1.com.my takes up projects, such as these two, in a manner that is oriented towards project management. Usually, in a website team, there is – a programmer, a designer, a web developer and a web support engineer. The web developer is the person who usually deals with the client.

In this particular project, however, we decided to take on a slightly different approach – the programmer, designer, developer and engineer are no longer overloaded with information on the changes to be made. Instead, we appointed a project manager, who not only oversees the development of the sites, but also informs the client on the pros and cons of every decision.

Clients often think that website updating is an easy task, but behind the scenes, there’s a lot of work to be done. Even after everything’s complete, there are still the multiple revisions to ensure that the client is fully satisfied with the results. The project manager keeps the ball rolling and ensures that it rolls smoothly. The project manager this time around was our very own Adrian Chow, who has been working with us for more than 2 years now.

One of the obstacles faced by our web development team is the difference in location. We work remotely, which means we are always on the go. This means we communicate via email – a lot! Still, it’s one of the most cost-effective and efficient ways to keep updated on projects (at least we think so!)

At the end of the day, with all the work being carried out collaboratively, we managed to meet the stringent deadline. It was indeed a happy ending for both the project manager, his team and the client.

See? Pin is a living, breathing human being!

Tech geeks will talk about how our SMTP mail server has maintained a 99.993% uptime since May 2006, and that we test our servers every 15 minutes, but what sets Pin and his team apart from other support teams is the fact that they’re willing to explain things to you in layman terms. Basically, if you tried to send an email every 15 minutes since May 2006, out of 129,600 emails sent, only 10 won’t be delivered, which is pretty phenomenal. There’s no doubt that our email servers are reliable, but we’re always searching for and discovering new ways to improve your email experience each day.

Customers who outsource their email services to us expect a fully integrated solution, which means we must ensure that our email servers are always up and running, and that we’ll make the extra effort to help solve issues arising from Internet Service Providers, email clients like Outlook, Outlook Express and even teaching clients how to retrieve emails from mobile devices.

We’ve dealt with over 500 customers, and this allow us to have a better understanding of the various user requirements out there. The experience has also exposed us to issues that have, in return, equipped us with the know-how to solve all kinds of email problems, including missing or duplicate emails, Spam, backup and restoration, and much more.

To all our loyal clients, thank you for giving us the chance to serve you, and for sharing with us your email issues. Apart from finding ways around email problems, it has also helped us to compile tips and tricks that can help others in the future.

Pin

Everyone's afraid of jumping from the frying pan into the fire

One of our customers, a medical equipment supplier, had encountered a lot of issues with their email. It’s a long story, really, but it started out with them hosting their email internally in the past. Then, six months ago, they decided to outsource their email to a local email service provider that promised higher uptimes, better Spam control and improved support, but their hopes were soon dashed!

The MSC Status company claims that it is ‘committed to the most innovative, effective, and sound solutions possible for our clients,’ but things started to go wrong right after the client signed up for their services! In one occasion, customer was told that their email services will be migrated to a new server. In the end, the migration had to be cancelled last minute and the client was left hanging and stuck!

“We don’t believe in solving email problems without truly understanding the customer’s needs,” said Pin, 1.my

When we were called in to help sort things out, we made it clear that we don’t believe in solving email problems without truly understanding the customer’s needs. We sat down with their staff and interviewed them in detail. They needed us to work out a perfect plan for everyone, but it also had to cater to each person’s own preference in handling emails. It was a tough task, but we tried our best to help and suggest new methods to improve their job efficiency and reduce work load.

The customer was paranoid, and who can blame them for being that way? They were given lots of empty promises by the previous email host who even claimed that they had the best uptime in town. As the saying goes, “Once bitten, twice shy,” and when we meet the managing director of the medical equipment supplier company face-to-face, he asked why they should trust and choose us, as they were cautious about jumping from the frying pan into the fire. We confidently told them that we were there to help them solve all their email problems, and that they have our word on that.

With more than a hundred email users and branches all over malaysia, their email migration had to be well planned. We worked closely with their technical support and everything was done smoothly. To play it safe, we have sent out our technical staff to their office for the first week after the migration. We helped them set up new email configurations and ran from desk to desk to ensure that everyone was comfortable with the new email system.

We also drafted email tips and tricks that was sent out to all email users, so that they knew how to manage their emails more effectively. We’ve always believed that email services are about experience, so we are constantly trying to ensure that our email users like us not just because of our uptime, but also because we care enough to share tips on how to improve their email experience.

We’re proud to say that the email migration was a success, and we even managed to solve a glitch so that their fax machine now works correctly and can send faxes to email addresses. We also solved missing email issues that occured because some users were still on the old setting.

It’s been our pleasure to work with their technical team, and we recently received feedback that they’re very pleased with their new email system. They simply told us, “They like the new email!” which is short, but sweet, and it’s music to our ears! We’re happy to have once again come to a customer’s rescue by solving their email woes.

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Happily, Nurul has also become our client by choosing our Cloud Sites product to host the websites of a few ventures she has set up.

To all our loyal customers, we wish you the heartiest of thanks, and we invite all of you to tell us why you’ve decided to stay with us all these years.

My reason to stay is…

This could be another X-File

“This could be another X-File,” said a customer jokingly, as we reviewed an email problem at his office. While most email problems can be solved online or through a phone call, sometimes, on-site reviews are a must. Yesterday, for example, we visited a customer who had a case of missing attachments.

Apparently, the problem only occurs in emails received from a particular sender, who sends out attachments to other email users using Outlook Express. To diagnose the problem, we ran a few tests with help from their technical team.

In this scenario, usually it is the recipient who’ll make the complaint, rather than the sender, because it’s the recipient who’ll notice the missing attachment. Some recipients choose to switch to Outlook, and then the problem goes away. But, we weren’t satisfied with that shortcut solution. No, we had to get to the root of the problem, and trace it back to the beginning.

After hours of reviewing and testing, we managed to determine that the issue originated in the Sender’s computer. We’ve thought up a solution and we’ll be working hand-in-hand with their technical team to make sure that the problem will be resolved completely.

This turned out to be… not another X-file :)

Migration team provides on-site assistance for agents

Oriental Realty is one of the top real estate agencies in Malaysia, and we’re thrilled that they turned to us to plan their email upgrade. After all, we’re reliable yet cost effective!

As they have over 150 agents on the move, we’ve decided to integrate their email services with Google Apps. Each agent will get about 7GB of email space and they can access their emails anytime, anywhere.

The new email upgrade will also provide them with better mobility support, as it works well for both iPhone and Blackberry users.

Our team explained the risks of continuing with such a setup and convinced him that we are technically competent to take over all these services and provide a one-stop solution that’s more cost efective. Fortunately for us, Shin is a dream to work with. He is always willing to listen and ask questions.

During the migration of his many domain names, Shin shared with us how his previous web hosting providers had managed to disapppoint him. The technical support he requested for, for example, was often not professionally handled. To save him trouble and frustration, we suggested that we dealt with his existing hosting provider directly, so that he doesn’t have to be the person caught in between.

We like representing our customers and helping to solve their problems. This is someting we do regularly, actually. By doing so, customers are less stressed during the migration, and to us, customer satrisfaction is priceless!

Parallels Plesk Panel - Complicated, even for a tech people

During the migration, we also discovered that Shin’s previous web hosting company had been using Parallels Plesk Panel. Not only is the name a tongue twister, but when we took a closer look, we were incredibly surprised because the system’s far too complicated, even for tech people like us! It’s not an intuitive system and it’s loaded with features that are hardly used. It’s not that different from a Cpanel actually. In comparison, take a look at our hosting control panel, which is much, much easier to use and understand! Less is more!

Subscribe to our Cloud Web Hosting today, it comes with our user-friendly control panel!

Email migration for a F&B company in Kota Kinabalu

While searching Google for a solution to her problem, she came across the Push Mail review that Pin had posted. She posted a question and Pin quickly replied, and soon, they became friends!

She briefed Pin about her email woes with TM Net’s Netmyne. Her firm needs a new e mail service provider that caters to around 50 to 60 user accounts with increased storage capacity, since TM Net only offers a limited storage capacity. Her main concern, however, was whether an email migration may cause any interruptions to their daily business, and they also need to maintain their original email address.

Pin explained the migration process to her in detail, but in layman terms. Within a few email exchanges, Pin managed to convince the client that they can trust 1.com.my to manage their email completely. Plus, the total email migration and set up will cost less than RM100 a month for about 45 users! We felt really priveleged, however, that the client placed a great amount of trust in us, although we can’t meet face to face. After all, she’s in Sabah and we’re in Petaling Jaya!

Our migration team did call the client before making the migration so that we could walk her through the instruction sheet, to ensure that the client knows how to change to new settings after the migration. In less than 3 days, our team laid out the plans and got all the groundwork ready, with full support from the client, of course. The migration was done over the weekend, and by Sunday evening, the migration was completed and we ran checks to ensure that everything worked. The next morning, the client was able to use the new email system without any problems. Yet another successful email migration!

After the migration was completed, our team called the client up again to make sure everything was in order.

In response to the email migration, the client wrote, “Thank you for your concern. I am really grateful for all your good efforts as everything is running very smooth. It is such a relief for there is no interuption or interference to our business emails. Please convey our appreciation and gratitude to all your colleagues for their hard work and attentiveness.”

Incidentally, this company also has a .com.my domain name. To further enhance their online indentity, we suggested and helped them to secure a .my domain name as well. We explained to them that .my will be a growing future trend, so it’s important to get it now! We found that the domain .com was taken, but we’ve initiated an email discussion with the .com owner to buy over the domain name on behalf of our client as well.

Well, Adline, basically you have two options:

1) Get your own domain name and hosting – It costs you less than RM200 a year. The hosting is installed with WordPress. You can design your own theme, whereas Blogspot is a hosted solution, so you can’t change the layout much. WordPress also has many plugins, widgets and it is powerful. It is more user friendly as it is faster to post and has a smarter comment system. 1.com.my has been using WordPress since 2006, and we’re happy with it.

2) Keep the Blog with Blogspot – Just mask your existing Blogspot URL with your own domain name. Masking the domain name gives you an advantage in terms of the branding of your website. Visitors remember your site more easily. For example instead of using yourdomain.blogspot.com, you can now use yourdomain.com!

I hope this answers your querie Adline!

Adline is a happy mom cum freelance writers. Check out her Blog at adlinewrites.blogspot.com

Adline, writing by moonlight