Reaping From DAGS Funding

Implementing a Demonstrator Application Grant Scheme (DAGS) project is by no means an easy feat. To become eligible for the fund, a promoter needs to come up with a Demonstrator Applicants projects that satisfies a certain set of characteristics.

Among others, the project must meet the acculturation of Malaysians in information and communication technology (ICT) and multimedia application, has a specific and identifiable target community, and needs to be culturally and socially compatible.

Since the scheme was launched in 2001, a total of 74 projects had been funded. Of these, 36 have been completed. Three promoters of the completed DAGS projects talk about their current activities and plan for their future.

MyBiZ (MyBiz Solutions Sdn Bhd) : MyBiz (www.mybiz.net) is an is an e-business portal that enables buyer and supplier communities to interact on domestic and global levels. Its the key include electronic catalogue, electronic bidding, search mechanism, electronic shopping cart, electronic purchase order, electronic acknowledgement and online help. There are two categories of community membership – community member and community partner. As a community member, a company can sell its products to the community, register and approve community partners, and post and respond to auctions, tenders and firesales. A community partner meanwhile, can purchase from community members, requests for quotations, and post and respond to auctions, tenders and firesales.

Executive director Cheong Yuk Wai says the MyBiz portal boast the registration of 500 small and medium-sized enterprises and larger enterprises in Malaysia and Singapore to date, compared to 300 SMEs when it was first launched in April 1999. “Our strength is in our ability to provide solutions that focus on both technology and business.”

Cheong adds that the DAGS pilot enabled the company (then known as Hitechniaga Sdn Bhd) to create knowledge workers and technology assets, which were restructured into the MyBiz group. The group now focuses on developing technologies into solutions such as online trade financing (subsequently customised for BSN Commercial Bank), procurement (customised for Bumiputra-Commerce Bank), and the ongoing TIGER (Technology + Industry + Government for E-economic Revolution) project.

According to Cheong sustainability will not be an issue once the DAGS funding ran out because all technologies would have been converted into products and solutions. In addition, MyBiz has shareholders like CitiCorp that understand the need to invest in development of technology. From 1998 to 2000, a minimum of RM 6 million was spent on research and development annually. Now, the company's annual R&D investment is between RM2 million and RM3 million. On its plans, Cheong says the company is looking to further develop its range of solutions and extend into the field of knowledge management as well as to provide professional services such as catalogue management services. “The goal id to be an anchor technology platform of choice for as many national projects as possible, and community-based projects within each industry like, for example, within the manufacturing and retail segments. So once the market recognises the use of technology for business, MyBiz will already by then be positioned as the single largest platform.” Expansion overseas, Cheong says, will be undertaken for at least another two to three years. This amount of time, he reckons, needed before the market starts to pick up and any county looks to secure a regional play for technology platforms.

“The Asian market is still in its infancy in terms of e-business solutions deployment,” he says, adding that MyBiz Solutions has identified Thailand, Hong Kong, Taiwan, South Korea and China for initial expansion. Asked whether an initial public offering exercise is on the cards, Cheong says this will not be undertaken for another three to five years, with the possibility of listing on a bourse overseas. “Until the market demands the edge, technology and services, we do not see the time as right for a listing exercise.” Pendidikan Perdana (Cyber Village Sdn Bhd) : Pendidikan Perdana (www.kakaktua.com) is an online learning and revision system developed specifically for the student community. The portal started in March 1999 as a pilot programme under DAGS through a RM350,000 grant. Due to the success of the pilot, Cyber Village launched Kakaktua.com commercially in April 2001.

According to e-business manager Murali Mano, the DAGS grant was vital because is came during its second year of operations, when the company needed to fine-tune the content, upgrade the syllabus and maintain the Web site. He says Cyber Village has incurred a cost of almost RM1.5 million to run the site and has yet to reach a profitable level. “We believe our target market is not mature yet. A major percentage of the five million-plus students in Malaysia still do not have access to computers or even know how to use them,” he adds.

Murali says Cyber Village plans to pace itself gradually so that when the market is saturated with ICT-savvy students, the online tuition portal will have an edge over competitors fairly new to the business. Kakaktua.com currently has 1,000 paying members and about 30,000 non-paying members. “We hope to convert 10,000 of our non-paying members to paying members by end of this year,” Murali says. Asked about the company' long-term goal, he says it hopes to partner with sites which have hundreds of thousands of youngsters as subscribers. Cyber Village also expects to strike some business partnership deals this year to expand the portal's coverage to a wider student audience and to enhance its content. At present, Cyber Village runs various membership programmes in the form of prepaid and post-paid subscriptions for students sitting for their Ujian Penilaian Sekolah Rendah (UPSR) and Penilaian Menengah Rendah (PMR) examinations.

Asean Review of Biodiversity and Environmental Conservation/ Arbec (Mimced Sdn Bhd) : The company received RM156,000 as part of the DAGS project in 1999 for Arbec (www.arbec.com), a portal dealing with researched materials on the flora and fauna lifestyle.

Managing director Lim Kooi Fong says the DAGS grant was an important contribution because it helped the company reach a profitable level. He adds that there were presently about 780 researchers who have written articles for arbec.com and that about 57,000 visitors have accessed the sites since it first started in 1997.

According to Lim, arbec.com serves as an online resource for researchers to share information on wildlife in Malaysia. Subscription is available only to libraries, which can purchase them at RM250. “We obtain about 70 library subscribers a year,” he says. Having access to historical biological data has helped local researchers to build on current expertise and understand the biological continuum of the natural heritage in Malaysia, which is estimated to be 100 million years old. Lim says Mimced plans to continue to house valuable information on the country's natural heritage by forming partnerships with research organisations worldwide which in the past had collected natural specimens in Malaysia.

“The partnerships will enable us to capture digital information of these specimens and help our local researchers to continue providing updated information,” he says, adding that past information of the natural habitat in Malaysia is useful in obtaining fresh new information of it.

On the future, Lim says the company plans to provide digital-based information on a module about the moths of Borneo in June. Called The Moths of Borneo , the module was published with UK-based Natural History Museum, and will be launched simultaneously in London and Kuala Lumpur.

(Submitted on 16th January 2004)