TM to collect RM3bil

Exlusive interview, pasca pentadbiran 100 hari. Working with him is interesting. He uses different approach than the former one. He engages more on people rather than numbers. We'll see if this approach works better.

Monday August 11, 2008
By B.K. SIDHU

ALARM bells have been sounded in Telekom Malaysia Bhd (TM) of the need to collect nearly RM3bil in debts.

Even if TM can secure a quarter of that amount in the coming six months, it would be additional revenue for this telecoms player that aspires to be the new age communications provider.
Since taking over the helm of TM just over 100 days ago, its group chief executive officer Datuk Zamzamzairani Mohd Isa has done a “stock take’’ and on top of his agenda is the need to address the account receivables which makes up nearly 40% of TM’s revenues.

Also on the agenda is the need to improve operational efficiencies and customer service.
He will need the help of the 23,000 employees in TM. That is why he is engaging with them.
Every month he has several “teh-tarik/breakfast’’ sessions where about 15 employees – rank-and-file and from anywhere in Malaysia – meet him over breakfast. That may be his way of interacting with employees, but it serves as a good platform for him to listen and gain feedback while at the same time instil the need for everyone in TM to be accountable.

TM CEO Datuk Zamzamzairani Mohd Isa speaking to StarBiz on what he sees after three months on the job: There is no real surprise, but we need to improve our operational efficiency and customer service. “We are clearing up the old account receivables and that will free up more cash,’’ Zamzamzairani told StarBiz in an interview last week. He said: “We aim to improve the collection performance to 120 days by the end of 2008, shorten the time to bill, review current payment terms, encourage customers to use auto debit facilities, and improve the weekly focus on collection performance, with targets and heavier weightage on collection deliverables for each individual responsible for collections.’’

Zam, as he is fondly known, says engaging with the customer more, helps. However, he is looking to simplify processes and adopt best practices so that the overall “quality of experience’’ of services to the customer is improved drastically. All these to him form part of his idea of the “new TM.’’ To him the “new TM’’ should not be a pure fixed line operator but a new age telco with next generation networks (NGN). “The new age telco should be an enabler of information transfer and consumers should be able to get better next generation services,’’ Zam said. With no cellular operations and since voice revenues are on a decline, broadband becomes its mainstay and that is why the inking of the RM11.3bil deal to undertake the high-speed broadband (HSBB) infrastructure project with the Government is extremely vital.

It is no denying that TM can survive without the HSBB but it would be tough since it needs to be NGN to move up the value chain. He admitted that HSBB would be TM’s next growth engine as it would allow TM to offer many more types of services and content.

“In future TM will not just deliver data, but specific information based on (customer) need and requirement. The boundary is limitless and it is open for many creative and innovative solutions to be developed. TM as the broker for the information will play an integral role enabling (innovative) transactions,’’ he said.

With HSBB, IPTV with high definition capabilities will be offered by mid next year to the Klang Valley, he said. But the challenge upon TM is how fast it can deploy HSBB and how it can come up with a formula so that not only TM benefits from the HSBB but other industry players are not marginalised with TM being the dominant player in the broadband segment.

Besides that, TM wants to expand its reach into the SME market, to multi-nationals and Malaysian business going overseas. Internally, there is a push to reduce cost and implement the PIP 2.0 initiatives, a job centric work chart for better accountability and transparency of jobs and output.

Since coming onboard he has assembled his core team whom he believes would help him push TM into a new age communications telco and he believes the 23,000 employees are with him for TM to thrust ahead. “There is overwhelming enthusiasm and a positive mood vibrating across the company and we believe there is enough excitement for TM going forward,’’ Zam said.

TM is not a must have stock as it used to be before the de-merger of its cellular services. But TM is still among the top 15 listed companies by market capitalisation on Bursa Malaysia.
It has 4.37 million fixed line users, 1.34 million broadband users and enjoys 66% share of wallet of the enterprise telecoms spending in the country. How can it boost its rankings further? “We have set the tone that TM is a dividend stock for investors and in this kind of subdued economic environment, investors should look at a safe stock with excellent dividend yield,’’ Zam said. TM closed up 4 sen to RM3.46 on Friday.