Tourism Malaysia teamed up with Microsoft to boost productivity

Tourism Malaysia has teamed up with Microsoft Malaysia to boost productivity and improve team collaboration while accelerating its digital transformation journey by leveraging Microsoft 365 and Microsoft Azure.

With six regional offices, 13 tourist information centres, 30 overseas offices, and six marketing representatives worldwide, consistency in operational performance and delivery are crucial for Tourism Malaysia’s success.

Tourism Malaysia needed not only a unifying platform that eases collaboration between its many teams across different markets but also one that is highly secure and offers a smooth user experience.

With Microsoft 365 across all its domestic and overseas offices, Tourism Malaysia’s global workforce can better coordinate and optimise inter-departmental collaboration, ensuring all data is secure and protected by Microsoft’s security capabilities.

Utilising tools like Microsoft Teams, Microsoft SharePoint, and Microsoft Exchange, Tourism Malaysia employees have access to a singular platform that enables real-time collaboration even amongst colleagues at opposite ends of the world. By leveraging cloud features, employees can share files of all types and sizes without worrying about email disruptions and overloaded servers.

Director General of Tourism Malaysia, Dato Hj Zainuddin Abdul Wahab, said, “We are excited for new opportunities ahead now that Malaysia has reopened its borders.

“Following a new strategic marketing plan, including a digital strategy, we are confident that Malaysia’s tourism industry will bounce back and return even stronger.

“Together with Microsoft Malaysia, we hope to become a leading government agency that embraces digital technologies to serve our industry partners and potential tourists better.”

The experience inspired Tourism Malaysia to take the collaboration with Microsoft Malaysia one step forward – hosting its ‘Pakej Cuti Penjawat Awam’ campaign, powered by Microsoft Azure. The campaign targeted civil servants to encourage them to travel domestically by offering attractive tour packages.

This was not the only initiative undertaken by Tourism Malaysia with the support of Microsoft Malaysia. When the pandemic happened, the global agency had to digitise its tourism activities and plans – and it had to do this fast. As part of its ‘Menemui Semula’ campaign, Tourism Malaysia coordinated various programs via digital platforms to support its partners, vendors, and agencies in weathering the pandemic.

Through the integration of Microsoft Power BI in measuring the performance of its multiple programs, Tourism Malaysia was able to track their businesses – even across borders – more accurately and efficiently, aligning these findings with domestic business operations, further enabling them to not only optimise spendings but also respond to potential issues promptly.

Microsoft Malaysia’s General Manager of Public Sector Group, Sheikh Manzoor, shared, “Tourism Malaysia plays an important role in driving growth for the nation’s economy.

“We are proud to support their purpose through Microsoft’s trusted technologies. We have heard from Tourism Malaysia on their aspirations to revive the tourism sector, and it is inspiring to see how they leverage digital tools to bring them closer to this goal,” he added.

“We are excited to explore different ways to help communities and businesses from both the public and private sectors to achieve more with technology and realise the Government of Malaysia’s MyDIGITAL aspirations as well as bring to life Microsoft’s Bersama Malaysia commitment,” concluded Sheikh.