Best Outsourcing Icons recognised at APOS 2013

KUALA LUMPUR, 28 October 2013 –The outsourcing industry in the region came together to deliberate and discuss industry issues, opportunities and models in Iskandar, Malaysia where IAOP Asia-Pacific Outsourcing Summit was held in partnership with Outsourcing Malaysia, an initiative under PIKOM.

The key highlight of the Summit was the induction of Raman Roy, Group Managing Director, Quatrro Global Services into the “Outsourcing Hall of Fame”, the most prestigious award available to individuals working in the field of outsourcing. It is unique in that it recognizes these individuals not only for their contributions to the management practice and industry of outsourcing, but also for their contributions to society at-large. Inductees have demonstrated that unique quality of leadership that enables them to synthesize a new business model with the obligation to contribute to community-based economic development, support socially-directed investments, educate and provide development opportunities to all those impacted by our work.

VADS Berhad wins Business Process Operations (BPO) Project of the year at the Outsourcing Malaysia Excellence Awards.

Michael Corbett, Chairman of the International Association of Outsourcing Professionals briefed delegates on the achievements of Raman Roy, and the extensive impact – both commercial, and socio-economic – that Raman made possible during his long and illustrious career spanning three decades. He further observed that induction into the Outsourcing Hall of Fame is a recognition and acknowledgment of Raman’s unparalleled contributions to the global sourcing industry.

IBM Malaysia wins the Information Technology Operations (ITO) Project of the year at the Outsourcing Malaysia Excellence Awards.

Another significant milestone was the Outsourcing Malaysia Excellence Awards instituted by OM to recognize and reward competencies in the field of outsourcing across a variety of corporate categories, including one individual category. Structured, managed and administered by Matryzel Consulting Inc the awards process comprised rigorous assessment, supported by independent judgment by renowned leaders from various parts of the world.  Winners in the various categories are as follows:

• VADS Berhad, for the top Business Process Operations (BPO) Project of the year.
• IBM Malaysia, for the Information Technology Operations (ITO) Project of the year
• HSBC EDPM, for the Best Shared Services Operation
• Freenet Business Solutions Sdn Bhd, for the best Datacentre Project award

In addition, as a key emphasis on celebrating success, and recognizing leadership in the field of outsourcing as it relates to Malaysia, Voon Seng Chuan,  Ex-CEO of IBM was named the ‘Outsourcing Leader of the Year’ for his contributions to the overall growth and development of the industry in Malaysia. His contributions to the nation in enabling the government in its strategic initiatives at creating and leveraging technologies was recognized as a primary contributor to his winning the award.

Meanwhile David Wong, Chairman of Outsourcing Malaysia (OM) and the Group CEO of SnT Global Group said, “Each year deserving companies that have showcased excellence in the way they do business, or create valuable service for the betterment of their customers’ business, are duly recognised by OM. The OM Excellence Awards 2013 saw a tough contest as there were numerous applications that scored close in each award criteria requirement, but the final winners are definitely the best in their field for this year. Our heartiest congratulations to each of them!”

APOS 2013 Summary
From October 21 – 23, IAOP, in strategic partnership with OM hosted 300 delegates from 13 countries for the APOS 2013 summit at Iskandar, Johor which was organised under the theme Creating Sustained Value for Regional Integration

The summit brought together the worlds top outsourcing practitioners and business leaders who shared valuable insights into their businesses and the industry over various forums, talks and networking sessions.

The Summit saw renowned speakers from various organizations regionally and globally coming together and enabling thought leadership. Keynotes were presented by global leaders like Anoop Sagoo (BPO Lead, Accenture AP), Scott Singer (Group CIO, Rio Tinto), Michael Corbett (Chairman, IAOP), Zulfiqar Zainuddin (MD, i2M), Andrew Walker (Director, ISG-One), David Brown (Partner, KPMG), Raman Roy (Group MD, Quatrro), Arun Jethmalani (MD, Valuenotes), Dhiraj Dolwani (B2R) and Gowrishankar (Lead, Intel). There were some very interesting and rigorous panel deliberations undertaken by leaders from Mastercard, Matryzel, CIMB Bank, Microsoft, Frost & Sullivan, PwC, MDCA, Nityo Infotech, HIMS, SiTF, Sutherland Global, VADS, IBPAP, MDeC, Spansion, Tata Buss Support, Nasscom Foundation, Digital Divide Data and Outsourcing Malaysia.

Debi Hamill, CEO, IAOP observed that, “The principal purpose of structuring the Asia Pacific Outsourcing Summit is premised on IAOP’s emphasis on being a standard-setting organization. The Summit is one among many vehicles to institute a greater understanding of the best practices prevalent in the global souricng industry, while continuously educating the industry in the region and enabling professional development under the aegis of the Outsourcing Professional Standards. This year’s APOS has been a great success and we look forward to the next four years of working hand-in-glove with OM in furthering the development agenda for the sourcing industry in the region with timely information that would contribute to both national and regional competitiveness.”

Major Project Announcements
Several key announcements were made at APOS 2013 including the unveiling of the much awaited outsourcing industry report titled ‘Malaysia’s Global Services Outlook.’

Amongst the other highlights was the announcement of development of the first phase of  MSC Cyberport City in Kulaijaya, Iskandar by MSC Cyberport Sdn Bhd at a Gross Development Value (GDV) of RM626 million.

OM Chairman Wong says, “As Asia’s outsourcing sectors grow at break neck speads, we need events such as APOS as a platform to continue discussing the key challenges that the industry faces. APOS is a crucial avenue for discussion for global leaders and practitioners to exchange ideas on how to sustain their business growth in an ever competitive environment.”

U MOBILE LAUNCHES NEW POSTPAID PLANS FOR 1ST JOBBERS AND YOUNG EXECUTIVES

The only Data Plan that comes with Free Calls and Free SMS

Kuala Lumpur, 10 October 2011 – First jobbers and young executives fresh in the workforce can now rejoice as U Mobile Sdn Bhd, Malaysia’s most dynamic and innovative telco service provider, today unveiled its brand new postpaid plans.

From just as low as RM28 per month, U Mobile postpaid subscribers can now enjoy high-speed mobile internet that comes with free calls and free SMS in a single package. U Mobile customers can also take advantage of U Mobile’s state-of-art 42Mbps networks, which was recently completed and launched in Klang Valley and Johor Bharu, to experience fastest mobile internet speed with their smart phones.

Speaking on the new offering, Dr. Kaizad Heerjee, CEO of U Mobile Sdn Bhd said, “The new packages are the results of an extensive market research we conducted. The youth market today has high data consumption on online activities including internet surfing, social networking and online gaming. With our new postpaid plan offerings, they can take advantage of the lowest entry fee for data usage and enjoy calls and SMS for free. This new postpaid offering is also a good starter for users currently on prepaid service who want to sign up for their very first postpaid plan and eliminate the hassle of topping up every time the credits run out.”

He continued, “The youth market is wary of postpaid plans as they want to avoid bill shock and expensive monthly fee commitment. We are confident that our new postpaid offerings will bust the myth that postpaid plans are expensive, and are therefore, only for the mature market.”

Speaking of company’s overall business strategy, Dr Kaizad emphasized, “U Mobile will continue to focus on being the leader in data service. Our recent launch of Fastest Mobile Broadband at the speed of 42Mbps, 3 to 5 times faster than any other existing offerings in the market, has surely placed us in an advantageous position in the market space. At the same time, as Malaysia’s most dynamic telco, we will continue to introduce innovated products to lead growth in the traditional voice and SMS sector,” he added.

To enjoy U Mobile’s new postpaid offerings, customers can opt from three plans catering to different usage pattern. U28, at RM28 per month which includes mobile internet of up to 1GB, and 300 free SMS to all operators, is designed for average data users. The second level plan, U58 is priced at RM58 per month which includes mobile internet of up to 2GB, 300 minutes of free talk time to all operators. Meanwhile, the U88 plan, designed for the ultimate mobile users on the go, offers mobile internet of up to 3GB, 300 minutes of free calls and 300 free SMS to all operators.

In conjunction with the launch, U Mobile also offers 3 smart phones, Samsung Galaxy SII, HTC Wildfire and HTC Desire S, for customers to select and to team up with their chosen postpaid plan. For customers’ further convenience and ease of use, U Mobile is partnering with five major banks in the country, including MAYBANK, RHB, AMBANK, HSBC and UOB for a 12-month easy payment scheme at 0 percent interest. Other benefits are also thrown into the deal with free Colour Tones downloads from October 2011 onwards, free news alert from The New Straits Times, Berita Harian, Sin Chew Daily or Malaysia Kini from November 2011 onwards for up to 30 days.

To sign up, customers can visit U Mobile Service Centres. For more information about the package offerings and locations of U Mobile Service Centers, please visit http://www.u.com.my/

Financial Insights Discusses the Significant Business Drivers Shaping the Future for Asia's Cash Management Industry

Banks need to help corporate customer segment, and explore strategis alliances to widen coverage

Singapore and Hong Kong, June 16th, 2008 – A recent publication by leading independent research and advisory firm Financial Insights, an IDC company, points to the growing realization that an expanded and sophisticated treasury and finance function can improve business processes, drive operational efficiencies and transparency, all of which are crucial for sustained business success. The report, entitled ‘Asia/Pacific Cash Management Review: Insights into Corporate Cash Management Today, (Doc#FIN212573)', states that the importance of cash management (CM) continues to expand steadily as corporates demand efficient international cash management that expands in tandem with their global development.

"In this report, we highlight significant business drivers shaping the future for Asia's CM industry," explains Li-May Chew, CFA, senior research manager for Financial Insights Asia/Pacific. Significant enablers affecting the dynamics for Asia's CM industry include increased trade flows and companies expanding cross-borders, growing commoditization of CM and banks reacting with more creative CM offerings, regulations compelling operational transparency and the establishment of centralized CM monitoring environments, and emphasis on improving liquidity management.

The report also explores the common CM techniques, and the existing barriers for corporates to efficient CM. On the latter, while corporates ideally want a singular view of all cash transactions and balances, they have to content with the need to balance power between corporate and regional treasuries, and retain domestic oversight of the treasury management function to preserve proximity to customers and suppliers.

With local corporates and financial institutions moving in search of new overseas opportunities, international banks are building and profiting from their CM networks into Asia. Key international CM players here in Asia include the likes of ABN AMRO, Citi, Deutsche Bank, HSBC and Standard Chartered, amongst others. Strategies are however, diverse, with the widest branch reach belonging to HSBC and Standard Chartered, while ABN AMRO prefers to tap into the resources of partner banks, as can be seen in Figure 1 with by far the largest combined regional branch coverage (their own plus partner banks). On how banks can convince corporates to outsource more of their treasury services and develop relationship with banking partners, Li-May points out that "banks would do well to assist corporates in identifying their barriers and specific weaknesses to efficient CM, be it in cash pooling, cash flow forecasting, or shortcomings within the purchase-to-payment or order-to-receipt cash cycle."

Additionally, they need to decide whether they are well-equipped to service large MNCs, or to focus solely on middle-market companies (where there are opportunities to facilitate investment and cross-border trade flows and assist local corporates expand internationally), and further need to explore strategic partnership and alliances to widen coverage and reach.

"To assist the banks towards that endeavor, treasury management vendors need to source for developing work with international banks, Offer integrated solutions to second- and third-tier banks, and help corporates' treasury division rationalize their business case for purchasing vendor cash flow forecasting tools," concludes Li-May. A succeeding Financial Insights report will dwell more in depth into the prospects for the packaged CM solutions market in Asia.

For more information on obtaining this report ‘Asia/Pacific Cash Management Review: Insights into Corporate Cash Management Today'’, Doc#FIN212573, June 2008) - please contact: sales@financial-insights.com.

HSBC and SAS win Asian Banker IT Award

HSBC銀行與SAS贏得亞洲銀行IT大獎

HSBC and technology partner SAS named as winners for the Best Data and Analytics Project Award from Asian Banker KUALA LUMPUR, 31 March 2008 - HSBC (Malaysia) and SAS Malaysia was recently awarded the Best Data and Analytics Project Award 2007 at the annual Asian Banker IT Implementation Awards held recently in Hanoi, Vietnam.

The HSBC-SAS win was for the implementation of a mortgage anti-attrition model, card usage behavior segmentation and customer value project.

Held in conjunction with The Asian Banker Summit, the coveted award was in commendation of technological excellence and best practices in the financial services industry; and selected through a rigorous selection process by a an international panel of leading global industry experts including highly experienced bankers and ex-bankers.

The Best Data and Analytics Project Award 2007 was jointly awarded to HSBC and on the basis that the SAS implementation has allowed HSBC to better understand its customers’ financial traits to tailor services to better suit their needs:-

1. Within six (6) months of the Mortgage Anti-attrition Solution implementation, the SAS model helped identify HSBC customers with high probability of refinance their home loans – reducing attrition by over 36 percent and outward refinancing by 55 percent.

2. The Card Behavior Segmentation model - that helps segment customers by their spending pattern, tasted success with a 28 percent improvement in post-campaign spending by the target direct mailer customers.

3. Meanwhile, the SAS Customer Value Project has allowed HSBC to better manage its customer portfolios by providing a logical basis for applying different sales channels and strategies to high, medium, and low value customers.

Award criteria was based on time and ease of implementation, ROI to the bank, speed of processes, efficiency improvement, customer satisfaction, technical innovation and system design;

“SAS is proud to be credited in this milestone accomplishment as the award is judged by leading executives from the regional banking fraternity. This (award) firmly establishes SAS BI solution and implementation credibility within the banking industry,” added Jimmy Cheah, Managing Director of SAS Malaysia.