Malaysia’s MMC Port Holdings onboards Ramco Systems for integrated ERP

April 8, 2021: The Malaysian utility and infrastructure conglomerate MMC Corporation’s logistics division, MMC Port Holdings, today signed a Memorandum of Agreement with the global software provider Ramco Systems for integrated Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) digital transformation programme.

MMC Port Holdings operate five seaports in Malaysia including the transhipment hub Port of Tanjung Pelepas.  

Ramco Systems plans to initiate the digital transformation of MMC from this month onwards while many other modules will be implemented by January or February of next year. It is expecting the whole roll out to be completed in one and a half year, the full-fledged integrations will take up to two to three years.

Virender Aggarwal, chief of executive of Ramco Systems, said, Our ERP integration could increase the competitiveness of MMC ports that handles more than half of the sea cargo volume in Malaysia. It will switch operations from paper to digital, increase customer experience, simplify procedures, inject predictability using artificial intelligence, reduce administrative efforts and provide flexibility for customers.”  

On questions about the importance of this order, Aggarwal said, “We have already implemented our ERP system in some Middle Eastern ports but this is the first most comprehensive and complete order for Ramco from the port sector. The important thing to be noted is that we have competed with much bigger computer technology companies like SAP and Oracle for this order.”

Happy to announce one of the largest #DigitalTransformation program with Malaysia's MMC Group for unifying 5 of its ports on @RamcoSystems #ERP covering #EAM #Finance #SupplyChain #Logistics, #Payroll #HR #PowerofOne #TrustRamco #AI #EnSwhttps://t.co/t5YlnkUQOm pic.twitter.com/YD79ZTP3vz

— Virender Aggarwal (@Virender_VA) April 8, 2021

While describing it as a massive undertaking and the first step towards a thousand miles, YBhg Dato’ Sri Che Khalib Mohamad Noh, managing director of MMC Corporation Berhad, said, “As ports business contributes significantly to MMC Group portfolio we perceive technology as a key differentiator in the industry. MMC Ports’ commitment to digitally transform world re-establish Malaysia as a thriving logistics hub of the world.”  

“Covid-19 has pushed many trends like e-commerce with which the demands of customers and industry stakeholders have also changed.  The ERP integration offered by Ramco Systems will improve efficiency, productivity and reliability of our operations, add value to stakeholders and save cost as well,” he said.

“The software will allow MMC to have visibility and transparency in an immediate and accurate basis which will standardise the operations towards ease of doing business by information sharing,” he added.  

Right now MMC Port Holdings use 79 different systems to deal with its ERP needs while the Ramco integration will bring this down to less than 30 systems.  “All our ports in Malaysia have different ERP systems that operate separately. Which, for instance, reduce the visibility of, say, common spare parts spread across these ports. With integration, all ports will have the visibility of spare parts or components available in each port and easily move them from one to the other as per requirements. The same can be applied to manpower and payments as well,” he said.  

To question whether the recent developments in Suez Canal has affected the Malaysian ports, Noh noted that MMC ports saw a positive impact due to the blockage which increased the need for temporary locations to store cargo.