KarenSoft going for Mesdaq listing exercise, New Straits Times (Computimes), Monday, August 26, 2002

KarenSoft going for Mesdaq listing exercise
New Straits Times (Computimes), Monday, August 26, 2002


ENTERPRISE resource planning (ERP) solutions provider KarenSoft Technology Berhad (KTB) is set to go for a listing exercise on the Kuala Lumpur Stock Exchange (KLSE) Mesdaq Market in November.

Its executive chairman-cumchief executive officer (CEO) Chee Chong Hwa said the exercise is targeted to raise funds for the company to further expand its reach into small and medium-sized industries/enterprises (SMIs/SMEs) markets in Asean, China, South Korea, the Middle East (particularly Saudi Arabia), and eastern and central Europe via the Czech Republic.

"KTB was approve by the Securities Commission to be listed on the KLSE Mesdaq market on July 15. The prospectus is expected to be issued in September or October," he told Computimes last week.

"Our vision is to be the leading ERP2 solution provider in the Asia-Pacific region and our mission is to provide world-class ERP2 solutions to the industrial and commercial sectors under the KarenSoft brand and to provide customer services which include strategic consulting."

Chee added that KarenSoft ERP2 is an enterprise-wide software solution targeted at not only for SMIs/SMEs, but also tier-two (mid-sized non-SMI/ SME) customers.

KTB, which has Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC) status, claims to have reached revenues of RM2 million for the first six months of this year ended June 30. Its current business model is based on direct sales, channel sales via its certified KarenSoft solutions providers (CKSP), strategic alliances with Intel Electronics Sdn Bhd and IBM, and its role as a solutions partner of RosettaNet, Malaysia.

"Direct sales is currently conducted by our regional offices in Prai, Penang and Petaling Jaya. We plan to start a Johor Baru office this year and another one in Kuching next year," said Chee.

Meanwhile, CKSPs - which are accounting firms or system integrators who have been trained and certified by the KarenSoft Institute of Technology-serve areas in which there are no regional KarenSoft offices such as in Kedah, Perak, Selangor, Federal Territory, Malacca, Kelantan, Johor and Sabah.

On KTB's strategic alliance with Intel Electronics Sdn Bhd, Chee said KTB takes on the role as an Intel solution provider and has actively participated in Intel-drive events such as the e-Accelerate Your Competitive Edge series in Penang and lpoh since 2001 which are focused on SMIs/SMEs.

"As for our relationship with IBM, we are an IBM business partner focusing on the SMI/SME market where we offer our ERP solutions to SMIs/SMEs bundled with IBM servers. We had also participated in the 2002 IBM e-Fair in Kuala Lumpur and Will be participating in the forthcoming IBM e-Fair in Penang," he said.

On RosettaNet, Chee said KTB is currently focused on developing a middleware to connect the KarenSoft ERP2 to other ERP systems via extensible markup language (XML).

Chee, who is also the founder of KTB, was appointed a council member of RosettaNet Malaysia Bhd in July this year.

In terms of research and development (R&D), KTB is planning to develop ERP2 for Linux which will be aimed mainly at the China market in 2003.

Also in the pipeline are ERP2 development plans for Solaris, horizontal and vertical enhancements to the existing KarenSoft ERP2, including Web-services-enabling, hotel management system (HMS) for Windows, healthcare information system (HIS) for Windows, and bonded warehouse system (BWS) for Windows.

KarenSoft ERP2 is an enhancement over KarenSoft ERP2000, its predecessor, which was a finalist at both the 1999 Asia-Pacific IT&T Awards (Apmitta) and 1999 Pikom-Computimes IT Product of the Year.


By Rozana Sani