E-Government in Malaysia: Its implementation so far and citizen's adoption strategies

In 1997, the Malaysian Government launched the Electronic Government initiative, generally known as e-Government, to reinvent itself to lead the country into the Information Age. As far as Malaysia is concerned, the implementation of e-government was initiated with the introduction of the Multimedia Super Corridor(MSC) in 1996. The implementation of e-Government in Malaysia heralds the beginning of a journey of reinventing the government by transforming the way it operates, modernizing and enhancing its service delivery. This would enable the government to be more responsive to the needs of its citizens. E-government is one of the seven flagship applications introduced in MSC. The objectives of these flagship applications are to jump start and accelerate the growth of MSC, to enhance national competitiveness; to creation of high value jobs and export growth, to help reduce digital divide, and to make MSC a regional hub and test bed. Under the e-government flagship, seven main projects were identified to be the core of the e-government applications.

The e-Government projects are:
1. Electronic Procurement (EP),
2. Project Monitoring System (PMS),
3. Electronic Services Delivery(eServices),
4. Human Resource Management Information System (HRMIS),
5. Generic Office Environment (GOE),
6. E-Syariah and Electronic Labour Exchange (ELX).

Besides these seven main projects under e-government flagships, several government
agencies has taken initiatives to introduced online services for the public projects,
aims to increase the ease and efficiency of public service to the people. Among others
were Public Services Portal (myGovernment), e-Tanah, e-Consent, e-Filing, e-Local
Government (e-PBT), e-Kehakiman, Custom Information System (SMK), Pensions
Online Workflow Environment (POWER), and Training Information System (e-SILA).

IMPLEMENTATION STATUS OF E-GOVERNMENT PROJECTS IN
MALAYSIA

1. Electronic Procurement (eP) Project
The electronic procurement system, better known as ePerolehan, streamlines government procurement activities and improves the quality of service it provides. ePerolehan converts traditional procurement processes in the Government machinery to electronic procurement on the Internet and can be accessed at www.eperolehan.com.my.

2. Project Monitoring System (PMS II)
Project Monitoring System (PMS) is led by the Implementation and Co-ordination Unit (ICU) as one of the e-government projects that create a mechanism to monitor project implementation throughout various government agencies and statutory bodies i.e. from project application to approval to implementation, mid-term review and completion.
PMS would also provide a platform for exchanging ideas and demonstrating best
practices in project implementation. The PMS is designed to provide a mechanism for
monitoring the implementation of government projects.

3. Electronic Services Directory (eServices)
The next e-government project is Electronic Services Delivery (eServices). This
project is a pilot project that allows citizens of Malaysia to engage in transactions with government and utilities payments such as telephone and electricity bill, police summons, Road and Transport Department (RTD) services, etc. The eServices is accessed via multi channel service delivery such as the internet, interactive voice response (IVR) and 66 kiosk machines.

4. Human Resource Management Information System (HRMIS)
The introduction of Human Resource Management Information System (HRMIS) as an e-government project will provide a single interface for government employees to perform human resource functions effectively and efficiently. The objective of HRMIS is not just for record keeping but also to provide transactional functions such as leave applications, loan processing, competency management, recruitment, and selection of employees.

5. Generic Office Environment (GOE)
The aim of Generic Office Environment (GOE) is to introduce a fully Integrated, distributed and scalable office environment that leverages use of multimedia information technology This will enable efficient communication, allowing collaboration across all workers, and ensuring right information reaching the right people in a timely manner.

6. Electronic Labour Exchange (ELX)
The main objective of Electronic Labour Exchange (ELX) is to improve the mobilization of human resources and optimize work force utilization through systematic matching of job seekers to job vacancies. As such, this would enable the Ministry of Human Resources (MOHR) to be a one-stop centre for labour market information that will be accessible to the public.

7. E-Syariah
The main objective of implementing E-Syariah is to improve the quality of service in Syariah courts. This will eventually enhance the Islamic Affairs Department's effectiveness through better monitoring and co-ordination of its agencies and thus improve the management of its 102 Syariah courts.

The National Archives (NAM) Response to eGovernment (EG)
The introduction of EG indicates the volume of electronic records created or will be created in Malaysia, thus leaving an impact on recordkeeping particularly electronic records. As government agencies or public offices are involved with electronic records, the NAM reacted in positive and proactively manner to the new challenges it has to face after EG implementation.

For Example:
1. Electronic Records and Information Technology Management (PRETM)
2. The National Archives Act 2003
3. e-SPARK Project

By:
Teng Yann Guan 0701652

Review of Dell.com.my

When it comes to online computer retail in Malaysia, without hesitation, the first choice of mine will be http://www.dell.com.my/.

In the 1980s Dell became a pioneer in the “configure to order” approach to manufacturing – delivering individual PCs configured to customer specifications. In contrast, most PC manufacturers in those times delivered large orders to intermediaries on a quarterly basis.

To minimize the delay between purchase and delivery, Dell has a general policy of manufacturing its products close to its customers. This also allows for implementing a just-in-time (JIT) manufacturing approach, which minimizes inventory costs.

Technical support

Dell routes technical support queries according to component-type and to the level of support purchased. Dell Inc brands its service agreements at five levels for their business customers.

1. Basic support provides business-hours telephone support and next business-day on-site support.
2. Silver support provides 24×7 telephone support and 4-hour on-site support after telephone-based troubleshooting.
3. Gold support provides additional benefits over and above Silver support, including: customer-declared severity; priority access to support; expedited escalation of support; 4-hour on-site support in parallel with telephone-support.
4. Platinum Plus support provides additional benefits to Gold Support, including: performance benchmarking; real-time tracking; custom planning and reporting; a dedicated technical account-manager.
5. 2-hour on-site support, offered in some cities: mostly limited to major metropolitan areas.

Service Tags

Dell associates a Service Tag, a unique alpha-numeric identifier, with most of its products, which resembles a serial number. The Service Tag number, represented in base 36, has a length of five or seven characters. Software can read the Service Tag in a computer's DMI table. Monitors bought as part of a computer system get support via the Service Tag of the computer. Monitors bought separately get support via the Dell Order Number or via the monitor's serial number.

Dell links its Service Tags to Express Service Codes, usually found together with the service tag on a sticker physically attached to a system. Computer-owners can usually find this tag on the bottom of laptops; or on the side or on the back of the computer tower of desktops. The Express Service Code, a purely numerical conversion of the service tag, serves for use in Dell's trunkline for routing a customer to the appropriate phone-technician. Dell's technical support for consumers requires the customer to enter in their Express Service Code into their touch-tone phone and if they do not provide it when prompted customers will experience increased hold-time before reaching a support-representative.

DellConnect

The DellConnect program, a remote-access tool, gives technicians within Dell Support the ability to access customer computers from a remote location for troubleshooting purposes. By using this tool, support technicians can analyze the configuration of a computer system, view and edit its files and software environment, view and comment on the screen, or take control of the computer system (with the customer's approval) to carry out troubleshooting.

By:

Chua Sin Yee 0701651

Corporate Blogging: A new marketing communication tool for companies

A corporate weblog is published and used by an organization to reach its organizational goals. The advantage of blogs is that posts and comments are easy to reach and follow due to centralized hosting and generally structured conversation threads. Currently, all major browsers (including Firefox, Opera, Safari and Internet Explorer 7) support RSS technology, which enables readers to easily read recent posts without actually visiting the blog, which is very useful for low-volume blogs.

Although there are many different types of corporate blogs, most can be categorized as either external or internal.

Types of Corporate Blogs

Internal Blogs

An internal blog, generally accessed through the corporation's Intranet, is a weblog that any employee can view. Many blogs are also communal, allowing anyone to post to them. The informal nature of blogs may encourage:

• employee participation
• free discussion of issues
• collective intelligence
• direct communication between various layers of an organization
• a sense of community
  

Internal blogs may be used in lieu of meetings and e-mail discussions, and can be especially useful when the people involved are in different locations, or have conflicting schedules. Blogs may also allow individuals who otherwise would not have been aware of or invited to participate in a discussion to contribute their expertise.

External Blogs

An external blog is a publicly available weblog where company employees, teams, or spokespersons share their views. It is often used to announce new products and services (or the end of old products), to explain and clarify policies, or to react on public criticism on certain issues. It also allows a window to the company culture and is often treated more informally than traditional press releases, though a corporate blog often tries to accomplish similar goals as press releases do. In some corporate blogs, all posts go through a review before they're posted. Some corporate blogs, but not all, allow comments to be made to the posts.

Certain corporate blogs have a very high number of subscribers. The official Google Blog is currently in the Technorati top 50 listing among all blogs worldwide.

The business blog can provide additional value by adding a level of credibility that is often unobtainable from a standard corporate site. The informality and increased timeliness of information posted to blogs assists with increasing transparency and accessibility in the corporate image. Business blogs can interact with a target market on a more personal level while building link credibility that can ultimately be tied back to the corporate site.

CEO Blogs

Although there are debates on whether CEOs should blog or not, blogging among CEOs is becoming popular.

Popularity
Whether external or internal, blogs are not new to the corporate world. More than 12% of the Fortune 500 companies blog externally.

Market research done in the first half of 2006 indicated that 34% of large companies had established weblogs. Another 35% planned to do so by the end of 2006, thus bringing the total to nearly 70%.

By:

Lim Hooi Ting 0701396

Things to take note to prevent e-auction fraud when a consumer participating in an e-auction

Auction is market mechanism by which buyers make bids and sellers place offers. It is characterized by the competitive and dynamic nature by which the final price is reached. Auctions can rapidly disposal of items that needs liquidation or a quick sale, they offer trading opportunities for both buyers and sellers that are not available in conventional channels and they ensure cautious execution of contracts. The most popular type of auctions is an electronic auction (e-auctions) which means auctions conducted online.

The largest Internet auctioneer is eBay which has introduced several measures in an effort to reduce fraud. Following are action to prevent e-auction fraud:

1. User identity verification such in IC number, driver’s license number or date of birth. For example, verified eBay user, the voluntary program, encourages users to supply eBay with information for online verification.

2. Authentication service. It is to determine whether an item is genuine and described appropriately. It difficult to perform because their training and experience, experts can detect counterfeits based on subtle detail.

3. Grading services which is a way to determine the physical condition of an item, such as ‘poor quality’ or ‘mint condition’. Different item have different grading systems. For example, trading cards are graded from A1 to F1, while coins are graded from poor to perfect uncirculated.

4. Feedback forum. It allows buyers and sellers to build up their online trading reputations. It provides user with ability to comment on their experiences with other.

5. Insurance policy. For example, eBay offers insurance underwritten, users are covered up to $200, will with a $25 deductible. The program is provided at no cost to eBay user.

6. Escrow services. Both buyers and sellers in a deal are protected with an independent third party. Buyer mails the payment to escrow services which verifies the payment and alerts the seller when everything checks out. An example of a provider of online escrow services s i-Escrow.

7. Non-payment punishment. To protect sellers, a friendly warning for first-time nonpayment. A sterner warning is for second-time offense, with a 30 day suspension for a third offense and an indefinite suspension for a fourth offense.

8. Appraisal services which use a variety of methods to appraise items. It includes expert assessment of authenticity and condition, and reviewing what comparable items have sold for in the marketplace in recent months.

9. Item verification which is a way of confirm he identity and evaluate the condition of an item. Third parties will evaluate and identify an item through a variety of means. For example, some collectors have their item “DNA tagged” for identification purpose. It provides a way of tracking an item if it charges ownership in future.

10. Physical inspection. It can eliminate many problems especially for collectors’ item.

Besides, there are some other concerns to prevent e-auction fraud,

• Be aware of phishing. Verify that you are receiving emails from the correct source and that you are logging in at the correct website.
• When making payment, prefer using your credit card over online transfer. Using a credit card give you the opportunity of a chargeback in case the transaction turns out a fraud. Use debit card, wire transfer, or money order only when you completely trust the seller.
• NEVER make a deal with a seller outside the auction. Although they sound lucrative, you are at a very high risk of being cheated.
• Become familiar with the auction website. Look into the websites protection policies. Never assume you are protected from auction fraud.
• Before placing a bid, learn as much as you can about the seller. If you can’t find anything out about the seller, than avoid doing business with them. Never fall for promises of better deals by moving away from the original auction website.
• If the seller wants you to use an escrow service you’ve never heard of, look into it.
• Never ever give out your social security number, drivers’ license number, credit card number, or bank account information until you have thoroughly checked out the seller and the escrow service.
• Always save 100% of the transaction information. You’ll be glad you did in the event your case makes it to court.
• If after the sale you feel the item/payment should have been delivered already, try to work it out with the seller/buyer.

By:
Wong Zheng Hwa 0701815