In this four-part feature series, we delve into some of the key industry trends in technology- big data, cloud analytics and machine learning. Dr Dzahar Mansor, National Technology Officer of Microsoft Malaysia interviews prominent key opinion leaders in tech and partners of Microsoft to find out how big data is applied across businesses in Malaysia.
To kick off this quadrilogy, Dr Dzahar speaks to Ir Dr Karl Ng, Director for Innovation Capital at MDEC (Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation) on his views on the big data landscape in Malaysia.
Dr Dzahar: Can you shed some light on the uptake of big data and advanced analytics today in Malaysia?
Dr Karl: Big Data Analytics (BDA) and advanced analytics in the APEJ (Asia Pacific excluding Japan) region are still at the early stages of maturity. Many organizations continue to experiment with it via proofs-of-concepts (POCs), processes are not clearly defined and there is a lack of resources.
Malaysia, specifically, has progressed up the BDA maturity curve in the last two years, finding itself at the tail-end of ad-hoc and experimental BDA. We are moving towards a more “intentional” BDA – where there is a structured BDA adoption process – from strategy to POC, to technology acquisition, to organizational transformation. This is thanks to in part to the effort by MDEC in driving BDA awareness and spurring adoption across the country.
We have seen tremendous advancements in terms of investments in BDA talent development amongst Malaysian companies as well as educational institutions offering data science courses.
At the same time, Malaysia is making steady progress towards becoming a hub for BDA solution providers. In terms of foreign investments, we have 22 multinationals from six countries currently set up in Malaysia, such as HIS Markit and SiteCore. Also, local companies have sprouted wings and have gone regional with the likes of Fusionex and DataMicron.
A total of 32 BDA companies have exported their services/solutions. Not forgetting startups – Malaysia has a vibrant pool of 47 BDA startups who are pushing the edge of technology. One other trend, Malaysia is being used as a BDA Service Hub by giants such as Experian and Schlumberger, with slightly over 30 of them using Malaysia as a base.
Dr Dzahar: How do you foresee big data and advanced analytics impacting and contributing to the country’s overall economic growth?
Dr Karl: BDA is a crucial component of the Malaysian ICT services subsector, which is projected to contribute 35% to the nation’s digital economy by 2020. A study conducted by Frost and Sullivan in 2015 revealed that by 2020, Malaysia’s BDA annual economic impact will be US$31 billion across seven key domains – healthcare, finance, retail, internet/mobile, manufacturing, energy and the public sector.
Transformational technologies such as BDA play a pivotal role in helping Malaysia become a high-income economy by creating new business value solutions and encouraging significant innovation and advancements across multiple industries. In fact, Big Data is one of the most important focus areas for MDEC.
In our estimate, Malaysia needs to have 2,000 data scientists, the real top-tier end of the whole ecosystem by the year 2020. They would, in turn, be supported by 16,000 data professionals. Developing them needs more than a traditional approach of candidate development. We are doing this by building data science curriculum, in universities, not only within the computing and engineering tracks but to also embed Data & Analytics as a skill throughout the other disciplines such as business, finance, actuarial science and so on.
Dr Dzahar: Looking at the corporate world in Malaysia – how much of a role do you think big data and advanced analytics plays in companies today? And with those that do adopt big data and advanced analytics – how mature would you say are these companies?
Dr Karl: Many companies in Malaysia are experimenting or conducting a lot of BDA POCs. The POC that increases the company’s profitability and efficiency, or decreases cost – are scaled up so they can be part of the company’s daily operations. We are currently seeing a lot of mature – and successful – consumer type of analytics being deployed in industries such as banking, insurance, retail, media, e-commerce and telcos.
As the Internet economy grows, we have also seen the growth of new startups who understand the value of data, and are using data platforms to power their businesses. These startups include the likes of ServisHero, Kfit and iPrice, and are reliant on data to analyze, predict and make important business decisions.
Dr Dzahar: Does Malaysia have the necessary ecosystem and technology infrastructure to promote big data and advanced analytics?
Dr Karl: We have made much progress in closing the gaps for a holistic BDA ecosystem in Malaysia. For instance, we have grown the number of data science professional MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) and data incubator programs. We have also formed industry-driven COE (Center of Excellence) and Executive programs (like the Harvard Executive Program) to surface and work on high-impact BDA projects and to continuously encourage BDA adoption across all sectors. We are also continuously working with the government ministries and agencies to open up useful government data to further drive BDA innovation.
In developing the BDA ecosystem, technology infrastructure plays a secondary role. The real success lies in the gaps or problems that BDA solves for the organization. We advise organizations to start small – to start experimenting with POCs based on their business problems. Once the BDA value is proven from these POCs, then the organization can start to look at the technologies and infra required to scale and operationalize BDA. Typically, investments in infra by the private sector is a function of the value generated by BDA and the scale of its operationalization.
Now that there is good momentum amongst public/private sectors as well as IHLs (Institutions of Higher Learning). MDEC took a step further to announce the establishment of ADAX (ASEAN Data Analytics eXchange), a regional platform to connect communities, enterprises, startups, academia and working professionals in a central location to inspire and enable organizations to embrace data-driven innovation.
Dr Dzahar: Now that Big Data is no longer considered as an emerging technology, what’s next? Will artificial intelligence (AI) play a greater role than big data as we move forward in technology?
Dr Karl: We need to continue to spur BDA adoption in the private sector, as well as catalyze its usage in the government. BDA technologies will continue to evolve at lightning speed, but we must not get caught up in chasing them. What is more important is that organizations identify business gaps that can be solved with BDA to bring together the data needed to solve a problem. In turn, this would bring greater ROI to the company either in the form of increased revenue and productivity, or decreased costs.
AI has been around since the 1960s but has recently benefited from the spotlight thrown at it because of big data. It will continue to gain prominence in the big data space as companies look beyond business intelligence (answering the question “what happened?”) to predictive analytics (answering the question “what will happen?”) and prescriptive analytics (answering the question “what do we do about it?”)
Dr Dzahar Mansor, National Technology Officer, Microsoft Malaysia
Dr Dzahar has been at the heart of all the cloud and big data related initiatives in the organization. With his passion in technology, Dr Dzahar consistently represents Microsoft Malaysia as a technology thought leader at relevant events in both Malaysia and South East Asia, while acting as an academic advisor in several national universities and research institutions. He also previously contributed to the development of national technology and strategic roadmaps such as the Economic Transformation Program, the National IoT Blueprint and the National Strategic ICT Roadmap.
Ir Dr Karl Ng, Director for Innovation Capital, MDEC
Dr Karl has contributed towards the growth of the innovation industry by advocating and implementing policies and initiatives helping entrepreneurs in areas related to funding, new innovation, market share and international recognition. As Director of the Innovation Capital & Analytics Division, Dr Karl leads MDeC’s efforts in strengthening the innovation ecosystem within MSC Malaysia and Digital Malaysia, with projects such as the National Big Data Analytics initiative (BDA). He also sits in advisory board of several universities in Malaysia and served as a judge in international Entrepreneurship and Innovation awards.