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…