GEORGE TOWN, Aug 7 — Surrounded by centuries-old scenic manmade lakes, the small former tin-mining town of Kampar in Perak is slowly undergoing an IT transformation, thanks to enterprising Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman (UTAR) graduates.
One of them, Gan Chee Tak, even aspires to turn the small university town into “Kampar Valley”, after “Silicon Valley” in the US.
The founder of Axcell Solutions, a software startup based in Kampar, wants to bring UTAR computer science and Information Technology (IT) graduates together to realise his vision.
Gan said Axcell Solutions is a software firm focused on providing enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems to small and medium enterprises such as payroll systems with clients in various locations including Hong Kong and Japan.
“We can start a small ecosystem here in Kampar with software firms and grow from there,” he told Malay Mail.
He said in today’s modern world of technology, all companies need software solutions for business operations and this is where the software firms come in.
“Kampar Valley is my company’s vision but this idea was first suggested by UTAR Assoc Professor Alex Ooi,” he said.
He said Ooi had told him that many of the B40 students in UTAR were working part-time in restaurants to support themselves but these are jobs unrelated to their field of studies.
“So, when I wanted to set up a software company, I decided to base it in Kampar, near UTAR, so that I can provide jobs to these students, to train them and prepare them for their future,” he said.
The 35-year-old had graduated from UTAR more than 10 years ago and was working as a software developer, an app developer manager and a product manager before deciding to set up his own company.
He started the company last year in June and officially established it three months later in September.
“We also hope to help the university to do research, sponsor final year projects by students and commercially viable projects to bring it to the market,” he said.
One of the projects allowed them to assist a student in launching an RFID attendance system at Institut Kemahiran Mara in Lumut.
“We provide cybersecurity training to the public to create awareness on phishing,” he said.
According to Assoc Prof Ooi, Gan had told him that he planned to set up his own software house; and Ooi jokingly replied that Gan should set it up in Kampar to provide job opportunities in the town.
“I made such a suggestion because I happened to know some students who needed to take up part-time jobs to support their studies,” he said.
Ooi said it would be more beneficial to the students if they could build their career portfolios through their part-time jobs.
He said Gan’s business has been expanding and he has given many opportunities to students and graduates to build their competencies.
“I think the success of Gan will also inspire students to start new businesses, which is going to be beneficial to the country and help to uplift society further away from poverty,” he said.
“UTAR may have started the emergence of Kampar Valley, just like how Stanford University is to Silicon Valley,” he added.
Gan was not the only ex-student who had contacted Ooi about starting their software firms as others have also similarly done the same.
Long before Gan set up his firm, about eight years ago, Matthew Chin and Chan Wai Mun started as freelancers to offer software customisation services.
The duo then co-founded the company, WTech Software, to offer high-end business process management, system integration, and solutions.
Chin said they started out designing websites and providing e-commerce solutions but it was too competitive so they made the switch to end-to-end Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) solutions along with cryptocurrency blockchain development, cloud solutions, big data (data analysis), web and app development.
Chin, who had a Masters in Computer Science from UTAR, had also reached out to his alma mater to collaborate with the university and the professors there including Ooi.
“We are a small company so we couldn’t afford a large R&D team, instead we channel it to UTAR and in exchange, we provide sponsorship of research grants,” he said.
WTech also signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with UTAR to design the course structure for the university.
“We find that we often had to train the fresh graduates from UTAR that come to work with us so we discussed with UTAR on designing a syllabus that prepared the students to be industry-ready,” he said.
He said the collaboration meant that fresh graduates from UTAR are industry-ready and they do not need to spend too much time training them on the job.
Though based in Ipoh, WTech has a range of clientele from Dubai, Singapore and Klang Valley.
Chin is an Alibaba Cloud Most Valuable Professional (MVP) and this provided his company with the much needed exposure to gain clients.
“The Malaysian market is small compared to the whole of Southeast Asia so we join conferences and events in Singapore and China and visit China to learn more about their technologies so we can bring it back as solutions for our customers,” he said.
When asked about Gan’s vision for Kampar Valley, Chin said Ipoh has the potential to be a Silicon Valley in Perak due to its large tracts of lands.
“I believe Kampar Valley can be part of a larger ecosystem that encompasses Ipoh as the main Silicon Valley,” he said.
