KUALA LUMPUR: Maxis Bhd is actively in talks with government agencies and private companies to take new technology and innovations on board for use by various industries' operations.
Maxis was developing solutions for all industries including agriculture as well as oil and gas, acting chief enterprise business officer Clair Featherstone said.
She said the uptake of these new technologies would differ between industries.
Featherrstone believes the oil and gas industry will take it up sooner rather than later, as the needs of the industry are urgent and there are not many alternatives for them at the moment.
"There's no strong alternative today for oil rigs out in the ocean to sort of digitalise other than this new technology, but it depends because there is a real pain point that's being addressed.
"But for other industries, they may be more followers; they may observe and wait until the technology becomes more affordable before they adopt it, so it depends sort of case by case," she said at the launch of Maxis Business Innovation Centre here today.
She emphasised that digitalisation can greatly impact companies' bottom line, depending on the needs being addressed by the technology.
"If you don't have any digital solution and we bring something, obviously the impact is much greater; they can be much more efficient off-site and they don't need to send so many people remotely, for example, so they get efficiencies quickly.
"For other solutions, it can be intuitive over time and the benefits can come over time.
Head of corporate and SME segment Kevin Lee said since 2020, about 27,000 SMEs had taken up the SME Digitalisation Grant provided by the government to begin their digitalisation journey, with Maxis being a key player involved in the grant.
He said the talks with the involved industries were going positively, and the various industries could embrace digitalisation in the near future.
Lee said there were challenges when it comes to SMEs adopting digitalisation, with the biggest challenge being their know-how and confidence, unlike bigger corporations with strong resources.
Hence, Maxis Business was conceived in order to be a one stop solution for these SMEs, and it can assist them every step of the way in their digitalisation journey.
The Maxis Business Innovation Centre is a digitally immersive space designed to foster innovation and drive digital transformation for businesses, with the launch today officiated by Minister of Communications and Digital Fahmi Fadzil.
"My ministry has been given the task to drive the digital economy forward in Malaysia as part of our strategic framework.
"This requires all stakeholders to play their role through collaboration, innovation and knowledge sharing," he said.
Maxis chief executive officer Goh Seow Eng expects great potential in the new centre, and believes it will contribute to the digital growth of Malaysian businesses.
"Maxis Business Innovation Centre has enormous potential to combine the power of technology and innovation to benefit our customers in their digital transformation journeys," said Goh.
Located on the ground floor of Menara Maxis, Maxis Business Innovation Centre spans over 9,000 sq ft of space where customers can access an IoT lab, auditorium, co-sharing workspace and multi-industry use cases enabled by cloud, AI, IoT, machine learning and more.
The centre will provide an opportunity for businesses of all sizes and across industries to harness the power of digital technology.