E-government in Malaysia

The E-government initiative was launched to lead the country into the Information Age. It will improve government's operation internally, and delivers services to the people of Malaysia. It is purposely to improve the convenience, accessibility and quality of interactions with citizens and businesses. Besides that, it also will improve information flows and processes within government to improve the speed and quality of those policies.

The 7 pilot projects of the Electronic Government Flagship Application are as follows:

1. Project Monitoring System (SPP II)
2. Human Resource Management Information System (HRMIS)
3. Generic Office Environment (GOE)
4. Electronic Procurement (EP)
5. Electronic Services (E-Services)
6. Electronic Labour Exchange (ELX)
7. E-Syariah

Citizen's adoption strategies :

1. Service Quality
Government must be able to provide faster services to citizen in order to attract more citizen involved in e-government service. For example, when someone leave a message, government should respond to them and help them to solve the problem.

2. Customer Satisfaction
E-Government adoption requires that citizens show higher levels of satisfaction with the online service provided by the government. A higher level of customer satisfaction will increase the rate of e-Government adoption.

3. Webpage design
The design of the webpage must be user friendly and easy to use. For example, in the website, there should has a option to choose the language that citizen familiar with such as english, malay and mandirin. This will allow a wide range of citizen involved in e-government.

References :
- Malaysia, Information and Communication Technology
- E-government in Malaysia

Review on Legal post - New rules for cyber cafes soon

This is a review regarding to a post in My E-commerce, which discuss about the new rules for cyber cafes. According to the post, there are SEVEN new rules that will be implemented to control the cyber cafes (“CC”) business.

1.Have to close by midnight daily.
2.Banned from using tinted glasses in their premises. (must be able to see through from the outside)
3.Only allowed to operate from the ground floor.
4.Those under 12 years old must be accompanied by parents or guardian and only allowed to stay up to 10.00pm.
5.Prohibited from providing gaming activities, gambling, pornography, music and publications with negative element.
6.Cigarettes and alcohol to be prohibited from being sold.
7.A book log to record the entry and departure time of the patrons.

Over these seven rules, most of them are still acceptable for the CC to comply with it. However, there are some significant rules which will affect the CC business significantly. 1st rule require the CC to close by midnight daily, which causes them to earn less from “overnight kaki”. Besides, gaming is the most important thing that a CC operates for. Most of the people go to CC play games is due to be able play together. This is because some games need local area network to be played.

Now, the government requires the cyber cafe to stop providing gaming activities, where it will cut the main income for the CC. If it does really happen and the cyber cafe has complied with it, the target market for cyber cafe will be dramatically cut down, where most of the consumers will be only those who do not own a computer at house, or those who has emergent use.

Previously, there is a rule where people who wearing school uniform are not allowed going into cyber café. However, we still can see some students wearing uniform in the CC. Most of them have become smarter where they change clothe before go in.

Thus, from the previous case, I do not think that Cyber café will comply with what the government has set. In my opinion, the cyber café might fight for the 5th rules, to allow them to provide games activity. This is because that is what CC famous and popular for. Hence, if government did really implement these rules to this industry, I think we will see the Cyber Café shops close down 1 by 1.

A discussion on E-learning offered in Malaysian universities: Pros and Cons from the students perspective

E-learning is a term for all types of technology-enhanced learning, where technology is used to support the learning process. Many universities in Malaysia are adopted the system of e-learning. A question comes up my mind, does this system really work among students?

As a student's perspective, e-learning does have many advantages such as:

- students' learning option are not constrained by geographic location.
- e-learning reduces learning time as students can learn when they need it
- students can learn at their own pace and the learning can be fit into their busy schedule
- it provide less costs for students.
- students may also gain side benefits of learning new technologies and technical skills
- there are more often student-to-student interaction during learning process.
- students are being trained to be more independant in learning instead of spoon feed by lecturers.

However, e-learning system may caused some problems to students too such as:

- e-learning requires some equipment needs to support the system such as computer technologies.
- it lacks of face to face interaction among students and lecturers
- students may not be able to access to the information uploaded if the system broke down.

Obviously, e-learning system in universities provides more pros than cons. Students should utilized it in order to have a higher achievement in learning.

References:
(1) Wikipedia - E-Learning
(2) Canadian E-Learning Conference - Student Responses
(3) The Benefits and Drawbacks of e-Learning

Corporate blogging: A new marketing communication tool for companies

Blog marketing is the term used to describe internet marketing via web blogs. Corporations use blogs to create a dialog with customers and explain features of their products and services. Anyhow, is it really an effective marketing tool for corporate?

A blog for marketing can give a company an identity gaining visibility on the web. It have become a way of promoting just about anything whether it may be public relations, marketing a new product, improving brand image and for research.

Blog achieves the goal of growing business because the company expands as it caters to online customers who may come across it. Blogs are a great way of promoting a business in that it can help in interacting with users and display their feedback. Thereby when other people view any testimonials made by customers like themselves they will be satisfied that the company is serving its clients well and listening to their needs.

Blogs are low cost way of marketing. Besides that, they can be changed and edited at will to suit the different tastes and fashions that keep coming up from time to time.A blog is indeed a powerful medium for corporate with many benefits such as:

- allowing readers or prospective employees get a sense of the corporate culture or work environment

- creating an online presence that builds brand equity and awareness

- allowing readers to post feedback directly on issues or features that they may or may not like

- shows the personal side of a company or a company leader

- let's companies and individuals build quality relationships with loyal readers or users

- allows companies or individuals to make important news or event announcements

As a conclusion, companies are starting to realize exactly how powerful blogs can be, especially as marketing tools. Thus, they can use blog as a valuable marketing and relationship building tool.

References:
- Blog as a Marketing Tool
- Wikipedia - Blog Marketing

- Business Pointers - Blog Marketing

The Application of Pre-paid cash card for consumer

Nowadays, majority of the consumers like to use pre-paid cash card when buying products that they are needed. Why consumers like to use pre-paid card? The main reason would be they no need bring a lot of cash on hand during shopping time. It reduces the risk that the cash on hand being rob by thief.

Consumers need to reload the pre-paid card in order to make sure that there is no credit balance. Consumers can reload their pre-paid card by cash at bank, post office, Payzone or PayPoint terminals or through bank transfer.

Application of pre-paid cash card for consumers :

1. Touch' n go - It is a form of pre-paid cash card that can be used for toll payment, KTM , LRT and etc. Consumers should reload the card when there is a credit balance.
2. Online purchase - User also can use pre-paid cash card to make payment when conducting online purchase
3. Prepaid card for mobile phone - Consumers enable to use this card to top up the balances.
4. Withdraw cash - Consumers can use this card to withdraw money from ATM machine.

Reference :
- Master Card Website
- Guide to Prepaid Cards

Credit card debts : Causes and Prevention

What is credit card debt? Why there is credit card debt exist? How to solve this problem?

Credit card debt is an example of unsecured consumer debt. This will occur when consumers continuously used credit card to make payment. The debts will be increased due to there is an interest charge on the credit payment. Therefore, nowadays, many people owe credit card debts and they are unable to repay the debts and interest charged by bank.

Causes of credit card debts:

Poor money management - Consumers may not have a proper plan for money spending over the month. Therefore, the money they spend is more than their monthly income. As a result, when they received the bank statement from bank, they are unable to pay the debts.

Less Income, more expenses - Due to current economic condition ( inflation ), all products' price has been increased rapidly. In other words, this shows that expenses that occur will increase if compare to last few years. As a consequence, income is unable to cover all the expenses, so it may lead to use credit card to make payment first.

No saving - Sometimes, when there is an unanticipated event that need a huge amount of money, because of consumer has no saving in the bank and therefore they may use credit card to setttle the payment first.

Prevention of credit card debts :

Proper Money Management - You should determine your monthly income and needed expenses, and plan the expenses that is neccesary over the month. And if there still have money at the end of the month, you should save the money into bank for future use.

Avoid extra expenses - Those expenses that are extra can eliminate it. For example, having dinner at home rather than at restaurant.

Use cash to make payment - You can settle all the paymeny by using cash, this is because no interest will be charged on the cash. In addition, you should reduce the number of using credit card when make payment.

References :
- Top 10 causes of debt
- 3debtconsolidation - Top 10 Causes of debt
- How to avoid Credit Card Debt

A review on e-tailing - Using Touch n Go card to buy fast food in Malaysia will be a reality

Today, I am going to share with you all about what I have read from a post in My E-commerce. The post is disclosed that Touch n Go card could be used to buy fast food from 21 outlets.

After reading the post, I personally think that this implementation might not be as success as what Hong Kong’s Octopus card has done, due to the culture in Malaysia. Touch n Go is design for those who are run out of time, which ease the users and save their time while they are making payment. However, Malaysians prefer to use cash, or use future money to buy things (at least I am one of them who think like this). It is popular and successful in transportation area, such as use in LRT, KTM, and Highway Toll, but this is because when we use the card in these facilities, we could really just touch and go, where we do not need to wait it to count the cost.

However, if it implement in fast food area, we have to wait the cashier too. We can just prepare the money while they are preparing the food for us, and just wait a while for the small change. Besides, Touch n Go is successful in transportation area because it is targeting in all drivers and public transports’ passengers. However, if Touch and Go is aiming for fast food area, it is targeting on those who buy fast food through drive through, which is quite specific and smaller market.

Besides, there is another card, which is similar to Touch n Go, known as Zing Card. It is offered by various banks, where you could register if you are a visa or master card holder. This card offer an auto reload feature, which could be a threat for Touch n Go.

In conclusion, I think that this implementation is hard to be use in Malaysia, due to the culture in Malaysia. It might be successful, if the company could offer the card to be use in more area, and increase the availability of the services.