WHEN the pandemic swept the world, leaving economic devastation in the wake of lockdown measures everywhere, many businesses – particularly SMEs – found themselves unprepared and left in the lurch, being unable to run their daily operations as usual.
It is necessary for businesses to move towards digitalisation to survive the times.
This has created a necessity for businesses to look to digitalisation – embracing digital solutions and technology to keep the business up and running through the uncertainty of these troubled times.
In keeping with the changes, Maxis has evolved from being just a telco provider to offer digitalisation solutions for businesses looking to delve into digitalisation.
Taking the lead to establish its presence as a trusted partner of choice for businesses going digital, Maxis Business has unrolled its Digital Readiness Index (DRI).
To this end, Maxis Business collaborated with Vodafone to tap into its experience in launching a similiar index in Europe that empowers small businesses to kickstart their digitalisation journey.
Maxis Chief Enterprise Business Officer Paul McManus said: “The DRI has the potential to generate actionable insights on the state of digital transformation of businesses and industries in the nation, including for governments particularly as a consideration for policy implementation and best practices for digital adoption. This is line with our commitment to enable businesses and the nation to Always be Ahead in a changing world.”
The Maxis Business DRI is a tool that would allow businesses to assess their readiness for digitalisation via a few simple steps online. This user-friendly, interactive self-assessment tool also allows businesses to explore solutions to get digital-ready.
Maxis Business is the first provider to offer the Maxis Business DRI in Malaysia – leading the way forward in the digitalisation of businesses.
Essentially, the assessment is a score sheet on how ready a business is for digitalisation. It is based on three pillars – customer satisfaction, employee productivity and operational efficiency.
Gauge how ready your business is for digitalisation with the Maxis business DRI and find solutions to suit your needs.
After answering a series of questions, a formula determines the score for each pillar that tabulates a total score to gauge digital readiness. This ranges from “ready” and “nearly ready” to “not ready” and “at risk”.
The final report provides comprehensive and personalised insights, as well as competitor analysis, industry benchmarking and recommendations on the most suitable digital solutions for businesses’ needs.
Companies can also opt to follow up with guidance from dedicated Maxis Business consultants to determine the solution best suited for them.
Since the Maxis Business DRI was launched in July, over 3,000 businesses in Malaysia across the retail, manufacturing, transportation, hotel, restaurant and cafe (HoReCa), oil and gas, government and GLC, and professional services industries have participated in the survey.
The average score is recorded as 58% – slightly lower than the international benchmark of 71%.
This percentage indicates that businesses in Malaysia are not in a ready state for digitalisation in embracing digital technologies to a greater extent to reach their full potential in the three pillars.
The results also indicated that usage of digital tools for customer engagement is still at a basic level with 61% using email and 40% using social media as the main communication channels to customers.
The results show that SMEs in the transportation and logistics sector scored 60%, while the manufacturing sector scored 47% and the oil and gas sector 63%.
To address the shortfalls, businesses can opt for any of the digital solutions provided by Maxis Business, which has been specifically unrolled to drive a digital transformation for businesses to stay relevant in today’s world.
Also, having been identified by the Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC) as a technology solutions provider, Maxis Business has also been helping SMEs maximise their digital aspirations with its widest range of connectivity and digital solutions through the SME Digitalisation Grant.
Available for a limited time only, Maxis Business will help SMEs submit the grant application and follow up on the application status. It will then inform the SMEs once the grant is approved, making it an easy and hassle-free process for SMEs to take advantage of the grant.
