may-june. 2020 | @Halal
Innovation
09
BY Camilia rezali
IT has been more than three months since
the movement Control Order (mCO) was
imposed amid the Covid-19 pandemic,
resulting in businesses being severely
affected.
The future of many companies remains
uncertain as changes in consumer behaviour
and routes to potential markets knocked
them off balance. many people have also lost
their jobs and sources of income.
While some companies decided to close
shop, others saw the opportunity to move
into different business lines which are
flourishing as a result of the pandemic. The
food delivery business is one that has seen
increased demand.
For listed Serba dinamik holdings Berhad,
the timing was apt as its IT staff was already
working on a halal food delivery application.
The result was the introduction of halal2Go
through its wholly-owned subsidiary Serba
dinamik IT Solution Sdn Bhd (SdIT).
The application was launched on may 19,
2020. The response had been excellent, and
the company was targeting to secure 100
local restaurants or online food businesses
by the end of 2020 and hoped to add another
150 restaurants or online food businesses
next year.
Serba dinamik Group managing director
and CEO Dato’ Mohd Abdul Karim Abdullah
said halal2Go was also tapping into the 7.7
billion global market population.
“There are seven countries which are looking
forward to it at this moment.”
They are australia, Japan, Singapore,
Indonesia, India, the UAE and the United
Kingdom (London).
as Serba dinamik was a newcomer to the
Halal2Go’s global
ambition
The unique food delivery application by Serba Dinamik aims to fulfil local
and international demand in the halal food delivery industry
food delivery industry, it could adhere to
what the pioneers such as Grab Food, Food
Panda and Uber Eats have pathed for food
delivery business applications.
But what is the distinction between
halal2Go and the other food delivery
applications?
“For one, halal2Go adopts the fundamental
concept of halalan toyyiban. We may
already understand the meaning of ‘halal’,
but with toyyiban, the language definition
is traditionally translated as pure, good and
wholesome.”
tHe cleanliness oF tHe Food
The concept is to assure customers about the
cleanliness of the food as per the standard
practices in Islam. It is also to ensure that the
food is prepared under the best health advice
rolled out based on scientific research.
Mohd Karim said: “We are not saying the
rest of the food delivery companies are not
complying. What we are saying is that we
have a more stringent process to ensure this
is monitored and supervised, so it complies
with the halal requirements.”
The development of halal2Go was one
of the company’s initiatives to embrace
the Industrial Revolution 4.0 through the
digitalisation of the halal industry. But more
importantly, halal2Go aimed at supporting
micro-SMEs and provide individuals with the
opportunity to earn extra income.
“halal2Go is playing a role to help encourage
the gig economy. If a person is looking for
additional income, he or she can register and
do deliveries for halal2Go.
“We want to help the micro, small and
medium entrepreneurs. The micro SMEs are
those the Prime minister refers to such as
Makcik Kiah. This community needs to make
a living. Because of Covid-19, they have lost a
lot of income,” said Mohd Karim.
To further strengthen the opportunities
for entrepreneurs, especially people like
Makcik Kiah in promoting their business,
SdIT teamed up with non-governmental
organisations, including the malaysian
Bumiputera Women Entrepreneurs’ Association
(Usahanita) and majlis Perundingan
melayu (mPm).
halal2Go will thus reach out to the smaller
entrepreneurs who are usually ignored by the
more prominent food delivery players.
eXpansion abroad
Elaborating on Halal2Go’s expansion abroad,
Mohd Karim said Australia and Japan were
actively requesting for halal food delivery
service providers. Japan especially is a highly
developed country, and it has a significant
need to address the issue of the availability
of halal food.
Serba dinamik is an international energy
services group which provides integrated
engineering solutions to the oil & gas,
petrochemical, power generation, water &
wastewater and utility industries.
Its main business is in operations and
maintenance (O&m), engineering, procurement,
construction and commissioning
(EPCC), IT solutions and education & training.
The company is already in 24 countries.
Looking at how swiftly it operates and combined
with its global ambitions, tapping into
the 7.7 billion global market population is not
an impossible task for halal2Go.
he said: “Japan meets the halalan toyyiban
element of it but not the ‘halal’ component
of it. They were pushing very hard for a
halal-provider to come into Japan and start
the activities before the Tokyo Olympics 2020
which has since been postponed.”
as for Qatar in which Serba dinamik is
in, he said it would not be a priority to offer
halal2Go as there was no strong demand as
most of the food there was already halal.
as for the expansion of halal2Go in malaysia,
Serba dinamik has collaborated with the
malaysian Technology development Corporation
(mTdC) where an Rm6 million joint
fund was created to help start-up entities
move to the next level.
Besides offering food delivery services,
Mohd Karim sees the potential of the
halal2Go application expanding into healthcare
and dispatch services in the future.
he also said the awareness of the halal
concept within Peninsular malaysia was
solid.
“Thus, the potential is big. The market in
Sabah and Sarawak is also coming up quite
nicely, especially Sarawak.”
The Group md praised Sarawak for identifying
Tanjung manis to locate a halal food
centre. Tanjung manis has been operating
for almost 15 years to tap the growing halal
food industry.
however, more needed to be done to
promote it.
”Efforts are on-going to rejuvenate it and
put in the necessary investment because
some of the facilities need to be upgraded
to meet the expectations of investors,” he
said.