Syndicate
) November 8, 2008 -- At Computerworld Malaysia's final Forum of the year--entitled 'Grow Big the SME Way', and held on October 30 at the Mandarin Oriental, Kuala Lumpur--the country's small and medium enterprise (SME) heads met with technology industry leaders to explore the growth opportunities from strategic IT use in today's increasingly competitive environment.
Among the concerns raised the most were rising business costs, the need for business growth to ensure survival, and the technologies or computing paradigms that could help them meet the demands on those fronts: IT skills certification, wireless networking and convergence, and information security.
More than 65 business and IT heads from Malaysia's select group of the leanest and most progressive enterprises attended the Forum to exchange ideas with officials from the Federation of Malaysian Manufacturers (Computerworld Malaysia's official event partner at the Forum), as well as key representatives from PIKOM, Small and Medium Industries Development Corporation (SMIDEC), as well as sponsors EMC, Motorola, Fortinet, Kaspersky Labs, Sony's Storage Media, and Acronis.
For Computerworld Malaysia's Deputy Editor, AvantiKumar, one message had to go through to the audience and their compatriots in the world of business. "It's important that SMEs recognise that they can no longer count on their size and relative obscurity to keep them safe and profitable, humming along quietly in one corner making a stable income," he said. "They have to know that rapid globalisation has brought their competitors from all across the world to their respective markets. And they have to learn to leverage the one, for the lack of a better word, 'equaliser'--information and communication technology--that'll bring them up to parity with their global competitors, large or small. This is where they come to do that."
SMEs CAN ACT BIG
Keynote speaker, Chairman of the Corporate Social Responsibility Committee at PIKOM, Simon Seow, kicked off the proceedings of the day by giving delegates a broad perspective on the challenges facing SMEs on the global stage and in Malaysia, cautioned against SMEs doing exactly what large enterprises do and expecting it to work every time, drew comparisons between the workings of large enterprises and SMEs, and delved into the risks, advantages and benefits of IT skills certification.
Seow was heartened that much of what he talked about was in common with the experiences of the delegates he spoke with during the event. "Unlike huge conglomerates that only see doom and gloom--or at least that's what they say--at the moment, many of the SMEs were seeing it as another part of the up-down cycles, which they ought to be careful of, and even to look for opportunities within."
The presentation by main sponsor EMC South Chief Architect, Sal Fernando, was an examination of the information overload problem that enterprises of all sizes face today, and how they can harness the power of their information infrastructures to counter such a problem and turn their data into potent tools for growing their businesses.
HELP AVAILABLE
John A. Cunningham, Director, Enterprise Wireless and RFID, Enterprise Mobility Business, Motorola Asia Pacific, then took the stage to talk about the best that technology has to offer by way of wireless connectivity for the empowerment of businesses, regardless of size, to extend their operations with a mobile workforce.
"It is important for SMEs to understand the message, that leveraging convergence and mobility solutions is not out of their reach," said Cunningham. "It is something they can definitely do within their budgets, and it is something they should do in order to stay in business".
The Deputy Director of the Financing and Monitoring Division of SMIDEC (government agency devoted to coordinating the development of SMEs in this country) Razali Hashim, delved into the ways SMEs can tap his organisation's various support programmes for the services sector in the information and communication technology space in order to get ahead and gain some measure of competitive advantage against large multinational corporations entering their markets.
"Malaysian SMEs need to take note of the additional grants and soft loans available from the government. In these times, it is doubly important for such organisations to take advantage of the support schemes that will help them stay afloat and grow on the global stage. Most companies in Malaysia in most sectors actually are SMEs and play a key part in the economy of the nation," said AvantiKumar in support.
HEAVY SECURITY MESSAGE
The rest of the event was focused primarily on information security issues. The main thrust of Fortinet's Channel Manager for Malaysia and Brunei Wilson Tham's presentation was that SMEs not only can deploy but actually need a Unified Threat Management approach to keep their business information network secure at all times.
"SMEs are most vulnerable to security breaches because unlike large enterprises, SMEs typically have a much smaller technical team and relatively fewer resources in setting up a credible security system for the company," said Tham. "Security is a key priority for SMEs because Internet threats do not discriminate by business size. This creates a clear and present danger for all companies, including SMEs, to risk being attacked by cybercriminals."
And, Kaspersky Labs Asia's Director of Channels, Southeast Asia, Gun Suk Ling, drove home the point that many organisations, and especially SMEs, typically fail to implement adequate infosecurity measures, usually end up paying for it, and should seriously be plugging whatever gaps in their infrastructures today.
For inquiries, please contact:
AvantiKumar - W: +603 7804 3692 - E: akumar@fairfaxbm.com
Teng Fang Yih - W: +65 6395 8028 - E: fyteng@fairfaxbm.com
- About Computerworld Malaysia:
Computerworld carries authoritative analysis, news and coverage on IT trends and implementations, both locally and around the globe. The magazine targets IT professionals from enterprises to SME across industry segments. They are responsible for identifying, evaluating and recommending brands and products to fit their organizations' strategic IT plans.
Check out the publication at www.mis-asia.com/magazines/computerworld_malaysia
- About Fairfax Business Media:
Fairfax Business Media Asia publishes MIS Asia, CIO Asia, Computerworld Singapore and Computerworld Malaysia magazines. It is part of Fairfax Media, Australasia's largest newspaper publisher with titles such as the Australian Financial Review, Business Review Weekly, The Sydney Morning Herald, The Melbourne Age, The Sun-Herald and The Canberra Times. Visit our online portal at www.mis-asia.com