Is it not the best option if you can start a business, a small time SOHO but look like as if you have a large corporation or support behind you? Or try to cut down on the operating costs as much as ever, since the economy is not doing that well?
With the power of the Internet, everything is possible and even us at Zyraz Technologies, have been a strong advocate of cost cutting measures.
Things you need to cut down are as follows: Utilities, Rental, Communications, Marketing, Advertising, Commuting, Manpower issues and Taxes.
You can't save much on utilities but if you look into the bigger picture, a smaller office with your employees working off remote sites or places where the cost of rent and overheads are lower do help the cash flow. I am not talking outsourcing or taking the work force to third world countries, but like us, our advertised address is in the posh area of Bandar Utama, Kuala Lumpur, just off the TV3 Media Center and the MSC Super Corridor Tech Park Zone is not where the whole operations are.
Ever since we had a major break-in with losses of over US$18 Million in frontier technology, we moved our Primary Operations Network Security Center to a remote place called Kuala Pilah, where our roots are. The security is super lax, with only ONE WAY IN and ONE WAY OUT of the area and where everyone knows each other with the cost of operations far lower than in Kuala Lumpur and multiple times more than in London or Singapore. Space wise, of over 10,000 sq feet of space costing us less than one rack of servers without OS!
With our own building, we have our own Fiber Optic Communications outfitted directly from our site to the Telephone Exchange, thats serving the core backbone of the area. We are basically hogging the bandwidth, but with the VPN and Network configuration into our NOC in Kuala Lumpur, it cost us less than $500 a GBps of data stream. We are also certified GREEN TECHNOLOGY user with our SEDA Licensed premises, with most of our power derived from Solar PV or Excess of the employees battery packs (from their vehicles) supplying the Data Center Cores. We are using direct 12VDc supply and thus cutting down on the need to invert of transform the energy.
Using the ground water supply to cool our servers and yes we meant Water Cooled Exchangers, the heating bill is drastically reduced with the latent heat from the radiators powering our convection generators, thus saving on our lighting bill.
Most of our lighting are using Super Low energy bulbs or even High Luminance LEDs, with each unit taking less than 2W of power. That compared to the typical 60W wasted on fluorescent lamps is a big drop in power consumption. And because we use water cool, our air conditioners use less power and they are the 1-6 Split unit type, saving 70% of power.
These compared to our office normal usage of 3500KWH in Bandar Utama, our Remote office uses less than 400KWH of energy and we even have excess power. We even supply back to the grid of over 2000KWH of Green Energy which goes to our pockets. In money wise, we saved over RM900 a month on energy bill alone!
Having said that, since we are mostly remote, our employees work according to the work load and uses a shared space. All their desktop apps are remotely activated as a Virtual Machine on the Cloud Front. For that, we use Google Apps and Microsoft Azure since they are not blocked by any ISP in the world.
If you call our main number, the extension you dialed will be diverted to their own mobile phones with either direct calling or VOIP Services and this really cut down on the costs. Our telco bill is just about USD200 a month compared to the normal $3000 which included the minutes and Toll-Free Numbers. Faxing is also done on-line.
Of which , we utilise YES 4G WiMax Service for mobile communication where it works with 4G and 3G Sim Card services. Cheap data packs makes it more affordable and without the headache of hefty bills or roaming charges. Our offices in Singapore, Malaysia, London, New York share the same infrastructure and calls are routed to the nearest office or if they are closed, some one else will pick it up, or our Virtual Assistants will answer your call in Subic Bay, the Philippines.
By doing all remote, those part timers can work on flexi hours based on targets or even hours clocked on, without them able to chat online or facebooking.
Ethically its not that right but we just tell em we do monitor the services for abuse and thus that will make them work harder. We don't mind they work less hours as long as the work is done.
Marketing, Sales are done locally so the relationship is there. Not by an account manager who is 300 miles away!
With that, if you have any questions, drop us a note on Facebook!
-Azrin-
