The COVID-19 pandemic has made it increasingly urgent for organizations to supercharge their agility, speed and resilience in order to meet the challenges of achieving their objectives.

For Lembaga Tabung Haji (TH), the Malaysian government institution responsible for the management of hajj and investments activity, this translated into facing an array of pandemic-related disruptions while striving to operate at near-full capacity and in particular, pursuing sound strategies to deepen engagement with customers and continue growth.

In particular, Tabung Haji Contact Centre (THCC) confronted the daunting prospect of serving some 9 million depositors, operating through 123 branches with 10,000 touchpoints nationwide. With increasing numbers of new depositors, customers would call TH for several different reasons ranging from general inquiries, savings accounts inquiries to matters relating to the pilgrimage of depositors to the Holy Land.

Using a platform of smart partnerships and digital excellence, TH is successfully circumventing current challenges, and at scale.

These steps have safeguarded and ensured TH’s customer operation has not been disrupted in any way and that customer satisfaction remains optimal. THCC has been an important engine in managing customer relations and associated operations. To uncover some of the key drivers behind this success, we need to look at ways to elevate contact centre performance today.

“THCC has become the mainstay of TH services that meet the needs, expectations and feedbacks of depositors. The outstanding determination and performance throughout the operation of THCC is in line with the vision and mission of TH” – Datin Normimy Mohamed Noor, General Manager Marketing, Communications & Customer Service Division Lembaga Tabung Haji

Amplifying customer experience

To dive a little deeper into this success story, we need to look back to pre-pandemic times and acknowledge that the critical role that contact centres play in handling customer inquiries, particularly as service, quality and turnaround speeds pose the potential to make or break customer relationships. This is again recently evidenced by a Khoros survey, which notes that 30% of customers said they would stop giving their business to a brand that failed to meet their timeframe expectations.

Handling high volumes of inquiries is a large undertaking in normal circumstances, however, COVID-19 has significantly exacerbated support volume and created labour shortages at many contact centres, businesses are feeling the squeeze.

Taking a few steps back, when TH saw that business had been growing exponentially through the years, resulting in rising call volumes, it made a decision to turn to a specialist whose core competencies included customer management.

The specialist that TH has been collaborating for more than 10 years is TM One (formerly known as VADS) to help outsource the Tabung Haji Contact Centre (THCC). TM One prioritises its responsibility in upholding service sustainability and that this is assured without any interruption or impact to overall customer experience – even amid crises such as COVID-19.

Buoyed by this partnership, TH has the ability to track and analyse all end-to-end customers’ inquiries, complaints and feedback. These inputs, fortunately, allow TH to continuously improve customer engagement strategies, products and services, thus helping TH to be sustainable, competitive and remain relevant to the market.

Breaking free with digital

Digital solutions when smartly adopted enable organisations to break through hurdles to higher performance. In this instance, TM One has introduced Cloud CX Solution to TH to better manage THCC service sustainability.

Cloud CX Solution helps TH to provide insights into the operations, develop strategies in key areas and achieve operational excellence. TM One reports that its large volume of interactions generates a massive amount of valuable data, which holds the potential for ongoing business strategies and improvements through predictive analytics.

With this technological tool, THCC enables TH to achieve their business outcomes by staying connected to customers and ensuring satisfaction. This was evident when THCC was successfully re-certified for ISO 18295-1: 2017 (CCC) SIRIM Recertification Audit 2021 and this became an outstanding new benchmark for THCC, drawing respect from other call centres.

Furthermore, TM One created a more immersive digital experience for TH’s customers by embracing digital channels and engendering exceptional digital services quality. This results in a harmonious balance of efficient resolution and important empathetic ‘human-touch’ interaction.

THCC also supports TH’s online and digital services initiatives through its THiJARI online platform services, which provides support to depositors, and encourages greater use of online services – a safety factor that is especially in the current COVID-19 pandemic phase.

Another digital advance is the introduction by TM One of the AYDAD System, which can be accessed by all branch offices throughout Malaysia from 1 September 2021. The AYDAD System is a web-based application to help THCC and branches obtain information and related services, products and processes. This information will be used by members at the branch office to answer any queries received and the information provided is fast, accurate and up to date. On top of that, the enablement of certain critical functions outside TH’s normal business operations requires a method to effect proper knowledge transfer. TM One’s extensive Knowledge Management and Training strategy ensure all contact centre agents are correctly oriented and given a deeper understanding of THCC’s services and customer needs. The consistent use of these strong knowledge management tools across all channels plays a highly significant role in delivering excellent customer experiences.

Accelerating growth

Today, THCC’s technology and capabilities allow an average of 10,000 voice interactions to be handled every month with 94.3% of customers call picked up within 10 seconds. Callers have a quick, hassle–free accessibility to TH channels, reduces waiting time, which further enhances TH brand image.

THCC’s strategic approach to digital transformation, with the adroit use of technologies and expertise arising from the partnership with TM One, now enables an average of 1,700 digital channel interactions to be handled every month with a 100% response rate. With that, TH has resolved 96% of their customers enquiries within the first interaction (First Call Resolution-FCR), resulting in a better experience outcome for customers.

Despite the restrictions due to the pandemic, serving customers remains a priority. The current surge of customers through online channels is aptly handled by THCC, ensuring TH’s business continuity, and delivered with the resilience demanded by this highly challenging period. Most importantly, as confirmed by Customer Satisfaction Index results, TH customers acknowledge that TH service quality remains rated at 100%, which is again essential for driving business growth.

Through the years, by leveraging its technology partnership, TH has adopted innovative contact centre processes and new technology platforms, and has built a robust, resilient and agile platform to circumvent crises. TH has evolved to a fully-fledged customer-first culture, and continues to grow by extend wider support to its external, internal and business partners.

Since the inception of the partnership, TM One has proven to be a reliable partner to TH by heightening TH customers’ experience, and meeting over 97% of the contractual KPIs. This collaboration resulted in THCC’s recognition as one of the prime contact centres in the world, drawing multiple accolades and awards from the industry.

For inquiries or more information about TM ONE, please visit www.tmone.com.my

The agriculture industry faces a variety of challenges such as climate change, low agriculture productivity and yield, high operating cost, and health hazards to farmers. Leveraging digital technologies, TM One Smart Agriculture solutions are opening a promising ability to address the industry’s long challenges through the Smart Farming revolution.

TM One Smart Agriculture offers a diverse set of solutions to help farmers adapt to technological advancement. One of the features is a centralised monitoring dashboard that is integrated into the IoT-powered machines, which enables farmers a holistic view of their entire machinery performances and crop conditions.

Watch this video and know more about how TM One Smart Agriculture solutions can provide more efficient and sustainable farming practices.

To learn more about TM One Smart Agriculture, Contact us here.

According to Technologist Dr. Saiyid Abdallah Syahir Al-Edrus, General Manager for Cybersecurity Services and Product & Innovation at TM One, every organisation has the responsibility to ensure that their cybersecurity strategies run in tandem with their business growth.

“Organisations are responsible to protect and safeguard their business and customer data from cybercriminals. They need to have the right tools, processes and above all the right people, a team of cyber-intelligence experts or security analysts, in place at all times.”

BusinessToday spoke to the industry expert who has over 15 years of experience in consulting, network security, endpoint security, cloud security, application & data security, and cybersecurity risk management, and who has leveraged his expertise to help organisations protect their businesses from the increasing challenge of cyber-attacks and threats.

He pointed out that many Malaysian organisations of all sizes and across all industries faced gaps between their perceived capabilities and their actual performance when it came to ensuring their cybersecurity strategies addressed the needs of their business.

“Organisations may believe that they have taken all the necessary steps to protect their data and systems, when they have not. This false sense of security has resulted in major global corporations and regional government agencies falling victim to massive security breaches.”

Dr. Saiyid also noted that organisations tended to become complacent. “Organisations often take for granted that they will not be the target for cyber-attacks, because they feel that they are not managing critical infrastructure and sensitive data. However, attackers will target any organisation that can provide them with a lucrative payoff.”

Lack of resources was a third factor, he added.

“Most organisations may not have the budget to invest in robust cybersecurity measures or the necessary expertise/personnel. Instead they often rely on general IT support. Unfortunately, cybersecurity itself encompasses a very huge spectrum and domain, for which you need specific skills, experience and knowledge.”

“Having an external partner that can provide professional and advisory services will help enterprises navigate and manage their cybersecurity strategy.”

Dr. Saiyid noted that while TM One, the enterprise and government sector arm of Telekom Malaysia Berhad is fully capable of providing a complete outsourced cybersecurity service to its customers, his preferred approach involved a hybrid solution between organisations and their cybersecurity partner.

“Cybersecurity strategies must be based on the organisation’s needs and priorities. My recommendation would be that policies are governed in-house, where the client dictates and determines which security services are needed and cybersecurity framework the organisation should adopt.”

Shifting Resources Purposefully

Responding to an IDC Enterprise Services Sourcing Survey, which stated that over 70% of Malaysian organisations recognised that security is not their core expertise, Dr. Saiyid pointed out that this view stems from understandable reasons – cybersecurity is generally underfunded and under-resourced.

“Businesses are often challenged to find and retain the right talents to manage digitalisation, cybersecurity, and innovation within their organisations. IT departments are now expected to support new revenue streams, on top of managing operational efficiency and reducing cost. Business leaders find it difficult to understand the ROI of IT security, and are more focused on growing their digital revenue – especially in the wake of COVID-19.”

As a result, meeting the need to secure these digital platforms can weigh on businesses’ priorities, requiring them to divert limited budgets and resources from opportunities to risk avoidance, Dr. Saiyid highlighted.

“In large organisations, managing cybersecurity efficiently requires a significant amount of resources and effort. Aside from the need to secure a well-equipped and complex IT environment, setting up a dedicated team means organisations need to invest in the technology and put together the security controls for the entirety of their IT environment. This can prove difficult as there is a marked scarcity of cybersecurity professionals, not only in Malaysia but internationally.”

With these realities, individual organisations should decide whether they want to outsource a certain portion of their cybersecurity responsibility or outsource the whole function.

“For instance, they can choose to retain identity management, which is the heart of IT operations and sits with Active Directory and domain controllers, while the rest, such as perimeter security, firewalls, intrusion prevention systems, or the 24/7 monitoring of the overall environment can be outsourced to the experts, like TM One.”

Service providers such as TM One can also provide organisations with round-the-clock protection, ensuring that their systems are always safe and secure. Furthermore, outsourcing cybersecurity can help organisations free up their internal resources so that they can focus on other areas of business.

TM One’s Professional Services supports organisations to assess their cybersecurity capabilities, and provides consulting and advisory services to help them strengthen their capabilities to respond to potential threats.

Specifically, TM One’s Cyber Defence Centre (CYDEC) is an end-to-end cybersecurity service which includes cybersecurity consulting or professional services to guide organisations carve out the best cybersecurity solutions that fit their needs and budget.

Through continuous support from TM One’s Security Operations Centre (SOC) and CyberAssurance services, organisations can benefit from managed security services to discover and address potential cybersecurity vulnerabilities, leverage solutions that help strengthen the readiness of in-house security teams, test systems to identify exploitable gaps, and monitor their broader business ecosystem to detect attacks or indicators of compromised systems and data more efficiently.

This includes Security Posture Assessment (SPA), Vulnerability Assessment and Penetration Testing (VAPT) services and Digital Attack Simulation either as a one-time engagement or a retainer programme.

Organisations who are interested to learn more about how TM One can help enhance their cybersecurity profile can visit its website at https://www.tmone.com.my/solutions/cybersecurity-services/.

This article was first published in Business Today

Cyberattacks have now become a constant threat for businesses everywhere incurring cost and causing reputational issues, on top of other economic conditions that organisations have to contend with.

Despite the inevitability and increasing frequency of these attacks, most businesses have yet to adequately safeguard their infrastructure and systems, with today’s more sophisticated hackers finding new ways to attack businesses of all sizes.  

International Data Corporation (IDC) has reported that in 2021, Southeast Asian organisations spent a whopping US$3.2 billion on cybersecurity services, software and appliances.

Closer to home, the Malaysia Cyber Security Strategy 2020-2024 report states that the country may face economic losses of up to RM51 billion due to cyber threats. A study in VMware’s “The State of Incident Response 2021” report also found that 49% of organisations lack the expertise and tools for adequate incident response.

According toTs. Dr. Saiyid Abdallah Syahir Al-Edrus, General Manager, Cybersecurity Services, TM One, “A proactive strategy is when businesses wholly employ a good cybersecurity framework including leveraging new technologies and trends to keep their systems secure. Utilising artificial intelligence (AI) in cybersecurity and automation to bring benefits to their overall operations.”

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AI has revolutionised the world by leaps and bounds, with AI in cybersecurity making it much faster to trace potential attacks, reduce the delay in response time and ultimately save man hours. Technology enables cybersecurity solution providers and analysts to analyse similar attack patterns and provide the necessary responses if there is a behaviour change. 

Emerging cybersecurity technology will now help to facilitate organisations become more proactive. This includes the utilisation of security information and event management through technologies such as Extended Detection and Response (XDR), Security Orchestration, Automation and Response (SOAR) and Next Gen Security Operations Centre (SOC).

This ensures that enterprises and the government sector are able to implement and maintain a proactive cybersecurity strategy, leveraging the skills and capabilities of dedicated specialised talents and reducing the impact to their own over-stretched IT teams.

TM One works closely with its customers by thoroughly assessing their security posture, technology maturity and business needs through its consulting and other value-added services. The firm has positioned itself apart from its competitors through Managed Security Services (MSS) as its core solution offering. 

TM One also recently received the prestigious Frost & Sullivan Best Practices 2022 Cybersecurity Company of the Year award. 

Their credibility is seen in the development of its products and solutions offered for the cybersecurity scene. According to TM One, most Malaysian organisations lack in-house security expertise, professionals and tools. This leads to them importing or outsourcing their security operations to ensure the security posture of business infrastructure and manage their cyber risks.

To address this issue, TM One provides a wide spectrum of cybersecurity solutions, helping organisations improve their security posture and business infrastructure as well as better manage their cyber risks via TM One’s Cyber Defense Centre (CYDEC).  

CYDEC’s extensive and comprehensive cybersecurity portfolio includes MSS, encompassing managed unified threat management, managed SOC, managed detection and response, cyber threat intelligence, managed anti-DDoS, managed web application firewall, vulnerability management, capture-the-flag service, cyber deception service, digital risk protection and many more. 

TM One’s cybersecurity consulting services also include, and are not limited to, security assessment and posture, vulnerability assessment and penetration testing, cybersecurity design and implementation, compromised assessment and digital attack simulation.

Fuelled by TM’s SOC and centralised cybersecurity platform, TM One’s CYDEC incorporates advanced technologies like predictive analytics and machine learning to help customers address evolving cyberattacks on-premises and on the cloud. As an added advantage, this extensive cybersecurity portfolio allows TM One to curate and customise solutions based on customers’ needs across various business sizes. 

TM One has continuously proven that the right solution alongside robust technology will augment organisations in safeguarding systems, especially within the current complexities of today’s digital landscape. Prioritising cybersecurity skills as one of the most important areas to be addressed, TM One is committed to addressing the industry’s current challenges and support businesses navigate the digital space with greater confidence. 

To find out how TM One can help you achieve world class cybersecurity, visit Cybersecurity Services and Solutions — TM One CYDEC

This article was first published in CEO Morning Brief – The Edge Markets

Innovation is a key driver for organisations to generate new opportunities and to create greater value. It enables organisations to find fresh solutions to problems and generate value that they otherwise couldn’t access. It takes leadership’s commitment to drive innovation across an organisation. With the right mix of people, tools and leadership, organisations can unlock their next advantage, today.

How organisations can move towards their NEXT phase of economic growth and create new business growth

What are the five top of mind factors that organisations should consider their NEXT phase of innovation?

• Rebalancing organisational focus across three areas – business and operational performance; compliance; and being future-focused. Being future-focused must be an organisation’s main agenda in order to embed a new transformative culture, and to pivot towards making businesses more efficient to achieve a new measure of success.
• Building for scale and resilience – adopting technology, cloudification, smart solutions, business analytics with AI and machine learning, and stronger cybersecurity is key for business growth and sustainability.
• Partnerships – offer a unique opportunity for collaboration across ecosystems and cultures. By combining competencies and different perspectives, companies can quickly create innovative solutions that would otherwise be challenging to develop. Embracing partnerships allows companies to tap into new ideas for growth, and create value in a way that wouldn’t have been possible without collaboration.
• ESG – embracing sustainability includes forward-looking value creation that enriches mid- to long- term value for communities, businesses and the Government. Tapping into resource-efficient solutions will also bring about differentiated user and consumer experiences.
• Talent management –  in becoming future-focused, managing talent is key with greater emphasis on talent reskilling, upskilling, retention and effective recruitment. Improving talent management also includes adopting agile practices and digital workspaces, embracing a digital-first mindset that sets organisations apart.

“It is clear that taking advantage of technologies, coupled with strong partnerships will help build a more resilient and responsive ecosystem.” Shazurawati Abd Karim – Executive Vice President at TM One

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TM ONE is your trusted partner in enabling your next advantage today and tomorrow by harnessing the power of human centered technology and innovation. We provide secure and robust fit-for-purpose business solutions to enterprises and the Government from across diverse industries, from banking to retail, oil & gas and energy, logistics, education, healthcare and many more.

We understand that every organisation has different needs and goals, with different business models, systems and operational landscapes.

Our end-to-end managed services and vertical solutions built across our pillars of connectivity solutions, data centres, cloud, cybersecurity and smart services which leverage the latest technologies empowers organisations to harness the power of big data and IR 4.0.

Together with our professional services teams across Malaysia and Indonesia, TM One offers value-based innovative solutions to businesses in line with TM’s role as the enabler of progressive innovative transformation.

TM One’s 5G Sphere, our circle of local and global smart solutions and technology partners, will also enable the next phase of enterprise innovation and transformation, harnessing 5G capabilities.

TM One’s 5G Sphere offers the opportunity for enterprises to springboard and accelerate their transformation, offering bespoke solution ideation and implementation to drive and generate positive business outcomes that address the unique needs of diverse businesses.

Register for your next advantage now at: 5g.tmone.com.my Your Next is Now.

This article was first published in Reuters Breakingview 2023