Implementing GIS requires more than technology. Properly empowering your GIS team is equally crucial in a successful implementation. There are always many lesson learned and new inspiration from watching GIS use cases and podcast interview with geospatial leaders. Today, I would like to share with you this wonderful use case of applying GIS in commercial world for staying ahead of competitions, improving collaboration among various departments and ultimately growing sales and profitability. Walgreens is US’s second-largest pharmacy store chain with about 8000 stores nationwide. Walgreens is ..read more

Recently I was fascinated by an infographic outlining facts and statistics about Internet of Things or IoT. It was projected IoT connections will grow to 50 billion by 2020, from about 28 billion connected devices currently. While I am not a subject matter expert in IoT, I am particularly interested to see how GIS fits into the larger scheme of IoT. According to Gartner, IoT is the network of physical objects that contain embedded technology to communicate and interact with their internal states or the external environment. A search on Wikipedia defines IoT as the inter-networking of physical ..read more

Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man how to fish and you feed him for a lifetime – Chinese Proverb       Similar to the proverb above, we all know that give a man a fast boat or an expensive fishing rod wouldn’t help if teaching him to fish is not part of the package. Yet this conventional wisdom is oftentimes being ignored in technology implementations. As a result of that, many good projects were subsequently abandoned because lacked of funding allocation for continuous maintenance and training. Sounds familiar? While future proofing our technology equipm ..read more

Few pictures showing flooded roads and trapped cars in East Coast caught my attention this morning. It was reported, tens of thousands of flood victims taking temporary shelter at evacuation centers amidst this unusually late monsoon session that brings heavy rainfall. A few years ago, I met up with Chris McIntosh, head of Esri Disaster Response Program and Industry Manager for Disaster/Emergency Management based in Redlands, California. He has a lot of experience in applying advanced geospatial technology to issues faced by the public safety community. He taught me a very valuable lesson I r ..read more

This sharing has nothing to do with GIS but might help you to excel in all your undertakings. I had a great time taking my time off at Pangkor Island recently. I am not a good swimmer but didn’t want to miss the chance to soak in nice warm sea water off Teluk Nipah beach. While I was standing at neck deep water facing the ocean, I was pounded by countless rounds of wave. I was a bit overwhelmed but the soonest I turned my back around, the waves were no longer heading my way. In fact they became a continuous force behind of me that pushing me forward. From that moment on, I am no longer facing ..read more

My favorite Esri Malaysia team During my final week at Esri Malaysia, a few of my friends asked what will I missed the most after resigning. My reply at that moment was “I will missed my team”. Fast forward, I am glad I accepted the request to extend my last day until after completion of 2016 Esri Malaysia User Conference. After witnessing the team’s spectacular performance on/off stage, I would like to add-on to what I will missed… “I will missed my super-charged, fantastic team that always push the envelope and delivered” Thanks for the all fun, Esri Malaysia team. This writer reckons he h ..read more

Recently a dear friend visited me and his first impression about my house was “neat”. I politely thanked him and explained because I don’t have much “stuff” in my house. I was not kidding. Due to my previous project-based job nature, I was always on the move – average once every 2 – 3 years for the last 15 years! Hence I don’t have much chance to keep “stuff” and I am quite okay with that. I practice the same housekeeping habit at my workplace. Within my authority level, I regularly probe and challenge my team to improve existing processes and procedures. I will ask those that prepared, send ..read more

We celebrate GIS Day today and every 2nd Wednesday of November annually. I am a strong believer that spreading GIS thinking is an everyday effort, however having a GIS Day is a fantastic idea to promote more public awareness about applying geography in everything we do. Along with Esri Malaysia’s efforts, nowadays GIS Day is celebrated by many prominent agencies in Malaysia i.e. NSDI agency (MaCGDI), National Hydrographic Center (PHN), various state GIS agencies, etc. For me GIS Day is a day to recognize tireless effort by many unsung geo-mentor heroes and motivate many more GIS practitioners ..read more

Over the last few weeks, there were many concerns and speculations about my “sudden resignation” as CEO of Esri Malaysia. Some quick to link the resignation with my recent medical crisis. Apologized for keeping many of you in the dark. Anyway, thanks for all the best wishes and encouraging Whatapps and emails from customers, partners and friends. My Standard reply is explanatory and factual:- “Health wise I am perfectly fine. Thanks for the concerns. Just want to take a career break, long overdue since my surgery 1.5 years ago. Delayed few times due to company commitments. Now all commitments ..read more

I am extremely lucky to went through a few medical crisis and yet still have the chance to talk about it. Some of the hard earned awards and decorations include more than FOUR (4) weeks of intensive care unit (ICU) experience in THREE (3) different hospitals, TWO (2) ambulance rides and ONE (1) pheochromocytomas surgery to remove my a tumour sized 10cm x 9cm x 8cm. These near death incidents taught me to have a new perspective about life, work, family and friends. In term of my career, I am also extremely lucky to have great opportunities working with prestigious companies as GIS User (first 4 ..read more