Prasarana promotes Juliana Abu Bakar to lead big data unit

Prasarana has promoted Juliana Abu Bakar to the role of SVP, big data and analytics. She was previously SVP, payment and ticketing for close to two years. The big data and analytics team is part of Prasarana's digital and technology department.

Prior to Prasarana, Juliana was with Touch 'n Go as head of digital wallet for more than four years and also worked at Digi, Celcom Axiata, and Telekom Malaysia in managerial roles. A+M understands that over the last two years, Prasarana has been expanding the big data and analytics team's scope in line with one of its four business thrusts - digitalisation. It is also understood that the thrust encompasses not just its operations as well as maintenance, repair and overhaul, but also includes among others, marketing, strategy and planning, and risk management.

Separately, deputy chief communication and marketing officer Rafizah Amran told A+M that the pandemic has accelerated its adoption of technology and digitalisation initiatives. According to her, the big data and analytics team assists Prasarana in deriving and analysing market intelligence and consumer behaviour to help it offer passengers products and services that fit their needs and lifestyle.

Last December, Prasarana released its purpose-built journey planner called Pulse by Prasarana which allows passengers to get real-time updates of the services and track the location of its buses. The planner aims to fulfill its promise of handing over the power to plan back into the hands of its passengers so that they could be in charge of their time, Rafizah explained. While it only covers our services in Klang Valley at the moment, it will be expanded to cover Penang and Kuantan by the third quarter of this year.

Meanwhile, it also plans to release a rewards app by the end of the second quarter, as part of Pulse by Prasarana. This is to encourage passengers to purchase the My30 unlimited pass. My30 is a special, subsidised pass for Malaysian citizens as part of the Government of Malaysia’s PENJANA initiative to ease economic hardship brought upon by the COVID-19 pandemic. "Eventually, we will expand this into a loyalty program, as part of our marketing automation blueprint," Rafizah said.

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