All the right clicks

Rozana Sani
New Straits Times
06-06-2011
All the right clicks
Byline: Rozana Sani
Edition: Main/Lifestyle
Section: Tech & U

ENTERPRENEURSHIP is a natural calling for Nuraizah Shamsul Baharin and Islamic mobile applications is her game, writes ROZANA SANI.

Step into the 139sq m apartment the annexe attached to Holiday Villa in Jalan Ampang Kuala Lumpur and you may well think it a bachelor pad. Certainly the accessories and furnishing are compatible with that impression.
Tucked away in a corner next to a comfortable couch is a Sony PlayStation. A table with an ongoing chess game stands next to the couch and there is a huge bookshelf with minimal knick knacks and a collection of earmarked books. Behind that lies a kitchenette with a refrigerator filled with soft drinks and coffees.

The nine occupants, dressed in casual wear, walk in and out at all times of the day. This is the lair of a local outfit called Madcat World Sdn Bhd (www.madcatworld.com), a multimedia company that enables mobility and productivity services for enterprise and government departments but with a burning passion in developing Islamic content for mobile and Internet operators.

Heading the young group is managing director Nuraizah Shamsul Baharin. Born and bred in Kuala Lumpur, the congenial 40-year-old is a go-getter at heart who loves a good challenge.

"Madcat World started as a group of friends who wanted to create products that make a difference in people's lives. We also wanted to have a say in what we do at the workplace and how we do it. Madcat World is about promoting new media and Malaysia is one of the most intense Internet and most advanced mobile data markets in the world with the appetite for consuming new content. We help businesses use mobility to improve business intelligence, facilitate new media marketing and mobilise field force activities.

"Our passion is advocating Islamic content in both mobile and the social media arena," she says earnestly.

Ambitious words, you may think, but not for a woman who has grown from being a product engineer into a much respected entrepreneur over the years.

Her own boss

An electrical engineer graduate from the University of Michigan, USA, Nuraizah started her career as a product engineer with Motorola Malaysia Sdn Bhd in 1994, working in Malaysia, Germany and Scotland. She moved on to join Sapura Nokia Software Sdn Bhd as a senior R&D engineer in 2000. At the end of 2005, she joined CWorks Mobile Sdn Bhd, a subsidiary of public-listed CWorks Systems Bhd, which she left to form Madcat in 2010 with a team of seasoned and award- winning mobile and software developers who have been working in this space since 1998 alongside younger colleagues.

"I was an electrical engineer and programmer for half my career life before I ventured into sales and marketing, and eventually, entrepreneurship. I couldn't find a boss that I wanted to work for, so I learnt the most important skill - to run a business which is sales and marketing - and that took about two years."

According to Nuraizah, the team has built hundreds of mobile applications, ranging from Islamic and health content to productivity, entertainment and game applications.

"We have the best team. We are all programmers and we share the same passion in striving to create meaningful products. We have been through many ups and downs before we became Madcat World and this is the team who has stuck through, no matter what and we believe enough in our capabilities to start on our own again."

As proof of her entrepreneurial mettle, Nuraizah is also a mentor with Cradle Investment Program (CIP) Catalyst, mentor for Maxis College Challenge (MCC) Program and heads the ICT Committee in the Women's Entrepreneur Network Association (WENA)

What's cooking

Over the last few years, the Madcat World team has focused on developing platforms and engines that would help users build and manage their own mobile content. Among others, they provide SMS broadcast solutions to businesses, media partners and non-profit organisations and broadcast engines, and support to mobile operators - serving Maxis, DiGi, U-Mobile (and Baraka & Celcom expected shortly).

"Now we focus on two major areas: mobile for consumer (focusing on Islamic content) and mobile for enterprises," says Nuraizah.

Why Islamic content in particular? Nuraizah says it is all about countering Islamicphobia and highlighting the true Islamic way of life which covers the spiritual aspects all the way to health and finance.

"One of our products, which won the MSC Malaysia Mobile Interactive Content Competition in 2007 and was a nominee of 2010 Mobile Premier Awards in Innovation (the world's largest competition for mobile sector startups), had a hard time finding a market in Europe because of its name - Diary Muslim.

"The misperception against all things Muslim just spurred us to correct it," she remarks.

Diary Muslim is an innovative mobile application that helps Muslims become better followers of their faith by allowing them to track key activities for their spiritual and self-development on a daily basis.

"In the consumer market, we are working on Nurmuslim, an Islamic- oriented forum-based social network application. We will be launching a mobile portal called Labbaikallah with a local telco that connects people who have performed their Hajj and Umrah and addresses matters concerning Hajj and Umrah (type GET LABBAIK and send to 22558 (Maxis only).)

"We have also recently launched an Islamic WAP portal on Maxis (type GET IKHLAS and send to 22558 (Maxis only).) We are working on creating Islamic Facebook applications too."

For the business world, Nuraizah said Madcat World had recently launched Beam (Business Enterprise Applications and Mobile tools) with Asia Brand Corporation Bhd. where the team deployed mobile sales tracker and mobile delivery order application using low-end Nokia hand phones to more 400 sites. These applications help provide business intelligence to retail based businesses."

Driven by passion

Asked what drives her and what she lists as her challenges, Nuraizah takes a breather to contemplate.

"I have a passion for promoting mobility into people's lives and workplace. The early challenges include promoting a technology that people are not ready to adopt yet, as well as the cost in adopting mobile devices and operating costs. With the advent of cheaper mobile devices and competitive data rates, people are now more receptive to mobile solutions," she says.

"I get the greatest satisfaction in being able to provide solutions that help businesses become more efficient and effective. I am happy to be able to promote Islamic content in Malaysia and hopefully around the world in the near future," she smiles.

Through her work with Wena and Mobile Content Challenge (organised by Maxis, SKMM and KPKK), she gives back to others what she has learned.

"I am privileged to have the opportunity to work with students and women and helping to create more entrepreneurs. And I will continue doing so."

Apt words for someone, whom as a girl was told to pick medicine over engineering because the latter was said to be unsuitable for the fairer sex.

"If you tell me it's too difficult to achieve or cannot be done, I will prove you wrong."

(Copyright 2011)