TM Research & Development Sdn Bhd

2022

Innovative Tech Companies of the Year

TM Research & Development Sdn Bhd

Innovative Tech Companies of the Year

2022

about TM Research & Development Sdn Bhd

Malaysia’s Digital Driver

Making life and business easier with smarter ecosystems

Telekom Research & Development Sdn Bhd (TM R&D) was incorporated in 2000 as a world-class R&D company of Telekom Malaysia Berhad (TM), Malaysia’s leading integrated telco and digital technology Group.  As the key enabler in driving TM’s digital aspiration, TM R&D’s innovation moves beyond connectivity to create new value-added digital and smart services, covering customer experience, process optimisation, as well as new business opportunities. 

The organisation helps businesses to solve operational issues and co-create solutions for the global market. It focuses on intelligent platform, IR4.0 technologies and connectivity to create smarter business ecosystems.

TM R&D’s ultimate goal is to serve a higher purpose larger than themselves, making life and business easier with smarter ecosystems to enrich humanity and bring progress to nations. The company strives to stay relevant with new innovative solutions that the market cannot do without and takes on projects that provide multifold benefits to organisations. 

One of its main aspirations is to create and deliver the next Unicorn for TM, and ultimately for Malaysia. To support this, they hold fast to the three pillars of their business; which are exploratory research, co-creation with industry, and commercialisation. 

Taking up the role in 2016, Dr Sharlene Thiagarajah, Chief Executive Officer of TM R&D has been credited with successfully transforming the culture and mindset of the organisation from a basic research facility to an innovation powerhouse that focuses on creation and commercialisation.

Since then, TM R&D has increased its innovation adoption rate from five to 100 percent; delivered more than RM 2 billion in innovation impact.  

Among its organisational strengths is having local in-house talents that can make, create, and innovate, as well as providing thought leadership on infrastructure for the future. Acknowledging that nurturing talent is crucial to the business, the company offers emerging skills learning and development programs such as Artificial Intelligence, (AI) Machine Learning, Data Science & Analytics and Data Engineering. 

As all products and solutions are developed in-house, TM R&D is able to customise its innovations based on their customers’ needs – embracing the Group’s aspiration in becoming a human-centred tech company. Every product and solution that is developed contains embedded security, analytics and AI hence expanding its functionalities and delivering maximum benefits to the users.

To date, the company has commercialised 18 products with a 24% CAGR revenue growth since 2019. Seven of the products have been deployed within TM’s operations and three have been exported to the ASEAN market. Additionally, TM R&D owns more than 2,800 Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs) with 100 percent adoption of all their products since 2016. 

As a responsible corporate citizen, equally affected during the Covid-19 pandemic, TM R&D developed Early Warning, Alert and Response (EWAR), an all-in-one contactless thermal screening solution that is able to detect high body temperature in crowded areas or one-on-one, eliminating the need for hand-held temperature taking. It also developed a contact tracing application and launched a Data Exchange Platform in collaboration with Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC) to bolster research efforts in combating Covid-19. 

TM R&D has received many local and international awards, which include the Malaysia Technology Excellence Awards, World Communication Awards, TM Forum Excellence Awards and WITSA Global ICT Excellence Awards among others; a testament to its continuous commitment to producing innovative solutions to support TM’s Digital Malaysia aspirations and simultaneously accelerate Malaysia to becoming a digital nation.

“TM R&D flies the innovation flag high for Malaysia, allowing the nation to take its place in the Southeast Asian region as a credible player in IT exploratory research, co-creation with industry, and commercialisation.”

Shanggari Balakrishnan, Chief Executive Officer, MORS Group

“To say that the organisation’s ultimate goal is to have its work serve humanity is one of the best examples of humanity and technological assimilation we have hitherto seen. The presence of strong female leadership is also to be lauded, especially since it has been proven via an increased innovation adoption rate, as well as operational cost savings.”

Dr. Jayanthi Desan, Lead Jury, ACES Awards

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