NEWS: Police SMS service wins top Apicta accolade

By STEVEN PATRICK

KUALA LUMPUR: A young girl hears intruders outside her house while she is in her room. Instead of dialing 911 on the house phone and risk alerting the intruders, she sends an SMS to the police.

Minutes later, the police arrive on the scene and apprehend the suspects. This quick preventive action is made possible by Dapat Vista Sdn Bhd, the service provider for the Rakancop (Friends of the Police) SMS e-community project.

It’s no wonder that this company beat 17 other finalists to win the MSC Malaysia Asia Pacific Information and Communications Technology Alliance (Apicta) Prime Minister’s Choice Award because of its contribution to the community.

The 10th annual Apicta awards, billed as the Oscars of the ICT industry, took place last night at the Putra World Trade Centre here.

Dapat Vista also won the Best of e-Inclusion and e-Community Apicta Award for the service.

The Rakancop service enables members of the public to SMS the police to report crimes, make enquiries on summons, and even notify the police on traffic-congested areas.

Superintendent Alwee Abdul Ghani, the assistant director of operations at Bukit Aman for the Royal Malaysian Police, said there were 1.2 million SMSes received last year.

“The whole idea is to fight crime together with the public. Our target is to respond and act within 15 minutes of receiving an SMS from the public,” he said. “Sometimes our response time can be as quick as 6.5 minutes.”

Alwee said the police in other countries, such as Germany, Hong Kong and Bangladesh, are studying the Rakancop system because of its efficiency.

The police started using the system in 2004 and it has undergone several upgrades.

Aziz Arshad, chief executive officer of Dapat Vista, said the system also saves the police time and effort, such as when the public wants information on summonses.

“The motorists just send an SMS and the system searches the police database before sending a return SMS with the relevant information,” he said,

Dapat Vista will go on to represent Malaysia at the Apicta International 2009 awards, which will be held in Melbourne, Australia, in December.

The awards comes with a prize — one representative from Dapat Vista will get to attend a week-long entrepreneurship development programme at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the United States in January, next year.

More glitter

Another notable Apicta award winner is the Malaysian Administrative Modernisation and Management Planning Unit (Mampu).

Mampu director-general Datuk Normah Md Yusof said she was pleasantly surprised that the unit won the Best of e-Government and Services Award for its mySMS 15888 service.

“We are surprised because our project is only about a year old. With this SMS 15888 short code, people can access the services of various government agencies via their mobile gadgets,” she said.

With it, users have access to Employees Provident Fund withdrawal forms, the checking and paying of traffic fines online, and other government services.

Datuk Badlisham Ghazali, chief executive officer of the Multimedia Development Corporation (MDeC) which organises the awards, said there is a record 383 nominees this year — the highest ever in the event’s history.

He said that over the past 10 years, the MSC Malaysia Apicta awards have been instrumental in developing a pool of small- and medium-scale technopreneurs for the nation. The awards have also helped these innovators go on to bigger and better things, as well as penetrate the global market.

For instance, last year’s Apicta award winners Sarawak Information Systems Bhd and Les Copaque Productions Sdn Bhd, made impacts at the biennial United Nations World Summit Award ceremony that was in Monterrey, Mexico, last month.

Sarawak Information Systems was chosen as the best entry in the e-Government & Institutions category while Les Copaque Productions received a Regional Special Mention for Asia in the e-Entertainment & Games category.

The history of the MSC Malaysia Apicta awards goes back to 1999 when it was first introduced to showcase the country’s ICT sector. MDeC is guardian of the MSC Malaysia initiative to leapfrog the country’s knowledge economy.

Pikom — the Association of the Computer and Multimedia Industry of Malaysia — partners with MDeC to organise the Apicta event.

For a full list of the winners, go to www.mscapicta.com.my or thestar.com.my/apicta2009awards