THE Malaysian Productivity Corporation (MPC) and the Small and Medium Enterprises Association of Malaysia (SAMENTA) have launched the SME Digital Transformation and Productivity Programme (SDTP) to help Malaysian SMEs in the service and professional sectors to digitalise.
As part of the SDTP programme, MPC and SAMENTA have launched a Digital Productivity Guide for Service-based SMEs, which are available for free download from the websites of both organisations.
Participating SMEs can also take a proprietary Digital Productivity Readiness Assessment (DPRA) to evaluate their degree of readiness for digital transformation, followed by a mentoring session with selected digitalisation experts via a Digital Productivity Virtual Advisory Clinic (DP-VAC).
“The past few years have been challenging because of the pandemic and difficult business climate. As a result, most businesses are seeing their margins being compressed and costs of doing business increasing,” commented MPC director-general Datuk Abdul Latif Abu Seman.
“By leveraging on productivity improvement, businesses can improve their chances of making more profit and hence, surviving and thriving against all odds.”
The partnership with SAMENTA is open to all SMEs with SAMENTA serving as the anchor association.
Through the private sector-led Retail and Food and Beverage Productivity Nexus, the first batch of intervention will target SMEs in the retail sector, before rolling out to all other sectors.
“As Malaysia’s oldest and largest association of SMEs, SAMENTA is committed to being the voice of SMEs and in helping SMEs grow their businesses,” SAMENTA chairperson Datuk William Ng remarked.
“The SDTP will help in handholding SMEs to become more digitally-aware and to embark on their digital transformation journey.”
Ng said during the pandemic many SMEs found themselves unable to cope with the changes, and expressed hopes that through the SDTP SMEs can be guided to overcome some of the challenges.
“Through digitalization, we hope more SMEs can improve on their productivity, improve on their margins, and be more prepared for the disruption to their businesses,” he added.
A recent survey conducted by SAMENTA and Affin Bank revealed that less than 10% of SMEs are fully digitalised while a worrying 70% has either not embarked on any form of digitalisation or are at very basic level.
According to early observations from the SDTP programme, SAMENTA Central chairperson of community engagement and development Maresa Ng noted that 82% of participants are digitalised in sales and marketing, and only 37% are digitalised in the back-end operations and employee management, hence generating lower labour productivity.
Industry collaboration
In other news SAMENTA also signed Memorandums of Understanding (MOU) with several retail-based industry associations as part of an industry-cluster approach to help more SMEs digitalise.
These include the Association of Malaysian Optometrists (AMO), the Women Entrepreneur Network Association Malaysia (WENA) and the Restaurant & Bistro Owner Association (PPRB).
“This partnership with SAMENTA is an important step towards helping our members to embark on digitalisation,” commented AMO president Ahmad Fadhullah Fuzai.
“The pandemic has hit the eye-care industry particularly hard. Through the diagnostics and handholding elements within the SDTP, we are able to speed up the digital transformation process.”
WENA president Nuraizah Shamsul Baharin concurred, adding that the collaboration is necessary ensure the sustainability of entrepreneurs especially women-led SMEs who are mainly micro-businesses and heavily affected by rising costs.
“Through the SDTP, entrepreneurs can receive the much-needed roadmap to ensuring greater productivity by going digital,” she added. – Aug 26, 2022
