From his start as a programmer analyst with the then-National Computer Board in the 1980s to his current role as Chief Information Officer of DHL Express in the Asia Pacific, Mr Jimmy Yeoh has garnered a wealth of technical knowledge, management skills and exposure to the way things are done in different cultures around the world. He has worked in UK and Czech Republic for 7 years and managed IT across Asia Pacific, Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa.

Describe the role of IT in logistics and how important it is for infocomm professionals to gain in-depth domain knowledge in the sector?
It is essential for IT professionals to build up a good understanding of customer’s business processes for specific industries. The supply chain for automotive industry is different from that of the pharmaceutical, semiconductor or mobile communications industry.

Even companies within the same industry may have different business processes and supply chains. We service many of the global companies and work with them to integrate our shipping and transportation solutions into their global and regional supply chain.

The role of IT continues to evolve over time. In the past, we used to build highly customised solutions for customers in each country. With increased globalisation, industry standards and adoption of ERPs, we are now moving to building reusable building blocks and web services that allow us to deliver customised supply chain solutions with improved time-to-market and reusability. The competencies and IT skill sets required to support our global customer have also changed over time.

DHL’s core capability is in international trade and transportation. We have built and continue to enhance our core competency as the global international trade specialist and from an IT standpoint, we help our customers enhance their capabilities by integrating DHL’s shipping and transportation services with their systems and supply chain.

What sparked off your interest in infocomm and the industry sector you are in now?
I got interested in IT while taking my undergraduate degree in civil engineering at the University of Glasgow. That was the time when Unix and personal computers were just introduced into the market and into the university curriculum. It got me interested on how IT could be leveraged to automate manual processes and improve productivity.

I contemplated switching my university degree at that time but finally decided to complete my civil engineering degree. So I did that and got my First Class Honours in Civil Engineering and went on to take a Masters in IT. I never got around to practicing civil engineering.

I joined the National Computer Board (NCB) and started off as a programmer analyst seconded to the Singapore Customs & Excise dept where I had the opportunity to participate in an Information Systems study for computerisation the Singapore Customs and Excise Dept. After that, I was assigned to the Singapore Trade Development board where I worked as project manager participating in the implementation of the nation wide EDI Trade Declaration system, Tradenet.  Later, I joined the Singapore Trade Development Board (TDB) as Manager, Trade Procedures Development to streamline Singapore trade processes and in doing so, transition manual trade declaration processing fully into an automated trade declaration system.

Describe some of the highlights of your infocomm career to date.
Working on TradeNet was one of the highlights of my career. The implementation was a big milestone for Singapore because prior to that, all imports into Singapore were processed manually. I remember the days when we had importers complaining that their fish were rotting in the docks because there were delays in getting their import declarations processed and approved.

A national project involving several government agencies such as TDB, Singapore Customs and NCB was established to develop and implement the nationwide EDI system, TradeNet. It gave me the opportunity to visit Hong Kong, Japan, Taiwan, US and Rotterdam to learn best practices in electronic trade processing and customs clearance. There was a lot of satisfaction to see a highly inefficient manual paper based import processing system transform into a fully automated highly efficient electronic import processing system that operates round the clock 365 days a year. Today, all Singapore import and exports declarations are automated and processed electronically.

After that, I joined DHL as the Country IT manager in Singapore in 1992.  DHL has operations and offices in every country in Asia Pacific and around the globe.  We had IT data centres in every single country to support our country operations, customer service and global tracking infrastructure.  In 2000, I took on a regional assignment to consolidate several country data centres into DHL’s regional data centre in Cyberjaya, Malaysia. This was the start of the transformation of DHL to consolidate all country IT data centres into two global data centres – one in Cyberjaya, Kuala Lumpur and another in Prague, the Czech Republic.

I worked in London for two years in 2002 and spent another five years in the Prague global data centre managing IT in Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EEMEA) – as Regional Chief Information Officer (CIO) for EEMEA.

What is your current role at DHL?
As Chief Information Officer of DHL Express in the Asia Pacific, I am a member of the DHL’s global IT executive committee managing our IT programs, services and infrastructure across the globe

Our IT network which spans 200+ countries and IT platforms support operations across the globe for our employees and customers. Customers  use our systems to track their orders and packages globally. Tens of thousands of our employees and customers are using systems running out of our two global centres. We need make sure that the systems we develop can support our customers wherever they are – whether it is in New York, Paris, Shanghai, Singapore or Kabul.

We are constantly evaluating new technologies to innovate and build new capabilities. Our business is very much dependent on technology, whether billing or answering customer queries on packages or scheduling for couriers to do pick-ups. We have to make sure that both our IT applications and infrastructure can support our customers’ changing needs.

What are the main challenges you face in your role?
For DHL similar to many other global organisations, a major challenge is how we implement and maintain global processes consistently in all markets.  Take the example of McDonalds. How do you make sure that a Big Mac in Singapore sold over the counter, looks and tastes the same as the one you have in Manila or Paris? The processes, the ingredients, the systems must be the replicated wherever you go. The key is to provide scalability and resilience and standardisation across the globe, over 200 countries.

From an IT standpoint, having global centres with standardised systems and IT processes  to support our operations makes this an essential element of our service delivery to all markets. Training of IT personnel on business processes and IT across the globe also poses its challenges.

What are the important skillsets required for your role?
The role of the CIO is also evolving. In the past, the technical and program management skills was essential to support strong service delivery and operational efficiencies.

In the new world of globalisation, virtualisation and cloud computing, we are increasing outsourcing non-core activities and in turn managing third party suppliers.  Change management, service management and contract management are competencies which IT leaders need to be adept in.  The new age CIO needs to speak the “language of the business” and be able to add value for the internal and external customers.