JUMBO puts digitalisation plans on the menu with SAP's data and CX solutions

JUMBO Group of Restaurants, one of Singapore’s leading F&B establishments, has partnered up with SAP to scale its digitalisation plans, as it focuses on delivering exceptional customer dining experiences and bringing Singapore’s food culture across the world. JUMBO is, best known for its award-winning chilli crab and black pepper crab dishes. Established in 1987, JUMBO has grown from a single restaurant to over 35 outlets across Singapore, China, Taiwan, Japan, South Korea, and other parts of Southeast Asia, offering multiple diverse Asian dining experiences via its portfolio of eight F&B brands to thousands of local and overseas diners daily.

In the past year, the F&B sector has been among the key industries particularly affected by the pandemic, requiring businesses to review and pivot their business strategy – not only for survival, but also to build resilience and weather future challenges. To embark on its next stage of growth, JUMBO has ramped up its digitalisation efforts, with a vision to create a cross-border integrated system within the entire organisation and its key stakeholders’ ecosystem.

JUMBO implemented SAP S/4HANA, S/4HANA Retail and SAP Customer Activity Repository solutions to its business to help the company standardise data and support its business end-to-end – aiming to drive efficiency and deliver relevant insights for decision making to improve bottom line and focus on products which caters to customer preferences under the current landscape. JUMBO hopes to use the platform not only to achieve operational efficiency but also other broader business objectives, including uplifting human capital competency via the removal of paper and manual processes, in line with Singapore’s nationwide digitalisation push and the use of data in analysis and decision making, and further streamlining and coordination of workflows across different departments. 

Despite the challenging times, armed with data JUMBO has also been emboldened with the confidence to set its sight on long-term growth, which saw the group launch three new F&B outfits – a Tsui Wah outlet (Hong Kong-based cha chaan teng/local tea restaurant chain) at JEM in May 2021 and two Kok Kee Wonton Noodle stalls at The Shoppes at Marina Bay Sands and Toa Payoh HDB Hub in May and June 2021 respectively, even amidst Singapore's COVID-19 restrictions when dining-in was not allowed.

JUMBO aims to similarly expand its digitalisation efforts across its regional operations, particularly to optimise its procurement strategies and sharpen its sales and service efforts. The new system would also set a foundation and momentum for the Group to explore other cutting-edge technologies in the future. This includes Internet of Things (IoT) to improve outlets and Central Kitchen operations and leveraging Artificial Intelligence (AI) Customer Experience (CX) solutions to help create more personalised customer experiences.

“Food is very much at the heart of people across all cultures and geographies, and while JUMBO has been well-known for traditional crowd favourites like our chilli crabs and black pepper crabs, it is also crucial for us to leverage technology to remain competitive from the internal efficiency and cost perspective, and to utilise data to help us innovate and adapt to the fast-changing operating landscape and tastebuds of consumers in Singapore and across the region,” said Ang Kiam Meng, executive director and Group CEO of JUMBO.

“By tapping on digital innovations in partnership with SAP and Synnove, we have enhanced our operational capabilities and unearthed deeper insights into our business operations that has helped us conceptualise new dining experiences, concepts, and menus, which will be crucial in our future growth and internationalisation plans,” said  Ang.

“The F&B sector has been particularly weathered through the pandemic, but this has also prompted new, innovative ways for thriving in the ‘never normal’ and to invest for long-term growth,” said Eileen Chua, managing director, SAP Singapore.  

“Underpinning this evolution has been a focus on agility and resilience, which has seen F&B operators like JUMBO accelerate their digital transformation efforts to be an intelligent enterprise and implement a scalable digital core that will lay the foundation for operational excellence, a single source of truth, business analytics for real-time decision making and a platform for innovation and collaboration,” added Chua.