MakeITwork to air on NTV7

by Rachel Chan

MakeITwork, a ten episode reality TV programme aimed at enhancing the competitive edge of Malaysian small and medium enterprises (SMEs) through the use of technology, premiers tonight on NTV7.

The programme features ten recent business makeover projects, where local SMEs are provided funds to install IT facilities. It also features consultation on how to implement the IT solutions.

It is a collaborative project by Microsoft, HP and DiGi, and supported by various Government agencies including Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI) and SME Corporation Malaysia.

At the launch, Yasmin Mahmood, Managing Director of Microsoft Malaysia, said that Microsoft is “embarking on this programme with their heart and soul. It’s in our DNA, Bill Gates has that ingrained.” She was also talking about the fact that Microsoft stresses nation-building as a Key Performance Index. “Our motto – ‘Realising your potential’, in this context of developing SMEs, comprises the full potential of a nation”.

Speaking about meeting with the SME entrepreneurs, Yasmin mentioned: “We really ‘turun padang’ (met face to face) with the SMEs, to understand their issues, why they’re not adopting IT as much as we think they should.”

“There is enthusiasm among them to adopt IT technologies, but they think it is too complex.” Yasmin added. She explained that the programme will guide them on how to implement these solutions, and that these are all Made in Malaysia total solutions.

The series was launched by Deputy Minister of International Trade and Industry, Dato’ Mukhriz Mahathir.

Dato’ Mukhriz said that MakeITwork reemphasized the Malaysian Government’s national objective in driving Malaysian SMEs to greater heights. “The development of ICT SMEs in the country is regarded as one of the key drivers for the growth of our economy in the digital era,” he said. “It is crucial for the MSC Malaysia, which is in its second phase, covering 2006 to 2010, to develop local technopreneurs with innovative and cutting-edge technologies, to position Malaysia as a developed nation by 2020.”

“SMEs represent 99.2 percent of the total business establishments in Malaysia,” added Dato’ Mukhriz. “You may be interested to know that the government has provided for an allocation of RM 350 million, for soft loans and capacity establishment programmes, as well as RM 538 million for SME development programmes as announced by the Right Honourable Prime Minister in his Budget 2010 speech.”

Meanwhile, TF Chong, Managing Director of HP Malaysia, said that SME owners invest a tremendous amount of time, money and resources to make their ventures successful. “Among all the competing priorities, understanding how Information Technology may be able to improve the business and impact the bottom line can be a challenge.”

“MakeITwork is totally in tune with HP’s own philosophy of making technology work for business – simple, straightforward answers for today’s needs and to seize growth opportunities as the economy rebounds.

DiGi’s Head of Products and Segment Marketing, Albern Murty, added:  “Through this collaborative venture, we hope to show how easy it is for the industry to adopt new ICT solutions and services that can help them become strong players in the local and international scene.” said Albern.

MakeITwork is produced by UberFusion. The 10-part series is hosted by the duo, Hani and Han, and airs every Wednesday at 7:30 pm on NTV7. Case studies and a synopsis of each episode can be downloaded at www.makeITwork.com.my.

Photo credits: Rachel Chan

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CASE STUDIES

Services Sector: Centrionics Sdn Bhd

Centrionics is a supplier of process and analytical instruments. Incorporated in 2004, the company provides testing solutions for water, gaseous and mercury analysis to various sectors such as the petrochemical, semiconductor, pharmaceutical and power utility industry across the country and the Asian region.

Problem:

Due to the nature of business, its employees are required to access technical and commercial information deemed confidential. Without secure remote accessibility to such information, sales personnel were required to return to the office for simple, yet important tasks like generating quotations or just providing technical documentation for clients.

From a business standpoint, the delay in responding to clients opened up the possibility of loss in sales e.g. competitor entry or change in business conditions. It was therefore essential for the company to find a way to get around this delay.

Solution:

Addressing the problem, Centronics evaluated several options and eventually settled on an all-in-one server solution called Small Business Server (SBS). Using the RemoteApp application found in SBS, users are able to access and run applications remotely and securely as if sitting in front of their company PCs while on the road.

Conclusion:

According to Operations Manager SC Woon, he estimates savings of up to 70% in travelling costs. More importantly for the business, it gives Centrionics a competitive edge in being able to respond to customers more promptly and effectively.

IT Services: Rentwise

Rentwise provides IT-based equipment rental and asset management services. It is one of the fastest growing companies in its sector and serves up servers, desktops and notebooks to corporate customers.

Problem:

The company faced several issues that adversely impacted their business. To begin with Rentwise was facing problems with slow email. Outgoing and incoming mail was sometimes slow resulting in delayed communications. For a service-based company this severely impaired the company’s ability to respond promptly to customer.

Unsurprisingly, IT administrators found it difficult to manage the company’s growing network infrastructure which made regular tasks like keeping the network patched and up-to-date a tedious process. As a result, the corporate network was regularly exposed to the risk of being infected by computer virus and attacks by malicious software, further complicating the situation.

To further compound the situation, the corporate network faced constant congestion due to the unregulated use of the Internet by some employees. Without proper network management tools, short of restricting access to the Internet, the corporate network was at the mercy of its employees.

Solution:

Weighing its options, Rentwise decided to deploy the Essential Business Server. The all-in-one server application enabled Rentwise to move their email servers back in-house, giving administrators the freedom to troubleshoot and fix any problems on the spot.

The Essential Business Server also features network management tools to ensure that machines easily patched and remain up-to-date. With the increased ability to monitor and control the usage of the internet on the company network, congestion was more easily dealt with.

Conclusion:

As a result of this exercise, Rentwise experienced savings of up to 25% in operating costs. More importantly, the new system allowed the staff to be more responsive to the needs of its customers and keeps Rentwise firmly on the path to greater success.

Food & Beverage: I Love Yoo!

I Love Yoo! is a relatively new F&B franchise that serves up Yootiao (fried dough) and other traditional Chinese snacks with outlets in The Gardens, Midvalley City and Pavilion KL. The chain has plans to expand outside of Klang Valley with outlets planned for Penang, Johor Baru and Singapore.

Problem:

Typical of such successful snack-based stores, the pace of business is brisk during peak hours. Compounding the situation was the use of traditional cash registers which made it difficult for staff to cope. Employees were required to memorize short codes in order to access functions on the cash register, which in turn resulted in mix-ups at the kitchen level. Invariably, some customers ended up with wrong orders or unnecessarily long delays.

I Love Yoo! outlets also faced instances of pilferage with items such as foodstuff and cash going missing from time to time. Staff had to be recruited and trained on a far too regular basis because of the high turnover.

From a management standpoint, the store manager also needed help to streamline inventory handling and indentified reporting as a key feature needed by the outlet in its daily operations.

Solution:

The management elected for a highly scalable point of sales (POS) system to replace the traditional cash register. The POS’ intuitive touch screen interface helped reduce waiting times and allowed orders to be taken and completed with ease and minimal mistakes.

Staff training took just 20 minutes in some cases without the need for employees to memorize various short codes. The software also tracks transactions and inventory automatically in the process giving management better visibility and control over its resources.

Addressing the problems with pilferage, the system employs the use of staff identification swipe cards to match each transaction. To top it off, deployment took just half a day.

Conclusion:

Store Operations and Marketing Manager, Tang Eng Swee, was pleased to report a 20% increase in sales after just one month post implementation of the new system. Money shortage and pilferage was greatly reduced making this solution well worth the investment.

Property Management: Pharma Excel

Based in bustling Petaling Jaya, Pharma Excel is the property management arm of Andaman property development and exists to provide after-sales service for properties developed by the group.

Problem:

The management of a multi-dwelling unit is no small task due to the number of residents and the varied type of transactions that may occur on a day-to-day basis. In the case of Pharma Excel, this problem was compounded by the number of properties under their care. To assist in the daily business operations, Pharma Excel needed a solution that could help its employees systematically track and manage historical documents for each unit under its watch.

Traditionally, property management companies rely on paper documentation to record every transaction. As the files grow in number, a systematic archiving system is required to ensure that files are easily accessible. In practice, this is not always the case. While ordinary tasks like service fee collection was fairly straight forward, irregular transactions like disputes, complaints or even change of ownership, required proper paper trail. These problems are compounded further when files go missing or when new employees were assigned to old problems.

Pharma Excel also wanted a system that would help centralise feedback from all their developments to ensure business continuity.

Solution:

Pharma Excel chose to deploy a document management solution called Core DM which was developed on a business collaboration engine known as Sharepoint Services. By going digital with Core DM, Pharma Excel managed to cut down their reliance on physical filing and at the same time, centralise all their billing & customer information. New staff also found the system to be very useful as the software tracked documents automatically and gave users systematic access to historical data which helped them easily locate information left behind by their predecessors.

Conclusion:

Core DM was deployed within a week and it only took 5 days to unify Pharma Excel’s billing, data and email system under one platform. With the help of Core DM, Pharma Excel’s productivity went up by 20% which gave the company the chance to better utilize resources into areas that really mattered.

Hardware Store: My Colours

The corner lot hardware store is distinct as much for its colourful exterior as it is for the size of its inventory. With over 10,000 stock items, family-run My Colours today is a well oiled operation.

Problem:

As the introduction suggests, it is not an easy task for an SME to handle well over 10,000 stock items. Traditionally, the store utilized a manual tracking system. As the business grew and stock turnover rose, managing inventory became an issue. To compensate, the store took to over-ordering because like every good SME, the customer always came first. Despite this, locating stock items could sometimes deteriorate into a chore especially when staff did not adhere to the physical control system.

The organic growth of the business was also impeded. Sensitive matters like pricing was over-dependent on the proprietor giving him little or no time for a holiday, much less grow the business.

Solution:

My Colours opted for a point-of-sale system designed for the retail sector. The system utilized a touch screen monitor and allowed the store to implement a barcode system that facilitated easier data capture especially at the point of sale. By computerizing the stock inventory, the business can easily be system driven, thus freeing the proprietors from the mundane tasks and allowing them to grow the business more freely.

Conclusion:

Store owner Desmond Tan was happy to report that since implementation of the system he had 30% more time to focus on the business development aspect of the business. This in turn shortened the turnaround time for starting up new outlets by half, allowing My Colours to respond swiftly and decisively when opportunity came their way. With the new system, there was now 100% visibility of all inventory thereby reducing costs related to over-ordering, holding space or missed sales.

Healthcare: Klinik Pakar Puchong

Healthcare may well be one of the world’s oldest professions, but the good doctors at Klinik Pakar Puchong seem comfortable enough changing with the times. Located in the vast Puchong suburb, this is a specialist clinic with several attending physicians.

Problem:

This problem is neither new nor alien to us – patient cards. Each trip to the doctor needs to be recorded and after a while, the cards add up. Maintenance of these cards can only get more complicated over time. At times, locating these cards can be difficult especially if cards are misplaced after use.

The doctor often requires historical data to better diagnose a patient, and poorly handled cards e.g. illegible handwriting, means that such information may not be readily available or easily visible. This could have a detrimental effect on the quality of consultation which is something all parties hope to avoid.

As if being sick is not enough, facing a long wait to see the doctor can be a frustrating experience, especially if the queue handling process is uncertain.

Solution:

The choice was made to go with the Gloco system for clinics. Right from the word go, traditional manual tasks were easily automated. Registration now used the MyKad reader which helped identify the patient and allowed for the quick retrieval of patient records.

The problem of illegible handwriting was solved using character recognition software. The doctors could now “write” using a digital pen and the strokes would be converted into digital information to be stored on the computer.

With the new Gloco system, keeping track of patient progress and follow-up is also automated. The nurses can send SMS reminders to patients regarding checkups, appointments etc.

Patients in the waiting room could now keep track of the queue via a TV screen mounted on the wall, which also runs various programs to keep patients entertained.

Conclusion:

Without doubt, the new system aids the day-to-day operations of the clinic and ensures that critical information is available for doctors to make the right calls. The doctors are happy with the new tools afforded by the system and the nurses are able to dispense medication without fear of human error.

Note: No personal testimony from the doctors was permitted due to professional ethics rules.

Manufacturing: APEX

Office furniture manufacturer APEX is an SME on top of its game. Catering primarily for the export market, APEX has more than 20 year’s industry experience catering to the local market.

Problem:

There are 3 key aspects of the business: manufacturing, warehousing and exporting. In order to operate optimally, every transaction along the process flow needs to be captured as it happens. However, right from the receipt of raw materials to the manufacturing processes, data entry happened at the end of the day when the paper work was collated. In effect, operations had to rely on outdated information that made it difficult to reconcile basic processes like the maintenance of stock balances or simply to make payments to suppliers.

From a warehousing standpoint, the system was not able to determine lot numbers for stock. This meant that locating consignments in the warehouse was sometimes a tedious process.

During times of economic uncertainty, the prices of raw materials can sometimes be volatile. For a competitive set-up like APEX, it was necessary to have the correct financial costing to derive the price list. Without real-time information, this process became tedious and subject to errors. This resulted in delays in providing quotations to potential customers.

Lastly the legacy system was getting increasingly unreliable. System downtime was frequent and had a serious adverse impact on operations.

Solution:

APEX settled for an enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution for midsize organizations that is scalable for larger companies as well. This solution allows the company to operate on an integrated platform organisation-wide to ensure that processes are tracked real-time accurately along the entire business flow.

With access to relevant data, the finance and marketing departments are now able to operate and plan confidently with no unnecessary delays.

Conclusion:

The Finance and Administration Manager Ms Kong estimated that with the new system in place, savings in operational costs went up as high as 20-30% – which is significant for a manufacturing concern. Where previously quotations took between 2-3 days to prepare, the new system ensured that the same could now be achieved within a 2 hour window. With this in place, APEX is poised to conquer new shores!