NEWS: Many SMEs still ignorant about e-commerce

PETALING JAYA: Many small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are still ignorant about e-commerce, said Shaifubahrim Saleh, president of the Association of the Computer and Multimedia Industry of Malaysia (Pikom).

He said these SMEs still believe they have to buy servers and set up an IT department to participate in e-commerce, when in actual fact they can merely subscribe to e-commerce services for as low as RM100 per month.

According to Pikom, 31% of SMEs surveyed in the country believe they do not have the technical knowledge to embrace e-commerce, while 17% said they are not ready to engage in e-commerce.

"That's why Pikom is going to 16 locations nationwide to teach SMEs there about e-commerce and the ease of adopting e-commerce services," Shaifubahrim said.

"They need to understand that in the age of cloud computing, they do not need to possess in-depth technical knowledge to get into e-commerce."

According to Pikom, its roadshows will have educated about 3,000 SMEs by year end. It estimates that there are some 900,000 SMEs in the country.

"It is going to be a long process educating all the SMEs," said Shaifubahrim.

Pikom said the value of e-commerce in Malaysia will be RM92.6bil by year end - a 32% increase from last year. "Yes, there is vast potential in e-commerce here," Shaifubahrim told In.Tech at the opening of its Business Success Forum here.

The forum is one of the main initiatives under the National ICT Month (NIM) 2010. The month-long event ends Aug 12. It features talks, forums, workshops and seminars.

NIM 2010 is organised by Pikom and the Science, Innovation and Technology Ministry.