APICTA 2012: ADAcode takes coveted 'best of the best' award

• Themed ‘Stimulating Creativity, Innovation and Excellence in ICT,’ 39% increase in submissions from last year
• Winners and merit recipients to represent Malaysia at International APICTA Awards in Brunei on Dec 5

MOBILE telecommunications solutions company ADAcode Systems Sdn Bhd beat out 31 other category contenders to win the coveted Best of the Best, Prime Minister Award at this year’s MSC Malaysia Asia-Pacific ICT Alliance (APICTA) awards.

The APICTA program is organized by the Multimedia Development Corporation (MDeC) and the National ICT Association of Malaysia (Pikom), which announced award winners and merit recipients in 18 categories at the MSC Malaysia APICTA Awards 2012 ceremony on Oct 16.

With the theme ‘Stimulating Creativity, Innovation and Excellence in ICT’ again, the 2012 ICT Awards saw 342 entries submitted, a 39% increase over last year. With 18 categories representing various components of ICT (information and communications technology), the awards are opened not only to local ICT companies, but also individuals and students.

This year also saw a new category, “Best of Sustainability and Green IT,” MDeC said in a statement.

Beyond 14 individual category winners, 18 participants were also chosen as Merit recipients within their respective categories.

“The MSC Malaysia APICTA Awards is the perfect platform to cultivate a steady stream of innovators, technopreneurs, thinkers, and visionaries,” Datuk Seri Maximus Johnity Ongkili, Malaysia’s Minister of Science, Technology & Innovation (MOSTI), said at the awards presentation ceremony.

“These individuals are able to look beyond the state of the nation’s ICT industry and execute initiatives for themselves, their businesses and their community, that will make Malaysia a force to be reckoned with globally,” he said.

MDeC chairman Tan Sri Abdul Halim Ali said that “The APICTA Awards continue to be the best opportunity for local ICT heroes to showcase their solutions and understand the potential they hold not just for themselves, but for the nation as a whole.

“The APICTA Awards is … also a renowned international stage for Malaysians to be recognized for their innovation, creativity and ability to take great ideas and turn them into solutions and services of remarkable quality,” he added.

ADAcode was founded by serial entrepreneurs Azli Paat and Stephen Chia. Its patented ADAcode mobile technology platform has been in development for past one year and has since garnered over 315,000+ users (with unique mobile numbers) and has been piloted by various government agencies for different applications and solutions, according to MDeC.

Azli was previously the founder of Dapat Vista Sdn Bhd, winner of the APICTA 2008 e-Community & Prime Minister’s Choice Awards for his RakanCop SMS e-community project, which has over 650,000 registered users. He also championed the implementation of the unified shortcode 15888 for all Malaysian government agencies.

The notable winners were as follows: -
•             Best of E-Government – ADAcode (ADAcode Systems Sdn Bhd). Also recipient of the ‘Best of the Best’ Prime Minister’s Award
•             Best of Sustainability and Green IT – High Precise Forest Monitoring (Cube Global Sdn Bhd)
•             Best of Media and Entertainment – Masatu (Agmo Studio Sdn Bhd)
•             Best of Start-Up Companies – Piktochart Sdn Bhd

• Best of Tertiary Student Project- Software/Hardware – Asia Pacific University College of Technology and Innovation (UCTI)

•             Best of Primary Student Projects – Urban Landscape of Putrajaya (SK Putrajaya Presint 11[1])

Piktochart was the grand winner of StartupMalaysia.org’s entrepreneurship program that began with the Silicon Valley Comes To Malaysia conference and pitching contest that kicked off on October last year.

The APICTA winners and merit recipients were selected by a panel of judges consisting of local industry experts and ICT thought leaders.

Leading the judging panel was Stan Singh-Jit, chairman of the judging committee and managing director of Wincor Nixdorf Retail Solutions (M) Sdn Bhd; Niran Noor, co-chairman and vice president of MDeC; Burhanuddin Md. Radzi, managing director of Les' Copaque Production Sdn Bhd;  Chu Hong Keong, chief information officer (Information Technology) at HSBC Bank Malaysia Berhad; Assoc. Prof. Datin Dr Norizan Abdul Razak, head, e-Community Research Center of Excellence Bridging Digital Divide (CoE-BDD), Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia; and others.

Nominees of the MSC Malaysia APICTA Awards were trained through the MDeC-Cradle Collaboration, Coach and Grow Program (CGP) which focuses on structured coaching by entrepreneurs, which is then personalized to each company, individual or school, MDeC said.

This is done to raise the quality level of pitches by participants and subsequently increase their chances of winning. Only the top 30% of the nominees will receive further coaching where  their solutions are then tagged on to KPIs (key performance indicators) and processes to enable easier monitoring and support  during the implementation process.

All MSC Malaysia APICTA winners will go on to represent Malaysia at this year’s International APICTA Awards which will be held in Brunei Darussalam on Dec 5.
 
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