Malaysia Getting into the Cloud

The landscape of enterprise technology came to a ‘game-changing’ point after the introduction of cloud computing. Malaysia, similar to other nations that are empowered themselves by ICT and cloud computing, shows signs of enabling and empowering its small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to be successful and strong GDP contributors.

A promise was pledged between Microsoft Malaysia and SME Corp Malaysia – Malaysia’s central coordinating agency in charge of SMB development – in early December 2011 at the Make “IT” Work for Your Business event to embark on a landmark partnership agreement to transform Malaysian SMEs with cloud computing technology through Microsoft’s Office 365 productivity suite.

“With the tools, it will empower their business through better communication, collaboration and rich presence!” promises Ananth Lazarus, Microsoft Malaysia’s Managing Director during his welcome address. He further dedicates to help Malaysian SMEs unlock the power of the cloud, innovate their businesses and support the country’s aspirations.

“Whether it is for individuals, business or education, it is a commitment that is certainly also in line with Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Abdul Razak’s administration's commitment to bring SMEs to the fore as a major contributor to Malaysia’s GDP.”

The CEO of SME Corp Malaysia, Dato Hafsah Hashim agrees that Office 365 will benefit Malaysia SMEs to have the capacity to expand their businesses to reach beyond the local and regional shores without the need to invest heavily in IT infrastructure.

According to her, the objective of the partnership is to empower Malaysian SMEs with the applications they need to succeed globally, and build an interconnected business landscape where agile and scalable technology infrastructure is an essential key to maintaining a competitive edge.

“If Malaysian SMEs are to succeed in growing to contribute 41 percent of GDP by 2020, then it is essential that they use ICT to raise efficiencies and innovate the ways in which they work. Together, we are actively reaching out to Malaysian SMEs, to help them adopt and use one of the world’s best cloud solutions to drive both creativity and productivity in their businesses,” Hashim strongly advocates.

SME development was vital because 99.2 percent of businesses in Malaysia are SMEs. Also, SMEs employ 56 percent of the nation’s workforce and recently generated 32 percent of the national GDP.

“SMEs have to grow at about 8.5 percent annually to contribute 41 percent to the GDP by 2020,” Hashim points out.

Prime Minister Razak recently declared the government’s SME masterplan and highlighted that positive bold steps are needed to ensure the sector continue to grow in tandem with developed countries. Consequently, the event was hailed as a significant achievement and excellent example of a private-public collaboration to move forward towards achieving the government’s agenda.

With the current economic gloom in Europe, Hashim is confident that Malaysian SMEs can withstand the competition as 80 percent of them are domestic-driven. “The external market now is quite uncertain, but as long as we are able to create the right kind of opportunities for the SMEs, they would be able to withstand the race.”

Also, SME Corp is now preparing its local clients to be more efficient and productive in order to benefit greatly from free trade agreements and regional competition.

At the same event, Microsoft pledged to invest US$13 per Office 365 ‘seat’ purchased, which could see an expected investment by Microsoft of up to RM20.8 million (US$6.5 million) for the first year alone, if it is adopted by fifty thousand SMEs in the country.

“We are focusing on lowering the cost of getting to the cloud. We are looking at training and developing SMEs through our partners and ecosystem,” promises Lazarus.

The pledge is in line with the SME Corp as its initial intention is to reach at least fifty thousand SMEs to leverage the power of cloud computing through Office 365 for the first year. “I am also very pleased to note that Microsoft has committed to reinvesting up to RM20.8 million in the first year alone to help these SMEs transform their businesses through Office 365,” remarks Hashim.

The partnership will allow Malaysian SMEs to realise business and competitive advantages through using Microsoft Office 365 to create, edit, store and share their ideas and work in the cloud. Using these tools also gives an additional benefit of raising their SCORE (SME Competitiveness Rating for Enhancement) rating through improved management capabilities and technical capabilities - two of the seven criteria used to evaluate their businesses. A better SCORE rating allows these SMEs to participate in further exclusive programmes and activities organised by SME Corp as well as other government agencies.

When Microsoft first launched Office 365 in July last year, it announced the intention to embark immediately on concrete steps to collaborate with a government agency such as SME Corp to innovate businesses with cloud computing technology and to ensure that its initiative becomes a reality as quickly as possible, adds Lazarus. “It is indeed a pleasure to announce that less than six months later, we have a strong and concrete programme together with SME Corp.”

The Office 365 package offered to SME Corp’s clients combines the power of Office Web apps with enterprise-grade email, shared documents, instant messaging, video and web conferencing, transferred from Microsoft’s existing Exchange Online, SharePoint Online and Lync Online, in an always-up-to-date cloud service that is supported by Microsoft. This service comes with the advanced IT controls, innovative security technologies, 24/7 IT support and reliability customers expect from Microsoft. The price is only RM19 (US$6) per user per month.

“As a matter of fact, for less than a teh tarik (a hot Malaysian tea) a day, Office 365 allows SMEs to do what they do best – which is to drive and manage their business, while leaving their IT infrastructure management to our expertise,” affirms Lazarus.

Apart from the partnership, Microsoft will also work closely with SME Corp to conduct various training programmes as well as to provide an SME Helpdesk at SME Corp’s headquarters to assist SMEs in using its cloud applications. Additionally, Microsoft is providing the first 200 SMEs that sign up for Office 365 through SME Corp with a Quick Start Activation Package to help them apply and benefit from the technology as quickly as possible.

The recent business milieu in Malaysia – the confluence of increasing high speed broadband penetration and the encouragement and support from government – confirms that there is no better time than now for local SMEs to maximise the way they do business by embracing ICT innovation, and the simplicity and cost-effective solutions of Office 365.

“This has all brought about an opportune time for SMEs to get on board with cloud computing technology,” Lazarus says.

With Office 365, businesses of all sizes receive the best productivity and collaboration solutions on the planet for a predictable monthly cost, and their employees enjoy new ways to work together with ease, on virtually any device. “They can still use familiar application suites, like Microsoft Office, which they already know and love,” he concludes.

A training partnership with Peniagawati (Association of Bumpiputera Women Entrepreneurs and professionals of Malaysia) was also announced at the same event. Microsoft will work with Peniagawati to drive the development of ICT and cloud computing skills and knowledge to entrepreneurs through training in Office 365.

“If our partnership with SME Corp can be understood as our commitment to empowering SMEs with cutting-edge cloud computing technology, this grant takes our commitment one step further by empowering the SME workforce with the knowledge on how best to leverage such technology,” explains Lazarus.