PRESS BRIEFING: Saifol (right) fielding questions from the press on the results of the Great ICT sale. With him is Badlisham.

By JO TIMBUONG

PETALING JAYA: The month-long Great ICT sale organised by the Multimedia Development Corporation has been deemed a success as it managed to create awareness of the use of ICT among small-and-medium-size ­enterprises.

Although the sale garnered only RM106,000 in actual sales, the custodian of the MSC Malaysia ­initiative said it had succeeded in creating a platform for smaller scale service providers and customers to hawk and acquire ICT products and services.

“We don’t judge the results in Ringgit and sen but rather in the awareness of how ICT can move these businesses forward,” said MDeC chief executive officer, Datuk Badlisham Ghazali at a press ­briefing to announce the results of the Great ICT sale.

The sale, which was held in Kuala Lumpur, Penang and Johor Bahru, managed to attract RM7.8mil worth of high ­performing opportunities (HIPOs), said MDeC industry development division vice-­president, Saifol Bahri Mohd Shamlan.

He explained that these ­opportunities were more than just regular enquiries and that buyers were seriously considering ­acquiring the products or services.

Saifol said MDeC and companies that participated in the sale will be pursuing the HIPOs through tracers, where they will follow-up on customer interest on the exhibited products and services.

“Ultimately, we’d like to see these opportunities turn to actual sales,” he said.

Following the success of the sale, MDeC plans to make it a yearly event in its calendar and plans to bring it to Sabah and Sarawak next year.

Saifol said MDeC is also ­planning to create a national SME e-commerce platform as an added measure to get SMEs to use ICT in their businesses and help narrow the digital divide among these companies.

As an indication of the size of the divide, Saifol said that only 25% of SMEs use servers and about 11% are into e-commerce.

“Judging from the response to this sale, it can be concluded that the divide can be addressed,” he said.

Good show

Companies that participated in the sale also said it was a good platform to get bring their products to market.

“Some markets would have been unreachable for us if it wasn’t for this sale,” said Isa Adam Yee, ­director of Cruise GPS Systems Sdn Bhd, which develops GPS tracking solutions for logistics companies.

Besides marketing their ­products, the participants also managed to attract investors.

“We spoke to a Singaporean company that is interested in ­selling our products overseas,” said Y.M. Lee, chief executive officer of 3TP Sdn Bhd, which is a hospitality ­solutions provider.

Participants were also impressed with the results of the campaign that they want it to be held more often.

“I think it should be held twice a year instead of annually,” said Stanley Tiew, chief executive ­officer of e-commerce gateway provider First Online Sdn Bhd.