Rural School Project in Cambodia was brought to a whole new height with the acquisition of the domain name Kumomo.com!

On 19th November 2006, the domain Kumomo.com was registered. The Kumomo Project has been developed by the team at 1.com.my to match ad space owners and buyers. At the same time, a portion of the money is donated to a charitable cause. The first charity organization the Kumomo Team engaged was American Assistance for Cambodia (AAC).

In the recent months, an anonymous corporation has expressed keen interest in the domain name Kumomo.com. After a few rounds of discussions, they have decided to take full ownership of the domain name Kumomo.com and would make the necessary compensation to the project.

Most importantly, with the acquisition of the domain name, they have also generously agreed to donate USD26,000 to build 2 schools in Cambodia. This is in addition to the sum that has been collected from all members’ contribution to the Kumomo Tree Project all these while.

“Thank you very much for your very generous arrangement and gesture to turn this sum over to us to build two schools. We are very grateful and so will be hundreds of Cambodia children who will benefit by gaining an education they would otherwise would not be able to pursue,” said Bernard Krisher, Chairman of AAC.

What’s next?

Upon this stage of ownership transfer, the ex-Kumomo team will change to a new name and the effort to develop this ad booking platform will continue. A date of transfer is not confirmed, rather more, it is assured that there are various plans to add a lot of new features in the next release to help monetize the spaces on Kumomo.com.

It is with great awareness that this sudden change would cause various inconveniences to members. Yet the apologizes will hopefully be compensated with the additional funds which will be used in helping to accelerate the process of putting more Cambodian children in schools. The construction of both The Kumomo Tree One and Two School in Kompong Cham province is expected to begin in mid February and should be completed in July 2008.

In the meantime, Kumomo members will be:
1) kept updated on the construction progress of the 2 schools
2) notified once our new platform is released

And with that, on behalf of the Cambodian children and the ex-Kumomo team, wishes to express their highest gratitude to all that’s been part of the success and happenings.

You’re having an important presentation overseas. You realized you’ve not brought along the powerpoint slides that will help you to close the deal later. Immediately, you called home for back up. You waited anxiously for your home team to send you the slides via email.

Just few minutes before the presentation starts, your technical lead called your cell phone, “Sorry chief, the email seems to be down.�

We aim to put an end to frustrating email hosting services with frequent downtime that causes you productivity loss. Effective communication is key to successful information sharing within your organization and it should never be compromised with sub-standard email support.

Tips and tricks to send, receive and organize your emails!
Malaysia Email Hosting Benchmark (Updated every 15 mins!)
Order email hosting online
Technical specification

You choose a web design firm out there, tell them about your requirement and get your website launched weeks later. Yes, your budget gets you a website, but not the results.

All businesses create a website for reasons. From generating more enquiries to online sales. Yet, this strategy, most of the time, if not all the time, failed to deliver the conversion you are hoping for. Why

20/80 rules

Our general rule of thumb is to spend only 20% of your budget on development while you should allocate 80% on marketing activities. After many years of providing online solution to our clients, we are confident to say that your marketing effort is the ONLY way your visitors will find out about your online presence, and NOT a pretty-flashy-graphically-packed website.

Less is more…

Our approach is very simple. First, we begin with a thorough study on the nature of your business to identify your critical conversion factors and how it is measured. Next, we prepare ONLY the necessary groundwork that focuses on increasing your conversion ratios. This reduces unnecessary resources spent on “nice-to-have” features, which increases speed to market.

Future planning made easier

You can make improvisations only if you know where are you standing now such as your visitors and its conversion. The more you understand about your current situation, the easier and more accurate your next strategy will be.

Building on a wealth of experience

We have helped many different businesses migrate online throughout the years. Although the nature of each business is radically different, we are able to apply what we’ve learned from various industries and apply the strategies to help you in driving up your conversion ratios.

What makes an online business?

Khind Holdings Berhad was in need of a reliable email service provider to control the spam and viruses with more reliability. They are aware that outsourcing of email hosting will directly reduce cost and also improve their email service’s reliability. Fast respond technical support is important, as any email issues can affect their business operations. There are many users and their email addresses need to be managed, therefore transferring to a new email hosting is a challenge. Also, there is a demand for a single control panel that is able to control different email domains.

To convince the management on the high-level reliability of our email hosting, a trial period was introduced. Upon the successful completion of the trial, the management of Khind Berhad was convinced and agreed to subscribe. The transfer of all initial email account was done without downtime, while maintaining the current email address of each user. Upon the setup completion, a transfer guideline was provided to ensure all users know how to use the new webmail and the configuration of POP account.

The transfer of email hosting was smooth and have resulted in high customer satisfaction. Up to this date, there was no downtime, with almost 100% uptime for both SMTP and POP mail server, while the configuration of email is error free shown in the DNSReport. By using our email hosting facilities, Khind experienced a great significant reduction in spam and viruses, and indirectly improves their operational efficiency. The client is also satisfied as there is no need for hardware upgrading or purchase of additional software licenses.

Malaysia Email Hosting Benchmark (Updated every 15 mins!)

A website shouldn’t be just for plain-vanilla web presence. Based on our industry experience, we firmly believe in the imperativeness of adaptive websites that react to the changing dynamics of the marketplace. Website information needs to be constantly updated. User interfaces should focus more on interactivity with your customers and prospects

At 1.com.my, we believe in the creation of symbiotic relationship between our client and our firm to create a successful online business ventures. We are committed to assist our clients to create and sustain competitive advantage. With our pro-active involvement in the operational and marketing aspects, our clients can leverage on our knowledgebase and industry expertise to spur profitable growth. With our proven Build and Operate methodology, we offer one-stop convenience with our comprehensive, best-in-class online business support IT tools and services to assist our clients to enhance corporate competitiveness, gain operational efficiency, strengthen customer loyalty and ultimately, maximize shareholder value.

Many email hosting subscribers in Malaysia are having problems sending out emails from their email clients including Microsoft Outlook, Outlook Express or Eudora. Well, this is happened after a harsh decision from Telekom Malaysia to block OUTBOUND Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) traffic or port 25 for all out going emails from dynamic IP addresses. Only Outbound SMTP traffic from smtp.streamyx.com and smtp.tm.net.my will be allowed.

This affects only users of Streamyx Broadband and other TM Internet Subscribers. This action was taken to fight SPAM in TM’s network to improve quality of connection.

TM has suggested a new SMTP server (smtp-proxy.tm.net.my) to be used as an alternative to the original SMTP you have configured in your Outlook or Outlook Express. Another set of problem arises from this alternative:

1. What will happen if all the traffic (nationwide) routes to this single ‘open-delay’ smtp server? What is the dedundancy support? Will your emails be in queues???

2. You can’t send out emails if you are out of Streamyx or TM networks when you are using smtp-proxy.tm.net.my

Although this is a common practice by ISPs in the old days, it seems to be less practical especially when most people are moving around using different connections, etc.

Check out The Unofficial Streamyx FAQ

Mike Morley is a Web Developer working for a software company in London, married to Rachel and lucky enough to be Welsh (and to be married to Rachel!). He spend whatever holiday time he has, on holiday.

Tell us about yourself? What do you do fulltime? What kind of projects you have been doing? When?

I am a Web Developer, I previously worked for a Design Agency called Red Snapper on both front and backend code. I now work for Ipreo as Frontend Web Software Developer, looking after HTML/CSS/JavaScript for a Java application used by investment banks in the City of London. Recent projects include a drag and drop report module and the re-factoring of application front end code in line with web standards and improving cross browser compatibility.

Is this your first time visiting Cambodia? Share with us what is most inspiring during your trip?

I am yet to go, but looking forward to going very much.

You are often accused of being over critical of websites. What makes a good website?

The first, and if nothing else, the only thing a website should do is allow you to achieve your aims when arriving on a website. I believe e-Visa goes beyond with good design. Normal users should be able to move through the process without having to think too much in order to acccomplish their task. From my profession I often think about design and process, but this is often when things go wrong and a user is left confused on what to do. Good design is more subtle, often you do not realise something is well made purely because the amount of effort reqired to complete a task is minimal and you can move through a process as if on auto-pilot. I believe that it is the ease of use achieved on e-Visa that makes it a good example of design. Information and the interfaces are provided through a clear and uncluttered visual design allowing no unneccesary distractions for the users. Information is laid out in a logical easy to navigate manner with the appropriate visual hierarchies, iconography and white-space so important information is easily found and supporting information is visible by not intrusive. Along with the strong visual cues guiding you through the process the feedback on user actions was excellent, you knew exactly when you had completed a section and where I needed to go next. Finally there was attention to detail, options to duplicate flight data for all passengers in a single click, simplified image upload and verification and well thought through visual guidance made for a positive user experience. I get the impression that your client has been flexible in allowing process change in their visa applications and you have managed to implement this process efficiently online.

In what ways has the e-Visa website been appealing to you?

It has successfully achieved exactly what I wanted with much less effort, which the internet often has the power to do. That is to simplify a particular task by allowing easy access to information, an interface to information provision and a method of delivery. All of which took a few minutes rather than several hours that other paper based processes may take.

The eVisa website is catering to travelers from more than 150 countries. We believe we are not doing enough on the localization. Do you have suggestions?

The only thing I can say is that I found the application process excellent and I never noticed that website was used across multiple languages on first look - so either you do not have a problem with localisation or your simplification of processes have been so successful the need for localisation is reduced. I believe simplicity is the greatest success of the e-Visa site, just keep it simple and doing the job it is meant for.

Listen to the ranting of a Welsh Web Developer?

“Stones make good soup, but carrots would make it so much better”

If you are thinking of setting up an online business, or extending your existing business online, you might probably want to check this out!

How to cook a stone soup?