Charles F.  Moreira

Andrew Tiang, managing director, N2N Connect Bhd

What have you achieved so far with N2N Connect?
We listed it in five years as planned. I formerly worked for five multinational companies, during which time I invested seed capital in startup software distribution, hardware distribution, turnkey development and systems integration companies but they didn’t take off.
So I felt I had to get personally involved in the next company to make it succeed and with the help of four other partners, I co-founded N2N Connect in August 2000 and we listed on the MESDEQ exchange in November 2005.

Which companies did you work for previously?
I started with American multinationals, Deloitte Haskins and Sells, then moved on to Citibank, Computer Associates, I2 Technologies and finally worked for Dutch company Exact Software before I started N2N Connect.

What did you do in these companies?
I started as a trainee computer programmer and progressed to become a senior consultant.
At Deloitte, I wrote mainly payroll and accounting applications using COBOL on an IBM 4300 mainframe, Digital Equipment Corporation VAX and IBM AS/400, and the dBase III relational database management system on DOS-based PCs. I also developed word processing applications on the Wang VS minicomputer.

Deloitte had been providing turnkey software solutions to our customers but it later gave up software development and turned to providing consulting services in the programming and management needs of our clients like Yeo Hiap Seng, Singapore Airlines and Far East Levingston Shipbuilders, and we also advised them on whose services to engage.What does N2N Connect do?We had the vision to be an electronic-enabler of brick and mortar companies with electronic-commerce, mobile-commerce and other corporate applications.
Instead of providing software solutions to companies, we provide our hosted solutions as an applications service provider (ASP) of online or on-air applications.

After looking around for companies with such needs, we realised stock market applications were the most applicable to our business model, since they involve lots of transactions, and we can earn a portion of our customer’s brokerage fee.

(An ASP provides common applications hosted centrally on their servers, which customers access and run remotely from PCs in their office or a handheld device.)
We first developed EbrokerConnect for online stock trading from PCs, followed by PDAConnect. MobileConnect and SMSConnect for PDAs, PDA-phones, smartphones and mobile phones. We wanted to provide customers with a choice of multiple channels and multiple platforms for accessing our applications.

We’re financially stable now, since out brokerage partners collectively command 50% market share of Bursa Malaysia’s total trading volume and besides Malaysia, we now operate in Singapore and Saudi Arabia.

Any consumer applications?
Yes. Two years ago, we diversified into mobile lifestyle with out hosted application called EMO (Everyone Mobile). It provides e-commerce and merchandising applications on mobile phones and at the core of all these is EMO Messenger instant messaging (IM).

Telcos’ premium services like ringtone, wallpaper and game downloads, and its subscription-based services are usually confined to their respective networks and short codes for downloading content won’t work, especially when roaming abroad, or in China, even in a different city.

However, all telcos have a connection to the Internet, which EMO uses. So users can communicate using text, picture and voice messaging all-in-one between phones and phones, phones and PCs, anywhere in the world, opening up possibilities to send each other full multimedia greeting cards, for example, without having to configure your phone’s MMS settings.
EMO also lets you obtain ringtones, wallpapers, games, MP3 songs, greeting cars and so on from merchants in other countries. You don’t pay charge for premium SMS since IM uses mobile data, which is charged by the kilobyte. It works out much cheaper overall, which is why some corporate customers are interested in using EMO for communication between their staff.
Give it a try. You can download and install EMO Desktop to your PC from www.getemo.com and EMO Mobile to your phone from wap.getemo.com.

With all those programming and business skills, you must be very highly qualified?
Not really, I actually hate studying, even though I’m good at it. I’m Singaporean, so I attended Mount Vernon Secondary School and after passing out with O’Levels, which is equivalent to SPM over here, I decided to acquire a skill, rather than pursue a degree, so I left my pre-university course after three months and took a nine-month course in programming before joining Deloitte.

Sounds like Bill Gates! Come to think of it, Microsoft employs the best graduates, so Bill Gates most probably wouldn’t qualify if he applied for a job. Would N2N Connect hire someone with your qualifications?
Yes we do. Programming is an art, not a science and we give all applicants a practical test to write a small program to solve a problem, which lets us understand their thought processes, so we can decide who has the right aptitude, since we can train them further on the job.

How’s your work schedule?
Hectic! Since I’m a very hands-on person, I like to get involved in all aspects of our operations from design of systems to our business focus, packaging of products. I like to contribute and get involved without being overbearing.
 
So, what brought you to Malaysia?
My mother is from Ipoh and I’ve lived in Malaysia since 1992, and all my four children are Malaysian.

What do you do during your spare time?
I like to watch TV, walk the dog, play with my children, shop with my wife and spend time with my colleagues.

N2N Connect’s corporate culture is to work hard and play hard, so we do lots of things together.Like tomorrow we have our annual dinner when we’ll all dress up with mascara. We also go on trips to Tioman together on a ship, visit disabled people’s homes and so on.