Now you can DIY your company portal

WANT to embrace the Internet to expand your business, but worried about the cost?
Yes it may be expensive to have people managing your company's portal, but what if there is a way to do it yourself?

But... I'm not an expert
What if everything is template-based. You just have to fill in the blanks. Sure you can do it.
The DIY portal solution is here, and it's made-in-Malaysia.
Local e-business specialist Skali has come up with a DIY Web portal solution aimed at small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) andsmall office-home office (SOHO) outfits.
Called WebbingPortal, the solution offers businesses with little budgetto easily establish a Web presence, said Skali Managed E-business SdnBhd's chief executive officer Roslan Brahim.

It used to be difficult
"Traditionally, it has always been troublesome for the small players tohave a Web presence as it involves a lot of work and cost. Today, a professional Web portal can be created and run live in just two hours through WebbingPortal and at a fraction of the cost," said Roslan at Skali's head quarters in Kuala Lumpur.
The minimal amount involved to create a five-page business portal isusually about RM1,600;WebbingPortal is available from as low as RM288.
According to Roslan, although there are many companies with Web portals,the reality is that there are even more that do not.

Thousands of companies but little with Web presence
Believe it or not, about 80 per cent of the companies out there have no Web presence. Theyare basically SMBs and SOHO outfits, which have been known to want to tap the Internet but have limited budget and resources to do so.
Well, they can now do so with the template-based WebbingPortal. "Customers can also tweak the design of the Web site to their likingif they have better skin, background pictures, etc," Roslan said.

For the cottage industry
Besides SMBs, Skali is targeting the DIY Web solution at the local cottage and home industry such as songket weavers, kuih sellers, cakemakers and keropok producers.
"Most of these people use blogs to promote their products, but a blog'scapability as a business platform is limited. It also doesn't lookprofessional," Roslan said.

Affordable
Skali is offering four packages for WebbingPortal: WXP SOHO, WXP Biz,WXP Pro and WXP E-Commerce, priced at RM288, RM588, RM988 and RM3,888respectively.

All in the "red" except security

THE security software market in the Asia-Pacific is growing, despite the unfavourable economic conditions.

The segment remains in the black when other portions of ICT spending have gone into the red since March, according to IDC Malaysia's programme manager, software research RogerLing.

Why companies still invest in security

The main reason behind the continued demand is due to concerns ofsecurity breaches and data losses.

Organisations can reduce their budgeton other things, but when it comes to security, they cannot compromise, said Ling from IDC.

"Organisations see security as an area that needs to bemaintained or increased to survive," he said.

In a recent IDC survey of over 1,300 IT executives and chief information officers in the region, over 36 per cent of the respondents said they will increase their infrastructure software spending over the next 18 months. And from this group, 63 per cent said they will focus their IT budget on security software to address threats and improve compliance.

These findings confirmed that IT securityinvestments have now become even more important as businesses recognisethe need to hedge themselves against security attacks.

What areas companies are focusing on

Based on the IDC survey, two areas of security that companies arefocusing on are data loss prevention and Web and messaging security.

In planning for their security infrastructure investments, organisationsneed to look beyond anti-virus solutions, Ling said. "Most people still think that security is all about anti-virus. If thatis the case, your security infrastructure is not well-protected becauseyou are only thinking of one aspect of the whole infrastructure," he said,adding that the people aspect of security needs to be addressed, too.

"Organisations need to look at data loss, identity and access solutionsfor the people aspect of the security infrastructure. Look beyond anti-virus as threats come from many angles."

Is LED the future of lighting?

Many may still not familiar with LED or light-emitting diode lights, but it seems that the lighting industry is moving towards this technology.

Yours truly was lucky enough to get the opportunity to visit one of the biggest lighting event in the world, the Lightfair International in New York last month.

Almost all of the 500 exhibitors at the event have at least one product or some all products based on LED technology.

Tech&U, New Straits Times, was there on the invitation by Philips, one of the main exhibitors at Lightfair.

What's the big deal about LED

Put aside the price. Its benefits are a lot actually, in the long run - low maintenance, energy saving, multi-colour and programmable.

Unlike normal bulbs or lights, can can only last a few thousand hours, LEDs can give lights up to 60,000 hours.

It's like once you install and LED light, you can forget about changing it. Besides long lasting, it saves energy up to 80 percent than current technology.

Talk about green house effect, LED could be part of the answers in lowering carbon emissions.

Besides that, the LED bulbs can produce any desiredcolour (up to 16 million colours), which is not possible with any other existing technology.

These include creating effects such as colour wall washing and sharp light/ shadowlines.

It's programmable

LED also allows consumers to minimise light pollution since it can beprecisely targeted - because it is programmable with a computing software.

One of the most common sights of LED lighting use today is in billboardadvertisements in famous intersections such as Times Square in New York,Piccadilly Circus in London, and Ginza in Tokyo.

The effects are amazingwhere these advertisements come alive with millions of colours, and withvideo capability they can easily capture the attention of passers-by.

Even though not available in this region yet, LED lighting is alreadybeing used today in homes as decorative lighting, very often usingcolours. A key feature of LED-based lighting is the ability to change the colourof the light. This opens up the possibility of personalising light effectsto change the ambience in a room or the colour of an object.