Just like what said by the famous American poet Langston Hughes “Let the rain kiss you….. Let the rain sing you a lullaby…” The whole atmosphere at Exabytes’ office today resembles what MR Hughes said about rainy days. “Let the rain beat upon your head… feel the rain like a lullaby…”

It is a Wednesday’ morning, it is first day of September 2010 in Penang, and many of us have to work today after a long break during the weekend + Merdeka Day celebration, so instead of relishing MR Hughes’ ambience of a rainy day, many Exabees have come to work, with umbrellas.

Not only do them remind us of MR Hughes’ famous rainy day quote, all these umbrellas actually look like a few mushrooms growing on the ground, some of these umbrella do have their WEBSITES’ URLs printed on the surface, aren’t they?

How would it be if all umbrellas in the world have their brands’ websites printed on them? Wouldn’t it be a wonderful thing for people to get to know about them?

Well, well, well ……

How about a cup of Nescafe.com.my after the crazy rainy day traffic in this hectic Wednesday’s morning?

If we could treat all our customers to a cup of Nescafe in our office today, we would!

Cheers~!

Happy 53rd Birthday to Malaysia !!

53 years is not a short time. For the past 53 years, we Malaysians with different cultures and lifestyles have lived happily under one roof, and that’s the spirit we are talking on this special 53rd Independence Day!

Merdeka! Merdeka!! Merdeka!!! These words are so sweet and motivating and we believe it still plays in many of our minds!

In this exceptionally special occasion, Exabytes wishes all Malaysians a Happy and Meaningful Merdeka Day!

While you are enjoying this wonderful holiday on 31st August, please don’t forget that our professional technical team will still be working 24 x 7 to assist you in case of any technical issue. Even it’s a public holiday, please do not hesitate to contact us via our ticketing system.

Once again, Happy Merdeka Day to all MALAYSIANS and Happy Holiday to everybody!!!

This September22-24, there is a perfect place for a geek like yourself to supercharge your career by feeding yourself with new technologies such as SharePoint 2010, Visual Studio 2010, SQL Server 2008 R2, Silverlight 4, Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 R2 and many more through an in-depth and hands on demonstration by Microsoft MVPs and industry experts local and abroad!!!

Tech Insights Penang 2010 is a major technology conference, an event which provides you with the most cutting-edge insights and expertise that will make your working life a lot easier , while giving you the chance to mingle with like-minded peers and immensely upgrade your knowledge on latest technologies.

Chan Ming Man, MVP (Visual C#), Malaysia and Randy Williams, MVP (Share Point Server), USA among others are the speakers for this event.

Sign up NOW (or before 3rd September 2010) to get the early bird price of RM80 (Normal Price: RM120) with discount code EXACU only for Exabytes Fans.

Date:  22nd to 24th September 2010 (Wednnesday to Friday)
Venue: Eureka Building, University of Science Malaysia (USM), Penang
Time:  9.00am to 6.00pm

Time lapses, it’s already middle of August. Looking back to July, there were a lot of things happening and there was also SOMEONE VERY IMPORTANT and definitely worth mentioning in the month of JULY! Yeah… you’ve guessed it right, it is the moment of truth, and we are here to announce our EOTM for July 2010.

Well, this person is no new face to us at Exabytes and a lot of our clients, as he has been with Exabytes for more than 3 years, assisting customers in finding the most value-added hosting packages and answering all their hosting doubts both via email and telephone.

Patience is his motto and giving the most thorough explanations to clients is his principle. Besides, if you have followed our stories on the various departments in Exabytes, our July’s hero is one of the ‘Active 5′ in our Business Development Department – Malaysia Division. Without further ado, let’s give a big round of applause to welcome our EOTM July 2010 – MR Kevin Ooi!!

Kevin in our eyes, is no ordinary colleague, for his great patience in dealing with customers has put many of us in awe. And in this July, he is officially voted as the EOTM because:

• very patient in guiding juniors to sell better
• very patient when handling sales calls + helpdesk tickets and guiding clients at his best
• works well and is very friendly with his team members and all the colleagues from other departments
• communicate well with team members
• initiative to propose/suggest more efficient ways to handle daily tasks

Congratulations Kevin, you make us proud!

If you ever see a lady in her twenties pushing a shopping trolley full of Milo and Nescafe, making her way to pay at the cashier of Sunshine Supermarket in Bayan Baru, Penang, don’t be surprised! Well, she is no owner of a large kopitiam or a ‘Milo hoarder’ who tries to hoard Milo in Malaysia. Instead, chances are high that she is our Office Manager – Ms KY Chan.

Extremely dedicated and always willing to take on extra tasks which are not within her job scope, KY Chan aka Qi Yong (a familiar name in our office) is the main person in our this week’s feature – Exabytes’ Administration Department.

Although Qi Yong is the only person in the department, her job includes assisting Finance Department in making various banking transactions, preparing payments for our vendors, processing payroll, handling big and small matters related to human resource, keeping important documents in the filing system, taking care of the office’s amenities, changing light bulbs……. (I’m going to stop here as it’s simply too long to mention all)

Although the list of her tasks is endless, Qi Yong prides herself on going the extra mile to complete all her tasks on time, without any delay and according to Exabytes’ standard requirements. As an Office Manager, she believes in keeping an optimistic outlook towards her job and being organized and tidy when executing any task.

Outside of work, our young Office Manager enjoys looking at various Malaysian food blogs to keep herself updated with the most recent ‘development’ of Malaysian street and restaurant food. A fine lady who possesses a discerning palate, if you know her, ask her the locations of good food in Penang and she will be more than happy to recommend a few to you!

It’s the Annual Exabytes Sports Tournament! This August on 7th, we gathered all the staff especially the sports enthusiasts from Exabytes at this beautiful beach called Ruang Beach, to showcase our ‘athletic’ bodies and skills, enhance the spirit of our sportsmanship, and most importantly, foster the relationships and teamwork among Exabees . Simply put, we were there to have a lot of fun!

While each of us attended the event in the most jovial and excited mood, our 2010 Annual Sports Day didn’t start and appear convincing at all. It was a rainy morning and dark clouds were seen all over the sky. But just as we thought that the event was going to flop, the rain stopped and it turned out to be a pretty fine day!

Seeing this, a lot of us hurriedly unpacked all the stuff we had in our bags, and set up everything which was needed on this ‘half’ fine day! Besides the food for BBQ, the most important thing was the gigantic rope which we would use in our TUG-OF-WAR!!

TUG-OF-WAR!!

With more than 30 participants including the organizers, we were all too excited to play the 3 dirty and exciting games we used to play in high school – three-legged race, tug-of-war and volleyball. And when the clocked struck 3.30pm, it was all rock and roll….!

Our sport day kicked off with one of the favorites in most primary and high schools – Three-Legged Race, as planned by the OC.

Tying up together – I will not proceed without you

Yazid, Kuan and TS Ooi in a team

Team B Vs team C

Many of us started off by being a bit slow, but after some warming up and familiarization, we were so surprised to see that some of the ‘Three Musketeers’ tied together could even sprint! Man! They must have recalled the way to win Three-Legged Race back on their primary school sports days.

To the dismay of teams A, C and D, team B upset the rest and emerged as the winner of this game!!

In the journey to reclaim their pride, tug-of-war was played not too long after the three-legged race. This time, Gaveen of team B had no intention to give it up that easily anymore! Swearing to himself that he must win for his team in this game, he pulled, pulled and pulled like no tomorrow!!! Check out the face he made when he pulled!

Gaveen the 'mighty puller'

But sadly, Gaveen didn’t make it…..   Team A which consisted of our self-claimed hunky guy Roger Lew and our CEO MR Chan among the rest proved themselves to be the most powerful persons!

After that, it’s all fun and breezy. Volleyball by the beach, this time however, our spirit was not as strong as it used to. Distracted by the beautiful view of the sea and the fact that BBQ time was approaching, our concentration started to wander. But still, all of us put on a tough fight but eventually, we had to hand over the champion title to team D.

Beach Volleyball

After all the sweats and exciting moments, it’s time for us to chow down on some delicious looking honey-coated chicken wings and sausages – the long waited BBQ session!

BBQ Dinner 1

BBQ Dinner 2

Savoring our favorite food by the beach while chatting with good friends cum colleagues, I guess there is no other better way to wrap up our 2010 Annual Sports Day. But wait! What about the ultimate winner? We already had the winners for three-legged race, tug-of-war and volleyball, but what about the overall winner of this sports day?

After some point calculation and performance assessment by the OC, we are proud to announce our ultimate winner of this sports day – AND IT GOES TO…….. Team A!!!

The Ultimate Champion of our Sports Day – Team A

And the first runner-up is….. Team D

The First Runner-up – Team D

And the second runner-up is….. Team B

The Second Runner-up – Team B

Congratulations to all the winning teams!!

Lastly, we would also like to extend our gratitude to the Organizing Committee – David Ch’ng (advisor), EK Lim, KC Yeap and JY Teh for the sweats and all the hard work! Thank you very much and all we want to say is that we really had a wonderful time!

Ops. I guess I have miss out to share some picture of the location of our Sports Tournament. Yoh, look down and you will see them.

Penang Water Sport Recreation Centre 1

Penang Water Sport Recreation Centre 2

Well, how many of you out there are crazy about video games? I’m sure tons of you are!

As in Exabytes, there are many video game or Wii fanatics too. In order to feed the gaming appetite of these fanatics in the company, Wii Competition is held as a yearly internal event for our staff.

Exabytes Wii Competition 2010 was held from 26 May 2010 – 15 Jun 2010 in Exabytes Penang office Fun Room. We are sorry for this update which is little later through blog.

Read a little more about Exabytes Wii Competition 2009 here.

As so many of us are already familiar ‘practising Wii’ after office hours. No doubt, this year’s competition is a special one because in previous years our staff were competing in groups but for this year, it’s all one-to-one actions. Participants are allowed to choose only one game they play best from the following:

1. Table Tennis Game
2. Basket Ball Game
3  Swordsplay Game
4. Cycling Game
5. Archery Game

And…….. Here we start!!

First Match - PY Ooi Vs Roger Lew: Since it’s the first match, might as well take some time to warm up!

COO Andy Vs Luis Ku. Andy: I’ll beat you with grace! Luis Ku: I sting like a bee!

Table Tennis by the beach

Some emotional moments!

And after numerous exciting rounds and fierce competition, the WINNERS are out. Our CEO Chan Kee Siak will present the prizes to our winners.

Table Tennis Game Winner – HP Beng

Basketball Game Winner – CY Tan

Swordplay Game Winner – Michael Ch’ng

Cycling Game Winner – KC Yeap

Archery Game Winner – KS Lim

You guys are officially recognized as the Wii Fanatics and sport enthusiasts of Exabytes!

Congratulations KS Lim,HP Beng, CY Tan, KC Yeap and Michael Ch’ng

And of course after numerous exhausting rounds of competition, it will be against the company culture to not have a ‘Makan-Makan’ feast as a celebration and some ‘sweat replenishment’ moments.

The closing party was held on 15 June, 12-1pm and all participants were treated to a great variety of savory food including pizzas, potato salad, bihun, fried rice, and many more.

Last but not least, a thousand thanks to our Organizing Committee for making this event so much fun and a successful one! Let’s give a big round of applause to them, from your left in the first row is our OC Advisor Adeline Tan, followed by ST Ooi at her right. In the second row starting from your left are Arren Tan, Hooi Meng and Kevin.

So long, Exabytes’ Wii Competition 2010! And we definitely look forward to the next year’s Wii Competition with greater anticipation!

Suntech @ Penang as an advanced hi-tech hub, is best known for hosting most of the IT companies in Penang. And the first impression we usually get from IT personnel is nerdy and boring. Well not anymore….

To join the fun many of us had during the 2010 South Africa FIFA World Cup, Emerald Capital (The management of Suntech) had organized its own kind of World Cup! And lucky us as two of our colleagues from Exabytes have won the Consolation and Finalists’ prizes.

Don’t take this wrongly as the competition is nothing like the actual football games. Instead, the participants were to predict the scores and the teams which would qualify for quarter finals up to the final!

It was really an exciting competition, as we all know that many unpredicted outcomes were witnessed in the 2010 South Africa FIFA World Cup. So there goes the winner of this competition, who insisted to be known as MR Tan; the tall guy who you can see holding the Adidas Jabulani ball in his hands at the center of the photo.

Besides, the foresighted and lucky finalists got the original World Cup caps; actual size soccer balls for the Special Prize winners and mini-size soccer balls for the Consolation Prize winners.

As you can see, Annie Ong, our Customer Service Manager (the one who holds the England red cap in the photo and dressed in Exabytes T-shirt) was one of the finalists. And Gaveen Khor, our System Engineer who dressed in Exabytes T-shirt, is the winner of Consolation Prize who holds a mini-size soccer ball in his hand second from your right in the photo.

Congratulations again to the Grand Prize winner – MR Tan, and of course our colleagues from Exabytes, Annie Ong and Gaveen Khor. You are making us proud for being so foresighted!

Suntech WorldCup 2010 Contest

Another strong propeller of Exabytes, which is of this week’s feature, is our team of Business Development Department – Malaysia Division. Just like their colleagues in the International Division, they too spend a huge portion of their time sitting in the meeting room, brainstorming for ideas and coming out with our market-savvy and value-competitive hosting packages which have benefited many Exabytes’ clients. However, their jobs focus on only the sales and marketing for our customers from Malaysia.

Consisting of 5 very motivated and upbeat individuals, the ‘Active 5′ in this division are probably the most talkative and communicative persons in the whole company, for their jobs are to interact with customers regarding the company’s products and the customers’ hosting needs, both using their mouths and their ‘penmanship’ (using email).

The ‘Active 5’ in our Business Development Department – Malaysia Division

Whenever you are unsure of what hosting packages to sign up for or which packages give you most value and discounted price, talk to them, and they will be more than happy to be at your service. For Exabytes, they are the people who are willing to sacrifice their time and energy, driving Exabytes forward day by day and bit by bit.

The most important person in this division, and maybe the most experienced person in the whole company, is no doubt this lady captain who has since the inception of Exabytes, dedicated her time and all her focus on helping to propel Exabytes forward! She is no other than our Big Sister (Dai Ka Je), and a true mentor to many of us – Ms PY Ooi!

As the Manager of Business Development Department, Malaysia Division, Ms Ooi’s main duties include overseeing the operation of the whole department, budgeting for Exabytes’ online sales advertisements as well as exploring new opportunity to promote the company’s good name. Apart from all these, she is also a decision maker of many marketing related matters at Exabytes.

Our ‘Dai Ka Je’ is well recognized for her ability to figure out the most efficient way to complete the tasks given, and it is her satisfaction to reduce her subordinates’ workload by implementing new methods and strategies in the department.

A good teacher and a very caring person, our sources tell us that she behaves exactly the same both at work and outside of work – affable and very easy-going.

Ms Ooi’s motto as the Manager of Business Development Department is always apply one’s creativity to custom make the (hosting) packages for different groups of customers by recognizing and understanding their needs.

PY Ooi, our Business development Manager cum ‘Dai Ka Je’

Moving on to the next important person in the division, introducing our Assistant Manager, Roger Lew! Speaking of him, he is a completely different person from Ms Ooi. Loud and audible, he is definitely ‘the most heard person’ in the company. Likes to give orders and assign tasks with his very masculine voice, one may mistake his loudness as a sign of rudeness and indifference. However, inside this very handsome, stout and muscular body (all claimed by himself), is a very sociable and approachable person (also claimed by himself).

Roger spends most of his days monitoring and checking on all incoming help desk sales tickets from customers. Whenever there is any incoming ticket which needs special attention, he is the one who will guide the juniors through to solve the issues with his experience. Besides, Roger is also the person who makes sure all tickets are replied in accordance with Exabytes’ standard reply time. Oh, have I mentioned that he is also the person in charge of the sales of dedicated server?

Roger, our Assistant Manager with 5 year experience believes that how much effort a salesperson puts on sales follow-up is what determines whether he or she is successful or not in this field. Besides, to him, it is also of utmost importance to stay positive all the time no matter what happens.

Roger Lew, our sociable and approachable Assistant Manager

Coming up next is the most patient person in the department, Kevin Ooi. People always claim that ‘look can be deceiving’, but in the case of Kevin, it is ‘look does not deceive’. His decent-guy look reflects his true personality – very patient and polite. Kevin is also especially helpful to his juniors, in guiding them to solve complicated issues at work.

As a Business Development Executive, Kevin’s major tasks are attending to help desk sales tickets, answering various sales enquiries via telephone and sales follow-up.

Kevin draws satisfaction from work by getting things done efficiently and up to his own targets.

Kevin Ooi (Business Development Executive) – patient and polite

Next is a rather funny and cheerful person in the division, Jin Wee. Despite majoring in accounting in university, he is now very knowledgeable about various online marketing tools and methods, and even website building. Young and almost positive all the time, Jin Wee doesn’t stop picking up new skills in IT and is always interested in new ideas of E-commerce.

His major tasks are replying help desk sales tickets, talking to customers on the phone regarding the company’s products and sales follow-up.

Jin Wee’s motto as a Business Development Executive is always be patient when dealing with customers and handling incoming phone calls. He also believes being a good listener to all his customers.

Jin Wee – funny and cheerful

Last but not least, is the most junior and the youngest person in the department, Pei Yin. Although she has been with Exabytes for only 3 months, many seniors in the division have been impressed by her great diligence in acquiring new knowledge in the field of online sales and marketing.

Pei Yin believes that an online sales and marketing person should always approach his/her customers with friendliness and stay motivated all the time.

Pei Yin – friendly and motivated

And this wraps up our feature on our two divisions of Business Development Department. Our executives are always eager to talk to our customers regarding how to get the best out of their hosting packages, so if you would like to know more about it, please do not hesitate to talk to them!

Have you ever called in to talk to the staff of Exabytes regarding your hosting needs? Ever called in to enquire about our latest promotions and negotiate for a better deal? If you have, who exactly were these people who talked to you on the phone/via email and guided you through the process of finding the most suitable hosting package?

Introducing the powerful, energetic and behind the scene force which drives Exabytes forward, our Business Development Department! With the total number of 34,000+ active clients and 100,000+ domains hosted with Exabytes and growing every day, all these dedicated people you have been interacting with on the phone/via email is the driving force which propels Exabytes forward!

Our Business Development Department consists of 8 important and dedicated people, in which 3 of them are in the International Division, and the remaining 5 in the Malaysia Division. Just like any business development personnel in the world, 8 of them spend a huge portion of their time sitting in the meeting room, brainstorming for ideas and coming out with our market-savvy and value-competitive hosting packages which have benefited many Exabytes’ clients. It’s also their passion to carry out regular sales promotions to reward our existing and prospective customers.

This week, we are going to feature the International Division, which is made up of 3 very important persons who handle the business development activities of exabytes.com, exabytes.sg, wpwebhost.com and iloveblog.com.

The most important person in this division, is the lady with very fair skin you see in our photos – Ms Adeline Tan. With her amiable and slightly baby-faced look, it’s hard to imagine the way she delegates and gives advice to her subordinates. True enough, she is the person with the most genuine and radiant smile in our office. Believe it or not, she is always wearing a smiling face even when she is under extreme work pressure! She is best known for her meticulous attention to detail in marketing planning, and to a lot of us, she is a fine lady who knows how to smile!

Her main duties include overseeing the entire operation in the division, updating/maintaining exabytes.com and exabytes.sg websites, assigning tasks of projects and establishing plans to achieve sales targets.

Adeline’s ambition is to see more and more products/companies holding the brand name of Exabytes, and as a Business Development Manager, she enjoys training new blood for the company, and seeing them grow into independent leaders one day.

Adeline Tan, the manager of Exabytes’ Business Development Department - International Division

Moving on, we have another main man in this division, Luis Ku. Luis Ku is the man who is responsible for bringing in our website traffic, making sure that Exabytes’ websites are user-friendly and moderating Exabytes’ blog. He is also the person in charge of our wpwebhost.com and iloveblog.com.

Because of his name, he is always likened to the hunky actor Louis Koo from TVB Hong Kong (not his look though), for his tendency to ‘act cool’ at work place. Speak to him about any after work outings/activities during office hours, and you are sure to be greeted by his poker face. But when the clock strikes 5, he will come to you with a smile on his face and say: “Hey… I heard you guys were talking about going to this/that place tonight right? What time huh? Can I join?”

Luis Ku’s motto as a Business Development Executive is to never think about how to sell to your customers, but instead, think about how we can help them in finding what they want.

Luis Ku, the person in charge of wpwebhost.com and iloveblog.com

Last but not least, let us introduce to you Michael Ch’ng, the most junior staff in this division. Speaking of him, he is the person who makes a lot of us jealous, for HE IS PAID TO do ‘facebooking’ and ‘twittering’! This young man spends most of his working time sitting in front of a computer, logging on to Facebook, Twitter, etc. His main duties are to promote Exabytes and its products on Facebook and Twitter, chat to people at forums, send newsletters and organize various contests for our customers.

According to our manager, Michael is usually not motivated at work until he is challenged! In other words, he likes to be given a lot of demanding tasks to handle, and fancies achieving targets all the time. Sounds eccentric to you? Hehe… I would say he is special in his own way.

Michael’s motto at work is to always put yourselves in customers’ shoes, understand their needs, be creative and always give your customers the most attractive promotions.

Michael Ch’ng, the most junior staff in this division

There go the 3 very important persons in our International Division. Their division might be small, but they are certainly 3 very strong and robust propellers for Exabytes!