This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily, on June 20, 2016.

KUALA LUMPUR: Technology has changed the ways we communicate and go about our lives.

It has also dramatically transformed the teaching and learning process, which is why Sasbadi Holdings Bhd knows it has to do more than just be a traditional publisher of educational materials to stay relevant in an age where disruptive technologies could flip the odds for companies faster than the toss of a coin.

The result of that is its creation of the “i-Learn Ace”, an interactive online learning platform created for users to access Sasbadi’s vast database of resources, to increase the efficiency and efficacy of the users’ learning or teaching process.

However, though the platform has been introduced since 2011, Sasbadi co-founder and managing director Law King Hui said it has “failed to garner public interest” via the traditional book stores since its launch.

But the group is undeterred. And it believes the stage is now set for the i-Learn Ace to truly take off.

The group’s unit, Mindtech Education Sdn Bhd, was granted a two-year direct-selling licence by the authorities on April 26. With the licence, Sasbadi will be able to sell its digital education products directly to the users.

Law told The Edge Financial Daily that the group intends to use the licence to primarily promote the electronic-learning or e-learning platform. “The i-Learn Ace platform will be exclusively sold via direct sales.”

Access to the platform will be priced at RM350 per user per year. That will yield a gross margin of about 40%, like its print business.

“We have received many requests and interests from the public [since we obtained the licence]. We hope these can be converted into users [of the platform],” he shared.

Law said the direct-selling division should start contributing to Sasbadi’s bottom line this financial year ending Aug 31, 2016 (FY16), though he declined to reveal any earnings estimates, only that the group expects its FY16 to be comparable with the year before.

The group’s performance in the second quarter ended Feb 29, 2016 (2QFY16) was uninspiring — given that its net profit shrank 20.4% to RM6.64 million from RM8.34 million in 2QFY15 on lower book publishing revenue and higher staff headcount for capacity building — but Law assured that Sasbadi’s performance will pick up from 3QFY16 onwards.

Law, who was also Sasbadi’s single largest shareholder with a 36.5% stake as at March 8 this year, expects FY17 to be better for the group as well.

Sasbadi’s bottom line has been growing each year — from RM9.48 million in FY11 to RM15.33 million in FY15 — with the exception of a slight dip to RM12.25 million in FY14 from RM12.75 million in FY13. Revenue also kept growing in the same period, from the RM59.96 million in FY11 to RM87.95 million in FY15, up nearly 47%.

Meanwhile, Law said Sasbadi is on track to completing the acquisition of a local publisher by the end of the current financial year.

“We are in advanced talks with the target company and we still have a few months to deliver on our promise [of acquiring one company a year],” he said, declining to reveal more.

Its mergers and acquisitions quest is also spurred by the group’s intention to court the previous generations of Sasbadi users back to the brand via the publication of non-academic and non-syllabus-related materials. It believes the right buy will get it a strong foothold in such a segment.

“I think it’s a shame that though many people have grown with our books through their school years, they eventually cut ties with us after they enter the working world as we have no more suitable titles for them,” he said.

As for its planned establishment of its own learning centre to cater to skills training in the 21st century, besides Stem (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) education for children from the preschool level and above, Law updated that the project has been put on the back-burner for now.

“As we develop the plan, we find that we need to do a lot more research for it. There is a huge responsibility in running a learning centre and we are in no hurry [to get into it]. We need to bring it back to the drawing board first,” Law said.

In the meantime, Sasbadi will continue to fine-tune the costs involved in setting up and running the centre, and the curriculum to be taught there.

Law also shared Sasbadi is actively talking with several companies in China for a possible collaboration in digital teaching and learning technology. “[But] there is no solid discussion at this stage. All talks are exploratory at this stage.”

It wanted to explore a similar collaboration with China’s Southern Publishing and Media Co Ltd last November, but no concrete tie-up materialised and the memorandum of understanding governing their talks expired last month.

Aside from China, Law said Sasbadi is also eyeing the education market in Singapore, Vietnam and the Philippines.

From its listing price of 53 sen a share in July 2014, Sasbadi’s shares have more than doubled to RM1.22 at last Friday’s close, giving it a market capitalisation of RM340.87 million.