BUSINESS

SMEs must digitally transform to stay relevant amidst changing times - Zoho Corp

28/11/2019 06:00 PM

By Azlee Nor Mahmud

KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 28 -- Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) need to digitally transform their business to stay relevant in the industry amidst changing times, said Zoho Corporation Pte Ltd, Asia-Pacific vice president and general manager, Gibu Mathew.

He said by being relevant, the SMEs would be able to compete more efficiently and able to outwit their competitors.

"There is always (ongoing) investment in technology, for example, even changing to email from snail mail, you will help your employees to communicate faster," he told Bernama in an exclusive interview recently.

On how the SMEs could maximise and grow their capabilities, Mathew said brick and mortar businesses should apply technology in their processes to expand their businesses by automating tasks.

"If you look at how businesses are carried out, all the processes that have been done before cannot be replaced, you need to hire employees, you still need to pay them, maintain time and attendance, communicate with them through email, phone, devices, calls and virtual meetings to expand their business.

"As a business owner you need to list your products online for sale, collect payments from customers, need to pay taxes, as those things don't go away.

"SMEs still need to do that and compete globally. How technology enables us is that we're able to automate all these tasks," he said.

For each of these tasks, for instance collecting payments from customers, he said the SMEs can deploy software to do all the follow-ups, as much as three to four times, and allow the customer to pay through card or direct bank transfer, and automatically reconcile it for their books, and give users proper reports to file taxes.

Mathew said today is one of the best times for anyone to be in business because all these things that users typically do not like to do, can be automated and users can focus on what they really like to do.

On how Malaysia’s e-commerce sector compared with other countries regionally, he said Malaysia has good Internet bandwidth, and with more than 60 per cent of businesses online, which is a very healthy number, it would help companies like Zoho Corp that assists SMEs to apply automated software to get good momentum.

“That is a big plus (for us). Bandwith whenever you want, those are some of the bare minimum items that you need. 

"The second thing for SMEs, there is also some meta infrastructure that has to be set up...there must be good logistics support, namely delivery vendors and these are small services that help you become successful.

"These are the convenience that helps you as a company to grow and all this is being brought about by the Malaysian government, increasing the availability of storage facility and infrastructure needed," said Mathew.

He said to have a successful e-commerce industry, a country should put in place good policies to enable the industry to thrive. 

"As the government, you can ensure that these policies are in place when you want to start and sell online," he said.

For example, he said e-commerce players needed a consistent shipping policy, refund policy, payment acknowledgment policy, goods defect policy and return policy. 

"There must be some level of consistency, across the board, and you have to facilitate more and utilise more methodologies, for example, pay through e-wallets and digital currencies, so there must be a proper mechanism on how payments are accepted," he said. 

"There must be sufficient checks and balances to ensure that there is no loss of trust among the citizens, and the trust is what the government should facilitate by having the infrastructure needed," he added.

-- BERNAMA


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