ONE of the ways to improve efficiency and to reduce cost of doing business for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) is by deploying an effective e-payment solution.

Taking this into consideration, T-Melmax Sdn Bhd has unveiled its latest e-payment product called MaxPaygate Link for Microsoft Excel (MXL).

Its founder and chief executive officer Abdul Mushir Che Chik said the MXL is a plug-in that runs on Microsoft Excel 2007. With MXL, companies can easily make payments for their staff salaries, statutory payments and supplier payments to the bank via the Internet.

The MXL, which was developed based on the ISO Office Open XML standard, has the ability to store and manage business data in documents, thus resulting in lower cost of automating business processes, the company said.

BThe plug-in was developed together with Microsoft (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd.ased on the company’s market surveys and statistics, Abdul Mushir explained that most SMEs are familiar with Microsoft Excel, a spreadsheet program that can also be used as a payroll system.

“With this in mind, we developed an e-payment solution that is based on the Windows-platform as there would be no re-learning needed,” he said.

Moreover, the survey also revealed that a large portion of SMEs have not adopted ICT due to costs and lack of IT expertise but many are open to the idea if there is no major investment involved and the solution is easy to use.

“The SMEs that we talked to were not very concerned of the technology platform. These companies want a solution that is easy to use and offers better return of investment,” he added.

Banking customer

Meanwhile, CIMB Bank is joining the fold as T-Melmax’s first banking partner for this e-payment service. The bank believes the solution serves as a user-friendly tool for customers to connect to the bank.

“MXL is a win-win situation for us and our customers. It assists us in delivering a seamless low-cost solution, according to the needs of our customers,” said CIMB Bank’s director of cash management, international banking and transaction services Ravi Gopal.

“The MXL is an existing secure interface that has been established with T-Melmax and we are confident that our customers will enjoy a safe e-payment experience,” he added.

The plug-in can be downloaded for free from www.t-melmax.com. An annual subscription fee of RM99 is charged and each transaction costs RM1.

T-Melmax is an investee company of Malaysia Venture Capital Management Bhd.