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HKPC releases digital transformation study

In the current digital era, the rapid development of new technologies, for example, social media, mobile devices, analytics, communications and cloud technologies, has created new expectations on services/products to be provided by the business sector, the latest report by the Hong Kong Productivity Council notes.

All the demand from external and internal needs, not to mention the active promotion of “smart city” by the HKSAR Government, urged the necessity of digital transformation among Hong Kong companies – either go digital or be replaced.

In the view of this, the Hong Kong Productivity Council (HKPC) jointly undertook the “Research on Digital Transformation in Hong Kong Business Sector” in collaboration with the HK branch of a Japanese multinational technology company.

The report was aimed at gaining a better understanding of the present situation and challenges of Hong Kong companies in the digital transformation process.

The results of the research will help raise awareness among the business and public sectors and facilitate the formulation of solutions and recommendations for the digital transformation of Hong Kong.

In order to develop a robust understanding of the views from Hong Kong companies towards digital transformation, both focus groups and telephone survey were conducted to facilitate both qualitative and quantitative analysis.

Representatives from Hong Kong companies were invited to share their views and difficulties in the digital transformation process at three focus group meetings conducted by HKPC.

According to an article on the report, the first and most important thing that the report points out is that digital transformation isn’t limited to the adoption of new and exciting technology solutions — those aren’t going to be very helpful unless companies can leverage those solutions to improve efficiency, change people’s mindset, and move to a business model that is enabled by digital.

By analysing the current scenario in Hong Kong, the HKPC found that a lot of companies still follow traditional approval and documentation processes which means physical documents need to be created, signed, processed, and stored, all of which are time-consuming and inefficient.

While going digital, especially with documentation, is easy, companies in Hong Kong often have ageing staff who don’t see the benefits. Moreover, the city’s business leaders don’t seem to understand the value of technology. Hence, transformation projects are hard to start. In addition, financial resources are also a concern.

These are problems that both large enterprises and SMEs struggle with. However, businesses must think long-term and make the right investments in technology in order to ensure sustainability.

The HKPC report lays out five main recommendations for business:

  1. Set a clear strategy to lead digital transformation at management level: Digital transformation is an on-going process that takes time to reflect the return of investment. Hence, it is essential to develop a comprehensive digital transformation strategy plan at management level to lead the process and set well-defined goals for divisions and teams to achieve it.
  2. Establish two-way communication for employees to involve in the process: It is always important to keep employees informed and involved throughout the whole digital transformation process, as it allows employees to imagine their future working style and potential benefits on efficiency after the digital transformation process to secure their support.
  • Utilise the resources available in the market to gear up at early stage: Talent holds the key to digital transformation. However, it is difficult or expensive to hire new staff who are technically proficient and understand your company well. Re-skilling existing staff is a better solution in this case with the availability of subsidies from the Reindustrialisation and Technology Training Programme for companies to train their staff in advanced technologies, especially those related to digital transformation.
  1. Start cloud migration to reduce the reliance of a single system: a legacy system not only creates limitations to the technology or features that can be adopted but can also lead to potential cybersecurity issues as a result of gradual termination of system updates and support by the product developer. Thanks to the latest cloud technology, people can now enjoy a flexible and protected environment on applications with continuous IT support.
  2. Proactively review cybersecurity and data backup measures to protect the company’s valuable data assets: data is a valuable asset and is equally as important as cash. Hence, companies should start accumulating data – valuable asset of the companies to prepare for digital transformation, regardless of their competence in data analysis. However, it must come with suitable security and backup measures, just like a safe to keep the cash.

Overall, the reality is that companies need to think long and hard about digital transformation if they want to stay competitive in the global marketplace.

With companies in neighbouring countries like Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, and the Philippines boosting digital capabilities and producing quality products at an affordable rate, Hong Kong is under considerable pressure.

Fortunately, the government is taking action, providing support through various programs — but business leaders and staff need to make an effort to understand the value of technology in order to benefit from any of it.

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Qlik’s vision is a data-literate world, where everyone can use data and analytics to improve decision-making and solve their most challenging problems. A private company, Qlik offers real-time data integration and analytics solutions, powered by Qlik Cloud, to close the gaps between data, insights and action. By transforming data into Active Intelligence, businesses can drive better decisions, improve revenue and profitability, and optimize customer relationships. Qlik serves more than 38,000 active customers in over 100 countries.

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CTC Global Singapore, a premier end-to-end IT solutions provider, is a fully owned subsidiary of ITOCHU Techno-Solutions Corporation (CTC) and ITOCHU Corporation.

Since 1972, CTC has established itself as one of the country’s top IT solutions providers. With 50 years of experience, headed by an experienced management team and staffed by over 200 qualified IT professionals, we support organizations with integrated IT solutions expertise in Autonomous IT, Cyber Security, Digital Transformation, Enterprise Cloud Infrastructure, Workplace Modernization and Professional Services.

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Planview has one mission: to build the future of connected work. Our solutions enable organizations to connect the business from ideas to impact, empowering companies to accelerate the achievement of what matters most. Planview’s full spectrum of Portfolio Management and Work Management solutions creates an organizational focus on the strategic outcomes that matter and empowers teams to deliver their best work, no matter how they work. The comprehensive Planview platform and enterprise success model enables customers to deliver innovative, competitive products, services, and customer experiences. Headquartered in Austin, Texas, with locations around the world, Planview has more than 1,300 employees supporting 4,500 customers and 2.6 million users worldwide. For more information, visit www.planview.com.

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SIRIM is a premier industrial research and technology organisation in Malaysia, wholly-owned by the Minister​ of Finance Incorporated. With over forty years of experience and expertise, SIRIM is mandated as the machinery for research and technology development, and the national champion of quality. SIRIM has always played a major role in the development of the country’s private sector. By tapping into our expertise and knowledge base, we focus on developing new technologies and improvements in the manufacturing, technology and services sectors. We nurture Small Medium Enterprises (SME) growth with solutions for technology penetration and upgrading, making it an ideal technology partner for SMEs.

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HashiCorp provides infrastructure automation software for multi-cloud environments, enabling enterprises to unlock a common cloud operating model to provision, secure, connect, and run any application on any infrastructure. HashiCorp tools allow organizations to deliver applications faster by helping enterprises transition from manual processes and ITIL practices to self-service automation and DevOps practices. 

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IBM is a leading global hybrid cloud and AI, and business services provider. We help clients in more than 175 countries capitalize on insights from their data, streamline business processes, reduce costs and gain the competitive edge in their industries. Nearly 3,000 government and corporate entities in critical infrastructure areas such as financial services, telecommunications and healthcare rely on IBM’s hybrid cloud platform and Red Hat OpenShift to affect their digital transformations quickly, efficiently and securely. IBM’s breakthrough innovations in AI, quantum computing, industry-specific cloud solutions and business services deliver open and flexible options to our clients. All of this is backed by IBM’s legendary commitment to trust, transparency, responsibility, inclusivity and service.

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