In our special series featuring W.Media Awards involving top notch Cloud, IT, Cybersecurity and Data Centres organisations or individuals sharing their most challenging and innovative projects or opinions.
To millions of citizens in Jakarta and many other big cities in Indonesia, Blue Bird Group isn’t just a taxi company, but is an integral part of their lifestyle. With interests in containers and heavy equipments to logistics, Blue Bird Group has extended its services, from taxis to limousines and car rentals, bus charters, logistics, industry, property, IT and supporting services and heavy equipments.
Business was strong and steady. And then…COVID-19 came. With lockdowns announced in every part of the world at some point or the other, business was impacted. Air travel, tourism which are ancillary industries (which aid Blue Bird’s business) got a severe jolt.
Companies such as Blue Bird had to operate in conditions which is referred to as the ‘New Normal’. We are committed to always keeping our service quality in every business that we do. Now Blue Bird Group’s services can be enjoyed not only in Jakarta but also in other cities in Indonesia, as well as hearts of business and tourism spots across the nation.
“You need people with the right skills and mindset to run the transformation with you. Digital transformation can’t be done from a technology perspective alone.”
MUHAMMAD SUHADA, VICE PRESIDENT INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY, BLUE BIRD GROUP
So, when Muhammad Suhada, Vice President Information Technology at Blue Bird Group joined the company, what he saw surprised and also gave him an idea of what needs to be done. “When I came to Blue Bird about two and a half years back, I straight away saw that Blue Bird is different. This company has a very strong culture and core values, which itself is already an advantage compared to their competitors,” he says. Accordingly, he started out with his vision and motto. “We don’t want to be like our competitors, we are Blue Bird. We just need to find a way to fill the gaps of weaknesses and amplify our strengths, technology and innovations are one of the answers,” points out Suhada.
While many organisations theoretically know what needs to be done, they tend to falter at execution. Often the confusion is whether to start the Digital Transformation journey with technology or people?
“People and technology should go hand in hand, but I would say invest with people first. You need people with the right skills and mindset to run the transformation with you. Digital transformation can’t be done from a technology perspective alone. At the end of the day, you need people’s buy-in, you need champions to help you remove the ‘blockers’, you need HR (although often neglected) to help you with the people. That’s how we did it in Blue Bird,” explains Suhada.
So, when Muhammad Suhada, Vice President Information Technology at Blue Bird Group joined the company, what he saw surprised and also gave him an idea of what needs to be done. “When I came to Blue Bird about two and a half years back, I straight away saw that Blue Bird is different. This company has a very strong culture and core values, which itself is already an advantage compared to their competitors,” he says. Accordingly, he started out with his vision and motto. “We don’t want to be like our competitors, we are Blue Bird. We just need to find a way to fill the gaps of weaknesses and amplify our strengths, technology and innovations are one of the answers,” points out Suhada.
While many organisations theoretically know what needs to be done, they tend to falter at execution. Often the confusion is whether to start the Digital Transformation journey with technology or people?
“People and technology should go hand in hand, but I would say invest with people first. You need people with the right skills and mindset to run the transformation with you. Digital transformation can’t be done from a technology perspective alone. At the end of the day, you need people’s buy-in, you need champions to help you remove the ‘blockers’, you need HR (although often neglected) to help you with the people. That’s how we did it in Blue Bird,” explains Suhada.
An example of the kind of challenge faced by a company can be gauged from Suhada’s insights. “I joined Blue Bird when the company just decided to replace their existing proprietary dispatching system with a new open, in-house developed dispatching system with an onboard IoT device in the fleet. That was a very bold move by the company I must say because this team that I managed has no prior experience building this kind of system. In effect, we needed to reverse engineer the existing system, closely work with the business users, and build a better system that is flexible enough for future improvements,” he says.
So, was it all smooth? Not quite but as they say in Silicon Valley- it is okay to fail, but fail fast. “Couple of months after the first roll out, we hit major scalability issues and it was impacting the operation. Was it a tough challenge? Yes, it was, but we are human, and humans make mistakes. We just need to learn from the mistake fast, bounce, and finish strong,” opines Suhada.
Starting a Digital Transformation Journey
When organisations start off in their digital transformation journey, is there a beginning and an end? Suhada explains: “I would say before you start your digital transformation you need to understand the business first. This is a common mistake that an IT leader often makes, offering solutions even before understanding the business including the problems and challenges they are facing.
Once you get a grasp of the challenges the business has, you can then gauge the digital maturity of the organisation and start planning what kind of (digital) transformation needed. Every organization has its own uniqueness so there’s no such thing like one recipe for all digital transformation journeys.”
Considering that logistics sector is undergoing a dramatic shift, are there any guidelines or standards that companies can follow, which can be a sort of framework? The answer is not straightforward.
“To be honest, we are not strictly following any industry best practices or standards. As every company is unique, we need to embrace that uniqueness. Of course we have adopted some best practices like being agile for example but the way we did it was we blend the best practices with our own way of working and become the Blue Bird’s best practice,” says Suhada.
Has Digital Transformation helped?
This raises the question whether digital transformation in the Blue Bird Group helped it to thrive in uncertainty and change? Suhada is of the view that resilience is in the company’s DNA.
“This company has survived from disruption twice. First was technology disruption that forced us to change and digitally-transformed. Second, the disruption from the pandemic is (again) forcing us to change, but this time technology is not only helping us to survive but it is also helping us to tap into future markets and opportunity because we already have the platform needed to grow,” he points out. Blue Bird’s transformation journey is based on three pillars: people, technology and innovation.
“When you have your base layers (which are the people and the right technology) ready to support you with the transformation, innovation is the one that differentiates you from the others. In Blue Bird we appreciate innovation more than anything, and this is proven by some bold moves that we made such as a new and open dispatching platform that enable us to achieve our vision which is multi-product, multi-channel booking, and multi-payment method,” according to Suhada.
Every dollar spent in the name of transformation needs to be measured with the ROI, otherwise digital transformation will only be a lighthouse project without really fulfilling the purpose.
As with every business transformation, Blue Bird has seen cost benefits.
“Of course, digital transformation is not always about investing in technology, more importantly is investing in the right technology for the right challenges. One of the guiding principles in our transformation project is cost-efficient. It means that we need to always compare between make or buy and which solution to buy. Every dollar spent in the name of transformation needs to be measured with the ROI, otherwise digital transformation will only be a lighthouse project without really fulfilling the purpose,” states Suhada.
So, what kind of transformation does the company expect in 3-5 years’ timeframe?
Suhada is of the view that aiming for more sustainable transportation in the future is what the company is aiming. “We are investing in EV and also open platform and AI that enable us to collaborate with partners and eventually to become Mobility-as-a-Service provider,” he says.
Talent Factor
On a scale 1 to 10, the company says it is at 8. In any transformation a company will need people from different areas with the right mindset to work in collaboration. “Particularly in my team, in the past 2 years our development team has increased almost 400% percent with some of them assigned to critical posts. Having the right talent in those positions significantly expedites our delivery to the stakeholders and it will definitely give more sustainability to our transformation journey in the long run,” says Suhada.
In many ways, Blue Bird’s digital journey is like the old adage – ‘Well begun is half done’. In the new world, this gives the company a head-start like no other.
About Bluebird
Founded in 1972, the Blue Bird Group, launched with an initial fleet of 25 taxis. Today, Blue Bird Group is the largest taxi operator in Indonesia, with a market share of 43 percent in Indonesia’s taxi services sector, including tieups with Gojek.
