Corporate: Litespeed scores on e-learning
By Surin Murugiah

Online learning or e-learning has become a fad in most advanced nations and is fast picking up pace in developing countries. Among the advantages cited by proponents is that courses can be tailored to specific needs. With the advent of the Internet, many companies have jumped onto the bandwagon to become solutions or content providers for e-learning.

But what sets apart a good e-learning solutions or content provider from the average run-of-the-mill vendor? In an interview with The Edge, the founder and chief executive officer of Litespeed Education Technologies Bhd (LET), Pok Vic Tor, says that two primary factors have to be fulfilled to ensure a good e-learning device. The first is animating information in an appropriate manner to make a programme sufficiently interesting to the user. The next is to be able to track comprehension, that is, to monitor how much of the programme the user understands.

"The idea for e-learning and diagnostic tests has been around for the last 20 years. But this was on paper, and whatever that was available was at tertiary level. There were no comparable products available to primary nor secondary schools."

"It was this uniqueness, or the lack of such product in the market that led us to secure some of our projects," says Pok.

Malaysian-born Pok left a teaching career in Singapore after securing an initial grant of S$500,000 from the government and private investors there to start Litespeed Education Pte Ltd four years ago. With that as seed money, the company began introducing e-learning technologies, and sports and academic developmental programmes. Over the initial two years of the company's inception, almost S$2 million went into research and development before it actually started rolling out its products commercially.

By 2003, the company was raking in revenues of RM4.1 million, which rose to RM11.23 million in 2004. Profit rose significantly as well, increasing to RM1.73 million last year compared with RM233,000 the year before. The company's major customer base in Singapore comprises 120 government schools, from primary to junior college levels. Litespeed also jointly developed an online curriculum e-learning project with the Hong Kong Institute of Education Department.

But to take LET to the next level, Pok views the support given by the Malaysian government to the education sector in general, and e-learning technologies in particular, as extremely favourable to the company. This idea came about after the company secured a project from the Ministry of Education to develop web portal and online curriculum.

"The government offers various incentives to IT-based firms through continuous development of MSC issues and generous tax rebates. It also creates employment opportunities for locals who are suitably qualified in this field," says Pok.

"The Malaysian e-learning development is held in high regard by neighbouring countries like Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam. By having our headquarters here as the hub for product development, the company can penetrate the markets of these countries," he adds.

LET was incorporated in March 2004 with a view to make Malaysia the hub of its operations as well as become a regional player. It is headquartered at the Technology Park Malaysia, and achieved MSC status in August last year. Its sole subsidiary, Litespeed Education Singapore, is now involved in the provision of education programmes there.

The company is seeking a listing on the Mesdaq Market and is set to make a public issue of 32.5 million new ordinary shares of 10 sen each at an issue price of 47 sen per share. It is awaiting approval from the Securities Commission but tentatively expects to conclude the underwriting and prospectus launch by end- June 2005. The listing is targeted to take place by end-July.

LET aims to raise RM16.2 million from its floatation exercise. It will allocate 40% of the funds for research and development activities, 50% for regionalisation plans and 10% for working capital.

Its in-house proprietary technologies, namely Diagnostic Tutorial Assessment System (DTAS) and Intelligent Content Assessment Marking (ICAM), are award-winning products. LET has the distinction of being the only company that has developed the ICAM technology to provide highly accurate marking of open-ended questions.