Telekom Malaysia Berhad (TM) continues to stride forward as the enabler of Malaysia’s Digital Nation aspirations when the Company, through its innovation arm, TM Research & Development (TM R&D), was recently appointed as a Data Technology Partner for the Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC) under its Data Technology Partnership Programme.
With this appointment, TM R&D will be contributing its expertise to accelerate data technology adoption and develop Data-Driven Decision (DDD) Enterprises, facilitating talent development and industry-academic collaboration. This will all contribute towards building a vibrant data technology ecosystem.
Commenting on the appointment, Dato’ Noor Kamarul Anuar Nuruddin, Group Chief Executive Officer, TM, said, “The appointment indeed adds another feather in our cap befitting our unique role as the enabler of Digital Malaysia. As the Data Technology Partner to MDEC, TM R&D will share data technology-related case studies with MDEC to generate interest amongst business enterprises to adopt data technology. At TM Group, we believe digital innovations are key to business sustainability amidst the current constantly evolving environment. Hence, we always explore for opportunities and are ready to collaborate with strategic partners to realise this aspiration, to serve a more digital society and lifestyle, digital businesses and industry verticals, as well as digital Government – ultimately towards improving the quality of lives of Malaysians.”
Meanwhile, Dr. Sharlene Thiagarajah, Chief Executive Officer, TM R&D said, “We are thrilled with this appointment and look forward to working together with MDEC in delivering our digital innovations that create value for Malaysians nationwide. TM R&D is well positioned as the only dedicated R&D outfit of a Malaysian telco, where TM is the national connectivity and digital infrastructure provider. We will ramp up our efforts to participate in the digital transformation initiatives to support the Government’s aspiration towards enabling a digital economy.”
Earlier in May, TM R&D and MDEC joined forces to launch a one-stop data exchange platform under MDEC’s #DigitalVsCovid initiative to facilitate and accelerate data sharing. The goal is to bolster research efforts in combating Covid-19. The development of the Data Exchange Platform is among the initiatives under the programme and was aimed to expedite the access to data for developers, students, scientists and medical practitioners as well as government agencies. This will help them gather new insights easily on the pandemic and, eventually, pave the way for major breakthroughs.
The Data Exchange Platform is built on TM R&D’s Open Innovation Platform (OIP), Malaysia’s first Open Software Development Platform. It consists of a data brokerage platform, an Application Programming Interface (API) store-front and an end-to-end (e2e) ecosystem for the rapid development of smarter 4th Industrial Revolution (IR4.0) services that enable the creation of new revenue opportunities.
“This appointment allows us to work hand-in-hand with MDEC and enterprises in multiple collaboration activities, leveraging on each other’s core expertise and capabilities to accelerate adoption of data technology among businesses towards boosting Malaysia’s digital economy,” Dr Sharlene elaborated.
The Government’s Pelan Jana Semula Ekonomi Negara (PENJANA), which was announced in June, includes initiatives that promote digitalisation in Government’s service delivery systems. This is seen as a move in the right direction. In addition, the Government has allocated RM100 million to set up the National Technology and Innovation Sandbox to further complement the digitalisation effort.
The rising demand for digitalisation bodes well with TM R&D as it remains committed to strengthen its position as a dynamic organisation in the rapidly changing technology sector that offers collaborations leveraging on such technologies such as telco intelligent support systems, data brokerage, IR 4.0 and digital workforce.
TM R&D is growing from strength to strength since 2016, winning seven (7) globally recognised awards over the last two (2) years and has raised its innovation adoption rate from 5% to 100% within two (2) years. TM R&D has generated more than 2,800 Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs) and 1,400 digital assets to-date.
TM R&D’s innovations, all developed in-house cut across multiple verticals such Retail, Logistics, Agriculture, Healthcare and Education with safety and productivity as top priority. As the organisation continues to expand beyond connectivity and into new value-added digital and smarter platforms, its role in TM has become more prominent and exciting.