CIO50 2023 26-50: Tuan Jean Tee, Sime Darby Motors

Name: Tuan Jean (TJ) Tee
Title: Chief digital and information officer
Company: Sime Darby Motors
Commenced role: November 2021
Reporting line: CEO
Member of the executive team: Yes
Technology Function: 160 staff, 15 direct reports

Sime Darby Motors owns over 250 facilities in ten markets across the Asia Pacific region and is the third largest BMW distributor worldwide.

In 2020, Sime Darby Motors developed new facilities in the Selangor state of Malaysia, home to the company’s parent company Sime Darby Berhad.

Called Motors City, the new complex spans 1.3 million square feet and has over 200 service bays with a capacity to service over 150,000 vehicles annually.

However, with such a high volume of vehicles serviced each year, the need arose to improve what was traditionally manual and laborious.

And so, Sime Darby Motors’ Australian-based chief digital and information officer Tuan Jean and his team went to work to re-imagine the entire vehicle servicing experience at Motors City for customers.

“Customers want as little hassle as possible and interruption to their daily lives,” says Tuan Jean.

And with the large size of the new Motors City, the company needed to help customers and employees navigate the complex.

Omnipresent customer experience

The Digital Technology team developed a solution to cover the end-to-end vehicle service process and to provide what Tuan Jean calls an “omnipresent customer experience”.

Customers begin their journey by making an appointment for a service.

“We developed a new appointment platform on Salesforce and Flutter that empowered our customers to interact with us online and offline seamlessly,” says Jean.

“As a result, our customers now have the freedom to choose the most convenient way to make an appointment – through our website, mobile app, or by calling our customer service team.”

When a customer drives to the facility on their appointment date, a digital platform consisting of IoT devices and AI-enabled number plate recognition cameras automatically identifies the vehicle and notifies the receptionist.

A service advisor then performs an initial service inspection on the vehicle through an undercarriage and a 180-degree camera installed at the entrance.

Customers then check in at the service counter through a QR code at a customer lounge.

“Our front desk team will monitor queue duration via the app and address any long waiting situations while our customer waits at the lounge.”

The vehicle’s location is constantly tracked within the facility through automatic number plate recognition cameras installed across the complex.

Digital job status dashboard

A digital job status dashboard and technician scoreboard provide a live view of the job and vehicle location, allowing the Motors City team to manage and improve productivity and efficiency.

Meanwhile, an electronic document management system keeps all the service and relevant diagnostic documents in one place for easy reference.

Upon completion of the service, the customer is presented with a digital invoice which they can review and pay on the spot on their mobile phone.

While saying it has seen great results from the project, the company has observed high customer satisfaction, increase in deliver aftersales service volume, and most importantly, elimination of physical paper throughout the entire process contributing to Sime Darby’s green initiative.

Tuan Jean has developed with the group’s executive leadership team a five-year digital transformation strategy since joining the organisation in 2021.

All investments and projects now align with this strategy, as do KPIs for the IT team.

“Doing so allow us to achieve more with less and be more focused on delivering business outcome and impact.”

Communication of project progress and value realisation is also mapped to the same framework.

Tuan Jean meanwhile also delivered executive digital briefings sessions to inform group executives on critical digital technologies, such as digital transformation frameworks, cloud computing, and the meta-verse.

“This program improves digital maturity. With increased awareness and understanding, the executives and management team members can adopt and accept new technologies more willingly.”

Distributed team

With his team distributed across 10 countries and territories – China, Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Australia, and New Zealand, Tuan Jean has had to develop a program to drive inclusivity.

“I visit each of the markets constantly, and besides looking at project progress and update, I hold ‘You say, I listen’ session. The team collaborates in a relaxed atmosphere to share new ideas, improvement areas, and challenges.”

Tuan Jean also emphasises a growth mindset in the team with a focus on continuous learning and improvements.

Through an enterprise skilling program, the team has upskilled in new technology areas such as cloud, data platform, advanced analytics, cybersecurity, CRM, ERP, and software development.

“The team selects the courses they want to learn within the program and does the certification at their own pace.”

He has also introduced an awards program to recognise people’s work.

“The award specifically calls out for cross-market collaboration to ensure the team does not work in silos but across all markets.”

Louis van Wyk