In-house smart solutions for Fixed Wireless Access connectivity and customer experience platform for frontliners awarded under “Connectivity-Telecommunications” and “AI-IT Services” categories respectively
Telekom Research & Development Sdn Bhd (TM R&D), the innovation arm of Telekom Malaysia Berhad (TM), recently bagged two awards at the Malaysia Technology Excellence Awards 2022, organised by the Singapore Business Review.
The Malaysia Technology Excellence Awards spotlights exceptional companies who are technology disruptors that boosts Malaysia’s economy. TM’s Fast Internet for All (FIRA) solution was bestowed the award under the “Connectivity-Telecommunications” category, while TM’s Single Platform on Intelligent Customer Experience (SPICE.ai) won the award in the “Artificial Intelligence (AI)-IT Services” category.
Commenting on these awards, Dr. Sharlene Thiagarajah, Chief Executive Officer, TM R&D said, “I couldn’t be prouder of my team as these awards reflect their commitment to meet the fast-evolving digital needs of today’s customers and strengthen our position as a research leader in these fields. This recognition also reaffirms our efforts in building smarter digital ecosystems to facilitate the ease with which Malaysians can embrace a more digital lifestyle, while also bringing progress to the nation.”
FIRA was introduced as a way to support the government in providing Malaysians with quality access to digital connectivity nationwide. Aimed at offering better internet service to underserved communities, FIRA uses Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) technologies to improve connectivity in rural areas across Malaysia. Since its first deployment in Malacca back in July 2020, the solution has demonstrated promising success in improving download and upload link speeds compared to other broadband services. The solution has since been implemented at a rural school in Selangor and at Pusat Komuniti Desa sites under the Ministry of Rural Development. It has also supported an IR4.0 use case in Terengganu.
“FIRA is formulated to address two common issues: coverage and speed. The solution is capable to deliver connectivity up to 50Mbps within 5-8km range, compared to a traditional 4G cell within 1km range. Furthermore, with its quick deployment procedures, FIRA can help mitigate customers’ connectivity concerns in a cost-effective and timely manner,” shared Dr. Sharlene.
SPICE.ai, on the other hand, aims to assist frontliners in their daily task of addressing customer service enquiries and requests.
Dr Sharlene explained, “SPICE.ai consists of multiple components that cover different parts of an existing customer experience system. By integrating these components, frontliners gain a more holistic view of each customers’ profiles. The solution then implements real-time analytics to improve customer experience, giving frontliners the right information at the right time which allows them to deliver a better experience to customers.”
This analytics system has been deployed nationwide for nearly two years and becomes the primary touchpoint for more than 5,000 TM frontliners in most customer interactions across multiple channels. The performance of SPICE.ai has proven to be reliable and seamless even when integrated with more than 20 existing, standalone systems and was still able to relay the processed information through one single platform, on top of providing analytics and advisory.
Established in 2001, TM R&D is the innovation arm of TM Group focusing on creating smarter ecosystems to make business and life easier for a better Malaysia. TM R&D’s solutions are clustered around four pillars namely Intelligent Platforms, Data Brokerage, Connectivity/Tools and IR4.0/Digital Solutions. Growing from strength to strength, TM R&D has won multiple global awards and generated more than 2,800 Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs) and 1,400 digital assets to date. TM R&D’s innovations are developed in-house and cut across multiple industries such as Utilities, Retail, Agriculture, Healthcare and Education, with safety and productivity as its top priority.
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As nation shows encouraging signs of recovery, TM posts strong results for first nine months of 2021 revenue up 6.8%, net profit increases 7.7%
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Earnings Before Interest and Tax (EBIT) grew by 17.1% to RM1,414.8 million, from RM1,208.6 million as a result of revenue growth and continuous cost optimisation initiatives. PATAMI increased by 7.7% to RM815.3 million compared to RM756.7 million, following sound operating profits. Imri Mokhtar, Group Chief Executive Officer of TM commented: "Throughout 2021, we've focused our efforts to deliver digital connectivity and solutions in supporting the sustainability and recovery of our country. As a result, we are able to deliver another solid quarter of revenue and net profit growth. Our next focus will be on delivering enhanced customer experience and strengthening our digital offerings across all customer segments in unifi, TM ONE and TM WHOLESALE. With movement control restrictions in Malaysia continue to be eased and the economy gains momentum, we remain committed to serve the nation. We will continue to play our leading role in Malaysia's digitalisation drive outlined by the Jalinan Digital Negara (JENDELA) action plan, 2022 Budget and the 12th Malaysian Plan, including MyDIGITAL blueprint. As we continue our shift towards becoming a human-centred technology company, we will develop innovative solutions and drive digital adoption across our broad customer base of home, SME, corporate and Government customers – anchored on enhanced customer experience. Supporting this evolution, will be our new way of working at TM – focusing on increased productivity through digitalisation and process automation, upskilling of our existing workforce and welcoming new digital talents." Driving digital adoption and a new way of working in the post-pandemic era TM recorded the highest increase in unifi subscribers for three consecutive quarters. In the quarter under review, TM registered an additional 210,000 new unifi subscribers in both the consumer and micro, small and medium sized enterprise (MSMEs) segments. This record-breaking growth is fuelled by high demand for connectivity and digitalisation tools which have become an important necessity. To deliver this demand, TM has been adding higher number of broadband ports and delivering a wider fibre network coverage. This expansion has exceeded TM's committed targets in JENDELA action plan. The fast network rollout together with strong frontline support, a steady marketing push and speedy installation had cemented customer's confidence and trust. Beyond connectivity, unifi has steadily strengthened its entertainment proposition with the addition of 19 new content offerings comprising 7 content streaming services and 12 new channels. Supporting the Government's push to digitalise MSMEs, unifi registered encouraging increase of productivity and digital tools utilisation amongst its 375,000 MSME customers, leveraging the Government's Digitalisation Grant. Focusing on enhanced customer experience Customer experience remains our key focus across all segments and we continue to introduce new experience features and improvements in this area. For unifi customers, we continue to innovate and improve in the management of user experience. We now provide customers with a proactive early detection and intervention support for broadband connectivity and ensuring fast resolution of service. As a market leader, TM commits to a continued focus on customer experience, with progressive releases of more new experience leveraging on analytics. TM WHOLESALE was recently awarded the Best Asia Pacific Zero Outage Supplier by T-Systems amidst intense competition from other established telcos in the region. This recognition signifies TM's commitment and focus to provide the best quality service to our telco and hyperscaler customers. Enabling digital solutions in the Enterprise and Public sectors TM ONE remains steadfast in its commitment to realise the nation's MyDIGITAL blueprint and support efforts to rebuild the economy in both the Enterprise and Public sectors. New sales and contract renewal across the Enterprise and Public sectors are encouraging in the post pandemic recovery period with TM ONE providing digital connectivity and solutions for the Digital Community Centre in rural areas, regional cloud services and major financial institutions. TM ONE maintains its role as a trusted business partner driving digital transformation for Enterprise and Public sectors especially in business process automation via partnerships with global digitalisation partners such as SAP. Delivering network for the Industry TM WHOLESALE continues its "telco for telcos" role by providing wholesale services and solutions to all Malaysian licensed service providers. In line with the overall growth of broadband, TM WHOLESALE recorded high demand for its wholesale broadband service. As the primary mobile backhaul provider for the industry, TM WHOLESALE registered an increase in bandwidth utilisation of its Next Generation Backhaul service by major mobile telcos. This also positions TM as a capable enabler for Malaysia's 5G network deployment. Internationally, TM WHOLESALE continues to strengthen its partnership ecosystem with global telcos and hyperscalers, and has recorded significant growth of international bandwidth traffic. This is further complemented by the coverage increase of the global content delivery network (CDN) with more than 80 CDN nodes worldwide. TM WHOLESALE has also established a collaboration with a Tier 1 Internet Protocol (IP) transit provider – Tata Communications – to offer high-speed and reliable connectivity in the ASEAN region and open access to global enterprises. At the same time, we have successfully on boarded more than 15 major international hyperscalers and digital service providers in TM's core data centres. All of the above positions Malaysia positively as a digital and technology hub in ASEAN. A socially responsible Corporate Citizen TM played its part in supporting the fight against COVID-19 via various programmes. Overall, TM has contributed over RM9.5 million for humanitarian and community initiatives this year including to Tabung CERDIK and COVID-19 GLC/GLIC (GDRN) fund. TM also provided digital connectivity services to more than 400 PPVs nationwide, in addition to converting three of its premises into PPVs at its Multimedia University (MMU) campuses in Cyberjaya and Melaka, plus Kompleks TM Taiping. TM had also spent over RM16.0 million on several safety protocols and preventive measures across its customer operations to ensure the wellbeing of our frontliners and customers. These measures include providing personal protective equipment (PPE), weekly COVID-19 screening, UV air treatment and other workplace measures.

TM wins again at Malaysia Technology Excellence Awards 2021 for its innovation, patrol
This is the fourth award received by TM at Malaysia Technology Excellence Awards in three years running Telekom Malaysia Berhad (TM) through its innovation arm, TM Research & Development (TM R&D) wins the AI – Telecommunications Award at the recent Malaysia Technology Excellence Awards 2021, presented by Singapore Business Review. The award was conferred in recognition of the Company's achievement in developing PATROL as a proof of function for research particularly on automatic detection of construction using vehicle dashcam and generate proactive alerts using artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning algorithms. This is the fourth award received by TM R&D from the Malaysia Technology Excellence Awards in its three years of running. The awards ceremony lauds exceptional companies that have successfully pioneered IT products, solutions and innovative technology projects in their respective industries to boost Malaysia's fast-growing economy. Commenting on the accomplishment, Dr. Sharlene Thiagarajah, Chief Executive Officer, TM R&D said, "This is indeed a proud moment for us. Winning the award is a huge boost for our effort in showcasing how AI can be applied to solve real-life problems. It is also a huge encouragement for us to further strengthen our position as the leader in the research, development and innovation field. This award goes out to the team for delivering such outstanding work. We hope it will give them the drive to explore more innovations for TM to serve a more digital society, digital business, digital industry and digital Government, towards accelerating Digital Malaysia." Project PATROL was developed to provide early warning alerts on areas where TM infrastructure has a high risk of being destroyed due to civil and construction works by a third party. Ideally, before the civil or construction works were to begin, TM and other utility companies are to be consulted to ensure proper precautionary measures are taken to avoid telecommunication cable or other utility infrastructure cuts such as water or sewerage. The cable cuts will lead to loss of broadband and other telecommunication services which will cause major inconveniences to consumer lifestyle and businesses, as well as operation nightmare for any telcos. To fill in those gaps, PATROL was developed powered by digital and AI capabilities. PATROL leverages AI, object detection capabilities and the Internet of Things (IoT) to detect a construction area using a dashcam. The system then automatically checks if the unregistered civil and construction activity is in close proximity to underground or overhead cable infrastructure. Several parameters are used to assess risk before an alert is sent to the Network Operations Centre for investigation. "PATROL provides real-time alerts on civil and construction activities that pose a high risk to the security and safety of TM's cable infrastructure. This information allows telco providers to act fast in preventing possible threats to their assets. With PATROL, we foresee a huge opportunity for operational cost avoidance due to cable cut cases," she further added. Established in 2001, TM R&D is the innovation arm for TM Group focusing on creating smarter ecosystems to make business and life easier for a better Malaysia. TM R&D's solutions are clustered around four (4) pillars namely Intelligent Platforms, Data Brokerage, Connectivity/Tools and IR4.0/Digital Solutions. Growing from strength to strength since 2016, TM R&D has won multiple global awards and generated more than 2,800 Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs) and 1,400 digital assets to date. TM R&D's innovations are all developed in-house and cut across multiple verticals such as Utilities, Retail, Agriculture, Healthcare and Education with safety and productivity as the top priority. As TM R&D continues to expand beyond connectivity and into smarter digital ecosystems, its role in TM has become more prominent and exciting. For more information about TM R&D and its innovations, visit www.tmrnd.com.my or email your inquiry to business@tmrnd.com.my or follow them on LinkedIn (TM Research & Development) for more news and updates.

Credence, TM’s new cloud and digital services company, to empower enterprises’ digital capabilities – from infrastructure to insights
Powered by TM as a corporate start-up, Credence will bring new expertise and agility to grow TM’s digital services to support customers’ requirements and capture new opportunities. Kuala Lumpur, 6 July 2022 – Telekom Malaysia Berhad (TM) today launched Credence, a new cloud and digital services company focused on expanding the capabilities of enterprises and the public sector in their digital transformation journey. “With enterprises re-evaluating their capabilities and offerings to respond to today’s increasingly digital demands, TM is poised to become an astute digital solutions provider in addition to its established connectivity leadership position. “TM will empower organisations in the private and public sector to transform with greater efficiency and flexibility while offering a superior return on investment. We recognise that now is an opportune time to leverage on our strengths, address market needs and launch a dedicated company – Credence – that is focused on technology and digital innovation,” said Imri Mokhtar, TM’s Group Chief Executive Officer. “TM will offer a differentiated advantage in how we bring end-to-end digital solutions and services to customers through Credence. Leveraging both local and international technologies as well as expertise, Credence will provide greater and faster time-to-value by understanding local customer requirements and challenges. “In the long run, through our foray into the digital services market, we aim to improve TM’s growth trajectory and unlock significant value for both our customers and stakeholders,” Imri explained. Credence is led by Krish Datta, an experienced technology leader who joined TM in late 2021 to shape its new digital services arm. Leveraging TM’s established resources, infrastructure, and its strong links to enterprises and the public sector, Credence is well-positioned to accelerate Malaysia’s digital transformation journey. “We offer organisations the ability to embark on their digital journey with better predictability, lesser concern and disruption while choosing the best tech solutions that suit their needs and priorities, enabling them to focus on their core business,” said Krish. He explained that Credence will provide capabilities from tech infrastructure to business insights, cloud advisory, IT landscape migration, SaaS, managed services as well as analytics and insights. “Credence aims to deliver outstanding experience for our customers. We are the only company that is able to offer our customers the full end-to-end solutions from infrastructure to insights (I2I). Our approach is to meet customers where they are, discover what their mission-critical goals are, and work with them according to their needs and priorities. “We are also platform and technology-agnostic – putting us in a better position to offer solutions with a stronger customer bias vis-a-vis a vendor bias,” explained Krish. As part of the launch, Credence announced key partnerships with VMware, AWS and Huawei, which enables them to offer a broad range of options to enterprises, customised to their individual growth needs. “We are pleased to announce that Credence is working with VMware to deliver their first sovereign cloud service in Malaysia, keeping in mind the data sovereignty of customers in Malaysia,” said Krish. “Malaysia’s digital-first approach is enabling massive transformation and opportunity for businesses in the country. VMware is working with Credence to help enterprises in regulated industries, and companies in the e-commerce and energy sectors to meet their unique cloud and data sovereignty requirements within Malaysian borders,” said Ajay Turki, Director Cloud Sales, Southeast Asia & Korea, VMware. “We are also enhancing the offerings of TM’s Cloud Alpha Edge to include services, SaaS solutions as well as data insights to be the leading Government cloud service provider,” added Krish. “At its core, however, digital transformation is less about technology and more about people, and the success of organisations depends on developing, cultivating and nurturing the next generation of technologically-skilled professionals. Through Credence, we aim to address the current digital and tech skills gap – making strategic hires from the tech sector as well as transferring similar skillsets from TM to spearhead this new digital start-up. “In this way, we hope to nurture a pipeline of next-generation tech and digital talents, and equip Malaysians for a digital future by upskilling them with digital capabilities, and providing them access to the right data and tools. This will not only benefit organisations but our collective progress as a nation, solidifying our Digital Malaysia aspirations,” concluded Imri.