The title of this post doesn’t seem very welcoming, I know, but don’t worry, there is a happy ending; I assure you. It is, however, kind of a long story, which I’ll cut short. You see, the domain name “infinity.com.my” had been registered many years ago, but instead of having it registered to the owner, it was mistakenly registered under the name of the company that provided the domain name registration service.

It went unnoticed, even by the domain name’s owner, and it was only until Infinity decided to let us manage the domain name for them that the mishap was discovered. We raised the issue immediately, as we knew this had to be resolved once and for all.

To get to the bottom of things, our team started from scratch, a bit like CSIs working a crime scene. Our client didn’t even have information on the domain name login, so we contacted several related parties, but had no luck. We even considered filing a dispute report to MyNIC, which would cost at least MRY5,000! But that was to be the last resort.

Luckily, we hadn’t run out of options. Our team’s persistent investigation and tireless effort paid off, and our client regained ownership over the domain name in the end. I told you there was a happy ending! Before that, however, Wan, the domain name owner said, “If this is settled, please come to my new office at Botanic and I’ll bring you to the best food in Bukit Tinggi, Klang.” Thanks Wan! We’re glad it’s over, and we’ll be coming by for the food soon! :)

Have you read Eisen’s post “A Case for Your Web Development Project”? Well, we’re pretty excited to announce that we’ll be developing a comprehensive web revamp plan for one of the property developer in Malaysia soon! The entire process is expected to take at least 4 weeks.

For the revamp to be effective, a need-based study will be conducted to gather feedback and suggestions from their various profit and cost channels such as sales and marketing, showrooms, operations, management, information technology and clients.

Our information gathering methods will include brainstorming sessions, interviews, surveys, collection of website statistics and archives, and much more. The process can be detailed in two main stages:

Stage 1 (which will take approximately 14 days)

1) Listing and prioritising of revamp goals

2) Identifying the goal’s conversion rates and its measurables

Stage 2 (which will also take approximately 14 days)

1) Preparing the revamp blueprint document which outlines the project’s requirements, technical specifications, design guidelines, database, integration and other features that will help achieve the goals defined in Stage 1.

2) The materials in the blueprint will be used by appointed web developers as the guideline to execute the revamp. The blueprint can be given to any web developer for the actual site development, but it will create the same result, as planned.

Are you a web developers or freelancers? Register your profile

We took on a project to design a website for a public listed company called Wawasan TKH.

Wawasan TKH Revamp

A few days ago, Kien asked for a new email mailbox for his “Proxy4Wow” project, which is specially created for Malaysian gamers who’d like to play the low latency US/Taiwanese version of “World of Warcraft”.

Our migration team is never choosy about the projects we take on, so although the email migration involved just one mailbox, we took all the necessary steps to ensure that nothing could go wrong. Kien’s prompt reply to our queries was the key component to the speedy completion of the migration, which took less than two days! Kien was kind enough to drop me a message afterwards, saying, “Pin, thanks for everything you did.” No, thank YOU, Kien!

Teliti Computers has decided to outsource their web and email infrastructure to us. Don’t worry, this isn’t a lengthy tech post about how our team did the migration. Instead, we have something more refreshing!

We put a smile on Hasniza's face

Hasniza may look like the girl next door, and she has dreams of becoming a tailor, but don’t judge a book by it’s cover because she’s responsible for all the technical aspects of her company, and not to mention over 200 staff! What’s more, she designed Teliti’s website, but she needed help and came to us to get her existing mail server out of their internal server room.

We communicated with her mainly through emails and we started to learn more about each other and the problems she’s been facing. She’s very friendly and is a great person to work with, so we quickly became friends!

She says, “Thank you so much for making it easier for me. I already went through the Control Panel. Simple interface and easy to administer. Can’t wait for Monday! The email migration sheet is excellent. I thought of creating something similar, but you have saved the day! Now I can proudly use Teliti’s mail to communicate with you. Thanks to you and your team!”

By the way, Hasniza’s also pretty curious about Pin’s designation. Find the full story here!

Someone wrote in to us recently, inquiring about our services and fees. We sent them the info and this is what they had to say in return:

It’s always nice to get feedback from people, and this is how potential clients become our friends, even without business transactions.

The 5-days Continuus' email migration walk through

Has your email service provider ever made you feel like ripping your hair out? I bet it has. Well, our client, Continuus Consulting, certainly has had enough when they came to us for a solution. They’ve lost emails lost to cyberspace, received emails 2 weeks too late… you name the problem; they had it!

One particularly distressing episode occurred when they lost the opportunity to bid for a tender, due to an email that arrived a week later. By the time they got it, the invitation to bid had closed, and there went their chances for the big bucks. The worst thing was, when they demanded answers, the technical support blamed power outages and virus attacks, but didn’t bother to provide alternatives or solutions.

Well, we firmly believe that no one should have to suffer this kind of heartache or lose their sanity over something that’s supposed to make life and work easier. So, we helped Continuus Consulting switch to a new email system, and they can’t be happier with the results.

I’m proud to say that our teams worked seamlessly together and the email migration took just 5 days to complete. Let me walk you through what happened:

Day 1: Thursday, May 21, 2009

02:58 PM: Continuus Consulting subscribed to our email services online. We acknowledge the order immediately and waited for payment. Meanwhile, our migration team assessed the time required, the complexity of the project, and the current email environment.

03:30 PM: The client made the payment and filled up the payment acknowledgment form. Our migration team then outlined the overall migration plan and made a list of the information required.

04:30 PM: Our migration team completed the setup with new DNS addresses. The client told their existing service provider to update their email domain with the new DNS addresses.

11:30 PM: Our migration team received a list of the client’s existing email users and began setting up mailboxes in the new email server.

Day 2: Friday, May 22, 2009

03:54 PM: The client informed our migration team about the completion of the DNS change request submitted earlier.

05:30 PM: Our migration team confirmed that all preparations were ready. All we had to do was wait for the actual migration, which was scheduled on Sunday at 8 pm.

Day 3: Saturday, May 25, 2009

We all took the day off.

Day 4: Sunday, May 24, 2009

08:00 PM: Our migration team changed the Mail Exchange (MX) record and performed a final live checking. They then sent the client email confirming that the migration had been successfully completed.

Day 5: Monday, May 25, 2009

09:00 AM: The client returned back to work and changed to their new email setting by referring to a step-by-step guide that we gave them earlier.

09:37 AM: The client started using the new email service without any problems!

Here’s what they had to say:

“Thank you for the simple instructions you provided. The new email service for my company has been a success. All my outlook users are able to send and receive emails as usual.”

Another happy ending, brought to you by 1.com.my!

What began as a flawless email migration plan was delayed a week longer for one of our new customer, a listed institution that is well known in the financial and banking sector in Malaysia thus proving Murhpy’s Law as valid.

An oversight in the migration plan overlooked the delay in the domain name transfer process. In layman’s term, the transfer of domain name from the old Registrar to the new Registrar put us in a deadlock situation where we were not able to modify the DNS addresses to follow the agreed migration deadlines. Our original plan assumed that we were able to modify the DNS addresses first before performing the Registrar Transfer.

The migration was postponed and took place 5 days later. Though the interruption did not affect the email services, but it definitely knocked a dent on our reputation as one of the leading provider in corporate email solution.

We extend our gratitude as well to the client’s previous email hosting vendor professionalism that agreed to extend their account expiry to allow for the domain name transfer process to complete. With everyone’s cooperation we managed to roll out a new escalation plan immediately as backup.

Luck was on our side as the domain name transfer process came through even as we were preparing to activate our agreed escalation plan before the deadline.

“Glad everything worked and the transfer process was smooth. None of our staff are even aware of the migration.” “We cannot afford any disruption in our email communication as it is a critical service to our daily business operation”” said the client’s IT Person who was responsible for the client’s email hosting service.

The client’s IT Person is definitely one of the most resourceful and responsive guy we have ever worked with. He took extra effort to understand the technical part of the email migration and personally configured all of the client’s PC equipment are configured to use the new email server addresses.

Since our new client is a listed financial institution, strict measures was taken to make sure we comply with their stringent email requirements and that we make available the resources to support their required level in terms of maintenance and troubleshooting of any problems with their new email hosting service.

Even after the migration was complete, our email hosting team continued to monitor the status of their ‘email transactions’. We made sure their registration information for their domain name is current, as well as their email client configurations are correct. Additionally, we pointed their domain name to our fixed IP address to reduce the chances of their emails from being marked as [SPAM].

“What else can I say, ‘Muchos Gracias’. I didn’t know it could create a problem.”

A perfect gold swing Blog in a perfect theme!

“Ok Pin I like your support I will banking today,” Said Farid!

Farid was skeptical before signing up our web hosting package. Apparently, he is looking for a web host that is WordPress or Blog ready. He has engaged someone to design the theme for this new Blog- A Perfect Gold Swing! Both his hosting and domain name is ready, two hours after he placed the order online. Our team went the extra mile to install the freshly-baked theme. Farid just couldn’t wait to see his new Blog in its perfect, outdoorsy feel! Us too!

“Thanks, of course for your support and also to setup this blog. Thanks. 1.com.my Really have a great team and fast service. TQVM Pin”

Enjoy blogging!

We were given short notice and only, strictly speaking, a weekend to get both web and email hosting done for Premier Wood. Although Premwood products are sold in more than 10 countries, this wasn’t exactly a mega transfer, but our team took the job very seriously nonetheless. In all, there were about 10 mailboxes to be transferred, and the website.

Premwood products are sold to more than 10 countries!

I’ve heard horrible stories from friends who’ve been through such a migration. Some irresponsible hosts would gave them only a login to the hosting control panel, and didn’t care to explain, plan or help set up the new email or website.

We started by retrieving all the important information we need during migration. A migration plan was drafted and sent to our client before the actual migration. Our client just need to sit back and relax. When they have came back to work on Monday, there was no “Monday blues”, as the migration was a complete success. Happy clients = happy us!

While we were working on their project, we noticed that their Contact us form wasn’t working. In fact, it hadn’t been working for a long time. Through it wasn’t in our scope, our migration team fixed that as well. We believe that knowing how to solve problem is more important than pointing fingers.

We’ve just completed an email migration for Microlink Solutions Berhad, a leading banking solutions provider. We understand that the process of getting acquainted with a new email-hosting provider can be somewhat intimidating for a business, and that’s why we set up a dedicated “Transition Team” whose sole purpose is to take the headache out of email migrations and help our clients get their users up and running.

The challenge, here, was to make sure the process was totally transparent to all of their users, who work in different offices and time zones. All this had to be done within a short time frame – we had less than a week. We worked out the migration plan together with their MIS teams, and the whole idea behind the process was to make as few changes as possible to the existing users’ email setting. We also had to ensure that NO emails were lost during the transition.

We also introduced a new control panel to help them manage their users and monitor the new email service. Theirs was an experienced team that we enjoyed working with, and as usual, we continued to monitor the email transition progress even after the migration was completed. Our promise is – Worry-Free & Zero Downtime migration, and trust me, we take this promise very seriously!

The white label webmail with customer's corporate identity

Mr Muzaffar Abdul Halim is one of our new customers; he runs a business on TV-content production, distribution and business consultancy. A short time ago, he contacted us about our email hosting service, and recently, we interviewed him via email to get his feedback on our services. You can tell by his answers that he’s a man that gets straight to the point, we like that! Check out what he had to say:

How did you hear about us?
By surfing Google.

Why is email important to you?
It s fast and efficient, and is accessible from almost anywhere.

You booked an email-hosting service online with us, how did you find it?
It was quite easy.

Why did you choose us? Do you have any comments on our pricing, online ordering, service or reliability?
It was a relatively simple process, as the price structure was value for money.

Are you satisfied with our service?
So far so good!

Any suggestions on how we can improve our email hosting service?
None yet.

Amtek, a leading global precision metal stamping and tooling specialist, wanted to register the domain name “amtek.my”, to better reflect their corporate identity. We were more than happy to study and plan the migration process for them. The challenge was that every existing user should continue receiving emails sent to their old address, “kriscom.com.my”, at their new email address under “amtek.my”. There are 150 users altogether. We started by creating the forwarding rules using an email alias. Both email domains use DNS servers, which are managed by us. To bypass any possible downtime caused by DNS propagation, we set up the same pointing records in both the old and the new DNS servers during the DNS address change. Phew, lots of tech-speak there! Excuse me! By working closely with the technical team from Amtek, the name “amtek.my” is now in use and running perfectly!

Furniweb Group is an industry leader and producer of internationally-recognised webbing products that are available in more than 30 countries. They recently decided to migrate all of their 120 email users from 8 different domains to the email solution that we host.

Our team studied the case and came up with a migration plan, with full cooperation from Furniweb’s MIS team. Taking existing user preferences and settings into consideration, we started the migration process by setting up all email users in our new email servers.

With help from their existing email service provider, the MX records were updated and the new email system started routing messages to the new email servers. The next step was to change all Furniweb’s DNS addresses to a more reliable one with dedudancy support. To avoid the DNS Propagation, the new DNS server will have identical pointing pre-defined. Glad to say that the migration for Furniweb Group was done successfully without any downtime and interruption to their users in various regions.