The team learning about how to market effectively to potential customers

By Inbrahim Fares
Thursday 23 August 2018

A great experience on our first week in TIME was visiting their Menara AIMS Data Centre in Kuala Lumpur city. It is owned by TIME and is currently one of the biggest data centres in Malaysia. Despite the high level of security in the building, we managed to get a tour of all the levels and learn about the centre’s safety measurements, cabling, cooling system and operation – all of which are important aspects of engineering.

We also learned about the business model of the data centre and how profits are made through its operation, and the packages available to customers. This gave us an insight into how big companies, such as Google or Apple, store their data and operate.

Another exciting aspect of our first week with TIME was learning about the basics of communications on different mediums such as fibre optic cables, copper cables, radio communication and how the company uses these different mediums to reduce expenditure and provide the best service for its customers. The high fibre broadband cabling networks goes all the way to Vietnam, Singapore, Japan and USA.

In the first week we also managed to do a bit of sightseeing in the city centre and admire the Moorish architecture, and the rainbow of shops and restaurants on every corner. KL, as the locals like to call it, is a busy city, but still safe and organised and I look forward to seeing more of it over the next month.

The team did some sightseeing in the city centre

We finished our first week with an intense day spent with the Marketing team. We learned, first hand, about the marketing strategy and customer service of the company. With a few practical exercises we got an insight what it is like to be a salesman/saleswoman, installer or customer service representative. We all took to these roles with a varying degree of success, as some of us were naturally born salesmen, while others were very good with the technical details.

This all made sense as part of the introduction the TIME Human Resources team introduced us to MBTI test and DISC personality test, so we learned a lot about our personality types and how to work with others. It all came in handy when we had to compete with each other in teams to design a marketing campaign for new customers in different locations. The catch was that, if approved by the Marketing team, we could go ahead and try it out in person next week.

Our team designed a physical marketing strategy in a shopping centre, next to our target building, where we would provide leaflets and also the opportunity to advertise on google ads and the social media accounts. The budget set for the campaign is 2000 RM (about £380), so fingers crossed that it pays off next week! As an engineer, the marketing and HR side was all new to me and I learned a lot about the high fibre broadband technology and the operation of data centres. It was a great first week and I have high hopes for the rest of the month.