It’s that time of the year again when new resolutions are made as the festive mood sets in. The Myanmar refugee children from the Selayang Pasar Borong Community Centre (PBCC) got themselves a big treat to a fun-filled party in celebration of Christmas and New Year at Rentwise’s headquarters at Shah Alam.
More than 30 Myanmar refugee children attended this Christmas and New Year party with several PBCC staff and teachers. Upon arrival, the children were given a short brief on what a computer is and its accompanying components needed to make it work. This was followed shortly by a motivational talk and story-telling by Lai Kien Wah, General Manager of Rentwise.
The children were also showered with gifts and many more when they played the various games setup at booths manned by Rentwise staff. From “fish the ducks”, “bean bag toss” and “ring toss” to “can knock”, basketball, darts and even a tattoo station, there were no lack of activities to keep the children occupied.
Rentwise has always been committed to the special needs of the under privileged and has a dedicated mission to help through its strong CSR program. To find out more about how Rentwise can extend a helping hand, feel free to contact us.
Throughout the 3-4 hours event, each Myanmar refugee children was assigned to a Rentwise staff tasked with taking care of their every needs from entertainment to food in a close-knit bonding session of interaction.
It was truly an exciting, fun-filled and electrifying moment for Rentwisers when we had a Mines Dinner Cruise for our annual dinner with the “Masquerade” theme. The cruise boat took off from the Mines Wellness Hotel jetty at 7.30 pm amidst a heavy downpour.
The cruise boat was apparently quite small but surprisingly it managed to fit almost 60 people on board. The Mines Dinner Cruise features a buffet-style dinner. The program for the night swung into motion with the usual lucky draws and speeches, amongst a great atmosphere of merriment, laughter and joyous vibe with colleagues.
After dinner, everyone proceeded upstairs for a two-piece live band entertainment with some delicious desserts, fruits and more drinks to just chill out into the night with great songs and many dancing.
In conjunction with Hari Raya celebration, the Rentwise Sports Club Committee had organized an IFTAR dinner on 11 July 2014. The dinner held at the Flaming Steamboat restaurant at Sunway saw a turnout of almost 30 participants. It was just the perfect place to wind down with a sumptuous and slow simmering dinner after a hard day’s work in anticipation of the festive holidays ahead.
Rentwisers has more than just a great dinner to be excited for. Following the relaxing dinner, everyone proceeded for a game of bowling at the Sunway Mega Lanes at Sunway Pyramid. A total of about 20 participants divided into 7 groups played their hearts out.
Every group walked away with a hamper for their participation and teamwork, but a medal of recognition of the first to third place winners were given to the top 3 teams. Each team was comprised of 3 participants. In addition to this, a winning medal for both the best female and male bowler went to Mira and Xavier respectively. The best bowlers also each received a RM 30 Jusco Cash Voucher.
The bowling tournament results were as follows:
All Rentwisers truly had an enjoyable Friday night to usher in a great weekend ahead. Great moments of camaraderie, laughter and cheers were freely shared in an event designed to further bond both colleagues and friends alike.
It had never been the prizes and competitiveness but what matters most was the opportunity to get together after work to build strong friendship and mutual understanding upon which a healthy working relationship and culture can be grown.
The much-awaited Rentwise Warehouse Sale for refurbished IT equipment made a comeback, after the last event in December 2012. This year’s mega sale brought even better and irresistible offers ranging from branded desktops and notebooks to workstations and monitors that satisfied most if not all buyers’ diverse requirements from word processing to hardcore gaming.
The Sale kicked off on 30 May and ran for 3 days till 1 June 2014 at Rentwise’s headquarters in Seksyen 7, Shah Alam from 10 am till 7 pm. As compared to the previous Warehouse Sale, double the amount of people looking for bargains were seen and upon arrival, visitors were asked to register themselves to enable future offers and events to be communicated easily to them.
As the Sale progressed, High-end graphic workstations topped the favourites list of fast moving items. Deals were made all the more sweeter where just an additional spending of RM 100, gave buyers an option to add on a year-long carry-in warranty for any refurbished IT equipment purchased.
Among the business range notebooks on sale were the Dell Latitude E6400 at RM 799, IBM Thinkpad T400 at RM 650 and IBM Thinkpad X61 at RM 599. 17” LCD Monitors were priced at RM 88 while the branded Dell 22” LCD Monitors were going for a mere RM 200. A branded Core 2 Duo Desktop was priced at RM 299 while a Dell Optiplex 380 was at RM 350. Offers were undeniably attractive. Value-seekers and bargain hunters were clearly impressed at the good balance between affordable refurbished branded IT equipment with that of high quality specifications and that resulted in Rentwise selling well over 300 desktops and notebooks during the Sale.
Customers who bought RM 200 and above worth of items in a single receipt were also rewarded with a lucky draw opportunity to win a brand new Lenovo 7” Tab.
As part of Rentwise’s Corporate Social Responsibility outreach programme, the Pusat Borong Community Learning Centre (PBCC) was invited to participate in a fund raising exercise through the sale of snacks, drinks and ice cream at a designated booth. All proceeds from this activity went to the centre’s Myanmar Children Refugees. A number of the children refugees from PBCC were also present to man the booth.
The availability of ice cream and cold drinks certainly did help lift the mood of customers and fellow Rentwisers who appreciated any means to escape from the heat. An interesting twist to this year’s Warehouse Sale was a simple exhibition of 31 portraits of the Myanmar Children Refugees photographed by Mudframes Pictures. The professionally shot photographs offered these children the experience of being photographed in a “studio-like” setup.
These A4-sized photographs were available for sale at RM 20 per copy. Customers who purchased the prints did so on behalf of the children so each child could have a picture of themselves. Every copy sold was indicated with a red sticker and soon enough, all 31 prints on the board spotted a neat looking red dot!
In addition to the sale of foodstuff and photography prints of the children, Rentwise donated RM 10 to the Myanmar Children’s Refugeee Camp for every PC or notebook sold.
Through the Warehouse Sale, Rentwise also launched ITwise, the Rentwise IT remarketing division. ITwise aims to make branded refurbished IT equipment affordable and accessible to the mass consumer market, which encompasses corporate users, students and home users amongst others.
We were truly happy with the excellent response we received during our 5th Warehouse Sale and the support of loyal customers as well as new ones. We would like to take this opportunity to thank all our loyal customers for their support and we hope that you continue to stay with us as we grow.
Lastly, we were very happy to be in a position to deliver quality for value. Refurbished as these IT equipment may be, more often than not, they outperform their apparent age. That means enabling our customers to enjoy branded and reliable refurbished IT equipment at a fraction of the cost. That’s what makes us proud!
2013 has been a great year for us at Rentwise. But if that’s anything to go by, we are certain 2014 would hold greater promises of success. We started the New Year with a memorable Annual Dinner at Vin’s Restaurant & Bar on 11 Jan 2014.
Attendance was almost full as Rentwisers came together during a pleasant Saturday evening to dine and be merry in a wonderful atmosphere reminiscent of an old English Tavern by the countryside. The warm incandescent lights set a calming and conducive mood for great conversations, good laughs and amazing networking with our colleagues.
Rentwisers were already trickling in as early as 5.30 pm. By 7.00 pm, the restaurant was almost filled to the brim, teeming with laughter and chatter of Rentwisers who were all geared up to have absolute fun!
Upon arrival, we were warmly greeted by the organizing committee who handed out special door gift sets from The Face Shop. The theme for this year’s Annual Dinner was all things “Bows & Ribbons” and the organizing committee took pains to ensure all Rentwisers’ dress code adhere to this during registration.
Joanna Lim, President of Rentwise Sports Club delivered her opening speech for the night. “I’m indeed glad to see a good turnout to this year’s Annual Dinner event. You have shown your appreciation to this important event by coming together as a team and for that, I on behalf of the Organizing Committee would like to express our heart felt thanks to your presence and support,” says Joanna.
Our CEO, Leanne Ooi and Executive Director, Colin Whitehead also said a few words. “Tonight, I hope you would have a great fellowship with one another amidst all the good food and drinks, and not forget that our strength as a team lies in being a family-like unit. So let down your hair, kick back and enjoy the rest of the evening!” says Leanne. “We have all come through a long way and your success is our success. You owe it to yourselves for being the driver and building blocks of our organization. Therefore, pamper yourselves tonight and have fun,” Colin concludes.
We had an amazing MC to usher us through the night’s many entertaining activities and prize-giving sessions. Lucky draw was very much an inclusive event where every Rentwiser won something. The grand prize of a mini Ipad went to Eric Lim, our Assistant Warehouse & Logistic Manager.
7 employees were awarded the 3 year service award and 5 employees were recognized for their 4 year service with Rentwise, while 7 employees walked away with an Ice Watch each for their more than 5 years of service at Rentwise. These 5 year service award recipients are Adeline Yau Min, Bernad Victor A/L Victor Roch, Lim Siew Sooi, Lai Kien Wah, Sam Sook May, Nurul Hidayah Binti Tasriffin and Raja Krishnan.
The delectable buffet menu consisted of New Zealand roast lamb, Portuguese Grilled Chicken, Spaghetti and a wide variety of healthy green fruits and vegetables served with free flow juices. A two-piece live band belting out oldies from the 60s and 70s right up to our current day hits accompanied our enjoyment of these mouth-watering dishes. The band played throughout the night and paused at intervals for lucky draws and games fueled by joyous cheers of excitement.
Time flew indeed. By 10.30 pm, the event drew to a close. Everyone was tired but not without leaving with beaming smiles of satisfaction and exhilaration. Due credits goes to Joanna Lim and the organizing committee who have put in their 200% into making this event a resounding success and night to remember.
We would like to take this opportunity to thank our Sponsors and Management for their efforts in putting together this lovely get-together for us. It was truly a blast!
Most of all, on behalf of all Rentwisers, I would like to cheer us on to an exciting 2014. We should give ourselves a pat on our back for making this Annual Dinner an eventful and memorable night.
Contributed by Loo Kia Shong, Rentwise’s Legal Manager
Students of Sekolah Kebangsaan (P) Methodist Klang, or fondly known as Methodist Girls School (MGS) have something to look forward to in 2014. The school is now equipped with a fully functioning computer lab, thanks to the kind donation of refurbished desktop computers by Rentwise Malaysia.
On 3 December 2013, a team of 5 Rentwise engineers arrived at MGS to deliver and setup 43 units of refurbished HP workstations as part of its continuous commitment in ensuring Information Technology accessibility to all. This community outreach project is our recent CSR effort in working with a national school, after the ground breaking successful implementation of a similar project with
How did this project come about? It was truly a fortuitous event. “I was browsing St. Mary’s school’s website when I read about their recently setup computer lab,” says Alex, the President of MGS’s Parent Teacher Association (PTA). “I then found myself at Rentwise’s CSR web page and it appears that Rentwise is actively supporting and expanding its CSR program. That was it!” Alex enthuses, as he has run into many obstacles previously trying to secure sponsorship for the school’s computer lab.
“I wrote to Rentwise about MGS’s plight. The rest were history,” says a smiling Alex. “The school has been without a computer lab for more than 10 years. This facility was first setup in 2002. Unfortunately, the contract with Ministry of Education (MOE) was terminated a year later,” says Alex.
The Methodist Girls’ School is a Missionary government-aided primary school (Sekolah Kebangsaan Perempuan Methodist (MGS Klang)) in Jalan Raya Barat within the district of Klang. The school was established by Ruth Eklund on May 24, 1924 after she discovered that there were 12 female pupils in the Anglo Chinese School, Klang during that academic year.
The school’s motto is Cum Deo Laboramus, which is Latin for “We Work With God”. MGS is one of the 5 premier schools in the district of Klang. MGS is reckoned to be one of the top all girls school for many years in the district of Klang. At present there are 920 students in MGS Klang.
The refurbished desktop computers donated by Rentwise Malaysia are HP Workstation XW 4400 Intel® CoreTM 2 Duo Processor featuring 4GB of Memory and 160GB of Storage with DVD Drive and Integrated Video & Audio. The desktops also comes with Built in Network Interface. To top it off, Rentwise also included a HP 17” inch LCD with each unit. The processing power of these computers meets the requirements of MGS students, who will basically be using them as presentation tools, for word and spreadsheet processing works and Internet browsing. MGS PTA also provided some printers for the computer lab.
As a sensitive and forward thinking organisation, we believe in giving back to the community through various ground events, programs and projects. We would like to keep a close touch with society by making our presence felt at every level of the community, especially the younger generation.
Thus, when and where budget permits, we try to support one needy school every year, mainly missionary schools. These are mostly schools among the last to receive any kind of allocation for computers required by students to carry out their computer studies as part of the national school curriculum’s (KSSR) Science & Technology subjects.
“Since my child enrolled into MGS in 2009, I have written to many organisations for sponsorship as the PTA funds were not sufficient to setup a computer lab,” says Alex. The school has only a small sum of RM 12,000 yearly for basic improvement and maintenance of its infrastructure. PTA subsequently sought the support of the Methodist Board but failed most of the time.
However, it was not all that bleak an outcome though. Eventually, MGS got some funds from a general allocation of RM 200,000 given to some missionary schools, a much welcome breakthrough from the school’s writing to MOE through the Methodist Board. Some of the funds were mainly used to repair the school’s roof that was affected by termites.
“Being an engineer by profession, I did some value engineering on the works and managed to reduce the cost of repair and used the remainder of funds for the establishment of the computer lab. This was after we got confirmation from Rentwise in supplying the refurbished desktop computers,” says Alex. A sum of about RM 25,000 was spent in setting up the infrastructure (e.g. air conditioned units, AC power outlets, networking and electrical wiring works) of the computer lab before Rentwise deployed the refurbished desktop computers.
MGS Klang Primary School was chosen particularly as they are located near to Rentwise headquarters. We anticipate some of our staff would send or are already sending their children to this school. This contribution would then help greatly in enriching these children’s education process.
To ensure the smooth running of the computer lab, the school is considering collecting RM 50 per year for each student from 2014 onwards. These funds collected will be used for general upkeep of the lab’s infrastructure; e.g. small upgrades, repair and support works. “Rentwise is kind enough to provide us a 3-months warranty for all equipment sponsored,” says Alex. The school has also designated 4 teachers to conduct computer classes and is drawing up the syllabus and framework for students to follow.
Rentwise Malaysia is indeed glad to extend the much-needed assistance to MGS. It is truly a priceless feeling witnessing the beaming smiles of children having an opportunity to be exposed to computer studies at such a young age. 2014 is indeed a refreshing start to look forward to after more than 10 years without a computer lab.
However, we would like to do more. The school still needs 15 laptops for their teachers. One possible means to fulfil this pressing need will be through corporate sponsorship. We are urgently seeking companies who are considering refreshing their existing laptops. We invite these companies to contact us so we can carry out the refurbishment activities on these laptops before deploying them to the school.
“Words could not express how thankful we are to Rentwise in heeding our call for help. We’ve tried long and hard and finally, someone listened. I am eternally grateful to Rentwise’s dedication to their CSR program. This small act of kindness is certainly a game changer in the lives and experiences of the school’s 920 students!” Alex concludes.
“All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy”, as claimed by a proverbial saying. Staying true to this age-old adage, Rentwise recognizes the importance of the play element in “resetting” our many hardworking employees! Rentwisers recently came together for a team building session of paintball at the Shah Alam Extreme Park; the most exciting and adrenalin-packed Sports Club activity of the year.
We had a total of 40 participants divided into 8 groups of 5 Rentwisers each. Creative but quirky-sounding names from “Dead Eaters” to “Ops Cantas” were given to each group. Everyone was present at 8.30am for a safety and rules briefing by qualified official marshals. A large majority of Rentwisers had not played paintball before, so it came as no surprise to see the many looks of excitement and anticipation. Many questions were asked and doubts cleared by 9.00 am before everyone proceeded into the nearby shaded woods for the games to begin.
There was a mix of staff from across all organizational functions and even fellow Rentwisers from Rentwise Singapore were also flown in specially to join us in this event. It wasn’t just all male participants in this action-packed game; 7 ladies took up the fun-filled opportunity to prove their combat skills on the field too. You would have been surprised that 2 of the winning teams had ladies in them! In fact, the ladies treaded the field gingerly and maneuvered themselves with their small but flexible frames which proved to be a lethal combination against their largely male opponents.
The games started at about 9.30am after everyone got comfortable with putting on their face masks and protective vests. Markers were loaded with vegetable oil-infused paintball pellets and pressurized before being distributed to players who were strictly warned not to remove their face masks upon stepping into the playing area. A team was disqualified for having one of its members remove this face mask while on the field even after a game concluded. Safety regulations were extremely strict as a precaution to prevent anyone from being accidentally hit by stray pellets, which could cause serious bodily damage.
It was such a fun session. All work stress melted away the moment Rentwisers stepped onto the field. The playful characteristic of the “little kid” deep down inside everyone of us made us forget our work challenges with one another as we battled each other out. We cheered our team mates on from the side lines. We even made jokes about how some of our colleagues should or shouldn’t be playing. That only made us laugh even more, thus adding to a light-hearted and relaxed atmosphere. It definitely fostered a high degree of camaraderie amongst us.
Looking back, this reflects how we have and want to work in the office. The very same spirit of fun yet seriousness with our work just manifested itself in a totally new environment. While getting the job done is crucial to our success, it’s equally important to take a step back to unwind and enjoy ourselves in the process. This paintball team building event served up plenty of opportunities to strengthen the emotional and professional bond between us towards making a better and more cohesive organizational unit for our overall success.
Paintball, just like soccer, is a team effort. While the latter’s goal is to get the ball into the opponent’s goal post, the former focuses on eliminating your opponent by “painting” them or grabbing the flag from their base for victory. One needs to provide firing support for one’s team mates as they move forward into position. Communication is essential in alerting your team mates on the dangers ahead and planning your next move as the enemy threatens us with new strategy and tactics. We see no difference in our work from all these elements of the paintball game. There are many similarities which could be drawn from the game and applied to our working lives.
The 8 competing groups were narrowed down through many rounds of playing, leaving only 4 groups in the quarter and semifinal rounds. Eventually, after an intense round of battle between “Headshot” and “Ops Cantas”, the former emerged the winner while “Cricket” clinched the second runner up place after beating “Deadline Five” who did not go down without fighting.
By 12.30pm, everyone adjourned for lunch and cold drinks, much to the relief of the many Rentwisers who were exhausted from all the running, dodging, crawling and squatting! A small prize giving ceremony followed suit with gold, bronze and silver medals presented to the winners, along with gift hampers and other goodies as well.
This paintball team building event would not have been a huge success if not for the efforts of Fariz Fawzi, the main organizer who contributed much to helping the Rentwise Sports Club committee in realizing this event. This get together session was made even more meaningful by the participation of many sporting Rentwisers who put aside their personal time to bond over the weekend.
Paintball indeed is a fast-paced but fun game that promotes healthy competition among those who dare to give it a try. It never fails to deliver on its promise of an exciting and thrilling adventure of wits and tactic. More importantly, it is an excellent morale booster for all Rentwisers who seized the opportunity at becoming weekend warriors for once!
Rentwisers recently returned to the Pasar Borong Community Centre (PBCC) at Selayang, Malaysia, to host a Children’s Day celebration with the Myanmar refugee kids after the last visit back in May 2013. Children as young as 2, right up to their teens participated. We took this opportunity to get to know these amazing children better.
The event enabled us to have a closer interaction with the children and we gained a better understanding of their needs and how else we could assist. One of the activities we organized for the children was an arts and craft session. The older children made creative greeting cards while the younger ones made collages, an idea mooted by the Rentwise Sports Club, the dedicated event coordinator, led by its president, Joanna.
The highlight which caught the children by surprise and they thoroughly enjoyed was to find themselves the “Star” for the day. A studio photography session was arranged and very generously done pro-bono by Mudframes Photography. Each child had their individual portraits professionally taken. The children were pre-empted to come in their best dresses for A Party and to our delight, they indeed came dressed in their best and the girls even wore makeup!
The studio photography session organized and conducted by Mudframes captured the very true nature and essence of these children. Most importantly, these photographs will make good and valuable mementos to remind the children of this very particular moment in their lives. Mudframes also presented A4-sized portrait prints to each and every child. These beautiful low-key, all-black background pictures depicted the rather somber experiences of these children. The lighting effect painted hope in an otherwise “challenging” existence.
It was so obvious that most of the children were experiencing their very first professional studio photo shoot session; some looking confused, others, giggling and excited at all the attention and interesting -looking contraptions coupled with the occasional flashes of light. Each and every one of them came with their own story written all over their faces.
The photography and arts and craft session lasted about an hour and a half, before the children were treated to a sumptuous meal of nasi briyani, vegetables, rendang, fried chicken and savoury fruits. It gave everyone much pleasure to see them enjoying themselves, living in the moment, relishing the goodness of life and a delicious meal which we were told, some hardly get a chance at.
In maintaining our pledge to continually support and assist the underprivileged, many of our generous employees donated groceries, toiletries, stationeries, art materials, food items and other essential necessities for these children. The organizing Sports Club committee is very thankful for the dedication of time and demonstration of empathy by all Rentwisers and our Marketing Partner Mudframes Photography to show we care for these children.
31 portraits were made that day. We believe that every single one of these images speaks for themselves. Whatever the resulting conclusion drawn from these images, truth be told, these portraits speak of an underlying innocence and vulnerability prevailing in all children and why we need to protect and care for them. They are our future.
We welcome and urge customers, partners and members of the public to aid the Myanmar refugees in any way they can, by contributing either cash or in-kind donations, or even volunteer their time to teach the children basic computer skills or work with them on on-going card-making activities, both of which will help them carve a better future for themselves.
Greeting cards will then be sold by both the centre and Rentwise with profits going to the centre. Getting the children involved allows them to exercise their creativity and enables the children to pick up a good skill that can be useful in the future.
All proceeds collected will be used to purchase books, stationery, food and sundry goods such as canned food, milo, biscuits and hygiene items. Proceeds will also go towards helping upkeep the centre which badly needs maintenance work to be carried out to repair damaged windows.
You can make a difference in the lives of these children. We hope to get your kind assistance.
How You Can Help:
The centre welcomes donation of any kind from the public, NGOs and corporate organisations. Any enquiries can be directed to Mr. Matthew Ngoh (Email: matthewnth@hotmail.com | Mobile: 016-380 4463)
The Pasar Borong Community Centre (PBCC) Learning Centre is located at:
139-2 (2nd Floor), Jalan 2/3A, Pusat Bandar Utara Selayang, 68100 Batu Caves, Selangor.
Today there are more than 100,000 Myanmar refugees in Malaysia. 15,000 of them are children of school-going age. According to a UNHCR estimate, only 6,000 of these children attend schools which are set up by various Myanmar community-based groups. These schools are normally referred to as “Learning Centres” and are funded by NGOs or voluntary organisations.
During this visit, our representatives managed to catch up with Matthew Ngoh and Alan Lee, two of the three founders of the PBCC Learning Centre. Matthew and Alan updated us on the plight of the children. “Many of these children marry as early as 13 – 15 years of age! Thus, they are deprived of a healthy school-going childhood where learning is everything at that tender age. I can’t stress enough the importance of education when I speak to their parents. Education is the only way out for these kids”, says Matthew recognizing the importance of education in steering any child towards the right path in life.
Initiated by Alan and together with good friends Matthew and Pastor Yeoh, they started PBCC 3 years ago when they realized children as young as 2 years were left to fend for themselves while their parents went to work. As basic as it is, the centre gives these children a place to come to for shelter and for a simple meal. Most importantly, it keeps them off the streets. Apart from teaching the children English, the PBCC Learning Centre conducts Bahasa Malaysia classes and teaches the Myanmar Language, Science and Maths to its 28 children, now aged between 4 to 12 years old. Art and IT classes used to be conducted but unfortunately had to be discontinued about a year and a half ago due to a lack of volunteers.
“Back then, IT classes were held every Sunday afternoon for both children and adults,” Matthew reveals with regret. “It would really be great to have volunteers help revive these classes at least twice a week to give these children a refreshing boost in their learning pace”.
Located on the 2nd floor of a shoplot, the PBCC centre runs on an extremely tight budget. It has 3 full time Myanmarese teachers whom are paid a very small sum of RM 1,600 a month. Rental is RM 600 monthly while utilities come up to approximately RM 100 a month. Apart from giving the children temporary shelter while their parents go to work, the centre also provides basic sustenance to the children. Some of these children bring their own home-cooked lunches consisting of rice and often nothing more than a fried egg while the centre supplements and supplies others who cannot afford a meal; with just a simple fare of milo, crackers and bread.
Most of the learning materials including school books and stationeries are supplied by UNHCR. “We always welcome donations from members of the public, whether in the form of reading materials, food items, clothing or toiletries,” says Matthew. “We are currently sustaining on donations by NGOs and churches. Unfortunately, one of the churches is not able to support us financially this year. Nevertheless, we should still be able to pull through another year,” Matthew says optimistically.
The PBCC Learning Centre at the helm of 3 caring and loving Malaysians strives to continue providing a refuge for the children of the Myanmar refugee community. The struggle of these Myanmar refugees is real. Every day is a constant fight for survival and recognition to be treated as an equal human-being. “It’s heart-wrenching at times when you witness poverty-stricken families breaking up and afraid of
The Rentwise Sports Club will be organising an internal donation drive and appeals to all our employees to contribute either cash or in-kind donations. All proceeds collected will be used to purchase books, stationery, food and sundry goods such as canned food, milo, biscuits and hygiene items. Proceeds will also go towards helping upkeep the centre which badly needs maintenance work to be carried out to repair damaged windows.
Another project that we will be kicking off soon is getting 10 staff to volunteer their time to work with the children to make greeting cards, which will then be sold with profits going to the centre. Getting the children involved allows them to exercise their creativity and enables the children to pick up a good skill that can be useful in the future.
We sincerely urge everyone to aid the Myanmar refugees in any way they can; be it giving cash donations or in-kind donations, or volunteering their time to teach the children basic computer skills or card-making activity, which will all help them carve a better future for themselves.
It’s easy to turn a blind eye to the brutal reality that unfolds in the lives of these Myanmar refugees. As citizens of the world, we have moral and ethical responsibilities to assist the social and economically-challenged lot. Today is the day you will rise up to the call for a better world. These Myanmar refugees deserve an opportunity for a brighter future.
Change is imminent and it starts with YOU!
How You Can Help:
The centre welcomes donation of any kind from the public, NGOs and corporate organisations. Any enquiries can be directed to Mr. Matthew Ngoh (Email: matthewnth@hotmail.com | Mobile: 016-3804463)
The Pasar Borong Community Centre (PBCC) Learning Centre is located at:
139-2 (2nd Floor), Jalan 2/3A, Pusat Bandar Utara_Selayang, 68100 Batu Caves, Selangor.
In this fast-paced, modern society, Information Technology (IT) has become an indispensable part of operations for any company wishing to stay current in the market place. However, with such a wide variety of IT equipment and rental solutions on offer and without access to the right expertise and advice, companies of all sizes, but particularly SMEs, naturally find it daunting to make the right choices for their respective business. IT issues which arise are simply frustrating and disruptive, thus reducing productivity. Expenditure may be incurred in the short-term on IT equipment that is unlikely to meet the organisation’s needs in the longer term.
Rather than purchase new systems outright, one increasingly popular option is to rent IT equipment. Established nine years ago, IT rental specialist Rentwise – an SME itself – helps companies with the right product selection, installation, support and consultancy and eventual decommissioning and retirement of the equipment, enabling them to focus on their core business for greater performance and progress. And the scope is expanding.
As Rentwise CEO Leanne Ooi explains, through renting, companies will not bury their cash in hardware that depreciates. “People need to realise that owning technology costs money because technology is constantly changing and requires high maintenance, thus lowering the company’s productivity. Companies should be focusing their resources on supporting their core business instead and leave the technical issues to the IT experts.”
Integrated Solutions
Demand in the early years was predominantly in the rental of desktops and laptops. “We have been aware for some time however that there is a significant demand from our existing clients for servers and network equipment. Over the past year, we have been building the expertise and gearing up to launch our server and network equipment rental offering. This year, we are going all out with these new offerings and with our desktops and laptops rental, we are now able to offer a comprehensive IT rental solution,” says Leanne.
Head of Business Technology Services, Rafel Affendy Jamaluddin adds that the company has been training the Operations Teams to support the higher-end expanded product offering. “We will also leverage on our partners’ capabilities when it comes to network and band-width management solutions as well as IP PBX systems.”
Realising the criticality of IT infrastructure management in an organisation, Rentwise also offers an IT infrastructure monitoring solution on top of its current asset management service which very much caters to laptops and desktops. According to Rafel, this solution immediately flags up IT infrastructure issues minimising downtime and any knock-on effect on the business. The solution includes complete monitoring and alerting for servers, switches, applications and services.
Leanne sees this as a tremendous opportunity for growth. “Looking at the potential and demand in the market, where IT services and other hardware are required by every company, our goal is to grow this into a 50-50 business (50 percent on PCs and 50 percent on servers and networks) with the aim of providing a holistic IT rental solution.”
Rentwise currently supports over 200 companies with major clients in manufacturing, construction, education and healthcare.
Customers First
“Our mission has always been to provide a cost-effective, comprehensive and hassle-free experience for our customers. We realize to do this we have to offer an end-to-end service from deployment and installation to retiring the equipment. In between we provide service support and consultancy. This means Rentwise will take care of all stages in the equipment lifecycle leaving our customer to focus on the usage of the equipment. Our business model is based on adequate technology, which means prescribing customers what they truly need – not too much nor too little, which prevents unnecessary expenditure,” adds Leanne.
Working with global suppliers, the company offers products that are brand-new, open-box but unused right through to 3-year-old equipment which is fully refurbished – not just aesthetically but including motherboards and major components such as hard drives and RAM.
End-of-Lease equipment is either refurbished or put into the market in fully functioning condition. Where End-of-Lease equipment is too old, it is recycled by DOE (Department of Environment)-authorized recyclers with recovery reaching close to 100 percent, thus minimising carbon footprint.
Besides Malaysia, Rentwise also has operations in Singapore and will be offering its new range of products there. “We also have clients in Vietnam and Thailand. As we plan to expand to these countries in the next two years, launching these new products and services this year in Malaysia will serve as a good preparation ground,” highlights Leanne.
