Spurred by the continued corporate investments, digitalization is becoming more popular in Malaysia. According to projections, Malaysia’s digital economy is expected to contribute a substantial 24.4% of the country’s GDP in 2023, and that percentage is expected to rise to 25.5% the following year.
The Malaysian government has set aside a sizeable amount of RM 100 million for digitalization grants in 2024 with the goal of helping over 20,000 SMEs accelerate their automation and digitization projects. However, when compared to developed markets, businesses still have a low level of digitalization. Growth has been significantly hampered by the current market offerings’ high cost and lack of localization.
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There seems to be opportunities in the market, which has led Vietnamese Robotic Process Automation (RPA) company akaBot to enter the Malaysian market. The company believes there is a lot of room for growth in the market for akaBot because it can create affordable, tailored automation solutions that meet the needs of local businesses.
To find out more, we had a chance to speak to Ginny Truc To, Country Manager of akaBot, about the launch into the market, future plans for the brand and the potential for automation in the country.
Congrats on launching in Malaysia. Why is Malaysia such an attractive market?
We consider Malaysia to be a compelling market for akaBot due to its rapid economic growth, favourable government policies and growing demand for digitalisation. Recently, the Malaysian government has set a target in the 12th Malaysia Plan of achieving a digital economy contribution to a gross domestic product of at least 25.5% by 2025. Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim also announced that the government would allocate a total of RM100 million from the 2024 budget to provide digitalisation grants of up to RM5,000 that will benefit more than 20,000 Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) and micro-entrepreneurs.
As a global automation solution provider with a customer base in 20+ countries, akaBot understands Malaysia’s determination and consistent strategy to achieve its digitalisation goal. Notably, only 44 per cent of business establishments have embraced digital technology. Therefore we aim to address and resolve these challenges in Malaysia by offering automated operations that promise heightened productivity, enhanced reliability, improved performance, and reduced operating costs.
Can you explain what you mean by automation and how it works in a business context?
Our akaBot automation solution operates by leveraging advanced Robotic Process Automation (RPA) technology to streamline and optimise various business processes. The “virtual assistant” (virtual robot) is designed to handle repetitive and rule-based tasks in daily operations, from small individual tasks in finance and accounting, procurement, administration, HR, etc., to cross-functional workflows such as purchasing, sales and marketing. These robots, or bots, mimic human interactions with digital systems, enabling the automation of manual and time-consuming tasks.
In our automation process of over 3,500 worldwide customers, RPA demonstrates its operational efficiency by reducing process time from 60-80%, eliminating 100% error and allowing employees to focus on more strategic and value-added activities.
Throughout 5 years of development, our product roadmap is to integrate akaBot’s core RPA technology with other technologies to offer customers the latest and most comprehensive solutions. With new advanced technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), Process Mining/ Task Mining or Machine Learning (ML), we improve the robot’s ability to understand and interact with users, perform complex tasks, and adapt to evolving business needs.
How large is the viable market, given that the majority of the business community are smaller SMEs and MSMEs?
According to Reuters, small and medium-sized enterprises are the backbone of economies across the world, with the 1.15 million SMEs in Malaysia comprising more than 97 per cent of the nation’s businesses and delivering 38.2 per cent of GDP. While 56 per cent of companies have yet to embrace RPA solutions, 41 per cent of organisations expect to invest approximately up to 50 per cent of their total automation budget in RPA, and 36 per cent expect to invest approximately up to 75 per cent of their total automation budget in RPA within the next one or two years (Source: Blue Prism). These statistics underline a growing awareness of RPA’s potential to streamline operations and enhance efficiency in Malaysia, promising a significant potential market for us.
With 15+ years of foundation of FPT in Malaysia, a subsidiary of akaBot’s mother corporation from Vietnam, the local representatives of akaBot possess a deep understanding of Malaysian business. We observe that implementation costs (69%) rank highest among the factors that Malaysian organisations consider when creating an RPA budget, followed by maintenance costs (62%), auxiliary expenses (49%) and business process value (49%). Therefore, akaBot localised our framework in the Malaysian market to deliver end-to-end automation solutions with a cost-efficiency plan, unlocking the potential of Industry 4.0 for Malaysian businesses.
Where do you see the most growth for akaBot coming from?
Malaysia’s National 4IR Policy indicated 10 sectoral focus, in which wholesale & retail trade, finance & insurance are sectors that help to drive technology adoption. On the other hand, manufacturing, transportation and logistics are sectors amidst a potential global value chain. From our expertise in RPA, these sectors are also the highest industries to adopt RPA in optimising operational efficiency through customer service or financial process automation. Therefore, we focus on offering Malaysian SMEs in finance, insurance, wholesale & retail, and manufacturing a range of holistic automation solutions.
In 2023, akaBot has already implemented our RPA solutions for various companies in Malaysia. In the Retail sector, akaBot focuses on automating order purchase processes to save 50 per cent processing time, translating to potential savings of up to US$ 500,000 in operational costs. With manufacturing and financing clients, akaBot’s machine learning systems for auto-splitting and classifying documents patent issued by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has improved workflows with a 95 per cent reduction in invoice, packing list or delivery note processing time, coupled with an impressive accuracy rate of 99 per cent.
What’s next for akaBot in Malaysia?
Our focus in Malaysia involves deepening our engagement with local businesses, fostering strategic partnerships, and continuously innovating our RPA solutions to meet evolving market demands. We aim to conduct awareness programs and educational initiatives such as the C-Talk Series, where C-level managers, Heads of DX and IT Leaders in enterprises gather to have strategic discussions and experience sharing to accompany corporates and organisations during their digital transformation journey.
Additionally, akaBot is committed to providing localised support, ensuring seamless automation integration with existing systems, or facilitating a smooth migration from old automation platforms to our cost-saving ecosystem for Malaysian enterprises. According to Blueprints, 76 per cent of organisations are in the process of switching or considering changing RPA tools to an Asia-based platform with greater advantages in investment costs and resources. Currently, the migration framework that akaBot applies for our customers in Malaysia includes 3 main actions: Process documentation, deployment, and training robots, which can migrate up to 20 bots per month.
In implementing actual migration services for a manufacturing enterprise with more than 2,000 employees in Malaysia, akaBot converted nearly 30 automation processes from the old RPA platform in just 1 month, helping to save 60 per cent of costs without causing any disruption in business operations.