ICFO Solutions

Celebrating our 9th year annivesary, thanks to our clients and partners for the trust and support.

Today’s sharing is brought to you by our affiliate SAM KON , an established Ecommerce consultant. Read on 👇

You may have heard of . What are your thoughts on the current state of ecommerce?

Ecommerce is essential for businesses to succeed in today's digital world. Ecommerce can be tough to master, but the stakes are high for businesses that want to stay relevant and competitive.

Since the pandemic, we have been asked by our clients questions that revolve around these 3:

🦾 “What's so important about business operations impacting ecommerce?”

📊 “Our businesses are online but we don't see the results yet?”

🤼‍♂️“Competition is stiff, how do we go about it?”

Based on our years of experience in the ecommerce industry, we have compiled our insights and shared in this article:

Link: https://bit.ly/3CV9s1K

The key to success is understanding how ecommerce works and what factors impact conversions. Once you have a firm understanding of these things, you can start to make strategic changes that will improve your bottom line.

If you are still struggling to find success, reach out to a professional consultancy for assistance. With the right partner, you can take your business to the next level.

SAM KON on LinkedIn: Twenty Twenty Two is like Twenty Twenty Too (Part 1) In today's ever-changing digital world, it is essential for businesses to have a strong online presence. Establishing an online presence is not always ...

Have you ever imagined how technology impacts our daily lives and how it will continue to innovate? Terry Khor , our affiliate has a few words on this:

No matter how technology advances, a successful system solution always follows a framework.

I will conclude it in 7 steps.

⭐️ Analysis: The existing system is evaluated. Deficiencies are identified. This can be done by interviewing users of the system and consulting with support personnel.

⭐️ Plan and requirements: The new system requirements are defined. In particular, the deficiencies in the existing system must be addressed with specific proposals for improvement. Other factors defined include needed features, functions, and capabilities.

⭐️ Design: The proposed system is designed. Plans are laid out concerning the physical construction, hardware, operating systems, programming, communications, and security issues.

⭐️ Development: The new system is developed. The new components and programs must be obtained and installed. Users of the system must be trained in its use.

⭐️ Testing: All aspects of performance must be tested. If necessary, adjustments must be made at this stage. Tests performed by quality assurance (QA) teams may include systems integration and system testing.

⭐️ Deployment: The system is incorporated into a production environment. This can be done in various ways. The new system can be phased in, according to application or location, and the old system gradually replaced. In some cases, it may be more cost-effective to shut down the old system and implement the new system all at once.

⭐️ Upkeep and maintenance: This step involves changing and updating the system once it is in place. Hardware or software may need to be upgraded, replaced, or changed in some way to better fit the needs of the end-users continuously. Users of the system should be kept up to date concerning the latest modifications and procedures.

Planning is always the key factor to deliver successful solutions. Always crosscheck if your solutions are implemented with the model above.

With an important date looming upon all Employers & Employees on the 1st September, our affiliate Jeremy Lim our human resource specialist shares his thoughts:

The Malaysian Employment Act is in my opinion a piece of legislation that is never to be understood well by both the Employer and the Employee. Some companies in Malaysia will never adhere to the requirements and the others will just follow every requirement not knowing that they don’t need to.

I have experienced many Employers who do not know what to say when asked about questions relating to the Employment Act and I have witnessed Employees look puzzled when they are asked if they know what their rights are.

New amendments which have been passed by the government will go into effect September 1st, and this deadline is fast approaching. These newest amendments are a mixed bag of positives and negatives. Communication is critical at this time to ensure that the employees understand what their legal rights are come September 1st.

Employers really need to understand that the requirements of the Employment Act need to be adhered to and flouting them for whatever reason doesn’t bode well for the company.

COVID-19 has not only changed the work landscape but has also educated Malaysians about their legal rights greater than ever before. Industrial court cases have definitely increased because of the blatant disregard for the law in 2020 and 2021 and a wake up call for many employers who feel that the average Malaysian worker will not exercise his or her legal rights.

I really urge all employers to pay attention not just to the upcoming amendments this September 1st, but to really understanding the fact that employees are a company’s greatest asset.

Remember, looking after your employees really has tremendous ROI in the long run.

This week we share some nuggets of knowledge by Suzanne Ling , on getting started on your personal branding on LinkedIn!

She has broken it down to 3 simple steps.
Follow these 3 E’s, which are 3 types of content you can curate for a start!

👉🏻 Education
Add value to your connections and followers by sharing your knowledge, insights & information related to your industry. This builds your brand as the subject matter expert in your field, creating better trust and credibility over time.

👉🏻 Experiences
What are some of your experiences in life and at work that have brought you great learnings? Share these learnings online to let others know that they’re not alone! Your learnings can also be helpful for those who have yet to go through what you’ve gone through, allowing them to learn through your journey.

👉🏻 Engagements
Connect with like-minded individuals and form valuable engagements! If you’re a marketer, connect with other marketers to learn from one another. If you’re a service provider, connect with potential clients to share helpful information to them. LinkedIn is a place to connect, don’t miss out on this and form meaningful engagements!

Ultimately, the rule of thumb on personal branding is this - what are you good at and how can you add value to others?

Start from there and keep refining as you go! All the best!

As part of our commitment to add value to SMEs, our consultants will be sharing some valuable knowledge. We start the week with KJ Chin and his sharing on Intellectual Property :

We often see these symbols “™”, “®”, or “©” being displayed on goods or its packaging. What do they mean and whether you should care about it?

1. The symbol “™” essentially means “trademark”. Any name, brand, device/logo can be a trademark for your products or services but not all trademark is a “registered trademark”.

2. The symbol “®” is commonly referred to as a registered trademark or trademark which has been registered officially with the local Intellectual Property Office (MyIPO, in Malaysia).

3. Hence, anyone can use the symbol “™” but not anyone can use the symbol “®”. Using the symbol “®” for a trademark that is not registered is an offence under the law.

4. However, usage of these symbols is not mandatory. For example, a registered trademark owner can choose to use the symbol “™” or “®” or even not to put any symbol. Thus, when you see a product bearing a trademark with the symbol “™”, you should not assume that such a trademark is not registered.

5. In order for you to have rights given under the Trademarks Act (statutory rights), your trademark has to be registered with the local IP office (MyIPO). Among the statutory rights are exclusive rights to use a trademark and action for trademark infringement.

6. Sometimes, you would notice the symbol “©” appearing on packaging of products. This symbol “©” is referring to copyright. Copyright is another area of intellectual property different from trademark.

7. Copyright may protect the artistic element / design of the packaging. It may also protect phrases, statements, or arrangement of words, tables, etc appearing on the packaging.

8. The symbol “©” is used to indicate that certain design, artwork, or phrases are protected under copyright laws and the same should not be copied.

9. Different from trademark, copyright does not require active registration to have legal protection. However, there is a copyright system in Malaysia which accepts and records your copyright works officially with the MyIPO.

Welcoming onboard Terry Khor, a specialist in Web Applications Project Management, Business Requirement Analysis and Integrating Web Solutions to Business Processes.

He has more than 6 years of experience in web applications customization, corporate website design, and mobile application development. He assisted more than a hundred businesses in digital transformation, ranging from start-ups, public-listed companies and multinational corporations. His aim is to create result-driven IT solutions based on business requirements.

As the Co-founder and Managing Director of Nedex Group (Formerly known as Nedex Solutions) Co-founder of Nexlive, Live Commerce Tool, Terry is the best to work with SMEs locally to ensure their IT solutions are taken care of.

Angela Ling has been a core member of iCFO since it’s inception. She has over 10 years of experience in corporations within Accounting & Finance functions.

Now, she joins iCFO Affiliates as a specialist Business Health Checks as well as book keeping. A warm welcome to her!

SAM KON has than 10 years in the E-Commerce industry. He was featured as the Keynote Speaker and trainer in Lazada Wecommerce 2019. He was also a panelist for “The State of E-Commerce in Southeast Asia” as featured in SME Magazine Asia.

Beyond that, he’s a certified trainer by Alibaba Business School & Taobao University, a guest lecturer for MBA classes, and a featured writer for ecommerce articles.

His company, Beyond Infinity Consulting has assisted multinational companies, brands and businesses to boost their ecommerce revenues through their bespoke consultancy & training services.

As such, we are incredibly happy to have Sam onboard as our consultant !

Welcoming Kaka Lam!

She’s a Million Dollar Wealth Planner in Malaysia, qualifying 4 years of MDRT consecutively with 1 Court of The Table and also qualified Top of The Table in 2020. She is also IDA Bronze and Silver Dragon qualifier in 2019 and 2020.

Apart from her many tremendous achievements, she has spoken at numerous MDRT Events and at the same time she has been dedicating herself by volunteering in Malaysia MDRT’s Membership Communications Committee.

Her key areas of specialty are in Business Insurance (Buy and Sell Agreement), Keyman Insurance and Business Succession Planning, which she will be helping our iCFO members in.

Glad to have you onboard.

KJ Chin is a specialist in matters. He has over 7 years experience in dealing with Intellectual Property, which include IP contentious matter, drafting of IP agreements, licensing agreements, IP registration locally and internationally.

As the founder of KJ Intellectual Property he is no doubt the right person to be part of iCFO Affiliates.

Great to have KJ onboard!

Joining us tonight is KJ Chin, who will be sharing something we very often overlook; Intellectual Property.

Find out why Intellectual Property should be the CEOs top priority, tonight at 8pm.