During the thought leadership forum in conjunction with the Altair Technology Conference 2019, hosted by Altair Engineering Sdn Bhd (Altair), the panellist call for Malaysian businesses to quickly embrace digital transformation as the rate of digital disruption is accelerating so rampantly.
More than 100 delegates comprising industry experts and academia attended the forum, agreed on the need to get rid of the complacency and to press ahead with digital transformation, in order to compete and succeed in the new digital. The delegates also recognised that Digital Transformation has a far-reaching impact on nation.
According to Altair, digital transformation expands beyond adopting new technologies such as artificial intelligence, Big Data analytics, robotics and automation. It requires a cultural and mindsets shift in stepping up talent reskilling and upskilling programme, stressing that the availability of skilled manpower will provide the necessary impetuous to the adoption of digital transformation.
Speaking at the conference, Srirangam Srirangarajan, Altair’s Managing Director for Malaysia, said, “As ‘Industry 4.0’ gains momentum, the move towards digitalisation seem inevitable now. Local businesses must move fast enough in digitalising their businesses or they may find it difficult to reconcile with the digital economy. They should be thinking about how to embed digital technologies to engage in higher-value and innovation based activities, deciding on what processes to automate, and how these changes will impact their customer experiences.”
“Many Malaysian companies are in the early stages of digital transformation, while some remain reluctant to invest in new technologies and commit resources to upskill their talents, simply because they are uncertain of the return on investment.”
Srirangarajan highlighted that digital transformation will be the game changer in making businesses more agile to keep up with the rapid changes brought about by disruptive technologies.
Tan Beng Teong, SHRDC’s Executive Director, said “Talent management is an area often being neglected by Malaysian business in their digitisation journey. This has resulted in the lack of skilled manpower to drive digital transformation, and this is most apparent amongst the small-and-medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).”
“At SHRDC, we believe the full implementation of ‘Industry 4.0’ would not be made possible without ‘Human Talent 4.0’. Simply put, artificial intelligence must go hand-in-hand with human intelligence. There is dire need to reinvent the nation’s talent development system to nurture a workforce equipped with the right digital capabilities to take on new functions in the digital economy.”
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