Heading the helm of Privasia Technology Berhad (“Privasia”) is Puvanesan Subenthiran (“better known as Puva in the Industry”), the Group CEO and Managing Director. Puva is a doting father to three young beautiful children, aged ten, eight and three. His own early years, however, were not easy. His father, who worked for a newspaper company had passed on when he was only four. His mother, a teacher, undertook the sole parental responsibility of raising him and his sister. “Watching her brave through the years makes me ever so proud to be her son,” says Puva, adding that as a young boy, he was also fortunate to have been mentored by uncles and other strong influential male role models. With a deep interest in technology from an early age, he utilised his experiences and knowledge gained throughout the years to start the company together with Privasia’s Deputy CEO, Andre Anthony and a few other friends in 2001.
From start-up to stellar tech giant
Privasia was initially incorporated as a private limited company and on May 2009, Privasia was listed on the ACE Market of Bursa Securities. Headquartered in Petaling Jaya, Privasia is an investment holding company with four main subsidiaries with each helming its own business segment: Privasia Sdn Bhd, Privanet Sdn Bhd, Privasat Sdn Bhd and Privatel Sdn Bhd. Now, Privasia and its group of companies are a leading ICT and business process outsourcing player in Malaysia. Each and every subsidiary of Privasia has an established and growing clientele, comprising of high growth organisations and market leaders, across various sectors such as logistics, ports, plantation, education, finance, manufacturing and FMCG (fast moving consumer goods) sectors.
Privasia operates in the following segments:
- Outsourcing and Consulting
- Digital Procurement Solution
- Information and Communication Technologies Distribution
- Information and Communication Technologies Services
- Satellite-based Network Services
- Radio Network Optimisation Services
“We have made a lot of mixed decisions over the years, but most importantly, we have learnt and grown from every one of them along the way. The good thing is that we survived and managed to rectify our mistakes. This is the risky but exciting part about building a business. You may have the luxury of making a mistake, but it is vital that you are quick and agile enough to address and manage them as swiftly as possible,” says Puva as he reflects on his journey.
Privasia developed its first digital procurement solution in 2001 and went on to provide solutions for high growth Malaysian organisations such as Malaysia Airports, Indah Water Konsortium, Felda Global Ventures, SME Bank and Westports. The recently launched ProcureHere V7 marks its first cloud-based version of its digital procurement solution. “It makes us very proud when our customers tell us that they have made the right choice by appointing us as their solution provider, especially after a difficult implementation. It was also a fantastic moment when we realised that some of our products have an edge over products made by larger companies from the Silicon Valley. More importantly, if you get to work with an incredible team and if you can find something to be grateful for each day, there is really no need to wait for a proud moment to celebrate,” he says. In 2015, Privasia decided to shift its focus from system integration to product development. “The digital side of our business has been good. In the past, people prefer buying physical goods because it offers a more conventional sense of ownership. But people are now embracing digital purchases because they understand that utilisation is more important than ownership,” Puva explains.
Innovative value-added products at its core
The company’s core products are ProcureHere, which is an e-procurement solution and FinansHere, a supply chain finance solution. In addition, Privasia has a wireless network and mobile solutions segment licensed by the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission to provide network and network facility services for ICT, mobile solution providers and enterprises, and satellite IP virtual private network services.
ProcureHere
ProcureHere is a Saas enterprise tool under Privasia Sdn Bhd, which is a cloud-based source to pay digital procurement solution that changes the way high-growth organisations manage their spending. Our clients gain unparalleled control and visibility with streamlined workflows, real-time data, and innovative features to organize, allocate, track, and report on their spending from a single platform. ProcureHere’s transparent and collaborative guiding principles in making business spending, smarter and simpler has made us an award winning digital solutions provider. In 2020, Privasia was awarded the Malaysia Technology Excellence Award for Enterprise Software & IT Services.
FinansHere
Privasia constantly strives to improve its clientele’s interactions with third parties by providing a platform for new collaborations. To advance its efforts, Privasia collaborates with several funding institutions to offer a supply chain financing platform, namely the FinansHere platform, via its Fintech subsidiary FinansHere Sdn Bhd. The FinansHere platform is the only Shariah compliant integrated digital procurement and supply chain finance collaboration solution in the market. This new offering is an extension of the ProcureHere ecosystem which aims to facilitate a more optimised working capital management for its 19,000 registered users and vendors.
i-Tap
Leveraging on Privasia’s knowledge in the port business, the Privasia team developed i-Tap as an end-to-end Multi-Cargo Terminal Operating System through its subsidiary, Privaports Sdn Bhd. The i-Tap system utilises a fully modular cloudbased solution, which allows ports to choose only the modules that are suitable to them based on their respective operational model and budget allocation. Privasia has expanded the use of i-Tap to 5 terminals, and its clientele includes Westports Holdings and Kuantan Port.
Internet of things
Privasia IOT Sdn Bhd is involved in IOT software development and software infrastructure for IOT solutions. Among its activities include providing management consultancy to both government, public and private sectors in IOT related services, and monitoring and operations of IOT infrastructure for 5G access, public assets, transportation systems.
Satellite-based network services
Privasat Sdn Bhd is licensed by MCMC to provide Network Service Provider (NSP), Application Service Provider (ASP) and Network Facilities Provider (NFP) services to our clients. Privasat offers a broad spectrum of satellite-based services: ranging from Managed Network Services to High-Speed Internet Access services and a wide range of value-added broadband applications.
Radio network planning & optimisation
Privasia established Privatel Sdn Bhd, a professional radio frequency engineering services company which provides among others radio network optimisation and drive test services, EMF emission testing and simulation and key areas field of optimisation.
The Road Ahead
Moving forward, Privasia is constantly on the look out to develop and progress its technological solutions to enhance its product offering and longterm shareholder value. “The interest of our clients and shareholders are always at the forefront of the company. We aim to be the best in what we do and our team is working hard to ensure our goals come into fruition.” Puva is also looking to develop more leaders within the company. “If you were to look at any great company or entrepreneur who has built a company that is self-sustaining, a target that is nice to have but difficult to achieve is the number of leaders developed in the process. A company with a high turnover of employees is not necessarily a bad thing if these talents move on to better jobs or leave to start their own companies. The aim is for everyone to learn and progress in their careers. Nevertheless, we hope that Privasia can be a place where the employees can learn and grow as they work their way up in the company,” he says.
