As during these few years, a lot of problems happening to scope members is actually nation wide issue happening to all, so a lot of times, SCoPe though a penang software cluster actually represent the industry to notify the authority of what is happening.

These include, manpower problem, technical skill gap due to syllabus in higher education doesn’t reflect the industry need and many more. 1 of the things I was involved was MOHE (ministry of higher education meeting) with the industry where, SH, me and Albert went in KL. Other big players was there including intel, Volvo,…. MOHE mentioned that number of IT and computer science students applying to uni and college have drop more than 50% from the peak time and a lot of parents says that it’s not worth sending their children to these courses if they come out without a job. Then industry which are us replied that we need more skillful employees. So what is wrong?

It’s actually the syllabus and skill set from uni doesn’t match industry. And also success stories of technopreneurs are not well distribute to society for society to be confidence of the industry. So we did voice of suggestion such as roadshow in success story as well as changed of syllabus towards industry which I think I have seen the result came out as this conference was done 2 years ago. Now I am getting interns who are better in industry skillset…. Another thing happened during IAP meeting 2005 I think where bryan and other guys went, I do remember that Bryan mentioned some suggestion which he voice out which was also accepted and implemented which I think really benefit the industry.

for MDEC side what do we get beside tax exemption from MDEC as a small company? For scope members is IP grants, capability development and many more. But a lot of time they don’t understand what we want and there is a need of voice to go to their side. Penang government can only help us on smaller scale like seminars, bit of funding for secretariat and printing materials, business matching under penang. But a lot of issue are nation issue which have direct impact to us. As attached file ‘innovation management process’ which required case study on smaller scale companies, I don’t know where this really went for MDEC but I assume it to end up in MESDAQ listed companies representing the smaller scale of the industry rather than the really small companies that are fully in R&D and needed help.

Our main mission ‘To nurture and strengthen globally competitive companies among its members of Software Consortium of Penang.’

A lot of SCoPe members are small timers like myself, we have been in the market sometime, up and down, but we really do have potential. To me scope act as a platform to request what we feel is really required to grow the industry, another proposal which was submitted is ‘technopreneur fund proposal for MDEC’. Rather than new seed fund, it’s for software companies to develop new products maybe their current product is absolute or outdated. It was mentioned during a meeting with MDEC and was later asked to be submitted properly.

Is this under our main mission? Will it benefit most of our members?

My personal answer would be yes. But as a small company how can I voice out. What is the real benefit of being a scope member? Is it seminar, networking or going expo or business matching. For small timers I think ‘funding for innovation’ at a lower risk level would be best way. This proposal went through the previous committee submit not by me but another committee, but how to really make it into reality and benefit members? I do cracked my head to think of how to really help myself too.

I feel fully that because scope is more volunteer kind of work where now most of the committee are smaller companies owner, we don’t have time to ‘service’ all software companies.

To help us as well as members, under state wise as I have seen these few years, we still stand at the point at capability development (which what needs to be done has been done),members gathering, business matching and maybe some exhibition. But I feel that the really important assistant to be given is not there. 1^st is funding issue, 2^nd is market access (state can help a bit), 3^rd is human resource.

All of the above especially 1^st and 2^nd goes under the national level, 3^rd wise we have started some ourselves but still require funding from MDEC side to really push it forward.

Our weakness is as SCoPe do represent the software industry but we are a smaller part of it with limited members, we are comment as ‘ you are still little in your numbers of members’,

‘not much growth in size’ since we last met and a lot of times, proposal and change are neglected. I totally agree that penang state is helping us with all it’s effort, but I do think that for my own self I would require 1^st and 2^nd issue to be assisted which is more critical.

This is only my personal opinion.

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When you join the guys having more experience, you tend to learn more, easier, faster, better!

That’s what i gained these few years! Business experience wise is 1 thing, dealing with people is another and looking at things in different senarios is also one of it.

I always have the feeling of doing things fast, efficient, direct! When obstacles comes along just kick them off! But it seems that we have to look at longer timeframe and ultimate objective of things. Leading an organization especially a non profit organization you need to know that you would not be there forever. Don’t take things too personally. Even when things don’t come your way, just stop and relax, use another path. If still we can’t walk through then just don’t walk. Take a bus!

There is alway letting go and startup, or taking it easy and slowly. So it depends on priorities. To me, more experience means testing my leadership and how far my capability is in growing things. but take it easier so there is no pressure on anyone.

Bryan Gan BUILDING THE WEB

Bryan Gan C.D., 29-years-old, from Penang, Malaysia, the only son of a PC hardware business owner and a very encouraging housewife appears was prepared from young to become an entrepreneur and IT Professional in computer programming languages for the Internet.

Graduating from a well-known local Chinese medium Chung Ling High School, Bryan obtained an honor degree in Computer Science from University Science of Malaysia (USM), Penang in 2002.

In 1996, in his fifth form year, in secondary school, when 18 years old, Bryan first saw the wonders of the Internet and built his first website on the world renowned Bruce Lee and the Shaolin martial arts.

He then became a software developer, during his pre-university days, while undertaking his Higher School Certificate course. While other fellow students were seriously concentrating on their High School coursework, Bryan kept to his books on computing, programming, C language, Turbo Pascal studies and gathered an insight into computer knowledge due to his keen interest in computing.

He started this research using Object-Oriented Technology for this purpose and the project for the 200 companies and it is still continuing, till Bryan soon completed his honors degree with USM.

Starting with just two tables, and two PCs, Bryan set up his sole proprietorship company, Comdev Software (Please also see http://www.comdevweb.com for details) to continue serving these companies for their software and web-designing needs, with a fellow USM student as his only partner.

Ever since than it has been no looking back at all its failures and upheavals, as Bryan’s Comdev is now confident that its components based software for websites is one of the best or if not the best for the global market. The products are cost effective and reliable and an easy breeze for all, techies, newbies and for the ordinary individual.

With a company that achieved 500% of growth in 2005, Bryan Gan , 28, founder of ComDev looks set to take his vision to the next level. Now he thinks of competing with the likes of Google.

( ComDev represented Malaysia in the recent CeBIT exhibition in Hannover, Germany. )

Tell us about your experiences in the 2006 CeBIT exhibition

It was our very first exhibition that we had, first for our company, first in overseas, as well as first in CeBIT. All the while, we have been selling our software products through e-Commerce model to the United States and European market which totals 95% of our total customers group. So this year in CeBIT, our first objective is to meet the global with our physical presense and let people see who is behind Comdev, that is me and my partner who started this company straight after we graduated from USM in April 2002.

ComDev’s booth at CeBIT

I would say being and getting ourselves in the global trade fair is a big challenge. Preparations have to be done from all aspects, not only for the booth design but how are we going to make our brand stands out. Product innovation and predicting what the global market want to see and espect from us is another key success for the company. We managed to achieve that by launching our One Admin Pro product in CeBIT which attracted many industry people in the web development area visited our booth to see a demo of what it can do.

We were not located in the right hall as all the 22 Malaysian companies in the Malaysian pavilion were in the Digital Equipment hall which showcased latest computer and hardware products such as MP3 player, storage devices, etc. So to overcome such situation and still make the best out of the event, we focus on brand exposure, meeting our European customers to enhance our business relationship as well as generating the leads to our booth through media and publicity. Our One Admin Pro product came out in the CeBIT news and it really helped to draw people to our booth.

Being the first timer in an international exhibition like CeBIT, I would say that we have achieved much success for our company. However, we have to work even harder. It is also crucial for us now to predict and set a goal for the next year’s CeBIT.

Tell us a bit about your business.

Our core business is to provide web-based application modules, built using PHP and MySQL for web designers and web masters plug them into their websites and are ready to run. For example, if a web designer is designing an e-commerce website, he may need a few modules such as a product catalog, shopping cart, newsletter and customizable online forms. Instead of writing all the program codes from scratch, creating the database structure and so on, he can easily install our e-Commerce, Newsletter and Form Designer modules. All the 3 modules are positioned on top of our One Admin platform which provides the streamlined workflow. Integration of the front-end to the web design page can be easily done through simple code insertion.

Now, our latest One Admin 4.0 series has 17 modules which consists of the Photo Gallery, Newsletter, eCommerce, Web Blogger, Events Calendar, News Publisher, Misc Tools, Forum, Links Directory, Form Designer, FAQ Support, Customer Helpdesk, Vote Caster, Contact Form, Guestbook, Geo Traffic and CSV Importer.

To extend the 17 modules, web designers may need additional modules which need even more customization to meet their clients’ requirements. For example, they may need a Real Estate module for real estate agent’s website. So, One Admin Pro 4.0 is actually the Modules Builder which lets web designer create, build and customize additional modules, out of the 17 that we have currently. This will help them easily develop more functional websites for their clients to meet today’s business challenge by utilizing the web.

How did you get started?

I personally started to get involved in this area soon after I finished my Form 6 in 1998. When I entered USM in my first year in Computer Science, I knew that I had to get myself established in the industry before I could go full time in running my company. So, I was involved with a new dot-com startup called i-City.com but it went silent in only a few months time. After that during my first and second year, I was involved with some web development projects as an outsource freelancer.

We started as soon as we graduated from USM in March 2002 and registered the company as sole proprietorship in 2nd April 2002. Because we lacked funding ( i only had my own savings then) , we were only able to get ourselves located in the living room of my partner’s house We worked days and nights for 1 and a half year time releasing 4 product divisions but all were met with failures. We managed to survive that period with some of the contracts that I worked on as a freelancer during my university days.

Failures have made us became stronger and well equipped with knowledge. This is because without any guidance, business mentoring and funding, we had to stand on our own feet. We tested both the local and global market and knew by then which business models would work for us and which models won’t.

So in October 2003, We released our first version of One Admin 1.0 with only 4 modules. The next day of our release, we started to get orders from the United States. So from October 2003 to now for almost 2 and a half years time, we have released our version 1.0, 1.2, 2.0, 3.0, 3.1 and 4.0. All those major releases were done in only 6 months time and because of our speed in the market, we have now become one of the key providers for PHP modules in the market.

How long have you been in the business? How many employees do you have
at the moment? What about business partners?

Currently, we have 5 people in our team. My philosophy is to have small and compact team where everybody has their own strength in their expertise. We don’t have any investors or special business partners at the moment as we are very healthy in our growth revenue and profitable company.

Why is your business considered unique?

We consider ourselves unique especially in the local market. The reason is that we don’t see our market as limited to the local market. Most people would say: “Start from local market then expand to global market”. We did things the other way round, that is to attack the global directly. We utilize every single resource we have by automating most of our business process through the untilization of our information system. We turn knowledge from books and magazines into something that will help our business grow faster than others.

What challenges did you face when you started off?

As I have mentioned a little in our start up story, we faced the difficulty in getting ourselves right on track in the market. We had almost zero funding. We were without any experience, so we had to do everything using the trial and error method. When comes to product development, we had to benchmark our products with the global standards and for marketing, we didn’t have any budget at all.

However, once our stream of revenue started to come in, we minimized our costs and reinvested our profits to grow our business.

Doing business in Malaysia compared to in other countries. What is your take on this?

Malaysia market is too localized and sometimes the customers in your area may not have the budget as they are more concerned about developing their business revenue. When comes to purchasing decision, they will always compare prices or depend on business relationships, but not conside the value of our service as first priority.

Whereas in the global business world, they will appreciate your innovativeness, commitment, quality and vision. They will also understand the importance of a business alliance in having a win-win situation. Value always comes first before the price.

What advice would you give to young entrepreneurs who want to take the plunge into the IT industry?

Utilizing resources, and applying your knowledge to what you are doing is what will give you the highest return. The key success of today’s IT industry is all about how much you can turn your knowledge into something that generates good stream of revenue for your business. Financial and capital is always the secondary concern but before that you have to make sure your ideas can make your business survive and grow by itself.

Also, having ideas for new ventures is just the starting point. There will always be plenty of challenges and normally it will take few years to convert your ideas into successful products. Just be patient and stay tough during failures as it is a personal test to determine whether you are the best in the market. And there is no shortcut for success.

What’s next for ComDev? Where is the company heading to?

Comdev is moving towards another level of competitiveness. We are facing competition from the bigger players in the industry such as Google. We still maintain our focus in providing web-based application modules for the web design industry but with more innovative features.

Below are some of the ComDev’s key achievements

Incorporate as a Sdn Bhd in September 2004. In their first year of financial closing in 2005, they managed to achieve 500% of growth. They are projecting a 300% of growth for the coming year.

Around 4000 web designers and webmasters are using ComDev’s products for their web development projects. ComDev has also won the 2005 Entrepreneur Award from Action International Business Coaching.

Introduction

From our normal life we understand that most Malaysian desired to startup their business and become rich soon. Early retirement with dreams like travel around the world, a BMW sport car, having relax and no work forever. But when it comes to reality, one extreme is we want to get rich fast, another is not to take too much risk but follow the normal society path. Study hard, get good results, get good grades, be top of the school and go work for multi national companies and climb the ladder the stable way.

Most parents in Malaysia would definitely have their No.1 wish to have their children going for medicine and becoming a doctor with a full scholarship. 2^nd Option would be to have their children study accounting, law or engineering becoming either a charted accountant, lawyer and engineer climbing the corporate ladders up all the way living their life comfortably. But in another extreme, they wish for fame and fortune. It’s the high risk and manipulative way they think of business that they restrained their children of having going business as first choice.

There is actually the 3^rd option of letting our children going for professional course with an interest on top yet develop their entrepreneurship from young. Most of the technopreneurs from this book are professionals who graduated with strong professional knowledge or gained them through study and then only started their business. Some of the technopreneurs startup before they graduate, some startup after they finish their first degree, some startup after working for years. Though there is a difference in the startup process but all the technopreneurs in this books shares the same point of utilizing their knowledge to build it up into an idea, business plan and a business.

By reading this book, you are actually going through an accumulated experience of more than 100 years of entrepreneurship. Our technopreneur run business with a turnover of ranging from RM $1million up to $100 million. They would share out their business philosophies, approach of business right from their initial idea, planning, funding, prototyping, marketing, sales, branding, expansion and public listing and much more.

Foreword

If you are looking at this session now and is thinking of flipping ahead to read the content, my advise is why not take 5 minutes to read through why this book was created. It’s been my habit to share whatever I know to people as well as to learn from people their real life Story to shorten the need to go the wrong way and find out at the end that we made a mistake. Life is too short to make too many mistake and too short to really taste through everything bit by bit. Listening and reading people’s experience takes you through their life and go through their feeling easily and after sometime absorbing, you would structure out your own philosophy of entrepreneurship.

I spent quite sometime to recognize my own potential as well as get to know how the whole world after you graduate really is and how to push our potential to the max through pure luck. If it wasn’t for friends, customers and family to lead me into working and linking to the industry, I would have grown up in another way. To some people at the age of less than 30 and reaching what seems to be a successful entrepreneur path seems great but there are a lot of people who created wealth at a much younger age and jump out of their study life very early. To me the time spent during my studies was a wonderful 1, for it I didn’t really have to care about really earning the cash but trying out different ways to earn it. Of course with the money earned, I felt that I deserved to spend more and enjoy my life to the fullest as I was considered so called independent. A big thanks to my parents to trust me all the way letting me enjoy my life in everyway I liked but of course I know you guys trusted your education method which you know that I would never go stray.

Coming back to our book, this book is dedicated to you who is keen in starting up a business in ICT and would like to know what is the first step to go out to the market. What plans should be done, what people to look for, where to find fundings and resources. If you are going to those expensive classes where all those professional speaker tells you how to startup an ICT business when they themselves are experienced people with professor or Doctor status or consultant with how many years of experience, please stop wasting your money. They can motivate you to take the first step but after that you are on your own, but a mentor with more experience and different field of knowledge is advisable.

This book contain 10 to 15 technopreneur’s who have started their business, some extremely successful, some small scale operation and even some 1 person companies but rest assured that they are sharing the real life experience on most of the aspect you going to face later. I am actually at the very beginning of my great technopreneur experience but luckily I got to know all these great guys that are willingly to share, help and motivate me to the point I am in now. Though busy with business and limited in time, I still think it’s worthwhile to share out this great experience with you on this trip up the cliff to the peak you every dreamed of.

But of course when I start writing this 1^st book, I already planned to come out with more great people who are in other area’s, but next book would be entrepreneurs from different part of the world to see no matter how different is one’s culture and habit, entrepreneurship spirit is the same everywhere.

To my amazing mum who had instilled the rush for money from small and my dad for giving me freedom in choosing every path my way

Jeffrey Lim 17-8-07

Dealing with government agencies has been always a sensitive thing to me. But as we just change government, it’s more sensitive then ever.

No matter who takes over the government it doesn’t matter, we are businessman who wants only stability, clearity and growth of our country. Yet things may happen as change of political power means a lot of previously advisors under political party may change as well.

Any how, after sometime things remains to be the same but underneath everything seems to be boiling. Waiting for the moment to explode. Until now, i can see that most of it is still on the positive side which is in terms of long term direction, planning and anti corruption. Without change, we cannot take out the poisoned roots. But short terms wise, me myself suffered a lot.

But hero are born in a time of chaos, so it’s a time to be hero. It’s now or never. Politic is not my game so business is the way to go. Change of power, change of direction, no matter what happens, the target is still the same. See you on the top!

5 May 2008, 3pm. Zamri wrote down the letter of resignation to SCoPe, he handed to me (vice chairman) of ScoPe and Cheryl (secretary) of SCoPe and explained that due to own business reason, he had to resign from the post.

It was quite shocking to hear this news because i really liked Zamri as acting chairman. I have been with SCoPe for quite sometime and went through almost all the chairman except for founding chairman who is Mark Chang from Jobstreet. Each chairman had his own way of doing things, some very structured, some very independent, some very casual but out of all, i feel Zamri is one of the few that put in whole heartedly.

Yes, we are young and startup companies. Yes, we are sometime making decisions to fast. And yes, we ask too much! So these were the pressure that we were given and in a way, i think we created the pressure as well. But the bottom line is we stick to our main objective, bring benefits to the members, create more opportunity, brand and market SCoPe and go all out for it. Most important, we rely mostly on ourself.

To me, Zamri shared most of the things we have in common above so decision making and direction has been always clear. We worked very well, distributing work evenly holding hands together through tough times and making decision baring responsibility together. Since beginning, it has been following and learning from the more experience chairman and this is the first time i feel that it’s more of really working together and having democracy for all.

Just a tribute to my good friend and great partner. Really thank you for the few months you been with me. I dedicate this article to you, no matter what happen you been great and we should leave a history of all chairman names on our website including yours!

Sincerely Jeffrey 7-5-2008 12:35am