IT Captains and Industry Bodies Back Call for Good Software Asset Management Practice
Petaling Jaya, 18 October 2011 – Sound Software Asset Management (SAM) is crucial to help organizations combat the rising cost of operating businesses amidst the current challenging economy, said corporate IT practitioners and industry bodies.
“SAM not only lowers the cost of ownership for businesses but it is also a key component in most of the regulatory compliance requirements facing businesses today,” said Roland Chan, Senior Marketing Director of Business Software Alliance (BSA), Asia Pacific, who was speaking at a private roundtable discussion on the subject of “Should Software Audits Be Made Mandatory?”.
From L-R: Mr Nick Goh, World Vision; Mr Andy Yuen, ISA Technologies; Mr Lee Hwee Hsiung, SMI Association; Mr Andy Tan, PIKOM CIO Chapter; Mr Lee Teck Chong, RHB Bank
Software audits are part of SAM, a business practice designed to reduce IT overhead costs, limit risks related to the ownership and use of software, and increase corporate-wide and IT efficiencies for a company. Earlier in May this year, BSA and Ministry of Domestic Trade, Co-operatives and Consumerism (MTDCC) have called for software audits to be made mandatory for companies. BSA and MTDCC are also studying the feasibility of making software audits part of an organisation's financial audit process.
“Companies should view management of their software assets to be as vital as management of their financial ones. As organizations assume control by proactively managing their software assets, not only will they lower IT cost in the long run, they will gain from the higher levels of productivity and security,” added Chan.
Also sharing their views at the roundtable discussion were Andy Tan, Chairman of PIKOM CIO Chapter; Lee Teck Chong, Head of Infrastructure of RHB Bank and Nick Goh, Director of Shared Services Centre, World Vision International.
The IT captains expressed support towards practicing good SAM as it has proven to deliver significant value to companies, including improving alignment of applications and systems to core business goals and objectives, and increasing efficiency of IT support operations. The most notable benefit of SAM for a company is the reduction in technology-related costs.
“Despite the benefits of SAM, the onus of this practice should not rest solely with the companies and their IT departments. Software vendors should also look into working hand in hand with clients to provide assistance such as software license tracking and software metering if software audits are to be made mandatory,” said Andy Tan, Chairman of PIKOM CIO Chapter.
Dato’ Hafsah Hashim, CEO of SME Corp. Malaysia said that the agency support BSA’s call for mandatory software audit and that it should be part of the yearly financial audit as it will help to promote better corporate governance. However, she said audit costs could be a concern when it comes to SME companies. She also called for software vendors to consider lowering the price of their software and more awareness to be raised on SAM should the mandatory software audit take effect.
“While SAM is vital for SME organizations as well, there should not be unnecessary burden placed on SMEs to comply with the proposed mandatory software audit by MTDCC, especially those with only a handful of employees. Affordable and easy-to-use tools should also be made available for SMEs to do self-audit,” commented Chua Tiam Wee, National President of SMI Association.
According to Alvin Yuen, Group CEO of ISA Technologies, a software company that provides justSAMit a cloud-based, cost efficient IT asset management solution through its subsidiary ISA Innovation Sdn Bhd, “Previously, SAM is perceived to be a complicated and expensive practice that is applicable only to the larger corporations. With close to 99% of the companies in Malaysia being SMEs, it is important that they are also benefiting with SAM to reduce their IT overhead cost and enhance their IT budget management.”
Earlier this year, ISA Innovation announced a free promotion of justSAMit licenses worth RM1million for customers who sign up for the service during 2011. With justSAMit, SMEs will also get access to bulk discounts for IT Asset purchasing which traditionally was only available to larger companies.
"We understand the challenges for organizations when it comes to practicing SAM. With justSAMit, we want to provide a very affordable and automated SAM solution to both large corporations and SMEs to help them with the software audit process," ended Yuen.
More information on justSAMit can accessed at http://www.justsamit.com/.
SCCyberworld
Tuesday, October 18, 2011
Software Asset Management Crucial to Help Organizations Lower Costs
Monday, October 10, 2011
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/
Friday, October 31, 2008
RHB Banking Group embarks on Document Imaging and Workflow System
Fuji Xerox’s solution to meet business growth process efficiency for RHB Banking Group with Document Imaging and Enterprise Content management
Kuala Lumpur, 29 October 2008 – RHB Banking Group, one of Malaysia’s largest integrated financial establishments has today announced its partnership with Fuji Xerox Malaysia on a mega project to reengineer its back office processes for its regional trade services centres.
Previously, RHB relied on its 7 regional trade services centres for all local and international transactions and document processing. With the completion of this project, these regional centres will be consolidated into one centralized trade processing centre located in Bangi that can review, approve, share and re-use all documents across RHB Bank branches nationwide. 
The centralized centre will seek to completely eliminate physical transfers of processed documents from one location to another as they will be scanned, classified, indexed and sent over to the new centre through the bank’s network from the original source instead. Furthermore, Fuji Xerox’s document management solutions are also expected to reduce paper usage resulting in a gradual shift towards a paperless financial trade environment.
“The Bank believes in investing in technologies as part and parcel of a new financial trade experience and the future banking process improvement. This falls in line with the Group’s aspirations to remain abreast with the current developments in technology,” said Michael J Barrett, Group Managing Director of the RHB Banking Group.
The centralized trade processing setup will be more efficient as turnaround time will be greatly improved with a higher accuracy rate of performance tracking. RHB believes that with this new workflow, productivity may increase by approximately 50% per staff on a daily account. The centralization of trade processes will also see improvements in risk management and control as there is a dedicated unit to monitor and oversee risk mitigation initiatives.
“Fuji Xerox is proud to be given this opportunity to work with RHB in automating and reengineering their trade services processing workflow. We believe that we were able to demonstrate the breadth of our capabilities in architecture design, technical and solution development to the banking industry. Rest assured, we will continue to give our best in delivering cutting edge document and content management solutions that enable operational efficiencies and contribute to business growth for our partners,” said Masahiko Saito, President of Fuji Xerox Malaysia.
Thursday, August 28, 2008
RHB Banking Group Upgrades Infrastructure With IBM System z10
Bank Adopts New Enterprise Data Centre to Cater for Progress and Expansion
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia - 28 August: RHB Banking Group today announced its department, Central Technology Unit will enhance its product development and delivery to customers with IBM System z10 mainframe as the foundation of its new enterprise data centre. The investment will also support the critical processing capacity for the banking group’s clients throughout Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei and Thailand.
RHB Banking Group’s goal with the z10 project is to become a one stop banking institution, covering different services from Islamic banking to insurance banking, in the advent of the business and Information Technology (IT) transformation exercise. 
The banking group recently underwent a strategic transformation exercise which brought about its IT operations under a single umbrella of Central Technology Unit, which is responsible to deliver enhanced shared IT services to the Group.
RHB Banking Group’s IT operations is poised to offer shared services such as IT solutions and services delivery so that RHB will be able to leverage its skilled workforce to achieve the Group’s vision to be among the top three financial institutions in ASEAN by the year 2020. The integration also reflects the Group’s commitment to taking new business approaches and using the latest technology to sustain growth in the long term.
Michael J. Barrett, Group Managing Director, RHB Banking Group said that the banking group is confident that IBM System z10 will help serve its customers better especially now that banking group offers more holistic financial services such as retail banking and wealth management, corporate and investment banking, Islamic banking and insurance.
“We are proud to be the forerunner in having this system that, amongst other things, is highly scalable to cater for business growth, mergers and acquisitions. The RHB Banking Group, in line with its aspiration to be a convenient one-stop financial institution, has continually explored all possibilities in integrating all its available products and services,” said Barrett.
“This investment and collaboration with IBM is the platform that will help us realise the objective of providing continuous banking services to our customers. In making this choice, we have also taken into account how this mainframe system will enable us to consolidate and streamline our core banking systems and day-to-day operation of other businesses within the RHB Banking Group,” he added.
IBM's strong performance in the second quarter this year was partly attributed to the growth of IBM System z10 mainframe, which delivered a 32 percent increase in revenue. IBM has driven mainframe revenue growth in seven of the last nine quarters, and MIPS growth 10 of the last 12 quarters. IBM has doubled its market share in high end server space since 2000. More than 600 new applications were introduced last year, bringing the total to more than 4,000 applications available on the System z platform.
IBM Malaysia’s managing director, Ou Shian Waei said, “RHB has proven its innovation stance as it leads the way in adopting the world most powerful computer, the IBM System z10 Enterprise Class, to meet the escalating needs of its clients locally and regionally.”
IBM System z10 which made its debut early this year also offers security controls which are synonymous with the system as the only server on the planet that has achieved this level of certification for security and partitions from the United States government's highest level of security, Evaluation Assurance Level 5 (EAL5), via z/VM.
“Our relationship with RHB is one which we have built for more than a decade and we have seen the banking group grow and prosper and we are confident that they will reach their goals while keeping clients’ needs at heart,” added Ou.
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
CATCH THE FOOTBALL FEVER WITH SORAKAN EMOSI EURO ON HYPP.TV
(from left to right) Pn. Mariam Bevi Batcha, General Manager, Group Corporate Communications, TM, Pn. Zainab Hashim, Vice-President, Integrated Marketing, TM and Mr. Jeremy Kung, Chief Executive Officer, TM Net showing their support for the Euro 2008 championship via SMS at Hypp.TV’s Sorakan Emosi interactive billboard launch held recently at Bintang Walk, Kuala Lumpur.
Telekom Malaysia Berhad (TM) today launched its first ever Hypp.TV’s Sorakan Emosi interactive billboard at Bintang Walk, Kuala Lumpur.
The interactive billboard, which is the first in the country, is made available to football fans from June 6 - 29, 2008. Fans can now show their support and express opinions on the world’s second largest international football competition by sending in an SMS, which will appear on the billboard.
To participate, fans only need to type Euro A or Euro B (depending on the assigned teams) followed by their SMS messages and send to 39111. Each SMS costs 50 sen (excluding standard telco charges) and will be moderated before being flashed on the billboard. Some of the SMS guidelines are as follows:
1. All SMS sent must be Sorakan Emosi football related.
2. All SMS must not use inappropriate or vulgar words, which have racial, sex, religion or political implications.
3. The message must connote fun & excitement, not serious and demeaning.
4. TM reserves the right to reject any submission without prior notice.
5. TM reserves the right to change the SMS guidelines without prior notice
Zainab Hashim, Vice President, Integrated Marketing, TM said, “TM is proud to be the official online broadcast sponsor for Sorakan Emosi EURO as this tournament does not only appeal to our customers but is also widely appreciated by Malaysians in general. The interactive billboard will provide football fans a public avenue to display their feelings and show their support for their favourite teams and players.“
“In addition, as the official online broadcaster for Sorakan Emosi EURO, football fans will now have the option of watching the matches, live on Hypp.tv conveniently via their PCs, laptops, PDAs or any other WiFi enabled devices. Via Hypp.TV we aim to be the leading Malaysian portal offering premium online video content to Malaysian Internet users,“ she added.
Besides the live matches being streamed on Hypp.TV, fans can also access the various Sorakan Emosi content including news, event & match schedules, photo gallery of the 16 participating teams, live results updates, and score boards. True football buffs can also enjoy online activities such as participating in polls, forum and contests on the football championship.
“One of the coolest feature of Hypp.TV is the ‘Sorakan Emosi machine’ where fans can express their creativity by composing their very own cheer with various sounds to show support to their favourite team and participate in the “Declare Your Loyalty” contest to stand a chance to win attractive prizes such as cash, European team football jerseys and TM merchandise. As we say here at TM, football never stop @ http://www.hypp.tv/,” said Zainab.
Besides that, fans are also encouraged to upload their ‘user generated content’ such as videos and share with the online world. Celcom users can send their mobile videos through Multimedia Messaging System (MMS) to euro@hypp.tv.
That’s not all, while watching the live matches, users can chat away, comment and connect with friends and other football fans on the game using iTalk cards. To commemorate the prestigious football event of the year, TM is also offering a series of iTalk European Superstars 2008 collector’s edition cards, which feature faces of the best footballers from Europe such as Thierry Henry, Dimitar Berbatov, Cesc Fabrigas, Miroslav Klose, Christiano Ronaldo and Fernando Torres.
What’s more! iTalk users can stand a chance to win a 42” LCD TV and many more prizes in the iTalk European Super Stars 2008 contest starting from 1 June until 31 July 2008. To participate in the contest, users simply need to register at http://www.italkbuddy.com.my/ and submit their prediction for the winner of the football championship and create an exciting slogan.
iTalk is a prepaid calling card that uses Voice Over Internet Protocol (VOIP) technology, enabling users to make international and domestic calls at competitive rates. iTalk can be used with any mobile or fixed telephone lines. iTalk can be purchased at more than 10,000 distribution outlets nationwide, which include all TMpoint branches nationwide, mobile phone retailers, petrol stations and convenience stores displaying the iTalk signage or online via Maybank2u, RHBBank, CIMBClicks and Mobile88. The cards are available in denominations of RM10, RM20, RM30 and RM50.
For further information on Sorakan Emosi via Hypp.TV, log on to http://www.hypp.tv/sorakanemosieuro/.
