Panasonic Malaysia on track to achieve RM1.6bil sales

In partnership: Cheng (second from left) shaking hand with Ramco Systems Sdn Bhd vice-chairman and managing director P.R. Venketrama Raja. With them are Panasonic Malaysia deputy managing director Hiroyuki Imizu (left) and Ramco Systems chief executive officer Virender Aggarwal. — Bernama

PETALING JAYA: Panasonic Management Malaysia Sdn Bhd (Panasonic Malaysia) is well on track to achieve 5% higher sales at RM1.6bil year-on-year for the financial year ending March 31, 2017, despite flattish consumer demand and weakening ringgit.

Managing director Cheng Chee Chung said the company expected a similar 5% sales growth in the next financial year.

“Although we are quite insulated from the weakening ringgit as 64% of our products are made locally, we might have to increase the prices for certain products as costs of inputs have increased.

“However, the cheap ringgit will also boost our export and perhaps this can offset the increase in production costs. This could enable us to retain the prices of our products,” said Cheng.

Panasonic Malaysia is currently expanding its production capacity for air-conditioners due to the increase in demand from its consumers. The group is also growing its research and development capacity.

Yesterday, Panasonic Malaysia inked a multi-million ringgit strategic deal with Ramco Systems Sdn Bhd to digitise and transform human resource and payroll operations for Panasonic Malaysia’s 20,000 employees nationwide on a unified platform.

The new system is expected to be rolled out within 21 months, to create a seamless human resource experience, group-wide.

“Currently, individual entities under Panasonic Malaysia group are managing their human resources separately using different systems.

“Ramco Systems’ Human Capital Management (HCM) solution will enable all the tedious and time-consuming human resource processes to be simplified and fully automated,” said Cheng.

On whether the new system aims to rationalise operational costs and involves possible retrenchment of Panasonic Malaysia’s staff members, Cheng said although the HCM system would enable cost reduction for the company, that was not its prime objective.

He said the main objective of the collaboration is to free the human resource dpeartment from redundant day-to-day transactions and to significantly reduce bureaucracy.

Ramco Systems, headquartered in India, has partnered various international established companies such as Coca-Cola, Ernst and Young and Schneider Electric, among others.

The company has seven regional offices across Asia including in Malaysia, one of Ramco’s fastest growing market for human resource solutions.