TM eyes 500,000 SME customers by the end of the year

KUALA LUMPUR: Telekom Malaysia Bhd (TM) is targeting to get 500,000 small and medium enterprise (SME) subscribers by year-end from its current 498,000 SME customers. The 498,000 users represent 80% of SMEs in Malaysia, according to TM executive vice president of SME Azizi A Hadi.

Source from (The Star Online): http://biz.thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2012/12/18/business/12472693&sec=business
Published: December 18, 2012


Done deal: Tan (left) and Azizi exchanging documents while Interbase director 
Wei Kwok Seing (beside Tan) and TM’S general manager of SME, market 
development and solutions Mohamad Yusman Ammeran look on at the signing ceremony.

In line with this, TM has signed a collaborative agreement with Interbase Resources Sdn Bhd, which operates Lelong.my, to provide value-added services to SMEs.

Through this tie-up, TM's Marketing Tools App will include Lelong.my's Web Store as part of its complimentary services.

“Marketing Tools, which was launched in May, has attracted more than 2,000 SME users.

“With this new collaboration, we expect 5,000 users to take up this bundled service in the next 12 months,” he told reporters.

The bundled package will allow SMEs to reach out to their customers more extensively and effectively, he said.

Users of TM's Marketing Tools packages are able to enjoy an RM100 discount to set up a web store on Lelong.my from the usual fee of RM298 per year.

“This is in line with TM's aspiration to become the preferred communications and solutions partner to SMEs in Malaysia.

“On top of that, TM is able to fulfill one of its commitments in nurturing the Malaysian SME market through the seeding of ICT-based solutions through e-commerce knowledge and skills in conducting business,” he added.

Interbase Resources managing director Richard Tan said: “The adoption of e-commerce has been growing rapidly in the last two years.

“A recent survey by Paypal put the value of e-commerce at RM1.9bil in 2011, set to grow to RM3.5bil by 2015 for Malaysia.”

Tan said the transaction done through Lelong.my was an average of between RM200mil and RM250mil per year with about four million visitors per month.

According to him, the site was the fifth most popular site in Malaysia and he hoped the transaction amount would double next year.

Web Store allows SMEs to set up their online shops in minutes with features to manage their online inventory, sales, invoicing, search engine optimisation, shopping cart, online payment gateway and integration with social media platform, among others.

Going forward, TM and Lelong.my will conduct seminars to educate SMEs on the importance of e-commerce and teach them how to utilise the services provided.