Reclaim The Truth

On 28^th April 2012, in my country, Malaysia, two hundred thousand people staged a peaceful street rally to call for a clean General Election. This was the third, and the largest so far since 2007. Predictably, it ended up with police forces beating and roughing up civilians in broad daylight when chaos erupted.

On the following day, the mainstream media, mainly the major newspapers and the government-controlled TV stations, officially shared the same storyline accusing some protesters for removing the barricade the authority used to fence off the Independence Square, which had provoked the police to fire water cannons, shoot tear gas towards the mass and use excessive force on civilians. The news, supported by some photos and video footages showed some protestors pushed through the barricade, threw stones at the police squad, and even overturned and vandalized a police car.

Naturally, this was just one side of the story. The Internet media, which is more liberal, had a totally different storyline. They voiced out that the police should be targeting the provocateurs rather than at the mass majority. The Internet media also produced some evidence to prove that those provocateurs were undercover cops planted by the government to rationalize their planned-attack. The published photos and video footages showed how police had brutally beaten innocent people, and one video clip in particular showed a speeding police car rammed into a crowd, and the bystanders helping to lift and flip the car to rescue a trapped victim underneath.

The Government could claim its triumph over the mass rally by saying that they had “successfully” clamped down the protest, and spread their version of the story. But their “victory” could be followed by the loss of more support in the coming election.  

A lot of people especially strong governments and mighty corporations had underestimated the power of the social media in the digital world. For example, this peace rally in Malaysia, when two hundred thousand pairs of eyes, two hundred thousand built-in cameras in their cell phones, started telling their tales, sharing their photos and videos that was candidly captured from different angles in real-time; their beloved family would listen, their friends and relatives would listen, and the stories later would turn viral through social networking media, the whole country would listen, and eventually, the world would listen too.

Those fragmented and unorganized stories, proliferate in debris on Facebook and Twitter, at last would form a larger discourse, and eventually would right the distorted truth.

This is where the Internet is taking the news industry back to the conversational culture of the era before mass media. I quoted this statement from a topic, “Back to the coffee house” in the 7^th July, 2011 issue of The Economist. 

The periodical recalled, “Three hundred years ago news traveled by word of mouth or letter, and circulated in taverns and coffee houses in the form of pamphlets, newsletters and broadsides. Everything changed in 1833 when the first mass-audience newspaper, the New York Sun, pioneered the use of advertising to reduce the cost of news, thus giving advertisers access to a wider audience.”

Nowadays, the accessibility of Internet allows readers to challenge the media elites, and the technology firms including Google, Facebook and Twitter, have become important conduit of personal news.  

The web has allowed new providers of news, from individual bloggers to personal publishers, and renewed the approaches to journalism with wider scope in lightning speed. The news agenda is no longer controlled by a few press barons and state outlets.

For big corporations, of course they still can spend big bucks to advertise false information, or to censor some bad publicity, but it is only limited to the mainstream media; the Internet social media would immediately put their accountability to test.

The Internet has abolished the unnecessary hierarchical communications; the autocracy voice from the top down has a reversal change here. In social news environment, customers or public are not the receiving ends.  They are participants. When governments or corporations can’t convert themselves to become good listeners, at least, they have to equalize the communications.

No matter how an organization actively participates in new social media era, the coffee house kinds of gossip culture is back, so changing of mindset is pivotal for organization to really gain in promoting their products, their services or even their brands by and large.

by Teh Hon Seng, CEO, FingerTec HQ

A Little History

I wrote, “You were our pride, and will always be on our minds.” on his Guest Commemorative book before I left the Memorial Hall.

I was in Beijing on 10th April, attending the 6th anniversary ceremony to commemorate the late Professor Wang Xuan (1937-2006), the founder of Peking University Founder Group, and who was also a great scientist.  But most of all, he was my mentor. Without him, PUC Founder of Malaysia wouldn't exist. Without his encouragement and support, we will never venture into biometrics technology.

Professor Wang Xuan (1937-2006)

He invented the first Chinese Laser Typesetting System, helping China to abandon the conventional typesetting system. I still remember in the 80s of last century, English Electronic Publishing System had already been widely adopted in the printing industry. But for the Chinese language, it was still at the research level, to contain the large amount of character sets (more than 10 thousands) by using the 26-Roman character keyboard, or on the verge of the Chinese input method, not to mention the printing press that required high quality fonts. How to convert the jagged Chinese characters into a smooth vector font? How could Founder achieve the same output speed on the then computer for the same size of page that contain an average of 100 times more different Chinese characters than an English page? How to paginate a Chinese content on a computer? Besides, unlike the A to Z of 26 characters, to create the Chinese font, every different typeface has to be crafted approximately to 10 thousand separate characters.

If all these hurdles remained unsolved, the Chinese nation that once invented paper in the 1st Century and movable clay typesetting in the 11th Century would have been trapped forever in the conventional way of lead-cast Chinese typesetting that was being used for the past hundred years. The Chinese publishing industry would have fallen untimely behind in the computer era.

Manually picking every lead-cast Chinese characters to construct a pre-print page

Started as an academic research project at the University in 1975, with all the hardship Professor Wang underwent, eventually his invention had helped revolutionize the whole Chinese printing industry. The commercialization process of his research work also helped to expand the entities owned by Peking University into a very large and successful enterprise.

Today, Founder Group has an annual turnover of USD 5 billion, and a staff force of 20,000, diversifies businesses in real estates, hospital, securities and etc in China and some other countries on top of its core Electronic Publishing System and other IT products.

Founder Group headquarters in Beijing

With the guidance of Professor Wang, I co-founded PUC Founder in Malaysia in 1995. The company was later developed and listed in Malaysia Stock Exchange. He knew that the Chinese electronic publishing industry might not sustain our long-term growth in this region. He then introduced to us two researchers that worked on fingerprint verification algorithm from Peking University, and he encouraged us to take on the new challenge that finally initiated our new venture.

That’s how FingerTec began its long march, and the rest is history.

Overall, I'd like to think he had a great influence over me not because he was a great scientist, but rather because he was a great man. He once said, "You have to be a respectable man to build a respectable business." And, true enough, he did lead an exemplary life.

by Teh Hon Seng, CEO, FingerTec HQ

FingerTec Website’s Facelift

After 6 long years of having the same look, for the first time our website went through a total facelift. Let me walk you through its major changes. We consolidated the initial two front page contents into one page, and rearranged the scattered icons in a more orderly manner. We also adopted SEO (Search Engine Optimization) concept and integrated its elements holistically.

Our website never had a conventional structure that incorporated our company profile as one of the major features, even when its appearance was minimalistic. When we first started the simple look, I even calculated to reduce the total wording for the front page just like Google’s striped bare search page. I also removed the lengthy company achievements, investors’ relationships and the content I felt was unnecessary.  I wanted the website to be a fully useful and straightforward e-commerce site. And I did all these for another reason: to reduce the burden of translations for our multilingual contents. 

My SEO consultant friend who is famous in his profession once reminded me that our website was not SEO-enabled. After I explained the rational, he agreed that our website should stay as it is. The unconventional design had attracted more customers than what I had expected. We prosper in business, and I attributed the success to the practicality of the webpage and its component sites. 

The Old

The New

Unlike many B2B websites that focus more on resellers and particularly sales but with minimum support, our major efforts went into technical support for resellers, and it has been extended to the end-users as well. 

Our contents swelled over the years. More functional icons were created. The initial simplified design could no longer accommodate our advancement, resulted in some new icons landed on unsuitable spots. It had also becoming difficult to keep pace with various translations. And to maintain simplicity on the first page, we have to expand to the second page. But it had cost users a few more clicks to get to the target. Eventually our website’s concept of simplicity had lost its original appeal. The worse part is, this is just the present, how about two years down the road when our contents doubled?

Hence, the restructuring of our website became inevitable in our case. This time, we had to embark in a different direction. We had to fix the existing weaknesses. We had to sacrifice some ideologies. We had to consider conventional wisdom. But we still have to uphold the ultimate objective of providing sufficient service to the resellers and end users. The consolidation and restructuring should help us enhance our objective to a greater extent.  

In the process of creating a new front page, we debated endlessly about the new order - what would be primary, and what should be secondary? What would be the buttons with reduced point size, and what should be kept as icons? What would be in the drop-down menu, and what should take center stage? We had brainstormed extensively to come up with this new look. And Tamy Phoon, who has been assigned to head this revamping project, had, and still has to take care of the SEO efforts at every turn taken. 

Replacing the old with something new is always an excuse for pride. But for a website that had done so much for us and carried a houseful of meanings and oversaw the growth of our brand, I felt nostalgic for the farewell too. 

by Teh Hon Seng, CEO, FingerTec HQ

CeBIT, Losing Its Clout

I think inevitably the influence of CeBIT is declining over the years. Undeniably, CeBIT is still the world's largest ICT Trade Fair but I just didn't feel like I walked into the cyclone of the digital world. It showcased a little bit of everything - a little bit of tablets, a little bit of communication, a little bit of security, a little bit of cloud computing, a little bit of social media, and a little bit more on business applications, but hardly was there any stimulant strong enough to excite me. The show felt like a weak theme song with disappointing lyrics.

CeBIT, a little BIT of everything

I didn't see much coverage of the 6 - 10th March CeBIT Hannover on any online technology media like TechCrunch, AllthingsD or Wired. In fact, the launch of the new iPad in Cupertino on 7th March, easily received more attention. And if I am not mistaken, there weren't any star products using CeBIT as their launching platform.

There were, however, old boys like SAP, Microsoft, IBM and Intel that played it big and dominated some halls, while new boys like Google and Salesforce tagged along halfheartedly with moderate booths spaces. In recognition of this post PC era, PC giants like Dell and HP knew their place and played a much lower profile in CeBIT, while other PC big boys had shied away from the show.

Many influential big names were missing from CeBIT this year, which made the show less attractive. At its peak during the dot-com boom, CeBIT grossed visitors up to 850,000 and pulled almost 8,000 exhibitors, but declined half for both to 334,000 and 4,000 in 2010. With only 15% foreign and diversified visitors, exhibitors might not get their target audiences easily.

Some says that CeBIT is meant for B2B and it is not a consumer technology trade show like CES in the United States. They continue to argue that this is a good platform for CIOs to meet up, to exchange views and sharing experiences. If so, CeBIT is indeed a very expensive gathering event for the IT guys. IT guys are a bunch of people that could find all their stuff over the Internet, and communicate to the right personnel online.  For example, if their company wants to implement Cloud Computing ERP, they would know where to look for the right solution, where to do thorough research and comparison, and where to get a free trial before making any decisions.

CeBIT is obviously more focused on B2B, but when personal technology is becoming the trend of the digital world, business computing has to rethink on how to accommodate personal technology into their offices. For example, when fewer PCs and notebooks were sold, we had no doubt that more and more consumer gadgets like tablets, iPad and smartphones are appealing for office purpose. Since digital technologies have become a part of everyone's lifestyle and the convergence with consumer electronics, smart gadgets and the home entertainment market, the line for personal devices and office devices can no longer be drawn.

I finally found this Van Gogh's Sunflowers 
in Pinakothek Art Museum in Munich 

To visit Mozart's birthplace in Salzburg is a bonus 

When Norana told me to forego CeBIT due to its diversified audience, we decided not to take part last year after our first participation in 2010. But being the largest ICT trade fair on earth, I was still pulled by its magnet. Hence, I came to see for myself this year as a visitor with the hopes to get a first-hand feel and figure out how to reposition or to blend ourselves into it.

My interest waned after the visit, and I had to agree with Norana to drop the idea to rejoin the show entirely. What can visitors expect out of an IT Show when the leading companies from Silicon Valley show a lukewarm response while China companies overwhelm the exhibition halls?

by Teh Hon Seng, CEO, FingerTec HQ

The Complexity of Translation

Due to my trilingual background, I don't read translated Chinese, English or Malay literature, I prefer the original languages. We all know that literary works and creative writings are the hardest to translate. It might not be so much the case of misinterpretations, it is more about the tone ended up feeling differently from its original version. To indulge in literature, unless you have no command of its original language, avoid the translated version, perhaps at all costs. 

Every language has the substance of its own culture

It’s simply because every language has the substance of its own culture; the complexity of the culture is even extended to the names of its people. For some famous Chinese writers who originally write their novels in English like Jun Chang, Ha Jin and Geling Yan, when their stories set foot in China, the Romanized Chinese names of the characters still bother me. Not only that they're hard to remember, the vivid meanings behind a Chinese name can no longer be discerned. It's the same effect when I read celebrity names like James Watkins, Daniel Craig, Tom Cruise or Cameron Diaz in Chinese, you have to sacrifice extra brain cells to figure out who is who.

We are lucky because our commercial products have nothing to do with literature. The language we use to explain our products can be very simple and straightforward, users do not need to read between the lines. But still, you simply cannot trust any machine or software or Google Translate to do the job; to translate accurately, human factor is crucial.

We have no doubt that translations and localizations are vital for business to compete successfully in the global market. According to 2006 Common Sense report that surveyed more than 2,400 consumers in eight countries, in fact, 52% of consumers will only buy something from a website in their own language. In France and Japan, that figure increased to more than 60%. We have to bear in mind that consumers who do not speak any English are six times more likely to avoid English websites altogether. 

Can you speak my language?

Customers would perceive companies that can speak in their native tongue as more credible, but that’s not the reason why we privilege translations and localizations. As we steer our practical branding in full gear, we don’t want language to become the barrier for our customers to understand and to use our products.

And for that particular reason, we are managing a large volume of contents for translations everyday.

Let me explain why our translation work is complex. We have websites, software, hardware, usual manuals, video guides, technical tips, training and marketing materials, voice clips and etc, and for some materials, we translate them to more than 10 languages. We also frequently upgraded our software and hardware, and improving all kinds of support materials all the time. The contents around the products have to sync with the latest upgrades, hence the translations need regular updates as well.

When it comes to details, we know that translators always stumbled at literary works and sometimes decided to rephrase the sentences to bring the gist out rather than translating them directly, the same might happen to our products as well. For example, when we created some usernames as the sample data in software user manual; translators would need to be reminded to create different set of localized usernames instead of using the same names for translation. Isn’t it weird for users in the Gulf to read Wong Ah Kow as a name even if it is written in Arabic?

To manage contents and translations more professionally, this month, we have promoted Nattalina Zainal to this new position, Content Manager, to oversee the market and support of FingerTec products across languages. 

by Teh Hon Seng, CEO, FingerTec HQ

Build Your Internal Strengths

During Secutech Taipei Show, in April 2010, a company’s sales director approached me and he invited me to visit their HQ in Beijing to explore the collaboration opportunity on face recognition technology. When I finally paid my visit and stepped out of their HQ in June the same year, my instinct told me that they were not the right company we should be working with, even though they had just been listed on Shenzhen Stock Exchange early that year, and their initial share price skyrocketed. 

Their flamboyant marketing approach didn’t make me feel they are a company with strength. I  was less impressed when I later read in a magazine about how their CEO put up a frivolous show before the media by smashing an ice-sculptured apple to assert their confidence and smashed an iPad with their tablet products. 

It seemed like they discovered a gold mine when Kindle was proven to be a huge success in 2007, the sudden upsurge of demand of eBook readers in China tremendously uplifted the sales of their eBook readers as well. 

Unfortunately, their sales slumped last year. And in reverse their tablets were 'smashed' by Apple and to add salt to injury, their eBook reader sales dropped sharply due to the lack of ebook contents to support users like Amazon has. To make matter worse, their biometrics division was never really took off.

I have always believed that companies without internal strengths would have a short life-span. A lot of companies just bet on sales and sales strategies to grow their business, the rests to them are just costs, so the lesser the better. Many short-sighted businessmen are hoping to maximize profit, hence they cut down budget on trainings, administration and technical supports, not to mention the investment for the future i.e R&D.

Once, I met this typical businesswoman who said that every square foot of an office space counts when she visited our office, shaking her head in disagreement. For her, maintaining a cozy working environment should never be a consideration.

When Amazon.com hemorrhaged in its first ten years, why were the investors not losing their faith, and continued to support the company? Simple, because everybody knew that it was just a matter of time for the company to make a turnaround.

And when Amazon starts to make profit, everybody believes it would continue to make profit forever (or at least it seems so). My perception is, other tech giants may one day be losing their momentum, but not Amazon, because they had built an internal strength that could almost last them forever.

You can't talk about Apple without talking about the iPad, iPhone and iPod, however for Amazon, it's a different case. Even without its Kindle or Kindle Fire, Amazon will continue to expand mammoth-like, swallowing any merchandise that may come their way. Their internal B2C platform encompasses with layers after layers of service system that they built over the years, has become a fortress for them to stand for any challenges, and selling anything that they want, from a toilet roll to an airplane.

After in-depth analysis and a long list of comparisons, we have decided to choose Amazon as our cloud computing platform partner to jumpstart our SaaS for TimeTec Cloud. In general, we are confident to select Amazon as a partner, that is famous for their customer service. Go figure!

by Teh Hon Seng, CEO, FingerTec HQ

The Downside of Low Price Attraction

My wife swore she would not revisit Japan at least within 5 years after having experienced the earthquakes and the Tsunami and the scare of the nuclear radiation risk last March in Tokyo. 

But when Airasia offered low price tickets for their debut fly to Osaka last August, my wife conveniently forgotten all her fears and booked the air tickets right away. Hence, Osaka was the destination for our family's Chinese New Year holiday vacation this year. And, we were back in Japan not even a year from her last vow.

That’s how sales and promotions having their effects on women mostly and make her (my wife) forgot the pain that came later. She didn't take any considerations (or she intentionally forgotten?) about the high living standard in Japan, about the expensive foods, accomodation, transportations, local tours, theme park, shopping; all in all, the additional high costs made the low offered airfare insignificant.

For consumer products, the pain hurts you once and you regret it after but it may have a smaller effect in a small circle of people; but for an industry product, when low price prevails without comprehensive considerations, greater suffer might need to be borne by the whole company for a long period of time.

Imagine buying a machine that is not really suitable to uplift your company’s efficiency? It could easily jeopardize the business's operation and the whole business in general.

I was involved in the business of supplying Electronic Publishing Solution to the newspaper industry before I ventured into Biometrics industry. And I’d witnessed how one of my clients, due to the cost-saving purpose, had bought a third party part to support its web printing machine. The part had caused the machine to hiccup once in a while too often to keep up with the race for the deadlines.

Save money that end up costing you more

Of course low price is not necessarily equivalent to low quality product. But hi-tech products nowadays have become too sophisticated that hardware alone would not be the only determining factor in their performance. Just as the success of iPhone, iOS and Appstore should be taking the bulk of the credit.

Yes, we packed FingerTec biometric terminal into a small box with some accessories and a CD that contains TCMS v2 software and all type of user guides. When all eyes are on the hardware which obviously take up the major space and weight in a box, we shouldn’t and couldn't ignore the software, the firmware, and the support system built around the hardware.

When pricing is the only considering factor, some customers would easily end up having to endure permanent glitches of their system every single working day, even though time and attendance system is just a threshold for workers to start and end their work by clocking-in and out.  We should be aware that when more rules apply, the calculations would be more complicated for time and attendance, besides extra issues of integration or export of data to your payroll system. To top that of, working hour is a sensitive issue and human resources is always one of the major costs for most companies.

For any industry products, don't get too caught up in getting the best deals in price in the procurement process.  No matter how low the price a product is, it is always wise to research before making any decisions. As the saying goes, there's no free lunch. 

by Teh Hon Seng, CEO, FingerTec HQ