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Systems Integration Asia Magazine Dec/Jan Issue
Dec/Jan issues Systems Integration Asia Magazine
The new issue of System Integration Magazine December/January issue has arrive to my office last 2 weeks. I have no time to flip through untill now. Finally today some how I find some time to start reading it. And I like it. As a system integration company it will be good to update ourselves regular on the latest installation articles that happen is our region.
You should by visiting Systems Integration Asia Website for more details.
I didn’t do enough in 2009
Firework in KLCC 2010
Happy New Year 2010.
The year 2010 has come with high hope and anticipation from the people all around the world. They usher the year with cheers and fireworks and looking forward for a better year ahead.
Year 2009 has passed and as I looked back to the last year and ask myself what have I done for myself and the company. Did I do enough? Or have I been wasting time unnecessarily. The answer I think was the year 2009 was a tough year and even though we have achieved many things in sales and projects but I didn’t do enough.
We have done a numbers of good light and sound projects like Ummo building in Pekan, DCA new building in Sepang, UPM new building in Serdang, UiTM Shah Alam and many smaller and preferred installation around Selangor and Kuala Lumpur and Malaysia is general. We set up a showroom for light and sound in Puchong, upgrade a few sales marketing and the website and secured a few projects for 2010.
Looking back the efforts that we put in just to achieve these result is too much. We have to spend many resources and it does not justify the outcome and we still have inefficient working method where we spend many hours just to get one task done. Spend more than 10 man hours just to get a simple sales proposal done is no good. Some time our technical team have to go to the site a few times just to solve a few problem. The reason given was not enough information given, parts is not enough and need to come to buy, contractor pull the wrong cable or worst still waiting for other people to come.
Of course some factor is due to external environment and we have no control in it. The efficient level of the local contractor is still on the average as there is no qualify people to do a certain job. The consultant and the project manager some time play a pushing game and we as the contractor have to undertake most of the blames in order to get moving.
Competition is still very stiff in the light and sound contracting work. Other supplier is trying to undercut or to bypass us by quoting directly to the client. We specify their product in and we hope with this effort we have the chance of winning the project. But these supplier quote directly to the client in order to earn higher profit.
Another external factor where we feel is not right is the contractor did not pay us promptly when work has been completed and done. The common answer is that they have not received payment from the owner and they expect us to wait. Even though they receive the payment but they delay paying us.
If we follow the same method of working attitude and business method for this year then they will definitely see the same result as last year and there will no improvement. I must do things differently this year in order to see a better result at the end of 2010.
This is what I will do for year 2010.
1) To spend less hour in getting work done by improving the system around the office.
2) To train more in house technician and technical team so that they can do faster installation and solve problem easily. This can only be done by sending them to more product training.
3) Get more main products ourselves by becoming the distributor rather than just another product dealer. This means increase our in house marketing and sales. We don’t want to rely so much on the third party product.
4) Organized and update the sales and marketing catalogue/material in the server and get more drawing updated for quick proposal.
5) Invest on the presentation software like the 3-D visualization. Your client will be impress with the presentation.
6) On the personal matter I will spend less hours working especially in front of my computer and spend more time to myself and with family and friends. Will I achieve it? Let us see.
7) Lastly, I will blog more.
That’s it. This will be my New Year resolution and do the things differently in this more challenging year 2010. What about you? Have you done enough last year and what about this year?
By Michael Liew
Tags: Merry Christmas And Happy New Year
Merry Christmas And Happy New Year
We at Artistic Controls would like to wish all our customers and friends and business partners a Merry Christmas And Happy New Year.
Though we like to go for a long holiday like our friends in the UK but we will be back to work on 28th December.
Happy Holidays from the Artistic team.
Malaysia Budget 2010
Budget 2010
Datuk Seri Mohd Najib Tun Razak the prime minister of Malaysia on yesterday Friday tabled the 2010 Budget totaling RM191.5 billion and which has a three-pronged strategy to drive the nation towards a high-income economy; ensuring holistic and sustainable development; and focusing on the well-being of the people.
Najib said that to drive the country towards a high-income economy, the government would encourage increased private investment, provide a business-friendly environment and implement privatization initiatives.
The prime minister said RM20.3 billion is allocated to the social sector encompassing education and training, health, welfare, housing and community development, RM3.7 billion is for the development of the security sector, RM1.8 billion for general administration and RM2 billion for contingencies.
To me I wanted to see if the budget has some benefit for the business point of view. I read through 49 pages of the text and here are some points I pick up that could benefit my company business and light and sound industry in general.
1. Among projects to be implemented in 2010 include the development of an Integrated Immigration, Customs and Quarantine Complex (CIQ) in Bukit Kayu Hitam, construction of 6 UiTM campuses and the development of MATRADE Centre.
- This is interesting as new UiTM campuses will require proper light and sound system.
2. To strengthen ICT, the Government will expedite the implementation of High Speed Broadband (HSBB) at a total cost of RM11.3 billion, of which RM2.4 billion is from the Government and RM8.9 billion from Telekom Malaysia. Initially, broadband services with the speed of 10 mega bytes per second (Mbps) will be provided in selected areas in Kuala Lumpur and Selangor by en-March 2010. Subsequently, these services will be extended to other areas nationwide between 2010 and 2012.
- I am looking forward for a better broadband services cause the Malaysia broadband is really 2 – 3 times below par compare the Singapore and other neighboring country.
3. To further enhance broadband penetration, the Government proposes that individual taxpayers be given tax relief on broadband subscription fee up to RM500 a year from 2010 to 2012.
- At least some discount given – not bad…
4. For the education sector, the government will allocate RM19 billion, RM2.8 billion for student assistance and scholarship programme, RM1.6 billion for the construction of 80 new schools as well as 1,100 additional blocks and 347 school replacement projects.
- News school means new business opportunity for audio visual system.
The rest of the budget is mostly for the growth of the economy in general and to drive the nation forward. I am quite happy with this year budget and hopefully next year could be better.
Lee Hoe Transport
Lee Hoe Transport
Today Lee Hoe Transport Company has just delivered the lighting equipments to our office in Puchong. Yesterday they pick up the goods from my supplier office in Singapore and now it is already in my office. They are our appointed transporter from Singapore to KL. They are also the forwarding clearing agent that clear the custom at Johor Bharu and pay the duty on our behalf. Their service is prompt and reliable.
I recalled that for so many years I have known them when I was working as sales engineer in O’Connor Malaysia. And now we use them as our appointed forwarding agent for Singapore Malaysia route. They have been in the forwarding and transportation business for more than 30 years and they are still the best transport company if you want to bring equipments and parcel from Singapore to Kuala Lumpur. Their core business of the company is cross-border freight forwarding ie providing land transportation for cargoes and goods from Singapore to West Malaysia and vice versa.
I have nothing but praises to their dedicated service even though it is the business as usual for them.
Changing Hosting Company
After hosting my website locally in Malaysia for about 3 years, I decided to change my web hosting to United State (US). For the past 3 years I had a few major problem with my local hosting company that I think the local hosting company was not mature enough in this hosting business. I had the server crashed several times that one of them resulted in complete lost of the databases. My database was gone. The login to the control panel was slow and most of the time non responsive. This has frustrating my online website.
Anyway after a brief online study I make up my mind to transfer my domain registrar and web hosting to Hostgator company based in US. Not only the hosting pricing is competitive but I get unlimited email, unlimited databases and unlimited web space and more. The cpanel is quite friendly and easy to use. The online support and tutorial is very helpfull.
Before changing my hosting company I called my local hosting company and ask them about their new packages. They say their new package is better and all their server hosting is now based in US. They advise their existing customer to migrate the hosting to their server in US. I guess they know their limitation here.
Now that my web hosting problem is over and I will post regularly in this Artistic Blog. Do come back for more.
By Admin