Photo shows the award won by SEB.
KUCHING: Sarawak Energy Berhad (SEB) recently received the 2020 Malaysia Enterprise Innovation Award for efforts to drive digital technology adoption in its digital transformation journey.
The award was presented in conjunction with Asia IoT Business Platform (AIBP) Insights Malaysia, a series of country-focused sessions which convene Asean stakeholders to discuss enterprise technology adoption topics in the region, which was held virtually on Oct 5-7 last year.
It involved some 700 participants from over 20 countries including Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia, China, Japan, Spain, Netherlands, and United Kingdom.
SEB chief executive officer Datu Sharbini Suhaili said the recognition will motivate the corporation to continue moving forward with greater emphasis on the role of digitalisation.
“We launched our digital blueprint and roadmap in 2018 as a strategic initiative and as part of our transformation to become a digital utility by 2025. It involved digitalising our processes and methods including equipping staff with digital tools and learning opportunities,” he said in a statement yesterday.
Explaining how the strategic decision enabled them to navigate the challenges of Covid-19, he said, “When the global Covid-19 pandemic hit, we were already in a much more digitalised working environment, so we were able to continue operating over the course of the past year leveraging on the experience we gained through our earlier digitalisation initiatives.”
He said 2021 marks the corporation’s 100th year of powering Sarawak.
“In the last few decades, we have made tremendous strides in transforming from a traditional utility into a modern and agile company and energy developer with a regional ambition and digitalisation has been a key enabler of our track record of accomplishments,” he added.
SEB was represented at AIBP by senior vice-president for Information and Communications Technology Sim Ko Sin, who also participated in the AIBP Insights focus discussion titled ‘Managing Assets and Portfolio Performance in Scale’.
Sim shared the different parts of SEB’s digitalisation journey and how it has enabled a modernised workplace.
This includes trialing data analytics in retail fraud, water dispatch management, and smart business initiatives such as Retail Transformation, Digital Power Plant, and Smart Grid.
She also shared how SEB leverages private fibre optics for connectivity complemented by satellite communications in supporting its digital initiatives and rural operations, as well as playing a part in Sarawak’s aspiration of connectivity to rural and remote areas.
Other participants in the session included Tenaga Nasional Berhad (TNB), Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) Corporation, and the Malaysian Aviation Commission (Mavcom).
Established in 2017, the Asean Enterprise Innovation Awards celebrate organisations which have adopted digital technology to improve their business processes and transform.
Two winners are selected from Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam respectively, on an annual basis with the current winners coming from Vietnam and Malaysia.