MSC Malaysia Hard At Work With Stats To Show For IT

In 2011, MSC Malaysia performed the best it’s ever had with a total RM30 billion in revenue and 7-percent increase in jobs created. The bigger success story though, would have to be that the Information Technology (Info Tech) cluster under the MSC Malaysia umbrella was the biggest revenue and job contributor, and how.

Info Tech led the Global Outsourcing and Creative Multimedia clusters to grow 22-percent from 2010 to RM15.36 billion in 2011. Of the 7602 new jobs created, 4030 were from the Info Tech cluster as well.

 

How these new promising figures were achieved required doing things “slightly differently from how they used to be done before,” said the director for MSC Malaysia’s Info Tech cluster, Dinesh Nair.

 

Badlisham and Dinesh revealed promising stats for the Info Tech cluster along with  plans moving forward

 

If before, local MSC-status companies were left to their own devices trying to approach potential customers, a new model called ‘solution stacking’ ensures that potential customers are actually included in the design and customisation of their own solutions.  Stacks could be described as a consortium of 10 to 12 companies, each with a set of non-competitive, complementary and interoperable solutions. “We have to get them to work together from a solutions perspective and technology perspective,” said Dinesh, who also added it typically takes a period of two months to get these individual companies together with customer feedback, all on the same page.

 

For 2012, this new strategy has seen four large Malaysian organisations, Celcom, Air Asia, Faber and MARA, mentoring these local companies. This is a far cry from over a year ago, when customers would not speak with a local company for solutions. This time around, there is better understanding of customer requirements and closer collaboration with local solutions providers towards meeting those requirements.

 

The resulting solution is also more holistic and increases its chance of being accepted, when customer projects are bidded for following the usual procurement process.

 

Expanding the market

Dinesh said, “While the first four ‘customers’ or ’host companies’ have been Malaysian companies, we do not preclude approaching large MNCs as customers, …but it’s easier to approach Malaysian PLCs and GLCs because we need buy-in from the senior management. “  He also rightly pointed out that country directors of locally-based MNCs, have limited authority in terms of procurement.

 

Dinesh explained the benefits of having customers who are local like Air Asia; the heads of Air Asia’s divisions worked with solutions providers, to the extent of taking them on a walkthrough of LCCT so that problem statements are clearer.

 

Expansion plans are also afoot via channel partners in Southeast Asia countries like Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam. “These channel partners which comprise of system integrators and solution providers have existing customers and are looking for new solutions to offer; they are also local with knowledge of local culture, local business , local contacts, local relationships.

 

“What our MSC companies give them is a new range of solutions to sell to their existing customers. In return there is no need to invest in set ups to reach a new market.”

 

Badlisham Ghazali, Multimedia Development Corporation (MDeC) CEO said, “Our partners include trade associations as well, because there is no equivalent of MDeC in a lot of countries.  Our traction in these markets is through their national ICT associations (equivalent of PIKOM In Malaysia) but when you want to do deals and structure, it is either the local companies itself and/or the trade associations that want to provide value to their members.”  These channel partners are also more active in seeking out MDeC equivalents.

 

MDeC in Malaysia is a one-stop agency which could be seen as having been entrusted with the success of MSC Malaysia and its companies. Its CEO pointed out, “We don’t want just pure introductions,… sometimes we have to go to the next step which is solutions stacking, business matching and so on and so forth. “

 

Dinesh added, “As we find more partners in our region and start discussing the idea with them, we are looking to ramping up and going regional.”

 

Qualifying the companies

‘Eligible’ companies for the ‘stacking’ programme would first need to have been rated by a Score+ system that assesses 7 different areas – business performance, operation management, management capability, marketing capability, financial capabilities, innovation and talent development.

 

Through the Score+ assessment, companies could identify competencies that need to be improved upon, and opt to sign up for MDeC certification programmes .

 

Said Badlisham, “MDeC has grant programmes that could subsidise up to 100-percent of the training costs. MDeC also offers a programme for qualified companies, whereby cost of certifying their product can be equally shared.“

 

What’s next?

Information Technology’s strategic plans also have forward-looking elements in the form of cloud computing and big data. In line with preparing capabilities in these technology areas, another class of software developers are starting to emerge in MSC Malaysia’s overall scheme of things and these innovative local companies are providing the programmer logic portion for embedded systems like set-top boxes, routers and machine-to-machine devices.

 

Embedded systems potentially have the ability to churn out a lot of data and insight. For example smart power meters that could send back data every five minutes, about how electricity is being used in households.

 

Once again, MDeC has their role to play, “Of course we have to ensure that the chips guys and the board guys play ball. And the embedded hardware guys are always looking for people who can add value to their end product,” said Badlisham.

 

Five segments for embedded systems which require different ecosystem players, have already been identified, with more details about next steps and strategies, expected to be revealed in September.

 

Dinesh concluded, “The ability to mine data and analyse it, would be a big industry.”

 

 




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