(New Straits Times; May 25, 2009)

KUCHING: It's a recognition that every information technology company in the world covets: an award at the 'Olympics' of the IT world.

Sarawak Information Systems reached the top of the podium by not only becoming the first Malaysian company to win an award at the biennial United Nation's World Summit Award (WSA), but also the first from Southeast Asia to do so.

Better known by its acronym SAINS, the firm won the top prize in the category for "Best e-content in e-government & institutions" with its Integrated Court System (ICS).

Chief Executive Officer, Teo Tien Hiong said recently: "This is an important milestone for Malaysia, the country's IT industry and for SAINS.

"As the first Southeast Asian country to win this award, this calls for some attention".

SAINS ICS was submitted as Malaysia's entry to the 2009 WSA in February, following its win in the Asia-Pacific ICT Alliance award last year.

Multimedia and e-content experts from 34 countries evaluated 545 entries from 157 countries, and shortlisted five for each of the eight WSA award categories.

The jury citation for SAINS ICS was "best practice of high quality e-content".

Teo said the award was the culmination of 15 years of work by a team of programmers and software writers at the 100 percent Sarawak government-owned company.

The team of 20 core experts, headed by William Then, SAINS application development and integration (collaborative solution) manager, first worked on the software in 1995 when it sought a solution for the Sarawak syariah court.

In 1998, it wrote an improved version for the Federal Territories syariah court, which evolved into the "e-Syariah" that clinched a Federal Government deal to be used in the 112 syariah courts in the country.

The e-Syariah won a number of ICT awards, including the best e-government application, the best e-government portal and the Prime Minister's ICT award in 2007.

The application was also used in Sarawak's native courts.

Since 2007, SAINS has worked on the e-Syariah for use in civil courts.

It installed the ICS in civil courts in Sarawak two years ago and is now installing it in Sabah's civil courts.

Teo said: "For Sabah and Sarawak, we are doing it as a pilot project. We are installing this world-class solution for free because we are very keen to see this system adopted nationwide".

He said SAINS had joined in a bid to install the software in all civil courts in the country. "We are hopeful the government would support a Malaysian effort that has received world attention".

He said the judiciary of several countries had expressed interest in the ICS. Judicial officials from Saudi Arabia are coming to Sarawak next month to evaluate the system.

With its WSA win, ICS has found a place in the World's Best Content Book 2009, a Unesco publication.

As the publication is distributed over Unesco channels and offices worldwide, Teo was hopeful its ICS and the company itself could get commercial enquiries.