It's A Drama!

Maybe I woke up in the wrong side of the bed the day I left Kuala Lumpur. For a start, I wasn’t feeling good, my head was giddy, my nose was stuffy and I had mistaken the date of my flight until I received an sms from Nattalina saying that she would come over at 230pm. The first flight to Singapore via MAS left me feeling flabbergasted with a thumping landing that could wake up a giant. Everything about that flight was vulgar and I didn’t connect with the 1MH, Malaysian Hospitality concept being marketed by MAS. Perhaps, it was the rookie who flew that plane and an hour was a short time to assess an airlines.

Stranded in Paris

I slept all my way to Paris via AirFrance and arrived at Paris de Guelle at 610am in the morning to discover that the flight to Hannover got cancelled due to bad weather. Apparently we arrived on the day of the Europe storms that left people die and homeless. After about 5 hours of queuing, we received our accommodation for the night and meal tickets from AirFrance. The night spent at Campanile hotel was the night wasted and the next morning at 11pm, we boarded AirFrance to Hannover after a delayed one hour flight. By that time, we hadn’t changed any clothes for two days, we were frustrated, tired and feeling lousy.

Upon arrival at the Hannover Airport, the first luggage that came out to the belt was ours and the second luggage; the most important one didn’t arrive at all. “We are going to send your luggage to the hotel today,” assured the lost baggage lady of AirFrance without any doubt in her eyes. And on the first day, we were at the show with practically nothing. Vacant booth and ourselves to display. Our luggage that contained the terminals, brochures, and everything else was still stuck somewhere and the lady who provided us an assurance yesterday couldn’t care less that we were in CeBIT without anything to display.

It’s a depressing situation but we were determined to make the best out of what we had. Nattalina made a good decision to bring some brochures in our hand carry luggage and we were using those flyers and our beautiful faces to entice people to our booth, which hadn’t been that successful (haha!)

Me in front of the entrance, CeBIT is a humongous show! Kudos to the organizer!

It’s freezing but apart from the unforgiving weather, we found it easy to move around the city. The tram system is well established; we stayed at the suburb and it took us around 11 minutes to the city center and 30 minutes to the exhibition center via tram.

Nattalina attending to visitors

The luggage came on the midnight of the 2nd March. The booth was set and many people came to the booth, most of them were end-users, very excited to try the fingerprint and face technologies. The Keylock 8800 garnered a lot of attention from Europeans. The plus point was that decision makers were the ones who came. Distributorships for France, Italy and Germany look positive and we are hoping that the samples bought will lead us to fruitful relationships.

Scenic Hannover

by Norana Johar, COO, FingerTec HQ

Fostering Relationships Through Business

What I have enjoyed most about working in FingerTec is the opportunity to meet people from around the world. It’s not a chance that anybody could have, for me it’s an eye opener, an experience that is so priceless, I wouldn’t want to trade it with anything else. Knowing people from the other parts of the globe with diverse culture and beliefs shape the way I perceived the world. It constitutes a lot to my understanding of the business and the way we should deal with our clients and it also makes me a much better person than I was, well at least I hope so.

One way doesn’t fit all. When I went to New Delhi a couple of years back, I was pleasantly surprised by the Indian hospitality. A sit down with a few cups of tea and coffee with Mr Bhooshan from Compax made me felt welcome and we talked for hours about almost everything under the sun. When the relationship is built and strengthened, business runs smoother and we find ways to prosper together. How could I forget Mr Krishnaraj from Dhonadhi Chennai with his antics, entertaining us throughout the night while sipping on his favorite beer. And at the end of the night, I took the infamous Indian auto from the city to the hotel, enjoying the stale air of Delhi. Talking about Indians bargaining skill, they could have won gold in the Olympics. From that experience, I took it to understand better on how to deal with them, how to build a better business with Indians.

Such a nice ride..

When I arrived in Dubai for InterSec, Abbas from Seven Seas waited for me with a bouquet of roses. It was a nice touch, even though I knew that fetching someone at 4am in the morning was not fun AT ALL. Upon arrival at the hotel, I was welcome with a basket of fruits from IPTec. All of those gestures no matter how big or how small went into my heart and one way or another, it affects the way we perceive and respect each other, and the friendships continue.

Indonesia tells a different story, I have been to Medan and Jakarta for business and friendships. The Indonesians take care of their visitors like VIPs. We don’t have to worry about anything at all and we were constantly being provided with excellent food. The fish head curry was out of this world and Ayam Pop (Pop Chicken) made me thinking about opening a franchise in Malaysia, haha! And believe it or not, I thought I've discovered a new fruit in Indonesia, to later found out that they trimmed the rambutan’s hair because it's full of ants. One thing I realize about Indonesians is, they do not complain. It’s not that I look forward to complaints but I do want to know problems, hurdles, setbacks, anything that could help us to improve our business and us. I guess it’s the culture of people from this part of the world to not nag (complaint) while the guests are around. Nonetheless, our relationships are getting stronger and better by the day. They are like a part of our family.

Fast forward to 2009, I went to the United Kingdom for IFSEC in Birmingham. We took a flight to Standsted Airport and Bob Marshall was waiting for us at the airport. Such a warm welcome which I would never forget. Standsted to Birmingham is quite a distance. And after the show he took us to London and show us around. We hope to receive Bob in Malaysia soon to discuss business and to show him this land of scorching sunshine.

Meeting you again soon!

Apart from traveling overseas and meeting clients, I’m constantly in contact with resellers from around the world through Skype and MSN. And while business is utmost priority, we do talk about our lives and other stuff, and from there relationships grow. We also receive visitations from our resellers every year, introducing them to Malaysian spicy food and to Malaysian hospitality. I do not drive a Mercedes but I hope they feel comfortable riding in my car to the city center.

A yearly visit is a must from Rapid Vigil, Nigeria

This Sunday Nattalina and I will be going to Germany for CeBIT 2010. Nobody is going to be there to welcome our arrivals but I have no doubt that we’ll find new relationships to foster, and of course bring some business back too. Good bye, und ich komme bald wieder

by Norana Johar, COO, FingerTec HQ

The Business of Attendance

My long lost friend asked me last week about my job. I told her that I’m in fingerprint business for attendance and door access. She was surprised to know that taking attendance could be a thriving business. Working as a high-school teacher, taking attendance comes naturally; they can even do it subconsciously! Every teacher in Malaysia has to prepare an attendance book for students. Students names must be handwritten in black ink and capital letters only, and the taking of attendance has to be done manually, in other words, Teacher shouts -- “so and so, are you there?” student answer -- “yes/no, teacher”. After sometimes, the teachers need to submit some kind of attendance reports to the principal. I’m not sure whether the report also must be handwritten in black ink and in caps but they do need to submit some kind of report to the principal. I feel for the teachers who have to do a lot of work for attendance taking and perhaps a lot of answering when the attendance reports showing a lot of absences. On top of the overwhelming workload, what’s with the handwriting only?

Cleverly, I suggested to her the use of biometrics system to only receive the biggest laugh of all time. “Why do you think the government would want to spend money on biometrics system when they can use every biometrics in our body to take students’ attendance, literally for free” she asked me. Of course, she said it jokingly. But again, what’s so funny about automating attendance to monitor student’s attendance? Perhaps it would cost a fortune, perhaps that would mean a colossal change to the system, perhaps it’s easier said than done but logically speaking, biometrics is an effective way to take attendance. We have been in the business of attendance since 10 years ago and the demand (for attendance system) is escalating every year. The reason for the business world is simple. Your time is my money. But even more than that, automated attendance is indeed automated. No more manual work, no more writing attendance in Capital letters, no more counting days of absence, no more burden or work in that area. And at the end of the month, reports can be printed with precise data and information.

I can’t simply surrender. I annoyed her more. “The government promotes the use of IT and IT shouldn’t be just a theory, it should be practical. Biometrics is one way to make IT practical. What’s with the old school manual attendance?” Data communication through network is awesome. Distance is not a factor anymore and updates can be obtained in a matter of minutes. “If we could use biometrics as attendance and link the data to text parents the whereabouts of their kids, that would be a breakthrough. That’s the power of IT,” I continued. She looked at me with a smile on her chubby face, “Let me tell you a story. Once upon a time, we (teachers) called an electrician to come for some electrical works in the teacher’s room and the service cost was RM60. He had to fill in a few forms, fought with at least two clerks and ended up not getting paid instantly. So, you go figure.” “I’d welcome the system so much but at this point in time, the students have to listen to my biometrics voice”.

When everything else fails..

by Norana Johar, COO, FingerTec HQ

'Franchising’ FingerTec – Doing Business The FingerTec Way

FingerTec Business Guidebook will be introduced in 2010. We don’t exactly plan to venture into franchising business. In fact, franchising is not exactly the proper word in this context but some parts of what we want to do match the term’s definitions. The common feature of a franchising business is creating the same experience for customers anywhere in the world. For example, Starbucks Caramel Macchiato in Las Vegas, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Jakarta have the same taste as the one in Malaysia. I’ve tasted the Macchiatos and they all taste the same. Starbucks stores look similar, the cups feel the same, and the pastries and cakes look the same and taste the same. McDonald’s, KFC, TGIF, Pizza Hut, Domino’s maintain similarities between franchises to let customers feel the same experience, regardless of location.

Same everywhere

The FingerTec Business Guidebook is intended to guide resellers to do FingerTec business the FingerTec Way. We want our customers to feel the same experience whether they are dealing directly with FingerTec or they are dealing with FingerTec resellers around the world. We have had visitors who found it hard to believe that we do almost everything using the Internet. The Internet is THE tool of the new millennium. For those who haven’t convinced about the power of the Internet have to make an appointment with psychiatrists because you have a serious problem with reality. The world has changed and it moves faster than before. We have made our millions with very little use of phone calls and meetings but we meet our customers A LOT on Skype and MSN. We discuss business in these social channels, we send millions of emails per year to our customers, and we send them links to our resources, videos, and newsletters to attend to their needs. We do take our customers’ needs very seriously but we attend to them the FingerTec Way.

Change is not easy. And asking you to change the way you do business perhaps is risky but this is not only theory. We have had years of experience doing business this way; it is proven fruitful. Some might think that we do not provide personalized service to our clients if everything is done virtually but I beg to have a different opinion. In this current world, personalization is very much happening in the virtual world because it’s less hassle and more effective. Banks have introduced online banking, online credit card payments are very much required to buy products from abroad, customer service have to be available online to support clients 24-hours, etc. More and more people are into online transactions and communications these days than ever before. The gist of the FingerTec Way is not only cost saving but it also info loaded program and very much client-friendly.

This is personal

In short, we want to create the FingerTec experience for all our customers worldwide via the FingerTec Way of doing business. And what’s the best way to inform all of our esteemed distributors and resellers, The FingerTec Business Guidebook. Of course.

by Norana Johar, COO, FingerTec HQ