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Links  »  A place in the sun  »  Pushing the technology envelope By Julian Matthews January 28, 2000 "Not just geeks with a gift for fortune telling, but the ability to see beyond technology to the people who will be affected by it." That was Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad's description of research and development body Mimos Bhd on an official visit last November. His speech was unusually peppered with metaphors and euphemisms reflecting Mahathir's fondness for an organization that he seeded 15 years ago but has begrudgingly approved large sums of funding with little return on investment. Set up in 1984 by a small group of academics in a wooden building in the capital of Kuala Lumpur, Mimos first went by the lengthy moniker Malaysian Institute of Microelectronics Systems. For many years it was just an obscure lab on the periphery of rapid industrial changes taking place in the country in the 1980s, with little to show for its continued existence. Mimos Milestones 1999 March Obtains sole supplier contract to lease its made-in-Malaysia PCs and peripherals to Malaysian Government after signing OEM agreement with Intel. May Teams up with Microsoft and Hewlett-Packard to set up Connected Learning House Web site linking the National Library and 14 other state libraries.   Launched educational multimedia courseware for primary schools with Negeri Sembilan state education department and Jendela Pagi Sdn Bhd. July Announces joint organization with the New Straits Times and TV3 for the "Malaysia Internet Awards @my'99".   Joint venture with Pos Malaysia, Digicert Sdn Bhd, Malaysia's first licensed certification authority for online transactions ready for business. "At the beginning, Mimos was simply an idea and we were foolish enough to believe we could make it happen," said Tengku Dr Mohd Azzman Shariffadeen who founded the research institution and has helmed it through its difficult phases. In plush premises at the Technology Park Malaysia in Bukit Jalil, Mimos has grown into a multi-building 680-strong organization offering everything, from Internet services to computer assembly and wafer foundry services. "At the beginning, Mimos was simply an idea and we were foolish enough to believe we could make it happen." --Tengku Dr Mohd Azzman Shariffadeen, president and CEO, Mimos Azzman, now president and CEO, explained that the turnaround began three years ago, when Mimos stuck its head out and decided to corporatize the government department. "In 1998 (during the worst recession in a decade), we re-focused and sought to flatten our organization to enable us to move quickly. We came up with a systematic four-stage process to redefine our roles comprising R&D, product development, field trials and finally commercialization. We are now harvesting the seeds of that re-focusing," he said. 1999 was nothing short of stellar for Mimos. It launched a series of new projects, partnerships and joint ventures, while many long-conceptualized ideas came to fruition. "We expanded our internal capacity and brought in people with business orientation and prodded them to look for commercial applications, business opportunities and partnerships. We are now on the map, even globally, and various companies have come knocking on our doors. It's just a matter of execution and delivery now," said Azzman. Last March, Mimos landed a plum exclusive contract to lease PCs and peripherals to the federal government. "It was entrusted to us because the Government was fed up with the inability to find reliable suppliers. One common complaint by the various departments was that the process was too slow and by the time they got the machines they were already outdated. After-sales service was also found wanting because some of these companies folded up after awhile and left their customers in a lurch," said Azzman. He explained the Government also no longer wanted to be stuck with the cost for such PCs and sought a leasing program where obsolete computers could be changed for new regularly.   A place in the sun   Julian Matthews is the Malaysian correspondent for CNET Malaysia. Email your comments to us.

 

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