The COVID-19 crisis has disrupted workforces all around the globe. Companies have had to flip to work-from-home models overnight or worse, downsize their staff. With the world’s economy in flux, only businesses that stay ahead of their competition will make it to the other side of this pandemic.

Some companies have seen the potential in investing in their employees. They are using this uncertain and ambiguous time to upskill their staff and fill any knowledge gaps.

The Singaporean government has worked closely with its job skills programme SkillsFuture for several years, but it is now offering training geared toward remote working and COVID-19 management. To deliver training to their now remote employees, many companies will have to rely on sophisticated Learning Management Systems (LMS).

Training a diverse and dispersed workforce

In 2017, the McKinsey Global Institute estimated that 14 per cent of the global workforce would need to acquire new skills or switch occupations by 2030 due to the continuing use of automation and the further development of artificial intelligence.

COVID-19 has shed a light on these skills shortages, only making them more urgent and providing an increased impetus in many sectors to implement training. Despite the previous success of government-sponsored job skill schemes, human resource leaders have identified a greater need for talent development in the context of the pandemic. Companies are developing coronavirus-specific training programmes by leveraging the potential found in e-learning platforms.

PwC’s Academy in Singapore has adapted their upskilling content for the pandemic. They’ve made their Digital Fitness for the World app free to individuals and organisations for the next year.

Talent assessment companies such as Talview have released modules and resources aimed directly at remote working and the handling of HR coronavirus procedures. Initiatives like these recognise the value of remote skills training during the pandemic.

Also Read: Why cross-cultural training programme is a must-have for the modern workplace

Moving face-to-face instruction online

A survey released by EngageRocket in May found that nine out of 10 Singaporean employees would prefer to keep working from home after the pandemic. Companies are also seeing the benefits of remote operations, and, as a result, many plan to keep a reduced in-office workforce.

By having smaller offices, firms can reduce their costs on insurance, building maintenance, utilities, and rent, which is especially beneficial during times of economic uncertainty. Businesses wishing to upskill, therefore, need to turn to distance learning platforms to carry out training.

Course content is the foundation of any training — in-person or remote. Shorter content, broken into multiple videos or sections, is better for retention, particularly when learning at a distance. To ensure the course delivers useful training content, trainers should also carry out a needs assessment before diving in, allowing them to target the requirements of the participants adequately.

Trainers who are busy supporting the organisation can find relevant content that’s ready to deliver and meets their learners’ needs while encouraging collaboration amongst staff and allowing subject matter experts within their firms to contribute to the training. A robust LMS allows training programme managers to evaluate the firm’s needs, build, deliver and monitor engagement with course content, all on the same platform.

Consistently train remote workers

Adapting to a full-time remote workforce means ensuring consistent and effective skills training long-term becomes an essential requirement. One major concern of distance working is the maintenance of high levels of productivity. By implementing a few of the following approaches to e-learning, trainers can keep staff members motivated to complete their course:

Gamification has proven to keep learners engaged as they complete an online course. Gamified courses reward learners with points or badges as they progress. Trainers should tailor rewards to their audience, making them relevant and noteworthy.

Personalisation is another way to deliver engaging educational content to employees. Meaningful feedback, accessibility across devices, and letting the participants incorporate their own video content are all ways to personalise remote instruction.

Evaluating what learners already know and designing courses to test their specific knowledge is the best way to cater content to individuals.

An LMS with a sophisticated course builder and gamification capabilities, like the Brightspace platform from global software company D2L, makes bespoke remote courses easy to deliver and more engaging for the end-users.

Also Read: Workbean: Empowering the workplace in the time of COVID-19

Holistic online solutions for remote training

Many corporations in Southeast Asia rely on learning management systems (LMS) to deliver training modules to their employees. Even before COVID-19, companies were using these platforms to train staff across the region with a wide range of customised courses.

These companies understood the need for a remote, decentralised instruction model, accessible to the entire workforce. An LMS allows clients with regional or global presence to cater their course content to the needs of each office, regardless of location or specific functions and specialties. The LMS has the potential to become a learning and resource hub for staff members, where employees can share updates and relevant information quickly and easily.

As onboarding, talent development, and education become dispersed processes, the need for remote learning grows. Transferring face-to-face training to an online model isn’t always intuitive, however. Companies need third-party learning platforms to develop courses that achieve their objectives and remove the burden of establishing an in-house structure that may lack the capabilities and resources required.

Remote working isn’t going away any time soon, and neither is the need to continue professional development, upskilling, and on the job training. As long as the workforce is remote, distance learning will also be essential. Distance learning is very much the future for the vast majority of people, and now is the optimum time to introduce it while employees are already learning to adapt to a new way of working.

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As the world pushes for digitalisation, the amount of data being collected or exchanged digitally has increased over the years. With each app download or website signup and for every harmless checkout at that e-commerce platform, we leave traces of our data up for collection in the digital space.

The socio-economic implications of such staggering data can no longer be put on the backburner. In Southeast Asia, governments understand that principles and guidelines have to be established in order to promote and strengthen personal data protection in the region.

In Singapore, the Personal Data Protection Act (PDPA) of 2012 set in motion the call for businesses to align themselves with various rules governing the collection, use, and disclosure and care of personal data. As a subset of this law, appointing a Data Protection Officer (DPO) is mandatory for organisations (including businesses) to ensure their compliance with the PDPA.

A DPO can be either an employee with a dedicated responsibility or as an additional function within an existing role in the organisation, or a third-party, outsourced to a service provider. The important question is, what do DPOs do exactly?

Roles and responsibilities

• Ensure compliance of PDPA when developing and implementing policies and processes for handling personal data;
• Foster a data protection culture among employees and communicate personal data protection policies to stakeholders;
• Manage personal data protection related queries and complaints;
• Alert management to any risks that might arise with regard to personal data; and
• Liaise with the PDPC on data protection matters, if necessary.

Dexter Ng, Chief Technology Officer at AntiHack.me (a cybersecurity company) adds that, “It is the DPO’s responsibility to ensure organisations with websites and mobile apps that collect data have reasonable security measures in place, such as conducting yearly penetration tests.”

Also Read: 4 perks of continuous data protection for businesses

However, just appointing a Data Protection Officer does not mean that your organisation has fulfilled its data protection obligations and is just the very first step in your PDPA compliance.

Training for DPOs are a must

Without training, the employee is tasked to lead the data protection efforts in the organisation would not know where to even begin.

Furthermore, if the responsibility of a DPO is a secondary function on top of his primary job, they will not have sufficient time to perform all the required research and seek clarity for knowledge.

By attending a data protection course, your DPO will gain a better understanding of the scope of his responsibilities and the steps he can take to ensure your business complies with the PDPA, in the shortest amount of time.

For instance, Singapore startup Privacy Ninja conducts regular training for appointed DPOs in order to give them an overview and understanding of the nine core PDPA obligations and more.

I believe that education is key to being a proficient and competent DPO for any organisation. Understanding the fundamental requirements of the PDPA is essential to formulating your organisation’s Data Protection Management Programme.

One of those who underwent such training is Alvin Decruz, Head of Engineering of tech startup and digital publishing house Tickled Media. “Privacy Ninja is knowledgeable and professional in what they do,” Alvin shared. “We engaged them to conduct PDPA training for my staff and everyone greatly benefitted. I am safe to say we are much more aware and aligned to the PDPA’s regulations.”

Every organisation is encouraged to register their DPO with the PDPC. Additionally, the appointed DPO can subscribe to the PDPC’s e-newsletter, DPO Connect.

Subscribing to the DPO Connect will keep your DPO informed of the latest matters concerning data protection, upcoming events conducted by the PDPC, and information on where to seek help for data protection matters.

Also Read: Ignorance is never bliss: What a whitehat taught me about data privacy

Transparency is sexy

Appointing a Data Protection Officer is just the very first step, you will also need to make his/her contact information available to the public, and this is typically displayed on the privacy policy page on an organisation’s corporate website.

Since the month of May 2020, PDPC has collaborated with the Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority (ACRA) of Singapore to develop an e-service to enable business entities to register their DPO Business Contact Information (BCI) on ACRA Bizfile+, making it publicly available, which is another mandatory requirement.

For organisations that have previously registered their DPO with PDPC, PDPC encourages such organisations to register their DPO again in ACRA BizFile⁺ to ensure that the DPO’s details will be accurate and updated.

This is usually in the form of an email address, and in the case of telephone numbers, be Singapore telephone numbers.

While appointed DPOs are not required to be physically present in Singapore, they should still be readily accessible from Singapore and operational during Singapore business hours.

To be fully prepared for any personal data protection query or complaint from the public or PDPC, have team members who are competent to answer personal data related queries and complaints on behalf of the organisation, or at least be able to provide an interim reply while the respective matter is brought to the appointed DPO’s attention.

The startups’ dilemma

For startups in Singapore, appointing a DPO from among the existing team members might pose a dilemma. Every member may already have their plates full of business-related tasks, and adding a DPO role on top of it may prove to be too much. On the flip side, hiring a full-time DPO can mean straining the company budget further.

Privacy Ninja understands it too well, being a startup themselves. Hence, seeing a need and lapse in this area, they formed a well-rounded DPO team to provide their expertise to businesses in Singapore, targeting SMEs that face resource constraints in developing their in-house DPO capabilities.

Privacy Ninja’s outsourced Data Protection Officer function, DPO-As-A-Service, allows your business to fully adhere to PDPA compliance without straining your budget or manpower. This includes performing “surprise” audits on the company, developing the necessary policies and data protection documentation, and round-the-clock data protection support and assistance.

Also Read: 10 data security predictions by Gartner for the year 2020

In a nutshell, if your business operates in Singapore and you haven’t appointed a DPO for your company yet, don’t wait until the government slaps you with hefty penalties, which from past enforcement cases typically ranges from SG$5,000 (US$3,600) to SG$20,000 (US$14,600).

Now is the best time to begin your journey toward full compliance of the PDPA law.

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Currently, the Vietnam food delivery market is dominated by two giants, which are Now Delivery and GrabFood. Any other business is sharing a small market share that warmed the competition level across Vietnam.

However, in the past, there was an app, which had nearly won the competition for leading positions, named Foodpanda. But it suddenly failed due to financial difficulties.

In 2020, the old legend has begun to return with a strong ambition and well-preparation. Unfortunately, it is not a piece of cake for Foodpanda in a location where all the rule has seemingly been settled.

Generally, Foodpanda was initially an online food ordering system owned by Delivery Hero, a German company. Foodpanda first entered Vietnam in 2012; its services rapidly expanded its presence to the five largest cities in the country.

In 2017, it suddenly shut down all activities and closed its brands in Vietnam. According to Foodpanda, at that time, the company had a focus on the market, which had been already profitable.

Although Vietnam was a remarkably potential market due to enormous purchasing power and massive population, it required a large investment that FoodPanda could not afford.

Also Read: Setting new rules for the food delivery industry in a post-pandemic world

After three years of absence, Delivery Hero decided to come back to the Asia market through an M&A transaction with Baemin, which is a leading delivery service in South Korea.

In 2019, it restarted business activities again in Vietnam by launching Baemin, serving citizens with food delivery services. Until now, one year after revising, Foodpanda or Baemin is still struggling with doing their business. So, what are the reasons?

Aggressive war in the food delivery market

Vietnam food delivery market is expected to worth roundly US$300 million at the end of 2020, with over 9.5 million users shared between five key players, which are GrabFood, Now, GoFood, Loship, and Baemin.

Many experts proposed that promotions and innovative menus tend to be the core competitive advantages, deciding the winner in the market.

Now had been leveraging the attractiveness of the Foody platform, which is one of the most popular food ordering platforms. In which, Now has rapidly attracted a large group of loyal customers to its delivery services.

Besides, GrabFood promoted a strategy called “unique food” that connect with local restaurants to provide exclusive dishes. With abundant resources of shippers and food providers, GrabFood tends to catch up Now’s position in the race of delivery.

On the other hand, Baemin introduced its promotion for new customers with 70 per cent off first orders. Also, it provided an attractive remuneration policy to shippers with the purpose of expanding the community of vendors.

With the massive investment, all players confessed that they are getting stuck with challenges coming from customer behaviour.

Struggling with infrastructure

Back to Baemin, its background was from the fried chicken delivery in Korea from 1950. For over 70 years, Korean customers have been educated to be acquainted with food delivery as the norm for consuming restaurants’ food.

Most food stores in this country have attached with online food ordering and at least one shipping service. In fact, roughly 70 per cent of Koreans have already used food delivery.

On the contrary, Vietnamese consumers have experienced this service for roughly eight years, which came up with a lack of online payment transactions. At present, e-banking, e-wallet, or other e-payment methods are seemingly at the initial stages that are only popular with people living in big cities.

Accordingly, cash-on-delivery (COD) refers to the most common payment method currently in Vietnam. In which the habit of using cash payment in the daily orders of most Vietnamese has deterred the growth of delivery apps, especially Baemin.

Also Read: Understanding the economics of food delivery platforms

Additionally, Vietnamese people tend to prefer eating in restaurants as a kind of relaxation and tasting hot foods that also challenge delivery services. This behaviour is due to several dishes commonly using with broth, which are believed to be less tasty when takeaway.

However, with the outbreak of COVID-19 and social distancing, there was a sign of switch in customer behavior in favour of food delivery.

Massive capital requirements

In the past, the main reason that forced Foodpanda to leave Vietnam was lack of financial capacity in the context of economic crisis. With returning plan, Baemin was backed by Delivery Hero so it decided to start burning money in exchange for new customers.

A recent investigation revealed that only 15 per cent of respondents use Baemin, while the number using Grab and Now were 79 per cent and 56 per cent, respectively. Accordingly, Beamin needs to invest more money to attract users.

In fact, the loyalty of Vietnam users to delivery services was estimated at the lowest group among several Asia and EU markets. It means, to retain users, food delivery apps need constantly to implement discounts and promotions. Whereby those activities do require massive investment.

Apart from Baemin, its competitors Grab and Now also pumped new capital to win the market share. Grab announced it will invest more than US$500 million in Vietnam until 2024.

Meanwhile, GoFood has fundraised US$1 billion to its business, which could invest in its delivery business. Although Delivery Hero paid US$4 billion to own Baemin, it still experienced difficulty in using capitals to defeat competitors.

Final words: the food delivery culture in Vietnam came after Korea several decades that Foodpanda is struggling with localising its services to fit with Vietnam users. Besides the expansions of competitors, it also gets stuck with challenges from the purchasing habit of Vietnamese. So, is there any space for Foodpanda or Baemin to grow?

The answer is yes. After all, the core values of food delivery mobile apps are technology and services. Once its leaders use the investment properly to deliver outstanding services and catch up with technology innovation, Baemin can conquest any of the obstinate markets.

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Singapore-headquartered relocation services company Moovaz has signed an agreement to acquire local on-demand van rental services startup GetVan.

The transaction details of the deal haven’t been disclosed.

Moovaz said in a statement that the acquisition will allow it to bolster its end-to-end relocation ecosystem with GetVan’s technological offering and strong driver-partner network.

Also Read: WW-III may already be happening online. Here’s why you need better cybersecurity

As part of the agreement, GetVan Founder and CEO James Neo will join Moovaz as Head of Supply Chain Operations.

This latest development comes about four months after Moovaz signed a deal with Singapore Press Holdings to acquire its expat-focussed publication The Finder, with plans to add content for the purpose of community-building to its digital-first relocation service.

Founded in 2018, Moovaz is an all-in-one digital platform operating in the logistics and international relocation industry. It is a global network of over 2,000 certified partners.

In April, Moovaz raised a US$7 million in Series A financing round, led by Quest Ventures, YCH Group and SGInnovate.

Founded in 2016, GetVan is an on-demand van-hire service designed to help city dwellers with their moving and transportation needs. Its intra-city logistics solutions are available for businesses and individuals.

Also Read: Words that matter most when raising capital

GetVan founder James Neo is a military officer-turned-entrepreneur, with a background in ride-hailing through his former capacity as the Head of Driver Acquisitions and Market Insights at gojek.

“Moovaz and GetVan share a common belief that to win with customers, we have to first win with our partners. I am impressed by the strong commitment to protecting partner earnings and experience within the Moovaz platform,” said Neo.

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Image Credit: Moovaz

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Moovaz acquires van-hailing platform GetVan; This allows it to bolster its end-to-end relocation ecosystem with GetVan’s technological offering and strong driver-partner network; Recently, Moovaz acquired The Finder from Singapore Press Holdings; In May, the relocation startup raised US$7M Series A led by Quest Ventures. e27

E-commerce aggregator iPrice raises funding from JG Digital Equity Ventures; This is the continuation of its Series B, being led by ACA Investments; This financing will allow the group to tap into the Philippines’s large e-commerce market and enhance its current product. e27

WW III may already be happening online. Here’s why you need better cybersecurity; In this century, cyber threats are often as dangerous as bombs; A well-planned attack could shut down a city and cause massive financial losses, injuries, and even deaths; In APAC, digital threats reveal increasing diplomatic destabilisation. e27

Malaysia’s digital money services firm Merchantrade acquires Valyou from Telenor Group; Merchantrade will now have a combined annual remittance turnover value of over US$2.7B; The merged entity will have a staff strength of over 1,200, a network of over 1,700 touch-points, and will serve a customer base of over 3M. e27

Singapore’s AMTD Digital raises US$285M from Value Partners, Greater Bay Area Homeland Investments, others; It builds a one-stop digital solutions platform that connects different stakeholders in the SpiderNet ecosystem via digital innovations; AMTD recently acquired insurtech firm PolicyPal. e27

Singapore is seeing a rise in ‘buy now, pay later’ (BNPL) services: Will it help fill retail’s gap?; According to Singtel MyBusiness, 25% of consumers who abandoned their shopping carts did so because of high prices; Since most BNPL solutions keep interest rates at 0%, customers don’t feel the pinch of having to pay extra for the same product, and are more likely to make the purchase. Vulcan Post

Alibaba’s logistics arm Cainiao expands its last-mile network into Singapore; It has partnered with Singapore Post, BEST, Roadbull, and Park N Parcel; The last-mile network will comprise over 1,600 collection points, 600 couriers and 500 lockers island-wide; Singapore’s US$2.4B e-commerce industry is projected to grow at 12-20% annually over the next 5  years. TechCoffeeHouse.com

Could a Chief Biology Officer (CBO) make your company more profitable?; The CBO will help you identify vendors that use sustainable biological manufacturing, secure supply chains, and completely transform your business; In the beginning, your CBO will help your CEO identify the low-hanging fruit that will transform your company. Forbes

IFC acquires stake in debt management firm Collectius to launch US$60M investment platform; It is solely dedicated to acquiring and resolving unsecured debt in Indonesia, Philippines, Malaysia, Thailand and soon Vietnam; The post-pandemic economy may restructure the debt collection model in Asia. Fintech News

Disgruntled consumers want regional e-commerce players to step up their game in ASEAN; Indonesia (54%) and Malaysia (57%) recorded the lowest satisfaction levels in the region when it comes to online experiences, says a study; This suggest that while major brands (Shopee, Lazada, Grab) enjoy high usage rates in the region, this growth has come at the cost of greater scrutiny from consumers. TechCoffeeHouse

Plant-based incubator NEW FOOD Startup 2020 launches in Indonesia; Up to 10 winners will be chosen to receive up to US$25K in funding; Startups targeted include those working on plant-based meat alternatives, plant-based dairy alternatives, alternative protein technologies and novel packaging solutions. Green Queen

UMG Idealab invests in Indonesia’s team monitoring app Jari; The app is equipped with features such as managing employee attendance with check-in and check-out selfies and GPS-based location recording; UMG Idealab is a unit of UMG Group Myanmar and has invested in nearly 30 startups. e27

PhillipCapital, PrimePartners, Fundnel commence trading private company shares HGX; This enables investors and issuers to gain global liquidity and access opportunities in funds, high-growth companies and other alternative private assets; The private exchange is also allowed to list and trade both digital and non-digital Capital Market Products. e27

GIC returns as lead investor in consumer credit unicorn Affirm’s US$500M Series G; The Singapore wealth fund had also backed Affirm’s Series F in April 2019;. It first entered the firm in December 2017 by leading the startup’s US$200M Series E. DealStreetAsia

NTUitive’s new programme VB18 will help Singaporeans get paid while building a business; The 12-month venture building programme will be funded by the SGUnited Traineeships Programme; 18 fresh graduates will be selected for this; Selected participants will receive a monthly stipend of US$1,800/month. e27

Words that matter most when raising capital; Before you even begin fundraising so you know whom you want to take money from; It means speaking to founders who previously raised from that investor and knowing what to ask; Looking into their previous investments and their appetite to deploy capital. e27

Digitisation is the future that will empower Malaysia; Today, Malaysia is one of the most digitally connected societies in the world, with more than 90 per cent households having access; However, only 62% of businesses are connected to the Internet. MiDec

Bank of Thailand develops digital system for better SME funding access; The central bank has continued to develop its authentication technology National Digital ID, and expanded the service to other financial service providers apart from banks. Bangkok Post

Singapore taps Apple for national health initiative, called LumiHealth, using Apple Watch; LumiHealth uses technology and behavioural insights to encourage Singaporeans to keep healthy and complete wellness challenges through their Apple Watch and iPhone; The 2-year program will be offered from late Oct 2020. HIT Consultant

The AI landscape is shifting from ‘data’ to ‘knowledge.’ Here’s why that matters; Big Data requires sophisticated AI models to analyse and derive knowledge and insights, while the AI models need the critical mass of Big Data for training and optimisation. The Next Web

How SEA startups are using content marketing to scale; Startups generally have a love-hate relationship with content marketing; It costs about 62% less than traditional marketing to generate 3x as many leads but can be tricky to master. Tech Collective

Halal Street UK launches Malaysia’s halal e-commerce platform; HalalExtra.com will enable Malaysian halal products to be sold in the UK and Europe; The platform promotes day-to-day products under food, health, beauty, snacks, seasonings and condiments, and meat and poultry, among others. Malay Mail

gojek kick-starts Thai operation after brand unification; The Indonesian decacorn plans to unify its Thai and Vietnamese brands and bring them under one tech platform to take the fight to Grab; gojek has more than 50K drivers and 30K merchants in Thailand, where food delivery is booming. Nikkei Asia Review

Coinbase is looking for a country manager in Singapore; The exec will be spearheading the crypto exchange’s expansion strategy in the region; This includes evaluating and recommending growth options in Asia based on individual market analysis. TechInAsia

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