The shutdown of the global economy after the COVID-19 outbreak was a harsh reality check for businesses around the world. However, while no one was prepared for such an unprecedented event, some countries turned out to be less unprepared than others.

A notable example is Singapore – the major innovation hub where the switch to work-from-home received considerable support from the authorities. Hopefully, the Singaporean experience can shed some light on the implications of remote work for workers and employers.

A favourable head start

When it comes to switching the entire economy to the remote mode, Singapore is among the countries with the best head start. To begin with, Singapore has been spearheading the digital transformation for years.

The IT industry is rightfully known for its reliance on state-of-the-art collaboration and communication tools that make remote work possible and, to an extent, preferable. Early adopters of the work-from-home approach cite numerous benefits to business operations:

• Higher employee satisfaction
  
• Improved work-life balance
  
• Cost and time savings
  
• Increased productivity
  
• Alignment with CSR policies

As a result, software engineers and mobile application developers in Singapore already had some experience of working remotely by the time the lockdown was initiated. As far back as 2018, more than half of the Singaporean workforce had at least one day of remote work, whereas 10 per cent did not come to the office at all.

Also Read: e27 Webinar: Work-from-home or work-from-office, which is better?

So, by the time businesses around the world were forced to adapt to the new reality, Singaporean companies were already equipped with the necessary tools and expertise to make a seamless transition.

Official endorsement

Singapore’s capacity to handle remote work environments was promptly recognised by the country’s authorities. According to the survey by the Ministry of Manpower, the availability of flexible employment arrangements allowed to decrease the waste of time and resources, cut operational costs and increase employee retention.

So, when the initial phase of the circuit breaker measures was coming to a close and businesses were allowed to resume operations, the official guidelines strongly advised to prioritise remote work wherever possible. The rationale behind this decision was the familiarity of the workforce with the use of internet-based means of communication.

To extend the support further, the Ministry has also published guides on implementing work-from-home environments, with instructions on communication, performance management, change strategies, and case studies. On top of that, a selection of grants and incentives were offered to companies seeking to implement such an arrangement.

Effects on businesses

While it is still early for making definitive conclusions, some data on the effects of these endorsements are already available. One survey of Singaporeans suggests that one-third of the employees feel more productive while working from home. They also report improvements in mental health due to increased flexibility of working conditions.

This is not to say that the transition to remote work is a miraculous solution that can single-handedly save the economy. In fact, Singapore’s GDP has been experiencing a massive contraction in GDP for two consecutive quarters, not in the least due to the COVID outbreak.

While such abysmal performance does not undermine the feasibility of remote work, it may well serve as a warning against over-reliance on trendy ideas without careful consideration.

Bumps on the road

Despite all of the advantages of working from home, the concept does come with drawbacks. Depending on the industry and the company profile, one or more issues may arise after the introduction of the work-from-home policies:

• Difficulties in communication
  
• Inconsistencies in corporate culture
  
• Loss of control over business processes
  
• Productivity loss due to distractions
  
• Compromised security of corporate information
  
• Lack of socialising options
  
• High dependency on technology
  

In fact, some of the highlighted issues have already taken a toll on the performance of remote workers in Singapore. According to the survey by IWG, more than 70 per cent of people who work from home in Singapore had to fund the setup of a home office from their own pockets, something that not everyone can afford in the middle of the economic crisis.

What’s more, it appears that the flexibility of the arrangement can turn against the people it should benefit. A survey by Cigna shows that more than 78 per cent of remote employees in Singapore work in an “always-on” WFH arrangement.

Also Read: Singaporeans wish to continue working from home post Circuit-Breaker, says survey

This essentially means that instead of a convenient work-life balance, they are essentially expected to be online at all times for work-related matters.

By any means, Singapore is in a unique position in this global work-from-home endeavour. On the one hand, it has a well-developed communication infrastructure and a business environment that aligns well with the requirements for its implementation. On top of that, the idea has been promoted (and even supported financially) by the local authorities.

On the other hand, the concept is still far from maturity and poses many challenges for workers and employers. While some of them can be addressed through self-organisation techniques, others will require organisation-scale changes in policies. All in all, the experiment is far from over and would require a lot more work before it bears fruit.

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Have you ever wondered about how technology could impact businesses in the cities you don’t regularly see on screen? Meet Ibu (“Madam” in Indonesian) Ance (pronounced “Ahn-Chey”), an Indonesian woman in Bukittinggi (a tier-two city in Sumatra) that owns three small businesses: a cell phone data and SIM card shop, a fresh pineapple shop, and a convenience store.

Her typical day looks like this: she wakes up at 6 AM in her minuscule one-room bungalow with a waist-height fence and tiny garage, hops on her motorcycle, and makes her way to her first shop. When she arrives thirty minutes later, the pineapple supplier arrives, and she spends time cutting them up for preparation.

During the day, she’ll sell pulsa (mobile data top-ups), as well as Indonesian confectionery and snacks. The customers tend to stop by while driving their mopeds along the narrow dirt streets. During the day, she manually records her transactions, sales, and repayments in her buku penjualan (accounting notebook) with pen and paper. From time to time, she’ll message her husband about how she’s doing at work.

At 5 PM, Ibu Anche closes the shop. Before she returns home via Bukittinggi’s busy streets in the evening, she would take all the cash in hand and then store it at home (not a bank). Ibu Ance then eats dinner with her family, spends some time with her two kids, and maybe watches a dubbed Korean drama – all before setting the alarm on her smartphone to 6 AM and going to sleep.

Ibu Anche is one of the 60 million micro-, small-, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) in Indonesia, accounting for more than 60 per cent of Indonesia’s GDP.

Also read: BukuKas makes book-keeping easy for Indonesian MSMEs to save money and time

They are, quite literally, the backbone of the Indonesian economy, and cover the full spectrum of B2B and B2C businesses: wholesalers, distributors, and small suppliers, the former; clothing shops, credit businesses, bakeries, and grocery stores, the latter.

Archaic business practices thwart MSMEs’ potential

It’s hard being a warung owner. Many of these kinds of businesses are being left behind by the emerging digital ecosystem due to their surrounding infrastructure and inherently simple characteristics.

With a weak cellular connection in tier-2 and tier-3 cities, they’re unable to make use of digital tools that require a consistent connection. And most offerings are too complicated for a warung.

What happens when MSMEs aren’t connected to that digital ecosystem? Just ask Ibu Ance.

Firstly, the lack of any robust credit score means that Ibu Ance is unable to obtain any kind of credit to purchase inventory from telcos or establish a line of credit with selected pineapple suppliers. Healthy, growing businesses in mature economies thrive on credit because it allows them to accelerate their growth by borrowing against future revenues and previous performance.

But in spite of her impressive business growth, Ibu Ance is unable to take a small loan from banks or organised lenders because she has insufficient data to prove her track record.

That credit deficiency also affects Ibu Ance’s customers, who would likely benefit from buying fruit and essentials with credit when they don’t have enough cash on hand. Unfortunately, like many buyers in Indonesian tier-2 and tier-3 cities, they don’t have access to that kind of basic offline consumer credit.

Also read: Everybody is helping MSMEs go digital today, but Indonesia-based Titipku aims to do it differently

Lastly, accounting for small business owners is inconvenient. Manual recording is a hassle, usually done by pen or paper or even text messaging on a mobile device. For businesses managing a lot of volume – or if you’re managing three different shops like Ibu Ance – that arduous process can take anywhere from four to ten hours per week.

The same applies to customer credit, and because merchants can’t sufficiently evaluate customers, much of that customer debt is never repaid.

Why GGV is investing in the rising consumer class

At Golden Gate Ventures, we’ve been investing in Southeast Asia for close to a decade. Our thesis is to invest in themes emerging from the rising consumer-class, ranging from consumer-facing apps such as Carousell, to SME and MSME services that consumers use for daily activities such as BukuWarung, TaniHub, Xendit, and Ruma’s Mapan (now GoPay).

BukuWarung has built a powerful tool for business owners such as Ibu Ance, so she can now track her finances with ease, check repayments, and understand her business better.

BukuWarung is a book-keeping mobile app that effortlessly tracks and analyses all transactions such as credit, expenses, and sales. It provides warung owners, shopkeepers, and entrepreneurs across Indonesia with simple yet valuable insights into the financial health of their businesses through intuitive business reports. More importantly, it provides an avenue for those same business owners and MSMEs to finally integrate with the broader digital ecosystem. 

How BukuWarung impacts businesses’ day-to-day

Ibu Ance’s activities today look very different from just five years ago. Since Ibu Ance started using BukuWarung, she has an exponentially better understanding of her stores. Daily, she still sells her freshly delivered pineapples, convenience items, and SIM cards at her small retail store.

The transformation now, however, is what she does after the workday is done: she checks BukuWarung. In the palm of her hand, she can view her automatically generated daily, weekly, and monthly business reports of all three stores she operates – each of which with rich data that’s easy to grasp.

In the evenings after work, Ibu Ance likes to spare her mobile data usage; conveniently, she can still view these reports, as BukuWarung also works offline. She can even view and manage all transaction data offline too.

Based on these reports, Ibu Ance has a much better insight into cash flows and customer debt. Before bed, she receives a repayment notification from the app to help her stay on top of her store’s finances. With the help of these official records via BukuWarung, Ibu Anche has been able to join the financial ecosystem. She now has three bank accounts: one for money transfers, one for topping up, as an ATM is nearby, and a bank for insurance purposes.

Consequently, Ibu Ance now feels safer with her digitised cash. Today, over 900,000 other merchants experience life-changing benefits from financial inclusion fostered by BukuWarung’s bookkeeping app.

The road ahead

BukuWarung, with its mission to build a digital infrastructure for MSMEs, sets the foundation for merchants’ operational efficiency and enables access to financial services; it opens MSMEs up to the broader fintech ecosystem via technologies that can help these businesses scale faster, generate more income, and find more lucrative growth opportunities.

BukuWarung is an essential vehicle for access to credit and other crucial financial services that the majority of first-tiered city people may take for granted. Ibu Ance’s story is just one of the 900,000 merchants that signed up to BukuWarung.

By and large, digital tools help businesses explore new markets, understand customers better, and become more efficient – the last of which allows them to focus on activities that matter most. Although technological development has been rapid during the past five years, the next five will bring unprecedentedly accelerated improvements, particularly in overlooked Indonesian cities.

With contributions from Timo Fukar

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Singapore’s construction management startup Hubble raises funding

The story: Singapore-headquartered construction management and data analytics startup Hubble has entered into a strategic partnership and raised an undisclosed sum in funding from Malaysian PE firm OSK Ventures International.

The plans: “Besides bringing on board a well-known financial investor, we look at OSK Group as a valued partner for our growth in Malaysia. We will leverage on the extensive and deep relationships of OSK that are relevant to our business. The team at OSKVI shares similar values with us and our investors in terms of working the ground, and are helping us on operational areas, such as talent growth and the setting up of our new venture in Malaysia,” said Hubble Founder and CEO Lin Shijing.

Beyond Singapore and now Malaysia, Hubble is embarking on plans to enter into more markets across Southeast Asia and Australia.

What is Hubble: Its software solution automates the entire range of construction processes on-site that have traditionally been accomplished mostly via manual processes. By tracking, optimising, and automating the management of the projects’ workforce, cash flows, materials and equipment. Hubble helps constructors improve productivity, safety, and ultimately, their bottom line.

Hubble is also the official partner of Singapore’s Building and Construction Authority (BCA) for the development and implementation of the BuildSG-COVIDSafe platform, which is the national technology initiative to enable the safe restart of construction sites during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

In June this year, Hubble received its first external fundraising round of SGD5 million (US$3.7M), led by Tin Men Capital.

Zoom opens data centre, rolls out cloud phone service in Singapore

The story: Global video communication platform Zoom has opened a new data centre in Singapore.

The data centre is the first to be set up in Southeast Asia and brings its total to 18 strategic sites globally.

Cloud phone service: The company also announced general availability of its Zoom Phone cloud phone service in 25 additional countries and territories, including the city-state, as well as a new, simplified telephone service plan for companies with locations across the globe.

Zoom now provides local telephone service and domestic calling in over 40 countries and territories around the world

Zoom has also worked closely with entities in Singapore, such as PropNex and the Ministry of Education, and the Economic Development Board as an enabler of digital transformation within the country.

Draper Startup House, Draper University to provide entrepreneurship courses

The story: Draper Startup House have announced a partnership with  Draper University to spearhead the launch of online entrepreneurship courses with an offline learning experience to help entrepreneurs across the globe.

What is the course?: The course is furnished with content from Silicon Valley’s expert investors, executives and entrepreneurs, activities that foster collaboration among diverse-minded entrepreneurs, access to mentorship from industry leaders, and a pre-seed funding opportunity.

This is coupled with in-house consultations, networking and pitching events at the 10 physical locations of Draper Startup House, alongside a reach to a global community of entrepreneurs.

These courses oversee all stages of an entrepreneur’s journey, including ideation, customer discovery and product market fit; modelling the business
growth hacking and scaling; and fundraising and pitching fundamentals.

When?: Running on a monthly basis, you can now sign up to attend the entrepreneurship course in-house at any Draper Startup House location, with free accommodation or co-working space at select locations, enabling people to connect with the community.

Malaysia’s Indoleads launches affiliate marketplace

The story: Malaysia-based premium affiliate marketing network, Indoleads, has launched an affiliate marketplace connecting publishers and advertisers through top affiliate networks at one place.

It has more than 5,000 affiliate campaigns such as Lazada, Agoda, Amazon, Nike, and Qatar Airways.

The goal: “Affiliate marketplace is a game-changing and innovative way to boost marketing efforts and increase income. We connect publishers to numerous affiliate networks in one place. Our platform is designed to not only capitalize on this phenomenon but maximize its potential, by providing individuals and businesses with an opportunity to earn affiliate income hassle-free while partnering with top-rated advertisers from across the world,” said Indoleads Founder Sergey Gaydar, who previously co-founded Bfab.

What is Indoleads? Started in 2016, Indoleads is a cost per action (CPA) marketing platform. Advertisers can use the platform as an additional traffic source as well as for affiliate marketing, where they are able to manage publishers, analyse traffic, detect fraudulent activity, and integrate with other networks. Basically, advertisers on the platform are free to use it as a standalone solution for all their partnership needs.

In 2017, Indoleads.com secured a ‘6-digits US dollars’ investment from individuals, including an angel investor in Vietnam.

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Big corporations may have all the resources they need to build customer loyalty, but even then they continue to face challenges doing it. This is what captured Bui Hoai Nam’s attention when he was working at Grab, along with other big corporations in Vietnam.

With the thought that there was a missing link that big corporations should address when engaging their customers with rewards, Nam got together with Hieu Truong (CEO) and Minh Nguyen (CFO) to start UrBox.

UrBox describes itself as a digital rewards and loyalty solution for corporations in Vietnam.

What UrBox does is helping corporates integrate their loyalty and reward programme with multiple gift suppliers or merchants via API. Recipients can get digital gifts instantly on their phones to redeem at both offline and online stores.

“I came up with the idea of the business based on the pain points experienced in my previous stints. I’ve seen how big corps like Grab having a hard time keeping track of their loyalty programmes to engage the customers better. Basic things such as sending gifts and tracking the behaviours of the customers could be a headache. It got me thinking, why don’t we digitise all the rewards process instead?” Nam explains.

Nam viewed the company’s offering to be a niche in its industry. “We’re very tech-oriented, as we don’t focus only on selling the gifts. We bundle our platform as a solution with the rewards provided by gift suppliers. We build the loyalty solutions ecosystem and add rewards in it for our corporate partners,” Nam elaborates.

Also Read: UrBox Vietnam raised seed funding from two Vietnamese VCs

The business of loyalty

UrBox now has more than 200 retail brands and 6,000 stores from different industries on board. In 2019, the company managed to catch the attention of local investors such as VinaCapital Venture and VIISA.

“I must admit that our previous experiences helped our bootstrapping journey before getting the seed funding last year, the way our previous teammates in Grab and Timo digital bank supported UrBox and tried our services before we slowly grew to have more customers,” he adds.

To get to where they are, Nam recalled, it took the company five years to convince that their solutions are something that the retail market today is still missing.

“There is only five per cent of the top companies in Vietnam that have reliable loyalty solutions because many of these top corporations still face issues with fulfillments and the process of sending gifts to customers. So, with our platform catered to the need of each company specifically, these companies can have a way to do all sorts of customer engagement using rewards. They can also strategise their marketing around the behaviours tracked upon customers receiving the gifts,” says Nam.

That is how the company intended to work with other big corporations on top of their existing clients in the banking, insurance, airlines, telco, and technology.

“We are vertical agnostic in a sense that we are looking to adjust to each company’s needs according to their industry,” Nam points out.

The pandemic and the silver lining

According to Nam, big corporations in Vietnam also suffered the impact of COVID-19’s physical interaction limitation. “We viewed this as a positive opportunity for them to try digital rewards as a way to offer something else to their customers,” Nam opines.

Also Read: UrBox Vietnam raised seed funding from two Vietnamese VCs

Nam uses UrBox’s recent partnership with Vietnam Airlines as a case in point. “Vietnam Airlines’ partnership with us allows them to sell the miles as the rewards for the customers. This way, even though they can’t interact directly with their customers, they can still increase the liquidity of their products by having their customers redeem other services and get merchandise and other items,” Nam explains.

The gift redemption platform is named LotusMall, and it entitles members to a diverse ecosystem of gifts. The UrBox digital gift set is integrated with the platform to streamline gift redemption.

“Vietnam Airlines previously had no resources to build a digital rewarding platform, so our tech team built it for them and they’re free from the hassle of working with hundreds of gift suppliers and gift fulfilment,” Nam says.

Right now, Nam focusses on their plans to improve the products to increase customer experience after their Vietnam Airlines’ partnership.

“It made us realise that there are still room for growth. We’ll focus on how we can have attractive digital products to give and how we can build our bundle of products to meet both the corporations and their end customers’ needs. Aside from that, we will also focus on building a 24/7 customer care capability. These are what our future plans entail,” Nam said.

There is also a need to think about how the merchants can leverage their service, especially those that have experienced a negative impact from COVID-19.

Also Read: Korean digital rewards service Spoqa raises US$2M to expand into Japan

“We need to think about how UrBox can create more solutions for merchants, improve their cash flow, and how they can reach the right customers. What we have is a subscription programme, where they can come to merchants for a repeat purchase. This way, both ends are mutually benefited with the Improvements loyalty activities and still have a chance to grow their business,” Nam elaborates.

However, even if the digital rewards industry has a strong connection with the retail industry, the penetration rate for the retail market is still small in Vietnam.

“There are still 35-40 per cent potential to grow within this market, especially with rewarding and loyalty programmes. With the new normal situation, many big corporations in Vietnam need to secure their market share to be able to digitise their daily business to optimise productivity. And we’d like to view UrBox as an important bridge to that,” Nam further explains.

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Image Credit: UrBox

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iKala, an Artificial Intelligence (AI)-driven digital transformation and data-driven marketing solutions company headquartered in Taiwan, has received US$17 million in a Series B funding, led by Taipei-based Wistron Digital Technology Holding Company.

Previous investors Hotung Investment Holdings and Pacific Venture Partners are also joined the round.

Also Read: Demystifying artificial intelligence: Breaking down common AI myths

This round takes the company’s total funding raised to date to US$30.3 million.

The proceeds from the round will be used to expand into new markets, including Indonesia and Malaysia, while strengthening iKala’s position in its existing markets — Singapore, Thailand, Taiwan, Hong Kong, the Philippines, Vietnam and Japan.

“We’ve been on a strong growth trajectory over the last couple of years, expanding into new markets and developing cutting-edge technology that has put us in a leading position in the region’s digital transformation and commerce space. With this funding, we look forward to exploring new opportunities in AI commerce beyond our existing markets,” said Sega Cheng, Co-founder and CEO of iKala.

iKala’s mission is to “enable AI competencies” of its enterprise customers to increase their customer acquisition capability and customer lifetime value, by providing AI-driven digital transformation and data-driven marketing solutions.

More than 400 enterprise customers across 12 industries, along with 15,000-plus advertisers, have used iKala’s technology, it said in a statement.

In June this year, the company also started a new division, called iKala Commerce. It consolidates AI-powered influencer database KOL Radar and AI social commerce solution Shoplus to provide an integrated solution and holistic customer data insights for the region’s social commerce players.

Also Read: Ethics and Artificial Intelligence: Is the technology only as good as the human behind it?

Wistron Digital is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Wistron Corporation, which invests in digital technology and software application firms.

The strategic investment in iKala marks Wistron Digital’s, which also focuses on Big Data analytics, entry into Southeast Asia.

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Image Credit: iKala

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