Axiata Digital Advertising

The Customer 

Axiata Digital Advertising (ADA) is a data and artificial intelligence company that offers business insights, data enrichment, advanced analytics and digital marketing solutions. A subsidiary of the multinational telecom conglomerate Axiata Group Berhad, ADA operates across ten markets in the ASEAN and South Asia region, partnering with leading brands to boost data-driven marketing strategies and complementing its unique digital expertise with deep proprietary data on 375 million consumers. The company employs around 1,800 people across its markets. 

The Challenge

Investing in enhanced data sources is vital for ADA to identify the shifting demands of its consumers. ADA’s business processes had long involved legacy systems, Microsoft Dynamics NAV on-premise, and other systems where users across various entities had to perform manual operations. The company had eventually outgrown the legacy system’s capabilities, finding that its functionality was not enough to meet growing business needs and leading to drawbacks such as costly hardware maintenance, compatibility issues and heavy customisations. It also became more apparent that ADA needed to upgrade or replace its system, as support and updates for Dynamics NAV were due to cease. 

ADA then decided to search for a trusted implementation partner to support its modernisation. Having previously worked on Axiata Group Berhad’s cloud ERP implementation, ADA awarded the project to Hitachi Solutions, winning over two other Microsoft partners. 

Hitachi Solutions Asia Pacific recognised the urgency in providing our team a robust solution that would further aid our business development and drive success in our existing markets. Innovation will help our business thrive, and having their team along takes us a step closer in our journey towards digital transformation.

The Solution

To further aid its growing ambition of sustaining quality services across its markets, ADA decided to upgrade its ERP system to the cloud with Microsoft Dynamics 365. Hitachi Solutions provided guidance throughout the process, with comprehensive solution demos, business case scenarios and all the way to tender submission. Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance and Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management centralised ADA’s processes into one platform and helped accommodate increasing business volumes and cater to complex customer, vendor and business partner requirements with ease and efficiency. 

We have significantly reduced manual operations and digitised our processes across entities into one platform. Dynamics 365 provided us a reliable system for growth, a software that is not only helpful in employee productivity but also customer satisfaction.

Hitachi Solutions implemented the new ERP system across ADA’s 11 legal entities in 9 countries via big-bang adoption, getting rid of the legacy systems and integrating the necessary modules to the new cloud system simultaneously, providing users with the necessary functions where customisation is not a must. 

Moving from on-premises to the cloud is certainly a challenge where we must follow a process to make sure that we have accurately identified the potential issues, opportunities, and needs to prepare for during implementation and post-go-live.

Hitachi Solutions Asia Pacific developed a global template for ADA and rolled the solution out to entities in Malaysia (HQ), Bangladesh, Cambodia, Indonesia, the Philippines, Singapore, Sri Lanka, South Korea and Thailand. The deployment marked Hitachi Solutions’ first project in the advertising industry, and localisation exposure in newly engaged countries such as Cambodia and South Korea. 

Data migration was one of the critical factors to make this project a success. We ensured that users were able to familiarise themselves with the new system. Our data migration team efficiently managed the cutover and took the project to a successful go live.

Dynamics 365 Finance now enables ADA’s finance team to seamlessly work on daily activities involving financial consolidation and month-end close, while Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management has helped ADA fully maximise the cloud experience, integrate its core business operations and reduce manual work, specifically in procurement and sourcing, sales and marketing, product management and vendor collaboration. Together, Dynamics 365 has streamlined ADA’s business processes and reduced the risk of system downtime. 

Why Hitachi Solutions

ADA awarded the project to Hitachi Solutions over two other Microsoft partners, on the strength of its prior work on Axiata Group Berhad’s cloud ERP implementation and its recognition of the urgency in providing a robust solution. A global template, clearly set expectations and reliable data migration carried the project through, even though it started during the height of pandemic travel restrictions. 

The project started during the height of heavy travel restrictions caused by the pandemic, but Hitachi Solutions still made it possible to support our team 100% remotely with the right passion and hard work.

The Benefits 

• Shared service operation: Dynamics 365 improved ADA’s shared services, optimising back-end operations and giving users from various business units the capacity to focus more on strategic work while reducing the cost of financial processes. 
• Consolidated month-end reporting: high volumes of transactions demand proper consolidation, and Dynamics 365 enhanced users’ handling and creation of consolidated financial statements, with reporting done directly out of an entity in the system. ADA is now able to complete closing faster than the previous 12 to 15 days after month-end, and audit requirements are satisfied. 
• Common data for all legal entities: ADA now manages common data across its legal entities, combining data from multiple sources and systems rather than working with fragmented concepts. 

We made a commitment to Hitachi Solutions and Microsoft technologies because we believe they would support our vision to deliver the future of marketing and analytics. This collaboration is all about building a long-term partnership that would last beyond the initial implementation.

What’s Next? 

ADA is readying itself to expand its use of Microsoft technologies across the organisation while preparing for a more abundant, cloud-ready future to sustain growth, increase productivity and minimise manual workload in all channels. 

We are noticing the positive business outcomes day-by-day as we called on the expertise of Hitachi Solutions Asia Pacific to manage our financial and supply chain modernisation. Their team was able to set clear expectations for the entire process and developed a reliable template to keep our business processes consistent.

While ADA is yet to implement all the digital competence it needs across its lines of business, Dynamics 365 Finance and Supply Chain Management is a strong start in its digital transformation journey, and Hitachi Solutions Asia Pacific continues to work with ADA towards data-driven outcomes and more compelling customer service.