Potentiate tracks the customer journey BY M. HAFIDZ MAHPAR

by **Cals** Sun 17 Nov 2013, 21:24

Published: Saturday November 16, 2013 MYT 12:00:00 AM
Updated: Saturday November 16, 2013 MYT 9:13:23 AM
Potentiate tracks the customer journey
BY M. HAFIDZ MAHPAR
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Cheang (left) : ‘My passion was business and I did not care what the business was.’ With him is Ooi.
HENRY Cheang is an Australian entrepreneur who has started, operated and sold over 20 companies, including an online research firm and Australia’s largest call centre business.
“My passion was business and I did not care what the business was,” he recalls.
However, five years ago his personal direction changed. “I no longer found that challenging (starting and selling businesses). One of the things that came to my mind was ‘Imagine if I had kept every single one of those; it would probably be a very big conglomerate by now.’ That is what we set out to build now with Potentiate,” he tellsStarBizWeek in Petaling Jaya.
Sydney-headquartered Potentiate, which he founded a few years ago, is a data intelligence firm that offers technology-driven solutions such as customer experience management (CEM) programmes.
It has just set up its Malaysian office, the second outside Australia after Japan.
“The focus in the last five years has been to build a lot of intellectual properties. Now it’s time to push our products out globally,” Cheang says.
On how exactly the company can help its clients, Cheang gives an example of its CEM programme for a leading automotive company in Australia, where it also enriches the data by running customer surveys.
“Any customer issue is tackled proactively so the issue doesn’t reach the social media. We have a closed loop or mechanism to make sure that each issue is addressed,” he says.
“Part of what we have achieved is to turn the automotive company into a customer-centric organisation. Before we started this programme three or four years ago, its email capture was 5% of total customers’ data. Now the figure is 84%.
“Previously, they had only names and addresses. Now they have names, age, gender, the customers’ most recent experience, and other data so they can look at their customers on a longer term basis and be able to understand the customer journey.”
Cheang, who has more than two decades of experience in the software business, says Potentiate derives 70% of its business from CEM as well as its data integration and visualisation solutions.
Nearly all of its clients are large multinationals, including banks, telecommunication companies, retailers and automotive firms.
Potentiate offers tools to help clients make sense of their data, he says. “Information overflow is a major problem in any corporation and we have developed data visualisation tools to help them run their business. This includes delivering the information in real time to the desktops of the decision-makers so that they can see where the issues are in the business and what they need to address.”
The company does a lot of customisation to fit its clients’ business processes. “A lot of organisations have to change the way they do things to suit the software, but our philosophy is the other way around,” he says.
Potentiate’s Petaling Jaya office, which began operation last month, is helmed byBarry Ooi, who has spent 14 years at market research giant Nielsen Malaysia before founding market research services firm Conversation Zone.
At present, the local office has a staff of six while the Australia and Japan offices have 50 employees each.
Cheang says Potentiate plans to invest heavily in Malaysia. “We’re looking to move a few functions here, including software engineering, data processing and creative (visualisation aspect).”
He cites lower operational cost as one reason for it, but admits that his background also had some influence. Cheang, whose late father was a Malaysian, spent part of his childhood here (from age three to 13).
Ooi, who is also present during the interview, says Potentiate Malaysia has applied for a Multimedia Super Corridor status.
“We have also secured some clients, including those in the furniture retailing and automotive sectors,” he adds.
Cheang says his vision is to bring Potentiate to listing, which none of his previous companies had attained. “I want to take this company as far as I can.”