Driving financial efficiency through innovation

Jebsen & Jessen Group’s “The Hub” in Malaysia boosts its service delivery, people and culture through innovative digitalisation processes.

With the vision of housing all transactional finance services under one roof, Jebsen & Jessen Group established its regional shared service centre Jebsen & Jessen Group Services Sdn Bhd, also known as The Hub in 2020. By 2022, the team successfully migrated all seven markets and scope that was part of the finance transformation agenda. This set the path forThe Hub to continue driving financial efficiency through innovation.

The key driver of success is not limiting innovation to the service delivery department, but also to its people and culture.

When The Hub first started, the method of routing requests was done via e-forms. Although this was the new digital way of communicating and replaced manual forms, such a method proved to have many limitations and was especially tedious for the requestor.

The Hub searched for better solutions and created  Power Automate in the process. Conceptualised, developed, tested and rolled out entirely by one of its internal team members, the new e-request tool, which has replaced e-forms is faster, more transparent, and has more capabilities for tracking the quality of service delivery today. Since the foundation of the tool is based on available resources (Office 365 & SharePoint), HUB managed to deliver efficiency saving the business USD30-55k per annum.

Another tool that the team developed and rolled out in the same year was the Power BI dashboard. The solution, which was made purely through e-learning on YouTube, replaces the manual MS Excel files that took longer to prepare and were prone to errors along with limitations in drill-down capabilities.

Tested during the annual stock and debtors review for one pilot market, the new solution has now been accepted by the Group as the standard for 2023 onward.

Meanwhile, with the trend of The Great Resignation shaking up business operations, The Hub has created new employment options for the 'new age of employees.' It has now created employment contracts that allow full remote working and 'pay based on output' type of arrangements.

Such a setup eased the company’s recruitment woes and opened employment opportunities to a wider group of potential employees. At the same time, it also challenges not only the usual recruitment practices but the companies’ current productivity benchmarks.

The Hub’s consideration for its employees has also led to the establishment of hybrid working arrangements so that employees are able to choose the days they feel most comfortable working in the office or remotely. They have the freedom to decide what works best for them, but still maintain the team spirit through monthly activities held in the office.

With the company’s notable solutions and employee working arrangements, Jebsen & Jessen Group Services has been recognised by the Malaysia Management Excellence Awards as the recipient of this year’s Innovator of the Year - Business Services award.

Despite the challenges brought about by the pandemic, The Hub has not only achieved milestones but continues to deliver value through innovative solutions.

The prestigious awards programme honours Malaysia's most outstanding leaders, innovators, and teams whose initiatives have brought tangible business results for the success of their respective companies. It also highlights employee engagement and COVID management activities that made beneficial impacts on the workforce or on customers.

The Malaysia Management Excellence Awards is presented by Singapore Business Review Magazine. To view the full list of winners, click here. If you want to join the 2023 awards programme and be acclaimed for your company's employee engagements and management initiatives, please contact Danica Avila at [email protected].