This is my paper (write up) for EMBA on developing a simple yet effective website for SME. It is useless if we develop an expensive website but nobody knows about it. I shared the steps and tools to come out with a google friendly website based in research and study. Tq

1. Mohd
Farid
Awang
(2010932779)
EMBA,
Dungun
Abstract
Terengganu is well known of its delicious taste of original recipe spices (rempah).
There were many types of Terengganu spices can be find in the market especially in
Pasar Payang, Terengganu. The most popular is Rempah Gulai Kawah. Most of the
spices are homemade and some being upgraded and manufactured in proper
manufacturing environment. All of these spices manufacturer or producer has their
own loyal customers consist of traders and restaurants and they are mostly located in
Terengganu. Therefore, the competition between all spices manufacturer and
producer in Terengganu is very tough due to small target market. They were not
successful in exploring more market due to highly dependence in traditional way of
doing business, which is trading in bulk offline and lack of exposure to bigger market
(online). Therefore, it is the best way forward and action for SMEs in spices business
to go online and start looking for new potential market. Terengganu have only 1.2
million populations compared to a 17.5 million Internet users in Malaysia. In
addition, spices is consider a must have cooking menus in every family in Malaysia.
Based on this fact alone, the prospect from internet customer is huge and very
demanding. This project will focus on generating simple, easy to maintain and less
expensive website for SMEs in spices to go online and start generating sales through
e-commerce and market their spices more effectively via interactive, informative and
friendly website. In addition, the website will also offer Management Information
System for customer database, question and shopping cart.
Introduction
Payang Resources (PR) is one of the manufacturers of Terengganu spices in
Terengganu. The company own by madam Faridah Muhammad. Established on 23rd
December 2000 and operated at Kampu Alur Jambu, Wakaf Tengah, Kuala
Terengganu. Mdm Faridah heritage a 50 years family’s recipe of making
Terengganu’s spices. Before the establishment, the company operated under her
father personal name, without a formal formation of company. “Rempah Pak Leh Cap
Bunga Safron” is their unregistered brand and very popular in Pasar Payang. In 2009,
mdm Faridah want to register the brand, unfortunately “Cap Bunga Safron” is taken
already. Therefore, PR has registered own new brand named “Payang”. Due to
overwhelming demand, on September 2009, PR invested a big chunk of money to
acquire a heavy-duty machine called Instagrind model cwf 900 ultrafine powders
pulverize. This machine could produce 1500kg of spices per day, which is 70 times
more compare to traditional way. From that day, PR is gradually evolved from
homemade spices SME to a proper manufacturer SME. The production floor is
getting smoother and the process flow is improving day after day. In 2010, PR made
a massive breakthrough by successfully certified halal by JAKIM for 31 products.
The achievement made them the one and only manufacturer with such capacity
certified Halal JAKIM in east cost. Basically, PR has reached a certain standard in
term of production and certification compare to others spices producers in
Terengganu. However, on target market; PR still competing face-to-face competition
because they still focusing on the same target market. Based on the 5 porter of
competitiveness, PR is at losing side because the customers and suppliers have a high
bargaining power. The reason why PR was not able to do outreach promotion
activities to other states is due to limitation on budget and unavailability of competent
and knowledgeable staff. Therefore, go online is the best and effective marketing
strategy for the company to do. Its not required big capital and potential customers
will able to communicate direct with the PR’s owners.
1

2. Mohd
Farid
Awang
(2010932779)
EMBA,
Dungun
Background study
The background study will cover two areas. First is on developing a company’s
website and second on developing customer database.
Developing a website
The process of developing the website for PR is starting with a selection of domain
name. “Domains have and will continue to go up in value faster than any other
commodity ever known to man” -Bill Gates. A domain name makes up the address of
your site and can end in .com, .com.my, .my, .net, .org, .info, .us, .biz, and more,
which we call the Domain Extensions. The shorter the extension is the better such as
.com and .my. Each country can have their own domain extension, such as ".com.my
& .my" is a domain for Malaysia, ".cn" is for China and ".jp" for Japan. Therefore,
before applying any domain name, the company needs to decide a domain extensions
based on the target customers, if it's worldwide, .com is the best choice for the
company, and if it’s for Malaysia, .my is the best domain extension. The domain’s
name must be short, easy to remember, spell and related directly with company’s
products offered. This is very important in order to make Internet viewers attracted to
the company’s website and remember them easily.
The second step is to have a hosting to park the website. In the web, user can have a
free hosting and paid hosting. According to www.whywebhosting.com, the main
differences between free vs. paid hosting is it may be free cost wise, but you pay for
it with banner ads on the top and/or bottom of your website at all times that you have
no control over the content of those ads along with totally annoying pop-up ads. On
top of that, usually free hosting have a sever limitations on storage capacity and
bandwidth and such definitely affected e-commerce capabilities. In addition, the
customer service that is very critical for online business such as in the event of being
hacked, free hosting will not entertain their free client at 24/7. This will Jeopardy
Company’s image to the potential customer. A paid web hosting provider usually
offer website templates, website builder, search traffic builder, secure billing systems,
webmail setup and friendly control panel to have a good control of the website. The
paid hosting provider will also have a 24/7 support and have a much better server to
store company’s data and websites.
The third decision is to select the best webpage design application or platform
available in the web. The application must be simple and easy to manage by the
entrepreneur. Besides that, it is better to pick the most used application in web design
because this will help and push the website to be friendlier to search engine such as
google.com and yahoo.com. According to a world-renowned Internet entrepreneur
Derek Gehl, the best application to build a website is using WordPress. “Although
there are quite a few good solutions available, I personally prefer WordPress because
it is mature, stable platform that can be easily customized with very little technical
skills.. and its free!” (Derek Gehl, The Star Feb 2012). In addition, Google love
WordPress and it is easier to get good ranking on Google if a website is built on
WordPress. According to Matt Mullenweg (wordpress.com), 14.7% of the top million
websites in the world are built on WordPress and 22 out of every 100 new active
domains in the US are running WordPress. Based on statistics by pringdom.com, 27
from top 100 blogs is using WordPress as their web platform.
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3. Mohd
Farid
Awang
(2010932779)
EMBA,
Dungun
The next step is to start compile all information needed, related and interesting
features about the company to be install and view in the website. What types of
information can be referring to similar manufacturer such as www.babas.com. The
basic information of the company; background, history, list of products, contact
number and email, company’s pictures, testimonials and Halal certificate is
compulsory to be install and view in the website to convince potential customer of the
company’s solidity, capability and originality. All information and data key-in in the
website have to be friendly to search engine such as Google or Yahoo. In order to
make it friendly and easy to be search, the wordings used have to be the most popular
in the World Wide Web. The easiest way to check is by comparing all the possible
search wordings is by using Google Trends. Below is the result of comparing the
words “rempah, resipi, masakan, rempah asli”.
Based on the Google Trends for the past 12 months, the most popular word is resipi,
followed by masakan and rempah. Meanwhile, The most Internet users from
subregion and city searching for these words is Putrajaya. Therefore, the company’s
website should contain more of these two words. This results also indicates that most
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4. Mohd
Farid
Awang
(2010932779)
EMBA,
Dungun
Internet users will search this two word when they want to look for recipe and spices
in the webs. Beside indication on wording, Google Trends also give guidance to
where Payang Resources should focus more in term of marketing area.
The final step is setting up the website. The color is the critical parts of the website
because people only took 4 second to decide either to continue surfing the website or
change to another website. Based on the research by Harald Wenreich, from 59,00
page views, 10,163 page views (17%) is lasting less than 4 seconds. In such brief
"visits," users clearly bounced right out without truly "using" the page. Beside color,
the other setup is also important such as layout, appearance and themes. Payang
Resources can refer to www.babas.com for ideas and best design. Besides comparing
with similar companies, it is the best to refer more tips in www.webdosanddonts.com
for more Do’s and Dont’s in building a website. For the purpose of utilizing e-
commerce, the company needs to have a Paygate to receive payment from customers
such as Paypall, Maybank2U and CIMBClicks. In order to accept order, Payang
Resources needs to have order forms and details of the customer. For the beginning
stage of setting up websites, simple forms will be good enough.
Developing Customer Database
The term “customer database” is very general term. In fact, any software companies
use to keep track of customer data can be referred to as a customer database. Small
businesses have many options for creating a customer database. They can simply
build their own customer database in Excel or Microsoft Word. Larger company
often find it more compelling to use a more sophisticated database software often
known as a customer relationship management system. Customer database for online
business is not just a list with details of customers, it is also included the question,
answer and status of any enquiry by every each customers.
“Every company's greatest assets are its customers, because without customers there
is no company” a word of wisdom from Micahel LeBoeuf. For a company which is
new to online business and marketing, the most important things to do is,
immediately to start record, compile, sort and store the customer database properly.
Potential customers may send an e-mail to the business owner asking some question
about the company or the products. The company has to give a prompt and quality
reply as soon as possible and store the customer data and question in proper record
system. The type of sentence used and choosing of words is very important in order
to avoid misunderstanding and create a clear communications. The company needs
to remember : when the customer happy and enjoy a good service and respond from
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5. Mohd
Farid
Awang
(2010932779)
EMBA,
Dungun
the company, any good feedback will be share and communicate through out many
webs online and thousands of people will read it. However, if the feedback is
unfavorable, millions of people will share it online. Therefore, the basic management
theory should be applied that is “Do It Right At First Time”.
By having a database of customers, Payang Resources will be able to do database
marketing, which is very substantial to online marketing strategy. Unlike mass
marketing, database marketing focuses on targeting only the people most likely to
respond to your message. The company may build personalized greeting cards,
emails or postcards congratulating them in their birthday and thanking them for their
business, with a special offer to drive future business.
MIS Proposal
Develop website
To decide on the domain name and extension, the best approach is by searching the
possible names via google.com. Below is two trial for the wording rempah and
menjual rempah via Google
in order to see what website
is appeared at the first page
of Google. Based on that, it is
better to pick rempah as a
domain name because it is a
norm for Internet users
search for that word in order
to search for spices in
Malaysia. After checking
with the www.internet-
webhosting.com, the domain
for www.rempah.my is still available. Therefore Payang Resources decided to buy
the domain, which is simple, easy to remember, and portrays company’s products and
activities. The main target customer is an Internet user in Malaysia.
For the hosting of the website, Payang Resources decided to host with www.internet-
webshosting.com due to the good reputation, experience, 24/7 customer service and
the hosting itself located in Malaysia which will help to push a traffics. The detail
order from internet-webhosting is as follows;
Date:
03-­‐8-­‐2012
Email:
aku5299@gmail.com
RM100
–
1
year
Hosting
Hello
Mohd
Farid
Awang,
RM90
–
1
year
domain
(rempah.my)
The
following
hosting
order
has
been
processed,
and
your
account
is
now
active.
=============================================
Hosting
Ordered/Order
Status:
=============================================
Your
plan
is:
Linux-­‐Business-­‐Plan
Your
domain
name
is:
rempah.my
Your
IP
address
is:
202.75.41.68
Your
login
username
is:
remphmy1
Your
login
password
is:
rem56748
Your
Hosting
Start
Date
:
03-­‐8-­‐2012
Your
Hosting
Next
Renew
Date
:
03-­‐8-­‐2013
5

6. Mohd
Farid
Awang
(2010932779)
EMBA,
Dungun
Guarantee
by
hosting
provider
Below screenshot is the interesting and user-friendly control panel to manage Payang
Resources websites and come together with a free adds-on application and tools such
as webmail, WordPress, softaculous, tools, database and backup utilities. This is very
critical to make sure the website will be in good storage and manage by professionals.
With the current spyware, virus and hackers, the paid hosting is the best solution.
The company will apply wordpress as a platform to build websites. It is easy, stable,
free and most popular platforms in the world. The fact that google love wordpress is
the main reason why Payang Resources decided to use wordpress. When the website
is hard to find and search via search engine such as Google as No 1 search engine in
6

7. Mohd
Farid
Awang
(2010932779)
EMBA,
Dungun
the world, the website can be consider a failure. With low traffic and hits, it will not
able to attract many potential customers which resulted unsuccessful of e-commerce
activities. Below is the screenshot of setting up wordpress as Payang Resources
platform
- Access to Wordpress
As mention before, color mix in the website will make people stay more than 4
second and start to surf and explore more on the particular website. For Payang
Resources, the color will be red, black and brown. The theme applied is Grisaille
1.3.1, a free theme. The appearance need to change a bit by amending the Html code.
The theme have a mobile support features such as a responsive layout and auto
adjustable photos for mobile browsing. Most internet users used handheld gadget
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8. Mohd
Farid
Awang
(2010932779)
EMBA,
Dungun
such as Ipad to surf web and by applying the theme as below, the viewer will feel
comfortable and easy surfing.
Normal view Mobile View
The website contents are introduction of the company, contact section, halal
certificate awarded to the company by JAKIM, pictures if PR’s factory and products,
recipes to cook spices from Payang and list of products offered by the company. All
this information is crucial and very important in order to introduce the company to
the internet users, create a relationship, prove of the quality and capability and
sharing the recipe as a main attraction to potential customers. The resipi and masakan
is the most popular search word in Google, therefore Payang Resources need to post
more threat and sharing more on any recipes with the customers. The recipes have to
include the Payang’s spices as a main ingredient. This approach will increase traffic
and hits to rempah.my. A basic payment method is also included in the website.
Bing, Microsoft’s
search engine,
conducted an analysis
to see if there are any
correlations between
page speed versus
numerous performance
indicators such as
satisfaction, revenue
generated per user, and
8

9. Mohd
Farid
Awang
(2010932779)
EMBA,
Dungun
clicking speed. The report showed that a less than 2-second increase of delays in page
responsiveness reduced user satisfaction by -3.8%, lost revenue per user of -4.3% and
a reduced clicks by -4.3%.
Based on Bing findings, Payang Resources need to avoid delay in loading their
website. Therefore, every graphics in the website need to be resize, avoid playing
video and music and reduce the comments section to minimum. Rempah.my
background is an image without a background (transparent). therefore the loading is
faster and smooth. In addition, all bullets, boxes and lines are using Html coding. In
normal streamyx Internet connection, the loading time for rempah.my is less than 2
seconds.
Developing Customer Database
When Payang Resouces purchase a hosting with www.internet-webshosting.com, one
of the free software is HESK : Help Desk Software. The software is act as a desktop
for customers to ask question and making order. It is simple software, easy to use and
user friendly. Its can record all question and enquiry send and every question will
have unique reference number or ticket number. Every respond and question is group
under the same ticket number; therefore it is easy to trace back any unsolved matters
and issue arise. It is also have an auto-responder features by sending email to
customers saying that the email is well received and will be revert back in 24 hours.
These features will make customers feel appreciated. In addition, the systems also
allowed administrator to generate report according to type of question, status,
customer names and others.
Below is the front page of HESK. Customer will click submit a ticket to post any
question to Payang Resources.
Picture 1.0 on next page is the ticket form. Customers have to fill their name, email,
priority, topic of their question, details of their question and a anti-spam number.
When customer submits a ticket, HESK will immediately send a notification to
Payang’s admin and send an auto-reply to customer. The sample is as below:
Auto-reply to customer
9

10. Mohd
Farid
Awang
(2010932779)
EMBA,
Dungun
Auto-notification to Payang’s staff
Picture 1.0
10

11. Mohd
Farid
Awang
(2010932779)
EMBA,
Dungun
Below is HESK desktop. Users easily could do sorting by tracking ID, customer
name, subject, status and last replier. By doing so, the company could easily track the
ticket status and take necessary action. All customers’ details are store in HESK
system.
Additional : Developing basic e-commerce
For the initial stage, Payang Resources will have a simple payment instruction for
customers to follow. When customers click a beli rempah, the page showing the
payment process will appeare.
11

12. Mohd
Farid
Awang
(2010932779)
EMBA,
Dungun
Future suggestion
The first thing need to do by the company is to start promoting their website. How
attractive their website is not going to help company’s sales if no one knows the
existence of their website. For offline strategy, the company might publish some
advertisement at
specific location,
which mention earlier
based on Google
Trends. For online
strategy, Payang
Resources need to
post as many as they
can in forums,
facebook and others.
The more they do
posting, the better
rating they will have. Latest search via google for “resepi masakan” (as two most
popular words), there were 7.9 million link available in online and rempah.my is at
page 5. This is consider good consider rempah.my is a new website.
Second step is to start developing a proper shopping cart for Payang Resources
products. They have to start shoots quality pictures of their products and finalise all
the price plus delivery charges. Presta Shop is the best alternative for the company as
a platform for developing Shopping Cart. Its free, have an interactive menu, auto
invoicing, built in e-commerce engine, multi-currency setting and can be customize.
For the way forward, Payang Resources need to concentrate on improving delivery
by appointing more agents and train more staff. Delivery is critical in online business.
Next is, Payang Resources may venture into OEM business and slowly start to
develop their own Customer relationship management system.
Conclusion
As a conclusion, Payang Resources may able to cater more market segments and
successfully attracts more prospective online buyers by applying correct strategy and
tools. Payang Resources have to continuously active online and offline. These will
make the company recognizable and searchable via google or yahoo, which will
make rempah.my located in the first page of search results.
References
Harald Weinreich, Hartmut Obendorf, Eelco Herder, and Matthias Mayer: "Not Quite
the Average: An Empirical Study of Web Use," in the ACM Transactions on the Web,
vol. 2, no. 1 (February 2008), article #5.
Jakob Nielsen's Alertbox for October 1, 1997 “How Users Read on the Web”
http://en.support.wordpress.com/getting-more-views-and-traffic
The Star, “All about online business”, Mac, 2012
http://www.derekgehl.com/7-things-i-love-about-wordpress/
The effect of colour in developing website :
http://www.edb.utexas.edu/minliu/multimedia/The%20Effect%20of%20Color.pdf
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