Like many other industries not only in the island nation but around the world, Singapore’s F&B sector has been battered by the pandemic.
Eileen Chua, managing director, SAP Singapore, however, noted that the crisis has prompted some to look for opportunities to innovate and thrive in what she calls the ‘never normal’ and to invest for long-term growth.
JUMBO Group of Restaurants Pte Ltd (JUMBO) is scaling its digitalisation plans as it focuses on delivering exceptional customer dining experiences and bringing Singapore’s food culture across the world.
In the past year, the F&B sector has been among the key industries particularly affected by the pandemic, requiring businesses to review and pivot their business strategy – not only for survival but also to build resilience and weather future challenges.
As part of its next stage of growth, JUMBO Group of Restaurants Pte Ltd (JUMBO), famous for its chilli crab and black pepper crab dishes, has ramped up its digitalisation efforts, with a vision to create a cross-border integrated system within the entire organisation and its key stakeholders’ ecosystem.
“It is also crucial for us to leverage technology to remain competitive from the internal efficiency and cost perspective, and to utilise data to help us innovate and adapt to the fast-changing operating landscape and tastebuds of consumers in Singapore and across the region,” said Ang Kiam Meng, executive director and group CEO.
Core modernisation
Beginning with the foundation of a strong digital ERP core, JUMBO implemented SAP S/4HANA, S/4HANA Retail and SAP Customer Activity Repository solutions, to enable the business to standardise data and support its business end-to-end. The aim is to drive efficiency and deliver relevant insights for decision making to improve the bottom line and focus on products that cater to customer preferences under the current landscape.
JUMBO hopes to use the platform not only to achieve operational efficiency but also other broader business objectives, including uplifting human capital competency by removing paper and manual processes.
This will further streamline and coordinate workflows across different departments.
JUMBO aims to similarly expand its digitalisation efforts across its regional operations, particularly to optimise its procurement strategies and sharpen its sales and service efforts.
“By tapping on digital innovations in partnership with SAP and Synnove, we have enhanced our operational capabilities and unearthed deeper insights into our business operations that have helped us conceptualise new dining experiences, concepts, and menus, which will be crucial in our future growth and internationalisation plans,” commented Ang.
Edge modernisation
The new ERP system would also set a foundation and momentum for the Group to explore other cutting-edge technologies in the future. This includes the Internet of Things (IoT) to improve outlets and Central Kitchen operations and leveraging Artificial Intelligence (AI) Customer Experience (CX) solutions to help create more personalised customer experiences.
“Underpinning this evolution has been a focus on agility and resilience, which has seen F&B operators like JUMBO accelerate their digital transformation efforts to be an intelligent enterprise and implement a scalable digital core that will lay the foundation for operational excellence, a single source of truth, business analytics for real-time decision making and a platform for innovation and collaboration,” added Chua.
