NI-Limits Blog

Having been longer than a month since we last updated you regarding Malaysian Technology news, we thought it suitable to present a highlight of eye-catching headlines. TechCentral reports on 7eleven spending RM 7 Million on upgrading their LCD display units:

Interactive media company United Global Technologies (UGT) is rolling out its new multi-content media platform to 7-Eleven convenience stores nationwide. The screening device will show video, text and flash animation simultaneously on a 32in wide LCD monitor. UGT marketing director Keith Wong said the advertisements are uploaded from the company’s headquarters in Petaling Jaya to a data-centre in Cyberjaya before being broadcast to the 7-Eleven outlets via broadband.

In another TechCentral article, we discover that five Malaysian outsourcing companies have managed to find themselves on the world’s Top 100 information technology providers list:

They are Kompakar Inc Bhd, Scicom Bhd, EA Consulting Asia-Pacific Sdn Bhd, Teledirect Sdn Bhd and Vantage Point Consulting Sdn Bhd.

These companies have been recognised by Global Services 100 (GS100) which has helped put Malaysia on the SSO (shared services outsourcing) map, according to Outsourcing Malaysia chairman David Wong. Outsourcing Malaysia (OM) is a special interest group within the Association of the Computer and Multimedia Industry of Malaysia (Pikom). Wong, who is also Pikom chairman, said the country now ranks third in the global SSO industry, behind powerhouses India and China. “Now that our companies are on the GS100 list, the world knows that Malaysia is capable of competing in the SSO international market,” he said.

Perhaps these five companies would like a new website to go with their new award…? They certainly deserve it, especially Teledirect Sdn Bhd, which does not have a local Malaysian website anymore, as it automatically re-directs users to their Singapore website instead.

Perhaps they could also benefit from this next TechCentral story that introduces QubeConnect Sdn Bhd, an emerging telephony company that is introducing the QubeTalk Enterprise Communications Server (ECS).

The product is a call control system that is targeted at medium and small-sized enterprises. It is claimed to be a cost-effective all-in-one turnkey communications solution that seamlessly unifies voice, data and video on a single IP network.

Built on open-standards architecture, QubeTalk ECS is a scalable alternative for expensive and proprietary PBX systems, said the vendor. “Businesses need a communications system that is affordable, flexible and reliable. QubeConnect has created a solution that combines the reliability of the traditional PBX with the advantages of today’s new technologies,” said Sin Hock Kian, chief executive officer of QubeConnect. He claimed that organisations that adopt QubeTalk ECS solutions can realise up to 50% savings in communication costs within three months from deployment.

In other TechCentral news, we also learn about the growing pains of Pikom and Malaysia’s lack of venture-capital:

“Malaysia is not so interesting for VCs,” said David Wong, Pikom chairman. According to him, the India and China ICT (information and communications technology) industries are projected to grow by 30% this year, compared to the 10% predicted for Malaysia. Also, Wong said, the VCs are less attracted to Malaysian startups because these companies are too “local-centric.” He believes that local technopreneuers need to prove that they have the motivation to compete in the international arena, in order to attract VCs.

The Technopreneurs Association of Malaysia (Team) feels that there needs to be more success stories among Malaysian startups or VCs may continue to bypass the country. Chris Chan, Team advisor, said: “We only have a few standout VC-funded companies, like Jobstreet Bhd and Redtone Bhd. We need to push for more of this kind of successes (to draw the attention of VCs).” Jobstreet is an Internet recruitment site which kicked off in 1995 while Redtone (which began operations in 1996) provides telecommunications services and products, as well as office communications solutions.

Perhaps the most interesting of all the recent TechCentral articles was their follow-up on Malaysia’s grid-computing system, which with several thousand computers in the main cluster of Mimos Bhd’s Technology Park has just been linked to a European Union supported grid called the Enabling Grids for E-SciencE (EGEE):

Researchers in this country will also now be able to collaborate more efficiently and easily with their counterparts in those foreign countries, thanks to the larger computing grid. KnowledgeGrid, added Mimos, can also cater to more users and projects. According to Mimos, KnowledgeGrid went through a three-month vetting process with EGEE to assess its performance and security qualities recently. “It had to meet several requirements, such as data fidelity, before it got the green light to join the European network,” said Ng Kwang Ming, Mimos senior manager for grid computing. “It also had to achieve assessment algorithms precisely,” he added.

Last nut not least, and certainly not specifically technological in nature, but Syed posted an interesting story regarding The Freeze Craze in KL:

Please do check-out his full article for more on this crazy story…

When international news sites pick-up on our Malaysian elections, whilst focusing on the technology influencing them, and business meetings are canceled due to road blocks and the general belief of pending pandemonium, that’s when we figured it was time to give you all an official update.

Yahoo News announced that a barely literate 89 year old grandmother was running for parliament yesterday:

CLICK HERE FOR HER YOUTUBE PROFILE PAGE

The woman, the oldest election candidate in Malaysia and quite possibly in the world, is waging an uphill battle to wrest a seat in the country’s northeast from the ruling coalition.

“This is very tiring,” Maimun Yusuf told Reuters during a break in her campaign for the 83,000-strong constituency of Kuala Terengganu, capital of oil-rich Terengganu state. “I have been going non-stop since nomination day but a lot of people are helping me out, so I’m not pulling out,” said the woman, a textile trader with seven grandchildren and 19 great-grandchildren.

Maimun, who gets around on an old bicycle, surprised her town-folk when she turned up to register on February 24 as an independent candidate in a three-cornered race. Most of them, like her, are Muslim Malays. With little money and resources, Maimun is relying on some 24 volunteers and the Internet to get her message across.

She even holds a Picasa Photo Album and a Facebook Group!

In similar news that was brought up back in February of this year from Read Write Web, they dive into the issue in a more generalized way:

The bloggers, Jeff Ooi, Tony Pua, and Badrul Hisham Shahari are all running on tickets in opposition to the ruling party that his been in power for about fifty years. According to Reuters, the three are hoping that popularity on the Internet will translate into support at the polls.

As we’ve seen in the US, going from Internet popularity to votes cast is a tall order to fill, and in Malaysia especially, the bloggers-turned-candidates will face a tough uphill climb to get elected. Only about on fifth of Malays have access to the Internet, yet about 42% of the country’s 26 million people are registered to vote. Because getting press attention outside of the Malaysian blogosphere is nearly impossible for these candidates, making an impression on voters will be difficult.

In other non-election related Malaysian Technology news, TechCentral reports that over 12,000 new members joined the upgraded eBay.com.my domain in the first 30 days of its launch last November:

“The surge of new registrations on eBay.com.my is encouraging as it indicates that Malaysians recognize this potential and are becoming more comfortable with trading online,” eBay vice-president Dan Neary said in a statement. Recognizing that trust is a major issue in trading online, eBay also recently collaborated with MOL AccessPortal to launch MOL SafePay in Malaysia. MOL SafePay is a secure payment solution that facilitates person-to-person fund transfer securely on eBay.com.my, enabling safe online purchases and sales to be carried out.

Substantiating this belief in online-trading confidence, The Star also reports that Maxis have taken things one step-further by introducing mobile-phone payment services:

Maxis Communications Bhd has concluded its three-month Near Field Communication (NFC) pilot – a test of one technology that enables such electronic payments. It said it would launch its commercial service in the second half of the year. NFC technology leverages on a short-range wireless connectivity standard that is now embedded in certain handsets that enable users to turn their phones into electronic wallets.

For the pilot, participants were provided with the Nokia 6131 handset – the only commercial model in the world embedded with NFC technology at the time. More brands are expected to offer NFC-enabled models as electronic payment services start to gain popularity. Maxis said the participants used the phone to make payments at stores having the Visa payWave reader, as well as Touch n’ Go terminals in LRT stations, RapidKL buses, highway toll plazas and selected car-parks during the trial.

The future of Malaysian looks healthy, especially within the IT industry. Just recently, TechCentral reported that the Cradle Investment Programme plans to disburse RM 30,000,000 by the end of the year:

It said the funds would go to budding innovators and aspiring entrepreneurs in the country. Nazrin Hassan, chief executive officer of Cradle, said that since its inception in 2003, it had disbursed a total of RM12mil to some 241 entrepreneurs. Cradle is Malaysia’s first pre-seed funding programme, assisting individuals in getting their original technology ideas off the ground.

These IT Malaysian Venture Capitalists offer up-to RM 50,000 for the development of prototype, proof of concept or business plan. It makes the idea more valuable to the VC and later stage funding…

Tan Sri Abdul Halim Ali (MDeC Chairman) has as high hopes for the exportation of Malaysian internet-enabled technologies as we do, as seen in an article recently published by The Star:

He said it would be hard to put a definite time frame to achieving such a goal but companies should “try to do it,” by the year 2020.

Exports of MSC Malaysia companies reached RM3.2bil in 2006 — double what it was in 2004 — and Abdul Halim expects this to improve further. MDeC is caretaker of the MSC Malaysia initiative. “We are making good progress. We expect this figure to have grown further in 2007 but I do not want to speculate by how much at this time; we will announce the figure sometime in the middle of this year,” he said.

MSC Malaysia members stand to get up to a 50% reduction in certification costs under the MSC Malaysia Capability Development Programme (MSC CDP). MSC CDP also offers additional benefits, such as monthly dialogues, seminars, clinics and workshops. Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI) certification is one of the many offered under the programme. Since MSC CDP started in 2004, more than 600 MSC Malaysia companies have benefited from the programme and have earned various certifications.