CYBER VILLAGE : COLLABORATORS IN DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION
CEO Yee Bing Shieh delves into how Cyber Village ’ s philosophy of collaboration has affirmed its successes in enabling digital transformations
Since its pioneering days as an e-commerce start up in the late 1990s , Cyber Village has grown to be a leader in digital engagement technologies enabling various customer transformation journeys for insurers and financial institutions across the ASEAN region .
Despite its incumbent leadership position today , the pioneer spirit of Cyber Village ’ s startup days is clearly ingrained deep into its DNA : “ We are very conscious of the need to change all the time ,” says CEO Yee Bing Shieh .
For Shieh , algorithms and apps are blunt instruments without a guiding human touch , and a collaborative vision . She sees these as catalysts for agility in the firm ’ s digital innovation processes . Most recently , this philosophy has underpinned Cyber Village ’ s seven-year partnership with leading Islamic insurance provider PruBSN .
“ PruBSN is a very positive , customer-focused organization with clear business goals ,” she says . “ Having said that , they are also open to experimentation in terms of new technology , as well as how we can actually come together with them to co-create new ideas .”
The latest upshot of this collaborative approach is the launch of an industry-first peer-to-peer Takaful Islamic Insurance application . Here , Cyber Village ’ s technology team worked closely with PruBSN ’ s product team , leveraging one of Cyber Village ’ s recent tech innovations – a cloud based P2P platform designed on a ledger architecture , complete with digital wallet capabilities .
“ It ’ s a major social innovation in terms of how it allows the participants to join the Islamic insurance programme , pool their premiums and actually understand what it means to have a shared insurance , or mutual protection , in a peer group or community , all via an end-to-end digital experience ,” Shieh explains . “ There are no physical , manual processes here ; the customer journey is seamlessly delivered through a mobile app ”.
Shieh talks about the initiative as part of Cyber Village ’ s collaborative technology-as-service platform model to work with its clients and go into technology-as-abusiness . “ We look forward to such co-creations … it then lifts us beyond just doing tech or delivering tech capabilities by actually becoming a Digital Business Partner for our clients , such as PruBSN .”