Sensors

The capability center handles the design and implementation of the Internet of Things (IoT) infrastructure for the Smart Nation platform. Additionally, the IoT infrastructure allows connectivity by smart objects. These include mobile and static objects such as sensors, mobile devices, and wearables. It also allows for high-speed data transmission from the sensors.

The center also uses the Internet of Things and other emerging technologies to develop the government’s capabilities. It also collaborates with public agencies, research institutes, and commercial organizations to experiment and test pilot new technologies for any problems before deployment.

Government ICT Infrastructure

The center applies a digital transformation to develop the infrastructure of a centralized Info-communications Technology (ICT). This center consists of data centers, networks, devices, and applications. It also includes other infra scaled across government institutions.

The center uses a digital transformation to create an agile, resilient, cost-effective, and secure infrastructure that improves the user experience to empower public officers. The infrastructure is also optimized for the operations of the Singapore government. The center also applies IT transformation to offer support and guidelines to government agencies.

Study Cases of Digital Transformation

With the effects of COVID-19, many companies have been forced to review their operations and strategies to stay in the market and better engage with their customers. Digital transformation remains a top priority in helping startups, and large businesses maintain a competitive edge in this era of globalization, the latest technology, and the pandemic. Here we look at the study cases where digital transformation has been successful.

1. Increasing Scalability in Automotive Company

Digital transformation has helped automotive companies scale their IT transformation journey. Most leading companies have undertaken a transformation to move from a traditional process that involved manual processes to automation. In fact, these companies have a complex organizational structure that consists of many independent departments. These departments offer several solutions for customer projects and internal use. Some of these applications come with similar features, but there was no solution to reusing them.

Saas Platforms

These companies are required to build SaaS platforms to reduce costs, optimize operations and scale their digital transformation. This would enable them to streamline and standardize their digital products to use in different departments. But, every automotive company needs to verify their ideation, measure the product’s ideal ROI, and address potential risks. Most companies in this category undergo digital transformation while looking for more expertise and consulting in cloud development.

But, before embarking on your digital transformation journey, you need to identify the business value of the platform. This should be done by conducting two Discovery Phases, with the main phase focusing on the product and the other one on unveiling the platform’s business value.

The developer interviews different teams within the organization to understand the business needs of their client and the functionality of every solution. The developer conducts workshops to develop a value proposition and derive a product vision. During the discovery phase, the developer is able to prepare the product requirements that describe the project, its features, goals, architecture overview, and best technology stack. Researching before developing a product or idea can help avoid making decisions based on unsound evidence.

Benefits of Saas Platforms

Undertaking digital transformation like developing a SaaS platform has improved its operation. The SaaS platform integrates all vehicle benchmarks that the client initially researched. This comes with the following benefits:

• By developing an application on the SaaS platform, automotive companies can reduce man-hours by 1.5 times as compared to when it is developed without the platform. This helps save on the operating cost.

• SaaS offers flexibility for OEMs (clients) in choosing payment options and benchmarks in the subscription accounts.
• The platform helps replace a long manual process that involves preparing benchmarking reports for customers. It also allows internal application users to publish these reports, manage customers’ access depending on subscriptions and update pricing.

2. Large-Scale IT transformation in Telecommunication Companies

One example of a successful digital transformation project is Lebara, a leading mobile virtual network operator in Europe. The company serves customers in 8 different countries. It focuses on providing “Pay As You Go” mobile SIM cards as well as other related services and products to international communities. Lebara products make it easy for migrants to enjoy all major telecommunication services. These are industries that provide entertainment, communications, and financial services.

6 years ago, Lebara started a transformation program with the help of a top consulting agency. During the implementation of the program, Lebara worked with many IT service providers. Eventually, managed to find a long-term partner with the ability to deliver all of their software development needs. The new IT vendor took responsibility for the full-cycle development process of new products and maintaining them. It also took the responsibility for new IT transformation streams.

The telecommunication giant needed to make changes to meet its growing customer base and offer a seamless user experience. First, Lebara had to migrate its Hybris B2C platform to the 4.8 version from the initial 4.3 version. The company outsourced a developer to build a master system for online and offline channels (SMS, USSD, website, customer service, and mobile app). This website is available in Germany, UK, Spain, France, Denmark, and the Netherlands. With the website, users are able to buy, activate, and register their SIM cards, change and buy plans (SMS, data bundles), and configure auto top-up or top-up. Also, it enables its users to manage several user accounts, access support online, and check their balances.

Benefits from Digital Transformation in Telecommunication

Some of the benefits of its digital transformation include:

• Enhanced management of data flows and simplified business processes

• Seamless user experience

• Increased flexibility due to a multi-cloud strategy cloud strategy. Helps the company avoid vendor lock-in (Offers the opportunity to negotiate favorable terms with cloud vendors)

• Enhanced scalability and saving infrastructure with microservices and cloud

• Able to introduce innovations much faster due to microservices architecture

• Prevent downtime and ensure faster time-to-market due to the automation framework

• Faster optimized NI reports due to data lake development. All reports on clients are ready on time (8 AM daily)

3. Agri-Services Digital Transformation

Another case study is the digital transformation journey of Origin Enterprises plc, a huge Agri-Services group. The company has top market positions in the UK, Ukraine, Poland, Ireland, and Romania. Origin Agri-Services group is based in Dublin. And focuses on delivering integrated agronomy services.

The organization provides strategic inputs and value-added technologies to promote the delivery of sustainable and profitable food production solutions to primary producers. The Agri-Services company needed to develop IT solutions that would help optimize internal processes and systems in the agriculture space, provide smart planning for primary producers, and create a mobile app with offline GPRS tracking. It also required recommendation solutions and nutrient planning, and others.

Some of the benefits that come with smart farming digital solutions include:

• Allows the company to use data-driven insights, which provides more effective recommendations
• Optimized cooperation between all the key team players, including agronomists, farmers, credit providers, and product

Digital Transformation Challenges in Singapore

Digital transformation offers many benefits, but that’s not to say it is easy. IT transformation comes with costs and potential risks that could overwhelm many businesses, especially startups. Here we look at the digital transformation challenges in Singapore:

Lack of adequate digital talent to support digital transformation

Digital transformation involves many technologies and IT solutions. In other words, you should not underestimate the number of highly skilled professionals needed to transform a company. Besides, IT transformation is also harder for traditional enterprises with teams of employees who have worked long without digital processes.

In this case, many companies opt to outsource fresh IT talent, but this strategy isn’t effective if the in-house team cannot blend in and work in synergy. The legacy staff may also consider IT transformation as a change that may threaten their job security. Thus, the legacy staff may unconsciously oppose any change.

Unsupportive Legacy infrastructure

Like any other developing country, Singapore enterprises transform from legacy infrastructures that do not favor any change. Outdated internal systems characterize the legacy infrastructures in most organizations. According to a study, most businesses in Singapore are held back from undergoing a digital transformation by their dependence on legacy applications. Some enterprises are even opposed to digital transformation as they do not see why they should improve from traditional processes.

Legacy systems also support file formats to a given point until these formats evolve to the extent that the legacy system can handle them. Thus, if the latest system formats cannot process historical data, this might render decades of worthless intelligence data. This data can take a longer time to convert manually into formats compatible with the new systems. Such a delay may affect operations reporting and business intelligence.

Uncertainty of digital transformation effectiveness

Most Singapore-based SMEs doubt about the efficacy of incorporating the latest digital technologies and strategies. But, it is natural to have such uncertainties considering the cost of digital transformation. Moreover, IT transformation does not also offer an immediate return on investment.

In this case, executives should rethink their doubts by evaluating the effectiveness of the transmission from the angle of customer value. Companies should only make investments in technology that offer benefits to the end customers.

Main factors for Digital transformation

Successful digital transformation may attract huge costs and risks. But changes always begin with a single step. Enterprises with legacy infrastructures that are defined by traditional processes need to focus on digital customer experience. This helps uncover immediate opportunities to experiment, learn and eliminate points of friction and hurdles in their transformation journey.

Here are the main factors in digital transformation:

• Orientation

Leaders should introduce a new perspective that promotes meaningful change. For instance, if your business features an “inside out” model, you need to now focus on customer wants, needs, and priorities.

• Process

Companies should also update technologies, assess operational infrastructure, policies and processes to promote change. In this case, you can start with a contact center and later make it more intelligent, unified, and collaborative.

• People

Before undertaking digital transformation, you need to understand customer expectations, values, and behaviors. This ensures that the entire team is aligned with your digital strategies and goals.

• Structure

Companies need to build a dedicated IT experience team with clearly defined responsibilities, roles, and objectives. It is also advisable to ensure that the entire organization understands the processes and objectives.

• Objectives

Digital transformation involves high costs. Furthermore, it does not also offer an immediate return on investment. Thus, it is important to define the aim of undertaking digital transformation. This helps align shareholders and stakeholders around the new roadmap and vision. In this case, set quantifiable KPIs as it enables you to meet your objectives.

Why is TechTIQ Digital transformation Solution in Singapore?

Digital transformation is increasingly becoming a necessity and a valuable tool for every enterprise. This is because it offers several opportunities for a business to achieve sustainable growth, monetary gain, and improved customer service delivery. TechTIQ digital transformation is a solution in Singapore as it delivers effective services. Our services help your business by delivering continual business and technology transformation at a greater speed and scale.

Our company has a team of analysts and engineers that ensure that your transformation journey brings the desired business results. This includes increased revenues, improved customer engagement, and reduced operational costs. We are also able to address digital transformation challenges in Singapore as we focus on customer value. Besides, we also work with companies with legacy staff used to traditional processes to enable them to achieve seamless transformation.