“ We need to see how our customers are evolving and how we can serve them better ”
— Johnny Wong , Group Chief Digital and Technology Officer , NTUC Enterprise
products to peoples ’ doorsteps unless they also have an equivalent physical infrastructure nearby .”
Although Wong ’ s vision for FairPrice has achieved some validation from current business growth , he explains that , in the initial stages , there was strong debate internally . Prior to the transformation , NTUC Fairprice was “ a traditional retailer that , in regards to technology , operated in essentially the same way as it had for the last 20 to 30 years and had been very successful ,” Wong describes . There were many discussions among executives and board members on whether business should carry on as normal “ with some minor optimisations ”, or if NTUC Fairprice should act upon trends spearheaded by ecommerce leaders like Amazon .
“ After all ,” he says , “ it ’ s not just about simply hiring engineers or putting together a nice PowerPoint ; it ’ s about changing pre-existing mindset ; it ’ s about fundamentally altering the way that our organisation works and invests , and that ’ s very different .” However , Wong ’ s conviction that a digital and data-centric approach won out and proved that intelligent implementation of new technology can pay dividends . Data collected by the company comes from across NTUC Enterprise ’ s various social enterprises , meaning the information can be varied and voluminous . “ From groceries to the food required in food courts and restaurants to the health clinics and childcare centres , we collect individual data signals ,” Wong explains .” Based on that , we develop a fairly good view of the customer journey and can offer better products and services .” However , with so much information to process , new methods to effectively analyse it became necessary . Data science and particularly machine learning became a focus for the company . “ We need to make use of and understand data . We have about 40 different data scientists
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