Thinking of building your own IoT project? Before you jump into sensors, dashboards, and data, you’ll want to tune into Episode 4 of FAVORIOT Sembang Santai. This time, Zura Huzali sits down with the CEO of FAVORIOT, Dr. Mazlan Abbas, to break down the real journey of creating a successful IoT solution—from idea to implementation.
Whether you’re a student working on a prototype or a business exploring IoT opportunities, this episode uncovers the truths, challenges, and steps that too often get overlooked.
🧩 What is an IoT Project, Really?
An IoT project isn’t just about buying and connecting a sensor to the cloud. Dr. Mazlan explains that every project needs to consider three key elements:
- Device (the sensor or hardware)
- Connectivity (how data gets transmitted)
- Platform (where you store, visualize, and analyze data)
It’s not magic. You need clarity on what problem you’re solving first.
⚠️ Why Many IoT Projects Fail
People get excited, start building, and then… silence. Why?
Because expectations don’t match reality. You’ll face:
- Sensors that misbehave
- Poor or broken connectivity
- Incompatible platforms
- Lack of troubleshooting knowledge
And don’t forget—testing in a lab is very different from testing in the field.
🛠️ A Step-by-Step Guide to Building an IoT Product
Dr. Mazlan shares a structured approach:
- Understand the problem – Talk to users, identify pain points.
- Create a Proof of Concept (PoC) – Keep it simple and affordable.
- Deploy a Pilot – Install it in the real environment and learn from it.
- Productisation – Focus on casing, firmware stability, OTA updates, support, and scalability.
Support and maintenance are just as crucial as the hardware itself.
💡 Tips for Businesses Entering IoT
If your company wants to venture into IoT, here are Dr. Mazlan’s golden rules:
- Don’t go solo – Partner with experts in different areas.
- Test fast, fail fast – Get early feedback, then improve.
- Plan for scale – Can your project grow without redoing everything?
Zura adds one more critical point: budget wisely. Too often, people forget to plan for replacements, upgrades, or scaling costs.
🚫 Common Mistakes to Avoid
Here are some common traps to dodge:
- Using free platforms that can’t scale
- Choosing cheap sensors with poor data accuracy
- Ignoring cybersecurity
- Having no maintenance or support plan
🎯 Final Takeaway: Solve Problems, Not Just Use Tech
Dr. Mazlan closes with a powerful reminder—focus on the real-world problem, not the technology. IoT isn’t about looking fancy; it’s about delivering real value. And if done right, it can create meaningful change for businesses, communities, and even countries.
Watch or Listen Now
Watch the full episode on our YouTube channel
Or listen on Spotify, Apple Podcasts & Amazon Music
📌 Remember: In IoT, problem-first beats tech-first—every time.
Transcript
00:00:00 Welcome everyone. Assalamualaikum and um hello everybody. Welcome to Favoriot Sembang Santai episode four.
00:00:07 Alright, so I’m Zura Huzali and today we’ve got a very special guest, no stranger to this place at all. We have the one and only our CEO of Favoriot, Dr. Mazlan Abbas. Welcome, Doctor.
00:00:19 Assalamualaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh. It’s a great pleasure to be here again for our Favoriot Sembang Santai, episode four.
00:00:28 Yep. So we’re on episode four already.
00:00:31 Yeah, yeah, that’s right.
00:00:32 So the title, what is the title going to be like today? The title? Wah, okay.
00:00:37 It’s up to you, Zura.
00:00:38 Yes. Okay, our title for today, okay, what we are going to talk about.
00:00:45 So, do you want to build an IoT project? So what do you need to know? Alright, so let’s let’s start, ya.
00:00:52 So it might be like a casual chat, but today’s topic is actually pretty serious.
00:00:58 We’re going to talk about how to build an IoT project. What are the challenges involved, the actual steps, and some solid advice for companies that want to dive into the IoT business, Doctor.
00:01:10 Hmm.
00:01:11 Okay. So you you think that’s a lot of people?
00:01:14 I think exactly. This is a topic that a lot of people have been talking about, you know. They they want to build IoT projects.
00:01:20 Hmm. But many of them don’t really understand how exactly to build the the product itself. What are the things going to be involved behind the scenes.
00:01:31 Hmm. So these are some of the things that we have, you know, gone through for the whole several years within the company.
00:01:41 Okay. And uh maybe we we like to share with a lot of our members here.
00:01:44 Yeah, right. Okay, let’s let’s dive in, Doctor. So let’s start with the basics. If someone wants to build an IoT project, what would be the first thing that they need to understand first, Doctor?
00:01:53 Okay. For an IoT project, it’s quite simple. Uh we need to know five components.
00:01:58 Okay. Uh we need to know what kind of sensors, the hardware itself. So these sensors are very key uh in sensing, getting information.
00:02:10 Hmm. But also there must be some actuators if you need to control it.
00:02:11 Yep. Secondly, you need to know what kind of connectivity is going to be used.
00:02:17 Hmm. You know, what kind of uh networks are going to be involved.
00:02:23 Right. Thirdly, uh there is actually a platform for you to collect the data, the middleware itself.
00:02:30 Hmm. And fourth, you need to build applications on top of that. You need to build a dashboard, uh you need to do some analytics.
00:02:35 Hmm. And finally, you must secure the whole communication. So that that is the five main components. For example, if you want to do a sensor to monitor people, for example.
00:02:40 Okay. So you need to monitor people, you need to have a wearable device and then you need to have a GSM or whatever 4G network to send.
00:02:50 Hmm. And there is a platform to collect the data. Right. And there is an application that you use on your mobile app.
00:02:56 Hmm. To view. Yep. And everything is secure, no one can hack you.
00:02:58 So that’s an example.
00:03:00 Hmm.
00:03:00 Okay, okay. So I guess uh so it’s not a plug and play, right? And magically everything works.
00:03:09 Yeah.
00:03:10 It’s not it’s not that way, ya. If it’s magic, everything you can do so easily. So with a we or when a product, let me give you a magic one, do your own application.
00:03:20 So even though it seems that it’s going to be uh plug and play, there’s a a lot of things need to focus on to understand, you know. That’s
00:03:29 why we always ask the first question, you know. What’s the actual problem when we build an IoT solution? What exactly are we trying to solve?
00:03:41 True, true.
00:03:42 That’s why I always uh tell, ask my customers as well. Yeah. So yes, Doctor. Um actually I’ve seen this happen often.
00:03:50 Yeah. People always get so excited to start IoT projects. Then after a few weeks they give up.
00:03:55 Why does that happen?
00:04:00 Yeah. It happens all the time. You’re going to see that uh the main issue, the biggest issue of all is that the expectation that they have doesn’t really match the actual reality.
00:04:11 Hmm. It doesn’t happen that way. So people think the moment they install the sensors, that’s it.
00:04:22 Right. The data can be sent automatically. Wow, that’s
00:04:28 But but in reality it’s not that easy because there are many things that you need to to see. Hmm. Sometimes you need to know whether the sensor uh, you know, is it stable enough to send the data.
00:04:44 Still is still alive. Yep. Whether the connectivity breaks up. Hmm. Sometimes there is connectivity, sometimes there is no connectivity at all. Data cannot be sent.
00:04:50 Hmm. So data doesn’t show up whereas it’s being lost in the way, you know, from from the sensor to the platform. Yeah. And sometimes you send to the platform which is not compatible enough to collect the data.
00:05:03 Right. So these are the the most common ones. So when this happens, they have no idea how to troubleshoot. Hmm. Where exactly they want to troubleshoot.
00:05:16 So that’s why they give up. And I also have a customer saying like, why is the battery draining so fast?
00:05:25 When they don’t realize that the sensor they’re transmitting is every 10 seconds and that burns power, Doctor.
00:05:35 So that’s the exactly the the common mistake that people have uh, you know, encountered. They didn’t test this in an actual environment, you know.
00:05:44 Hmm. So they always test this in the lab, they test in the office. Hmm. Where, you know, when they install that in the actual site, this is what happens.
00:05:54 Okay. Because there’s a lot of uh things that happen, sometimes even the the the environmental uh things will happen and the real world conditions.
00:06:04 Hmm. And maybe we we like to share with a lot of our members here.
00:06:07 Yeah. Okay. So those steps need to be taken. Yes. Alright. So um okay, Doctor, for companies or students who want to build an IoT product, what would be the first real step.
00:06:16 So what do you think? Wow.
00:06:20 There’s a lot. Every time we we meet the customers, Zura. Hmm. So they they always ask us that uh I want I want you to propose a product, but they really don’t understand exactly the problem. So we need to understand the user’s problem.
00:06:37 Yeah. So that is very key. So don’t start with saying I have a product and I want to give it to you and you’ll solve the problem.
00:06:44 Hmm. So now you have to ask certain questions. So for for example, one question is that who’s the end user? Who actually benefits
00:06:53 Hmm. using this solution? Uh what’s their biggest pain point? Is it their manpower? Is it because they they need to create new products, new revenue streams? Is it because they want to have uh what people say uh continuous monitoring?
00:07:14 Hmm. Uh is it they want to track certain assets that they want? It’s very key. So this the the the pain point needs to be identified early. And then what do they actually require to uh fix, you know, because IoT needs to be very specific, you know, in a certain environment, if you fix tracking, it’s a tracking issue that you want to address, right?
00:07:27 Yep. So so once that’s clear, you have to start with what we call a proof of concept.
00:07:32 This proof of concept doesn’t have to be very expensive. Proof of concept is like a minimal viable product, MVP. Right. So you use whatever affordable sensors that you have.
00:07:42 Hmm. So the idea for us to build a proof of concept is to ensure that this product works. I see. The the the sorry, the goal that you want to achieve and your idea really works. Then you can scale up.
00:07:54 So maybe just test at one site first. Yes, yes. Uh you don’t have to scale very big and suddenly when you spend millions of ringgit and it doesn’t work.
00:08:07 Hmm. So that’s why a lot of IoT projects start with a POC.
00:08:12 Correct. So after the POC uh are you ready to go for the market? That’s why I say I think uh POC can be lab-based.
00:08:27 Hmm. But not yet, you know. Uh you need to go for what we call pilot deployment. Install that at the real site.
00:08:37 Hmm. So this real site you will have your customers at that that end that actually monitor the the performance of your your your installation.
00:08:52 So whether it really uh performs to what their expectation. Hmm. You know, you have to look at, sometimes you feel that the network works best in that kind of environment. So when you install it in the pilot site, it doesn’t work that way.
00:09:04 Oh.
00:09:05 So it doesn’t have 4G coverage. Hmm. It doesn’t have LoRa coverage. True. So what kind of options for connectivity that you need to use. Sometimes using one telco doesn’t work, you need to choose another telco.
00:09:14 Correct. Correct. So that’s why you need to test every little thing. Yes, right? Yes, yes. Boss. And and I believe only after that it comes to productization, right, Doctor?
00:09:39 Yes. So when you want to do a real product, to turn that into a commercial product. So you have to think a lot more. For example, uh a prototype doesn’t have a casing. So you must have an actual product casing.
00:09:50 Ah, yep. So this product casing is is is critical because it involves uh for you to test whether it can withstand the weather. Hmm. The kind of environment that you want to put it in.
00:10:10 Robust enough. It must be robust enough because you don’t want to install it and then tomorrow it just breaks. Correct. And then you have to take a look at when you do this project, you have to think about the support, long-term support. It’s not like install then you run away.
00:10:22 Hmm. Cannot do that. So there must be some kind uh some form of warranty, uh sales uh after-sales service and so on so forth. So people always focus when they build an IoT solution, they focus on hardware.
00:10:35 Hmm.
00:10:36 But support is also very important. It is. Yep. Alright. So um now actually it’s this is the part that everyone is really waiting for, Doctor.
00:10:44 What are your tips for companies planning to enter the IoT space?
00:10:49 So I will say these three things, Zura. Hmm. First, don’t try to do everything by yourself.
00:10:55 Aha, okay.
00:10:57 Okay, you get it. Don’t be Superman.
00:11:00 Yeah, Superman is only in movies. Okay. So you must get partners, the right partners that can complement your part of where you don’t have that strength.
00:11:08 Hmm. So uh some might focus on hardware, the sensors. Uh some might also focus on software.
00:11:20 Right. Some focus on the cloud or the platform. So you focus on your strength. So that’s number one thing. Hmm. Secondly, you must ensure that you what you call test fast.
00:11:31 Hmm. Fail fast. So you Wow. So you don’t have to wait for 100% to be finished and then you want to install. You never know but after one year your product development then it doesn’t work. So if you have a prototype, you start off with the prototype.
00:11:41 Test early, improve it as you go along. Hmm. That’s key. And thirdly, I think uh
00:11:53 you must also always think that uh we have to think about scaling uh from the start. Okay. So if your project succeeds suddenly,
00:12:03 Hmm. do you have everything? Do you have uh the ability to scale it up or you need to redo everything. You know, with one sensor, with one IoT device, it works fine.
00:12:15 Hmm. And then suddenly you have hundreds of devices, thousands of devices. Have you ever thought about the scaling part?
00:12:24 Hmm. So that sometimes people miscalculate or that they didn’t plan very well and they cannot scale up. Right.
00:12:34 Hmm. And and I think Doctor maybe maybe I can also add one more uh under budget, Doctor. Ah, yes.
00:12:41 So many underestimate the cost. So like when sensors break, there’s no spec. That’s it. When it’s time to upgrade, there’s no budget. So yeah.
00:12:50 Yeah, yeah.
00:12:51 I couldn’t agree with you more on this Zura because IoT isn’t cheap.
00:12:52 Hmm. Uh but if you do it right, uh it can pay off.
00:12:58 Right, right, right. Okay, okay. Alright. So uh sorry, maybe we can just uh hold on for a while.
00:13:04 Hmm. Um Carl Hans has a a question. So what do you think about our country in terms of going to or implementing smart cities?
00:13:18 Do we care about it right now? It seems slow and not obvious like our neighbor country Singapore.
00:13:24 Uh Hmm. This is a very million-dollar question uh Carl.
00:13:30 I think uh uh when we talk about smart cities, I think we have gone through many phases of smart cities and now we are actually at the phase where we are very well structured in uh in trying to uh implement smart cities in a lot of our cities in Malaysia.
00:13:47 Uh previously we didn’t have what we call like a framework, a smart cities framework. Hmm. We do have then we did once we have that, actually we didn’t have the right plan, the action plan to break it down into different phases.
00:13:59 Now we are clear in a lot of our cities in Ipoh, Johor, Kuala Lumpur, Putrajaya, they have action plans. Hmm. That can show them uh what are the short-term plans that they want to do. In one-year plans, in medium-term three years or five years, the long-term plan.
00:14:16 So once they have that plan, they can budget it out, they can plan it with uh you know, what other uh things that they can build.
00:14:24 With the smart cities indicators that have been uh launched by uh our government. Hmm. That smart cities indicators tell us uh where you are exactly. Are you uh an early adopter?
00:14:40 Hmm. Or are you a very advanced smart city? So that indicators mean to say that if you implement a certain project, you have you have uh passed that indicator. Once you have you have reached a certain number of indicators, you reach a certain stage of uh smart city maturity.
00:14:55 Hmm. So now the plan is quite well in place. Uh now the problem is execution.
00:15:01 So Carl, you did mention that how fast is quite slow, ya, is true because the reason being is always comes to budget, ya. Budget. A lot of smart cities implementation is not revenue-generating per se.
00:15:14 Yeah. Uh it’s mainly smart uh it’s for the citizens. So for the benefit of the citizen. Sometimes it’s mainly for uh convenience for the people. It doesn’t make money. You look at an environmental, it doesn’t make money.
00:15:23 Hmm. The one like project that makes money for example is, you know, uh parking and then uh
00:15:30 parking and then uh in your building your your your whatever, you know, transaction uh transaction with the uh municipals. Hmm. So that makes money. But a lot of other projects doesn’t really make money but actually for convenience.
00:15:45 For saving cost. Hmm. Uh so the the budget needs to come from two two sources. The main source will be from the municipals itself.
00:15:54 So if they are rich, they collect a lot of taxes, then they can build a lot more applications. Hmm. Smart But if the the the smart city in certain areas are very small, they don’t have enough budget. So some of them depend on the federal government.
00:16:12 True.
00:16:13 To support them but not enough for them to implement. Yeah, I guess uh uh we have KJ’s for in the house.
00:16:20 Hello KJ. Assalamualaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh. Okay, so yeah, KJ also mentioned transparency and openness of our local authority or PBT is actually the core challenge.
00:16:27 Yeah, I think uh most of the time is, you know, uh they need to have certain governance. Uh once you have a governance, governing structure that is very clear, who you want to talk to.
00:16:40 So I always advise the PBTs to have what we call a project management office. Right. Who have a very structured manner to manage the technical issues and also the commercial issues.
00:16:50 Hmm. Uh it must be comprised of their own internal people and also uh some experts from the industry. So once they work together, they can resolve any issues very fast.
00:17:01 I see. Uh so uh and then uh it can, you know, certain certain data, certain dashboards need to be also made open. Transparent, like what KJ’s vision is.
00:17:11 Hmm. Yeah. Okay. Well um Carl is saying I’m working for an international company for IoT projects and they’re not don’t really interested in expanding the market in Malaysia yet because it’s too slow, Zura.
00:17:25 No, for us Carl, I think we actually in Malaysia are trying to expand to overseas markets.
00:17:33 Yeah. That’s true. Uh the market here in Malaysia most likely is because the size of the market is not that big.
00:17:40 Hmm. So if we work with countries that are more uh developed or in developing countries or bigger countries, that’s where you know that you have that kind of market.
00:17:50 But of course, the way that they I think you need to strategize yourself, how to position us even though we are in Malaysia, they can work with us but we have access to other countries.
00:18:01 For example, a company in the Middle East works with you. Hmm. But we have access to our neighboring countries. So you have partners in Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam.
00:18:16 So that is a hub for other countries who like to work with you. And that’s the strategy that I think we should work on.
00:18:20 Right.
00:18:21 Okay. Well um perhaps we can go back to our uh my next question to you, Doctor. Okay, okay. Alright. So uh
00:18:37 I would like to ask you about the thing that I asked you just now. What is the most common mistake that you’ve seen in IoT projects? Okay, uh there are a few common mistakes which I’ve seen.
00:18:52 Uh you know, one of them is sometimes they use free platforms. Hmm. Free platforms, free IoT platforms that cannot scale and cannot grow the numbers, you know.
00:19:08 Hmm. Sometimes open source, installed on your PC, it doesn’t work that way. You can install it for one application, the moment you have many big customers, you have big problems.
00:19:18 Yes. So Secondly, uh they might choose very super cheap sensors that give unreliable data.
00:19:23 Ah. Not industrial grade, I mean. Yeah, cheap doesn’t come with quality. So it’s not industrial grade. Hmm. It breaks down easily, you buy it today, another week it fails.
00:19:32 So yeah. Another thing, another thing is that you sometimes we ignore cybersecurity. Oh. So people uh sometimes feel that the data is not being encrypted enough.
00:19:43 Hmm. So you need to ensure that’s uh not easily being exposed. And of course, uh another mistake is that like I said just now, we install and then we run away, you know.
00:19:57 Hmm. We install then we tend to forget. Ah. But there is always a maintenance plan. But I think here in sometimes a lot in our country, in other countries most likely maintenance is always at the back of your mind.I mean, like, I mean, most of our clients, some of them, yeah, I mean, overlook the maintenance.
00:20:07 The thing is, they want to cut, they cut the maintenance because they feel nothing breaks, so why should you have maintenance?
00:20:14 Hmm, but they think that the equipment or the services can run forever. It doesn’t work that way.
00:20:18 So it’s always got a warranty period, it’s always got a certain lifetime period, yep.
00:20:24 A warranty needs to be there for the hardware and also the software.
00:20:29 So, for example, like our platform needs to be upgraded to a new version, correct, for new services.
00:20:34 Yes, so that is also part of the maintenance. It doesn’t mean that when it breaks down you need to upgrade and you need to maintain.
00:20:40 But you also need to upgrade the version, the software version.
00:20:44 The firmware version, the software versions with new features.
00:20:47 Hmm, yeah, yep, yep, okay, that’s true, doctor.
00:20:50 So anyway, I guess um, we don’t have any… no, I think I… I’m sorry, when I look at call questions, so maybe I’ve mistaken the…
00:20:56 Yeah, sure. I thought that people from overseas want to come to Malaysia.
00:21:04 Oh, but he’s saying that uh, he is working in an international company, kan.
00:21:08 Hmm, so uh, the people and uh, that are involved in this project aren’t really interested in Malaysia alone, so…
00:21:16 They work here, maybe the market isn’t here, lah.
00:21:20 That’s why, that’s why I say maybe it’s like, no, perhaps.
00:21:23 Yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:21:24 Yeah, okay, so yeah, um, guys, if you do have any other questions, do drop them in the uh, in the message and I can read it.
00:21:34 So, or else we’ve also almost hit the 30-minute mark, doctor.
00:21:40 Really? Such a short time! Wow, all of a sudden it’s almost finished.
00:21:45 That’s right. I think if they miss this, they’ll always come back to see our episode, episode four, lah, kan? Because we have already recorded this.
00:21:52 Yep, yep.
00:21:54 Okay, so anyway, doctor, uh, if you had to leave our listeners with one final piece of advice, what would it be?
00:22:04 Okay, I think it’s always to come to this uh, like this uh, when you want to start solving the right problem.
00:22:13 When you want to start the project, you start with the right problem.
00:22:17 Okay, understanding the right problem.
00:22:20 Hmm, and then uh, don’t always push for technology or chase a particular technology.
00:22:27 Okay, simple technology can really work; you don’t have to use very advanced technology.
00:22:31 You know, it can solve your problem, hmm. So IT is not, not magic, like you say, when… when a magic wand.
00:22:40 Oh, so clear, jadi lah. You cannot do like that.
00:22:43 So, but if you use it correctly, it can change a lot of things, lah.
00:22:47 Okay, you can transform a small business, becoming more competitive, more productive, kan?
00:22:52 Hmm, okay, yes, yes.
00:22:55 Yeah, sorry, just to… just to say, call is saying I’m hoping to bring it to Malaysia, ah.
00:23:00 Okay, okay, okay, good.
00:23:03 But… but maybe can collaborate with us too, kan?
00:23:05 Hmm, call, are you from Malaysia or are you from somewhere else? Yeah, I’m not sure.
00:23:10 Okay, you can answer… maybe call is not from Malaysia, kan?
00:23:13 Ah, he’s thinking though, he is working from somewhere overseas, ah, and he’s thinking of bringing that to Malaysia.
00:23:20 Right, Malaysia has this… Malaysia’s IoT association, kan? So the association…
00:23:25 Hmm, has a lot of members uh, that come together uh, working with, you know, uh, in a very good ecosystem. You know, we do have partners that have in different areas.
00:23:38 Uh, people working on hardware, the software, the platforms, hmm. So these are the ecosystems that should be working together, like Asia.
00:23:45 Yes, in IoT you cannot work alone; you need to work with partners.
00:23:49 Yeah, okay, yes, call is from Malaysia.
00:23:51 Working… oh, okay, ah, Lama, my hometown.
00:23:55 Yes, our hometown, doctor.
00:23:58 Oh, not only your hometown.
00:24:01 Okay, okay.
00:24:02 Yeah, good.I’m from…I’m from JB, kan.Yeah.Same here.
00:24:03 Okay, so anyway, doctor, like what you said just now, lah, okay, uh, really the big problem first, not technology first.
00:24:11 Hmm, alright, so remember that, guys.
00:24:14 So thank you so much, doctor, for joining us today.
00:24:17 My pleasure.So I hope that… I hope it helps those who are actually thinking of building uh, IoT, you know, projects, lah, in the future.
00:24:27 Yeah, always a pleasure chatting with you, doctor.
00:24:30 So alright, everyone, so I guess that’s it for our episode four of Favoriot Sembang Santai.
00:24:38 Don’t forget to follow us on Spotify, Amazon Music, and YouTube. If you’ve got a question or want to cover a topic, just DM us, alright.
00:24:50 So see you in the next episode. Assalamualaikum. Waalaikumussalam. Bye.
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