DNA on BFM: Three telcos, a bank and you, the customer

By Karamjit Singh December 3, 2015

RHB adds payments as major component of digital strategy
Focus on meeting customer needs before making coverage claims

DNA on BFM: Three telcos, a bank and you, the customer TODAY’S Tech Talk show on BFM Radio was special because we actually ended three minutes early, and BFM presenter Freda Liu pounced on the opportunity to play a song before I could talk about something else!

It was also interesting because Edwin Yapp had earlier this week weighed in on the Maxis-Digi war of words about 4G LTE (Fourth Generation/ Long-Term Evolution) network coverage, with some comments from Celcom Axiata chief executive officer Shazalli Ramly, who deftly got in a jab while opting to stay out of their battle.

After listening to the podcast, do read Edwin’s article and observe the language that Shazalli uses to make his own claim!

And check out the two readers’ comments on the article as well, which reveal the value of such a public spat between telcos.

I also made a prediction of what will happen on Dec 31. Let’s see if that pans out.

As Edwin was saying, claim all you want, but focus on delivering on customers’ expectations as well.

And it is principally with an eye on the customer that RHB Bank Bhd embarked on its digital journey last year, initially focused on getting its platform ready to deliver a suite of digital banking services to customers.

RHB group chief operations officer Rohan Krishnalingam also shared how payments has become a key addition to its transformation strategy launched in January, 2014 and updated early this year with payments as a new focus.

He also shared some data points about the percentage of RHB’s transactions already being conducted via digital and e-channels. You will be surprised!

What’s not surprising was Multimedia Development Corporation (MDeC) looking to aggressively expand a successful pilot of an entrepreneur programme it launched called eUsahawan, which is Bahasa Malaysia for ‘e-entrepreneur.’

When you have a lecturer picking up digital marketing skills and claiming to have helped an artiste earn tens of thousands of ringgit in sales, and an air-conditioning repair technician claiming a similar bump to his earnings, it is little wonder that MDeC is excited about the programme and is expanding it.

Liu and I spoke a little bit about this and how digital skills had an economic impact.

I ended the show with three articles under my ‘Reading List,’ with one of them being DNA’s comparison of the Huawei Mate S against the Oppo R7s. You need to read that review to see which model we would recommend!