7:15 PM
Crescent Sdn Bhd
Saturday, November 27, 2010
THANKS to grants from the Authority for Information Technology Industry (AITI), three iCentre incubatees plan to take their businesses to the next level in pursuit of growth.
"What I believe is that there is another 'oilfield' in Brunei, and that is in the software development field," said Foo Boon Seng, managing director of Mars Enterprise Sdn Bhd. Mars was awarded with a $175,000 grant to help allow Foo to build a team of local talent and train them to support his software solutions development. "All this while I have been a 'one-man-show' and it is difficult that is why this grant really means a lot to me," he said.
Foo's IT solutions are concentrated on "Enterprise Resource Planning", principally an integration of business management practices and modern technology. "I am able to get international contracts and win the Asia-Pacific ICT Alliance Award (against) other participants which all have a large staff number," said Foo, who also felt comfortable in saying that even as a one-man show, he dominated this category in Brunei.
Foo said that one of his dilemmas in expanding his company was that it was expensive to hire well-trained IT personnel to help support him, and he did not have the funds to hire local talent and train them. "Even though I am able to win the contracts from overseas, a lot of my competitors have said that I am just a one-man team and that my service is poor, and they tell the clients that I do not have a proper team," he said.
He added that now with this grant in hand, he now has the capital to hire local staff and train his personnel. "I now have 10 staff members, and I will continue to improve and compete in a fair way. This means a lot to me because it shows that the country supports me and now we can really contribute to Brunei," he said.
John Lim, general manager of John Harith Computer, bagged $75,000 from AITI, which the company will use to advance its research and development "to the next level". He explained that the next phase would require a lot of consultancy services which would be in line with the international standards for his IT solution.
Lim said that his future programme will be concentrated on "food traceability", whereby the food and beverage industry will be able to use the software to find the sources of the ingredients used in a product. "It will also allow people to check whether the product is halal or not, but that is not the entire focus of the solution."
He added that if he wasn't awarded this grant, he would not be able to speed up his operations on food traceability and it may take longer to accomplish. Asked why he decided to concentrate on a solution for the food and beverage industry, Lim said that he had noticed that the Brunei Government has been "spending quite a lot of money on food promotion", which is why he felt that a local solution should go hand-in-hand.
"We might need to be selective about what we want to do with this and we cannot do everything all at once, so we might have to drop our venture into food traceability," said Lim.
The final recipient for the AITI grant was Hjh Salma Latiff, managing director of Crescent Sdn Bhd, set up to provide a solution to help people get an Islamic Finance Master's Degree on-line. "With this grant, we are able to use state-of-the-art technology to make our platform more sophisticated and speed up our process of releasing our online platform."
She added that her focus is to target Islamic Finance education on a global scale, not just Brunei. "If we are successful at doing this then Brunei will be the first on-line solutions provider to allow people to get their Master's Degree," she said. The platform is scheduled to be launched in April 2011, and some of the markets that Crescent Sdn Bhd will be targeting include the United States, Canada, Japan and Korea.
"Islamic finance is now starting to emerge in Japan and Korea, and by mid next year, I hope to have at least a presence there," Hjh Salma said. She added Crescent Sdn Bhd is in the process of signing a contract with an international university and is hoping to also partner with Universiti Brunei Darussalam.
The AITI Grant Scheme has four categories that look to provide a timely boost at different stages of ICT product or solution development, namely: the Product Development Grant for developing prototypes or concept testing, the Produce Enhancement Grant, for improving and upgrading designs or processes, the Product Ownership Grant, for obtaining certification and recognition, and the Product Packaging and Marketing Grant, for the improvement of existing packaging, design or labelling. The Brunei Times
"What I believe is that there is another 'oilfield' in Brunei, and that is in the software development field," said Foo Boon Seng, managing director of Mars Enterprise Sdn Bhd. Mars was awarded with a $175,000 grant to help allow Foo to build a team of local talent and train them to support his software solutions development. "All this while I have been a 'one-man-show' and it is difficult that is why this grant really means a lot to me," he said.
Foo's IT solutions are concentrated on "Enterprise Resource Planning", principally an integration of business management practices and modern technology. "I am able to get international contracts and win the Asia-Pacific ICT Alliance Award (against) other participants which all have a large staff number," said Foo, who also felt comfortable in saying that even as a one-man show, he dominated this category in Brunei.
Foo said that one of his dilemmas in expanding his company was that it was expensive to hire well-trained IT personnel to help support him, and he did not have the funds to hire local talent and train them. "Even though I am able to win the contracts from overseas, a lot of my competitors have said that I am just a one-man team and that my service is poor, and they tell the clients that I do not have a proper team," he said.
He added that now with this grant in hand, he now has the capital to hire local staff and train his personnel. "I now have 10 staff members, and I will continue to improve and compete in a fair way. This means a lot to me because it shows that the country supports me and now we can really contribute to Brunei," he said.
John Lim, general manager of John Harith Computer, bagged $75,000 from AITI, which the company will use to advance its research and development "to the next level". He explained that the next phase would require a lot of consultancy services which would be in line with the international standards for his IT solution.
Lim said that his future programme will be concentrated on "food traceability", whereby the food and beverage industry will be able to use the software to find the sources of the ingredients used in a product. "It will also allow people to check whether the product is halal or not, but that is not the entire focus of the solution."
He added that if he wasn't awarded this grant, he would not be able to speed up his operations on food traceability and it may take longer to accomplish. Asked why he decided to concentrate on a solution for the food and beverage industry, Lim said that he had noticed that the Brunei Government has been "spending quite a lot of money on food promotion", which is why he felt that a local solution should go hand-in-hand.
"We might need to be selective about what we want to do with this and we cannot do everything all at once, so we might have to drop our venture into food traceability," said Lim.
The final recipient for the AITI grant was Hjh Salma Latiff, managing director of Crescent Sdn Bhd, set up to provide a solution to help people get an Islamic Finance Master's Degree on-line. "With this grant, we are able to use state-of-the-art technology to make our platform more sophisticated and speed up our process of releasing our online platform."
She added that her focus is to target Islamic Finance education on a global scale, not just Brunei. "If we are successful at doing this then Brunei will be the first on-line solutions provider to allow people to get their Master's Degree," she said. The platform is scheduled to be launched in April 2011, and some of the markets that Crescent Sdn Bhd will be targeting include the United States, Canada, Japan and Korea.
"Islamic finance is now starting to emerge in Japan and Korea, and by mid next year, I hope to have at least a presence there," Hjh Salma said. She added Crescent Sdn Bhd is in the process of signing a contract with an international university and is hoping to also partner with Universiti Brunei Darussalam.
The AITI Grant Scheme has four categories that look to provide a timely boost at different stages of ICT product or solution development, namely: the Product Development Grant for developing prototypes or concept testing, the Produce Enhancement Grant, for improving and upgrading designs or processes, the Product Ownership Grant, for obtaining certification and recognition, and the Product Packaging and Marketing Grant, for the improvement of existing packaging, design or labelling. The Brunei Times
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