CEO Conference 2019: Pos Malaysia's digital transformation plans

• Need for highly-functional mobile app for transactions
• Management willing to invest money for overhaul of technology

THE national postal service provider, Pos Malaysia, may not conjure images of a digital company or cutting edge technology, but it has certainly realised the need to embrace technology in a bid to become more customer-centric.

 At the CEO Conference 2019 organised by DNA and Leaderonomics, Pos Malaysia’s group head of digital, Sangeetha Ranganath (pic) elaborated on the company’s initiatives. “We are at an inflection point where many of these ideas, solutions and internal discussions are finally going to enter the market over the next year or two.”

To embark on this journey, Sangeetha says that it was important for Pos Malaysia to first understand what their customers want. Though not an “exhaustive list”, there are five focus areas the company is working on which are simplified customer experience, secure and scheduled delivery, informed visibility, automated assistance and seamless engagement.

Pos Malaysia hopes to offer a more simplified experience for end customers to transact easily using the smartphone mobile app. “We don’t have the most robust and constructive mobile app at the moment and that’s something we are investing in.”

In an effort to enable easy transactions for customers wherever they may be, Sangeetha says the mobile app must be highly functional. “We understand what you come to Pos Malaysia for and we want to make sure you can perform all those transactions and functions using our app.”

As for secure and scheduled delivery, Pos Malaysia is exploring EziBox to allow customers to choose when and where they can receive their parcel. “This gives customers flexibility. If they’re not home, they can choose to pick up the parcel from the parcel locker location they have keyed in.”

Meanwhile, with the exponential growth of e-commerce, the company has also had to invest in making their e-commerce fulfilment centres more fluid and efficient. “In multiple location across the country, we actually built automated or semi-automated e-commerce fulfilment centres to satisfy e-commerce demands.”

Pos Malaysia has the vision to become more customer-centric using technology as the enabler. “There are gaps in our existing technology involving our core tech systems in warehouses, delivery network and packet trace. We need to go through a complete overhaul exercise and our management is willing to spend the money to get that done,” Sangeetha says.

CEO Conference: Malaysia Living Dangerously is sponsored by Telekom Malaysia Bhd as Telecommunications Partner, Malaysian Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC) and Pos Malaysia Bhd as Sponsors. The Malaysian SME Association endorsed the conference.