MSC推廣生活創意

MSC MALAYSIA'S INNOVATION LIFESTYLE INITIATIVE PROMOTES COLLABORATION BETWEEN MNCs & SMEs

KUALA LUMPUR, July 13 – MSC Malaysia today announced the commencement of their Innovation Lifestyle Initiative, aimed at driving technology partnering between multinational companies and Malaysian small- and mid-sized enterprises.

The initiative kicks-off with an alliance between MSC Malaysia and British Telecom (BT) Multimedia for the MSC Malaysia – British Telecom Digital Lifestyle Programme, aimed at spurring the growth of broadband usage in Malaysia through the adoption of leading-edge, broadband-based products and services.

The programme is a probably the first of its kind in Malaysia, and sees BT working in collaboration with Malaysian ICT-based small and mid-sized enterprises to conceptualise, create and develop new broadband-based products and services, aimed at generating generate new-waves of revenue.

While more developed markets were nearing the point of saturation in their broadband growth cycle, the adoption of basic broadband access was still in its infancy in emerging markets, said Dr. Kamaljit Singh, chief executive officer of BT Multimedia Malaysia.

“In the developed markets, service providers are focused on deploying bandwidth-intensive applications that take advantage of the faster available speeds. Thus, we can learn from these experiences to help emerging markets particularly Malaysia where the broadband usage is growing exponentially, to ensure continued demand for such services as well products,” he added.

Present at the launch event to announce the programme was Dato’ Badlisham Ghazali, chief executive officer of MSC Malaysia, who joined Dr. Kamaljit Singh, Tengku Farith Rithaudeen, the chief executive officer of SKALI, and Hasanuddin Saidin, PIKOM Councilor to head a panel discussion themed “Digital lifestyle: The way forward”.
Through the MSC Malaysia – British Telecom Digital Lifestyle Programme, BT Multimedia will leverage research on future trends and user requirements conducted by of scientists and developers in the UK and the USA to conceptualise new products and services, focusing on advanced broadband and convergence areas. These will then be used to create high-value proof-of-concept prototypes of next-generation broadband-based products and services.

Malaysian ICT-based SMEs will then be invited to adopt these prototypes and further develop them the point of commercialisation. A total of 24 Prototypes will be down-streamed into the programme over the period of two years. There will also be a structured technology transfer programme put in place to enable the rapid familiarization of these prototypes within a short duration.

Speaking at the panel discussion, Dato’ Badlisham said that one of the key issues MSC Malaysia companies and other Malaysian ICT-based SMEs today face was their inability or non-readiness to rapidly go to market.

“It is both difficult and costly for our companies to conduct market and industry research to identify future trends. It is also time consuming and expensive for the companies to engage in exploratory research and development to break new ground,” he said.

“With the MSC Malaysia – British Telecom Digital Lifestyle Programme, our SMEs can go to market relatively easier and quicker. This is yet another MSC Malaysia initiative to catalyze innovation and grow the ICT industry in Malaysia,” he added.

Proof-of-concept prototypes unveiled
Three broadband-based proof-of-concept prototypes were introduced at the launch event, namely Community Calendar, a network enabled converged calendar that allows communities to organise their activities; MyFrame, a digital photo frame that also delivers events, time, data, weather information, and personalised news that is read out; and Zeta a live network entertainment platform for social outlets that is equipped with a digital jukebox, enabling live messaging, news feeds and personalised advertising, among other things.

Dr. Kamaljit noted that in today’s ICT industry, success depended on intensive collaboration – where companies could no longer just sit in their own labs and develop innovative products and services on their own.

“BT uses an ‘open innovation’ model, where new products and services are created together with other companies and industry players,” he said.

“This is a good model as it allows BT to focus on ‘up-stream research and development’ and channel the output to SMEs who can then create commercial products and services from it. We are proud that this initiative and our partnership with MSC Malaysia, which we believe will enable Malaysian ICT SMEs to profit from the ongoing broadband revolution” he added.