Wilmar’s Information Technology (IT) division is responsible for implementing digital technologies to drive efficiencies and add value to the business. Building on the momentum we had set in the past year, we continue to deliver more digital capabilities globally across strategic business functions, namely sales & marketing, logistics, supply chain, production, finance, plantation, trading and human resources.
Supporting Business Agility
The fast-evolving digital world is facing heightened expectations of technology from business users. To help the Group improve its business agility, we seek to respond swiftly to the increasing needs of the technology-empowered users and our customers. Some digital initiatives that have been implemented include data analytics, robotic process automation and rapid development platforms.
As we strive to become more customer-centric, we embrace change as the new normal and stay flexible in reallocating resources, adapting to changes in existing processes and embracing the digital culture across the Group.
Sharpening IT Strategic Focus
Recognising that technology has an important role in supporting the Group’s growth, the IT team developed a multi-year technology roadmap focusing on strategic business functions. In tandem with business expansion, the volume of data within the Group is burgeoning. Over the past year, we have been working closely with business units to derive data-driven insights to help shape business strategies. Some of the key IT initiatives include a central sourcing and procurement platform, digital sales dashboard, sales force automation and consumer ordering mobile applications, factory processes information systems and logistics digital platform.
Increasing IT Efficiency and IT Security
We aim to be highly efficient in optimising our IT budget so that we can focus more resources to support digital initiatives, innovative customer-centric projects and security initiatives. We manage this by taking a central view of the IT requirements across countries, reviewing the resource staffing and sourcing plans for different countries based on their IT needs as well as optimising our IT sourcing and procurement through long-term relationships with our strategic IT vendors. Managing cybersecurity risks continues to be a key priority. We constantly review and strengthen our multi-layer defence to protect Wilmar against new cybersecurity threats, breaches, and vulnerabilities.
Embracing Sustainable IT
Wilmar is committed to make our IT systems more sustainable by lowering energy consumption through regular reviews of our cloud infrastructure usage, recycling and repurposing on-premise IT infrastructure at end of life while ensuring usability within the system. Online meetings, video conferencing facilities and enhancement of IT asset maintenance contracts are also used as part of our sustainable IT strategy to minimise our environmental impact.