Digitizing Indonesian MSMEs Through Collaboration with Global and Local Technology Companies

To accelerate the business growth of small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), the adoption of technological developments is crucial, especially in the midst of the current pandemic situation. On the one hand, economic uncertainty can be a threat to business continuity, but on the other hand, this situation can actually be converted into a profitable opportunity - not only for business players, but also for technology industry players.

At least the above can be proven through the increasing number of MSME business people today, who are starting to realize the importance of business digitization efforts. For example, a few months ago one of Indonesia's leading technology companies, Gojek released interesting findings about how the pandemic changed the behavior and business map of the MSME industry, where the enthusiasm of entrepreneurs for digital transformation is known to be very high, reaching more than 3.000 businesses registering as merchants Gojek in one day.

This finding could actually draw the conclusion that efforts to digitize Indonesian MSMEs are on the right track, but of course this effort is also determined by various aspects that are more complex than just being registered as partners in technology service providers. These various aspects can also be a challenge for entrepreneurs, and it is these challenges that are finally being worked on by technology companies to produce innovative and effective solutions. One of the keys to smooth these efforts is to collaborate.

Not infrequently, collaborating - especially with global players - has several positive impacts. In addition to being able to accelerate business on a wider scale, global players are considered to have prior experience, especially in the experience of concocting strategies to convert conventional businesses to digital businesses. It's like what service providers do online payment gateways leading, midtrans which collaborates with one of the global-scale cloud technology solution providers, namely Amazon Web Services (AWS). The collaboration between the two gave birth to “Business Corner”, a platform that allows MSME business players in Indonesia to carry out digital transformation easily.

Business Corner offers a variety of solutions in digitizing MSME business operations. In addition to offering payment processing convenience through Midtrans, Pojok Usaha allows MSMEs to be connected to services in the ecosystem Gojek like for example with Moka catering to the need point-of-sales cloud-based, GoBiz, Selly (a smart keyboard application for online businesses), to delivery services, GoSend. A number of other services focused on technology solutions cloud for businesses from AWS also embedded in the platform Business Corner.

The collaboration between Midtrans and AWS clearly confirms the conclusion at the outset, that to produce the best solution, good collaboration is often required. Between Midtrans and AWS, both of them run solution-based businesses that support each other, in order to create a small and medium business climate in Indonesia that is increasingly ready to face global challenges.

In initiative Business Corner, AWS, which operates as a cloud technology service provider, is ready to accommodate essential elements in running a digital business, such as providing virtual infrastructure services and the like. On the other hand, Midtrans' role is being able to improve existing infrastructure to be filled with various services within the Midtrans ecosystem and Gojek.

The partnership between the two is triggered by the common vision and mission in growing the small and medium business industry through technology solutions. Both Midtrans and AWS, both agreed to have a commitment to provide support to various businesses in every line and scale of business.

With such a target, it should not be difficult for this collaboration to achieve or even exceed the expected target. Moreover, positive responses were also obtained from several partners who have joined. As previously stated by Bernardinus Siena as the owner of the Box & Tale business, which is one of Midtrans' partners who has succeeded in accelerating their digital transformation with Midtrans.

On one occasion Bernard admitted, the pandemic crisis pushed his business to optimize technology to be able to reach customers amid restrictions on social interaction. He also revealed that the optimization he did together with Midtrans resulted in excellent service in the digital realm.

"We joined Midtrans to coincide with the start of the pandemic, so when the pandemic came, our website was able to provide digital payment features and accept more customers," said Bernard.

Bernard added, he hopes that the MSME industry is truly able to have strong competitiveness by adopting the role of technology into the essence of its business, to be able to adapt in the current era.

“Box & Tale is grateful because from the beginning we have directed this gift business to be online-based. But we understand that other businesses that are not online will certainly find it difficult to adapt in this new era. Therefore, we strongly support other businesses to digitize their business through the many available platforms,” he added.