THE cloud is the future for businesses. Adopting and leveraging cloud computing solutions allow more flexibility and convenience with its on-demand availability, productivity tools and ability to connect and process data discreetly.
While cloud computing – in particular software as a service (SaaS) – extols various benefits, many local businesses are still struggling to jump on the bandwagon.
A recent white paper by SME Corp Malaysia and Huawei Technologies (M) Sdn Bhd found that 44% of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) – which make 98.5% of all business establishments in Malaysia – use cloud computing for the storage of personal documents, pictures and videos, instead of adopting cloud SaaS to drive software process improvements.
Concurring, Matrix Connexion (MatrixC) co-founder Sean Tay says while many decision-makers find that Google Workspace is for school kids and not for businesses; in reality, it is enterprise ready.
“There is a willingness to explore, but the decision-making is slow and is still very much influenced by accommodating users’ familiarity, instead of looking into key benefits from new ways of working offered by Google Workspace, which is focused around collaboration,” he says.
MatrixC has been at the forefront of SaaS in Malaysia for more than a decade. Since 2008, it has been a Google cloud partner providing solutions, support and training services for businesses ranging from small to large enterprises.
Tay says many businesses are dumbfounded to learn what Google Workspace has to offer.
“Most users find that Google Workspace is just Gmail and Google Drive, not knowing all the other tools like Data Studio, Keep, Jamboard and Google Classroom among others.
“Users are amazed to see real time collaboration and co-editing of documents in Google Workspace from anywhere and on any device.
“They never fail to express their awe once we show them how they could do data dashboarding and formulas on Google Spreadsheet and Data Studio,” he says, adding that the software is not only easy to use, but also saves time in updating reports and statuses.
Bringing the cloud to Malaysians
From a small team of three in 2007, MatrixC has grown to an optimum size of 28, where it has maintained over 400 customers and also supporting seven million users in Malaysia.
Tay opines that the younger generation will be digital savvy once they join the workforce. This begs the question: Are companies ready for the future digitally-advanced workforce?
Therefore, MatrixC provides a full plan of services including consultation, deployment, training and 24/7 support.
It has helped many businesses with the Google Workspace onboarding, by providing services such as technical implementation and migration, consulting and change management, end-user enablement on Google Workspace, Google Workspace Security Health Check, Chromebook and mobile device management implementation, as well as courses on data storytelling and analytics using Google Spreadsheet, Slides and Data Studio.
“We feel that everyone is moving towards being more data driven, so we thought the best way to help companies transform and also help users adopt digital skills would be to run classes on data storytelling using Google spreadsheet, slides and data studio.
“Once they (participants) come out of the workshop, they understand the value of using real-time collaborative tools like Google Workspace and learn skills on how to tell better stories using data and maybe learn how to do basic infographics,” he says.
Tay adds that many customers sign up with MatrixC for ongoing workshops or even conduct workshops internally every quarter. For instance, MRT Corp has an in-house Google Champion that learns all the necessary tools and teaches different departments internally.
This quarterly engagement drives adoption, collaboration and integration where Tay shared that this ongoing programme is highly encouraged after onboarding.
Tay shares that collaboration is a future skill many people, organisations and education institutions will need to master.
“A lot of people think that collaboration is when I send you a document and you send it back to me with edits. But in actual fact, it is when you can do stuff together. Ideation happens when you do stuff together.
“Google has a feature where you introduce a ChatBot so you can use the whiteboard feature during Google Meet sessions and now that everything is web-based, you can be looking at slides while presenting.
“With Google screen-sharing it is as though you are sitting in the room but actually everybody is everywhere. It is just so efficient,” he said.
MatrixC in education
More recently, the company has ventured into the education sphere by achieving MatrixC’s record time and size of a seven-day Google Workspace deployment of 5.5 million users for a country-wide education system, executed by its five man technical team.
This was back in 2019, prior to the Covid-19 pandemic, which Tay shares played an important role for the country to leverage remote teaching and learning during the various movement control orders.
“MatrixC as a company I believe has contributed in many ways to the modernisation of digital adoption for companies and most importantly for education.
“We are now venturing into the education sector to enable more students and teachers with digital skills to enhance remote or everywhere learning and teaching,” he says, adding that this accomplishment propelled him to begin a new edutech start-up, Unoya Sdn Bhd.
Under Unoya, Tay and his team built a platform called RECQA – a centralised learning platform with smart personalisation.
Educational institutions are able to centralise all their learning and teaching apps, disseminate targeted announcements, provide quick access to Google Classroom and other Google Workspace tools.
Using single sign-on ID, users go through one centralised gateway allowing rich data collection on teaching and learning activities for analytics purposes.
RECQA is fully built on Google Cloud Platform to take advantage of its scalability capabilities and is now being used as the base platform for a country-wide digital learning platform catering up to six million users.
“Our mission at MatrixC is to continue to educate and bring awareness that when you have an easy-to-use tool that is so accessible, it can really transform business or even for education,” he said.
For more information on how you can benefit from Google Workspace, visit www.matrixc.com. Alternatively, email [email protected] to connect with a team of experts who will explain further and find a solution for your business needs.