The corporate navigator from what's now to what's next
By Dzof Azmi March 4, 2020
- Combination of 5G & edge computing in 2020 will supercharge influx of IoT devices
- Relocated APAC shared services unit to Malaysia with 230 people in Shared Services
A year ago, Moti Uttam was appointed Hitachi Vantara Malaysia Managing Director. Now, he takes the time to discuss with Digital News Asia what he sees as his company’s role in 2020 helping companies in the region go digital.
“For the Malaysian market going into 2020, our focus is primarily on data center modernization and data governance,” said Moti. “We see lots of opportunities in the banking, telecoms, manufacturing and utility sectors.”
That isn’t to say that there isn’t specific mention of Fourth Industrial Revolutions (IR4) technologies. “Going digital and leveraging on data value are the basis of business competition in the future,” said Moti flat out. “Digital disruption is a major wake-up call for all industries.”
For example, he explained that the big data conversation Hitachi Vantara is having with Malaysian customers, is geared around helping them to transform their businesses to get more value from their data.
Another trend is the anticipated rise in edge computing. “Firms are beginning to understand the power of edge computing and the applications made possible by processing raw data closer to the source,” said Moti. “Processing data centrally on-premises or in the cloud simply will likely no longer be enough to get all that data processed fast enough for impactful decisions to be made.”
This observation dovetails with the rollout of 5G across APAC. “The combination of 5G and edge computing in 2020 will supercharge the influx of IoT devices,” he continued.
Overall, he feels industry has choice, now. “Companies and economies will now need to step up on development in order for to stay competitive.”
Helping companies go digital
Moti’s proposition is clearly that Hitachi Vantara can do for Southeast Asian companies what they have done for other organizations worldwide. “For example, we are helping Curtin University in Australia build a better university and we are helping the City of Istanbul make their smart city vision a reality,” he said, while ticking off other examples of verticals, including telecommunications (BT and China Telecom), and healthcare (Abbott Labs and Mayo Clinic), while throwing in space exploration to cap it all off (“NASA leverages Hitachi to protect and enrich its space imagery”).
Moti does specify that Hitchi Vantara, together with Hitachi Consulting, aims to give a “competitive edge” in their core areas: data centre, data operations, and enterprise digital transformation.
This includes helping manufacturing industry players plan to go digital, for example by integrating manufacturing data silos with AI and machine learning by using their Lumada Manufacturing Insights technology. (He also noted that Vantara have launched a Lumada innovation centre in Thailand specifically for digital 4.0 initiatives.)
A significant local presence
Moti’s optimism is bolstered by the fact that Vantara’s market share has grown by double digits in countries like Malaysia, Vietnam, Thailand and Indonesia, which then leads to investments in the region.
“What many people may not be aware of, is that we’ve also developed a significant presence in Malaysia in terms of shared services,” said Moti. “Over the years, we have successfully relocated our APAC shared services organization into Malaysia and have 230 people in Shared Services in KL, across our APAC Finance Operations, our APAC Deal Operations Center, and our Global Delivery Center.”
“We’ll continue to invest in Malaysia, and we’ll continue to drive the corporate agenda locally in order to serve the Malaysian market better. “
In closing, Moti quoted Toshiaki Tokunaga, Hitachi Vantara CEO and chairman of the board: “We're going to be the company that helps customers navigate from what's now to what's next."
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