Based on Microsoft’s Asia Data Culture Study 2016, less than half of business leaders believe they have a full digital strategy in place today and even more needs to be done to develop a data culture
Hong Kong, 28 June 2016 – Microsoft Asia today unveiled findings from its first ever Asia Data Culture Study 2016, which showed that while 88% of business leaders polled in Asia agreed that it is important for their organizations to have an agile business that is data-driven, less than half of them (43%) believe they have a full digital strategy in place. Business leaders also identified gaps in their organizations’ ability to implement data driven decision making.
The Study[1] polled 940 business leaders from medium to large companies in 13 markets across Asia. Respondents were surveyed on their organizations’ digital and data strategy, and readiness for the digital economy. In Hong Kong, 70 senior business leaders participated in the Study.
“The confluence of cloud, mobility and data is changing the way companies do business with their customers. This is resulting in new demands that make it necessary for every business to transform to a digital and data-driven business.” said Flora Yu, Cloud and Enterprise Business Group Lead of Microsoft Hong Kong.
“In today’s mobile-first, cloud-first world, technology is interwoven into every aspect of our personal lives, forcing all businesses to be a digital business. As data powers the new economy, businesses need to turn data into actionable insights and predict the future as a way to get ahead of the trends and develop new revenue streams. Faced with economic uncertainties and disruptive competitors, analytics and predictive data is what organizations need to survive. With the right tools, insights can come from anyone, anywhere, at any time. When that happens, organizations develop what we describe as a ‘data culture’,” added Flora.
A New Data Culture Needs to be Driven Right from the Top
89% of business leaders in Hong Kong feel that the data culture should be driven from top down, and there should be a formalized role in the leadership team to drive a successful adoption of their data strategy. Most business leaders in Hong Kong felt that the data culture should be led by the CIO, COO and CEO. Emerging roles like Chief Data Officer and Chief Digital Officer are also increasing in importance.
“Business leaders in the C-suite, have a key role in driving change within the organization. The Asia Data Culture Study shows that business leaders feel that the CEO should champion the new data culture. However, speaking from our own experience at Microsoft, in order for this to stick, it is important that the values of a new data culture are driven and accepted across all levels of the organization. This starts with democratization of data through technology, so that it becomes more accessible and users are empowered to make decisions in ways which create value for the organization,” said Flora Yu, Cloud and Enterprise Business Group Lead of Microsoft Hong Kong.
Journey to a New Data Culture
Business leaders in Asia seem to be open to harnessing information in new ways. The Study shows that they rated, in order of highest to lowest priority: real-time analytics, predictive data analytics, data visualization, IoT (Internet of Things) and cloud data storage as the top 5 data capabilities that are of importance to them in the next 12 to 18 months. These capabilities are clearly aligned to how they see their data culture evolving to meet their needs.
When it came to leveraging IoT, business leaders in Hong Kong are more focused on addressing security management and safety monitoring, as well as connected manufacturing operations as their top priorities.
“Starting with a pilot and learning from that is key to a successful, longer term journey. Customers need to think about new scenarios which will provide new insights and new opportunities. They need to ask different questions about their business, not just based on hindsight but about the future. Technology has evolved so much that this is no longer science fiction, but is being done by some of our progressive customers today,” said Flora at Microsoft.
Microsoft is committed to investing in building the intelligent cloud for modern, data driven organizations. The open and flexible cloud enables them to leverage it as they see fit – whether that means launching new business models, evolving existing ones or transforming their organizations. With machine learning and advanced analytics built in, the Microsoft intelligent cloud automates the basics and delivers differentiated services.
This includes the industry’s most comprehensive and advanced cloud data platform, IoT services, CRM, ERP and more. The seamless integration of these services enable businesses to be agile and make informed decisions in new ways. These include moving from lagging indicators to leading indicators, making IoT actionable, enabling customer centricity and loyalty, increasing speed of innovation, empowering employees with insights from any device, all in a secure cloud environment.
In Asia, customers such as Laing O’Rourke (Australia), PTT (Thailand), MacKay Hospital (Taiwan), Citilink Indonesia, are transforming their business using Microsoft’s Intelligent Cloud platform. These companies are driving digital transformations and reaping dividends through their efforts in driving a data culture:
- Lagging to leading indicators: For global engineering firm, Laing O’Rouke’s operations in Australia developed a smart hat with multiple data sensors which monitors the health of its workers on-site, as its workers are exposed to external environmental risks. With the implementation hosted on Azure, as well as a deployment on Azure IoT suite for real-time data analytics, the organization has been able to expand their toolbox by tenfold.
- Make IoT actionable: At MacKay Hospital Taiwan, IoT has helped drive operational efficiency on the hospital floor. Trackable Bluetooth wrist tags issued to patients helps track in real-time the various stages of a patients’ journey within the hospital, and is visualized via Power BI. Such data is used to improve floor operations, reduce waste as well as improve doctors’ case load and mix.
- Empowering employees with insights: Citilink, Indonesia’s largest budget airline carrier, is equipping selected ground staff with capabilities to observe customers’ preferences and note trends to deliver a more customer-centric experience via data visualization tools with Power BI.
- Enabling Customer Loyalty: Thailand’s PTT is driving transformation through advanced analytics and CRM to gain greater customer insights on their usage of energy, interactions with the company to increase customer loyalty
Pizza Hut Proactively Drives the Digitalization of Customer Relation Management
Pizza Hut, one of the most popular restaurant chains in Hong Kong, is the pioneer of digital transformation in the industry. Jardine Restaurant Group, the parent company of Pizza Hut (in Hong Kong and Macao) adopted Microsoft Cloud solutions to fully renovate their website design and increase the order processing capacity as needed. They also launched their Social CRM initiative with a new mobile app to accelerate its digital transformation journey, and have achieved impressive measurable results.
“We’ve been improving our business processes and performance with innovative technology, placing great importance on the customer-oriented business strategy. With the rapid development of Internet technology, an increasing number of customers tend to make orders online or via mobile devices. So we have to guarantee a stable processing platform and increase the capacity accordingly for smooth ordering experience. On the other hand, we also need to enhance the customer engagement both online and offline to keep customer loyalty and increase guest flow.” said Ravel Lai, Group IT Director, Jardine Restaurant Group Hong Kong and Macao.
According to Ravel, the order processing capabilities and speed have significantly increased since their online ordering system was migrated to Microsoft Azure. Online turnover has been boosted by almost twenty percent within half a year. Currently, over half the revenue comes from online orders, up from the thirty five percent share of total turnover half year ago. The charge-by-volume and stability of Microsoft Azure enables them to collect, manage and analyze data so that they can adapt digital marketing plans and improve performance.
In addition, its mobile app, in line with its Social CRM, brings revenue increases to the physical restaurants. Replacing the traditional membership card, the app delivers personalized information and promotion news to customers quickly and easily, as well as being environmentally friendly and cost effective. The app adds the feature of remote waiting and sharing with friends to strengthen the engagement and increase customer loyalty and desire to purchase. The launch of the mobile app along with other CRM strategies has brought a twenty percent increase in the membership of Pizza Hut and almost thirty percent increase in its yearly turnover.
“At Microsoft, we continue to innovate and deliver solutions that empower our customers to be able to achieve more. In the last six months, we have brought numerous innovations to market to meet modern data and digital needs. These include SQL Server 2016, Azure IoT Suite, the new Dynamics AX and CRM Online which work seamlessly together on premises or in the cloud. Organizations are now able to embark on their digital transformation journey more holistically in a way which brings their data from hindsight to foresight, and to empower business leaders to deliver enhanced value in this new economy,” said Flora Yu at Microsoft.
For more details, please download the infographic and key points of Asia Data Culture Study 2016.
[1] The Microsoft Asia Data Culture Study 2016 was conducted in March 2016 with 940 business leaders from medium to large companies in 13 markets including Australia, China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, India, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam. The Study was conducted by independent research consultancy Asia Insight through a series of online and face-to-face interviews.
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About Microsoft
Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT” @microsoft) is the leading platform and productivity company for the mobile-first, cloud-first world, and its mission is to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more.
About Pizza Hut Hong Kong & Macau
Pizza Hut has been serving Hong Kong for over 30 years and its first restaurant was opened in 1981. In 1987, Jardine Matheson & Co. Ltd. took over the Hong Kong Pizza Hut franchise business and since then “Customer Mania” has been adopted as the corporate culture towards serving its customers with total dedication. Pizza Hut is the largest pizza and pasta chain restaurant in Hong Kong, with over 4,000 employees being deployed to work in over 80 outlets throughout Hong Kong and Macau, including takeaway and delivery services. Please visit http://www.jardines.com for more information.
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