But those days are over. I have repented. The realisation that I was no better than a snatch thief or bank robber hit home. If I can’t afford it, save up, or use an open source program.

Image source: BBC, impactlab.net

Not only do I get a clear conscience, but I also do get benefits from it. For instance, using original Microsoft software allows me to perform Windows updates to keep my operating system current and free from security problems. Also, what happens when you encounter problems? You can’t ring up the call centre and say, “errr, oooh, ahhhh, let me recheck my serial number for you”.

How many of you have ever downloaded a crack only to find it is laced with malicious software that causes the entire system to slowdown, send out your passwords to goodness-knows-where or totally crash? It’s happened and I’ve lost countless productive hours because of that (okay, I was a poor student back then and my time wasn’t really THAAAT important, but it still was annoying!).

Lastly, I don’t know about you, but I’ve discovered the joys of running my fingers over the printed boxes. Feeling the glossy spot UV sections puts a smile on my face. Then finally, displaying the box on the shelf as a proud owner of genuine software. (I’m not weird, am I?)

Today, I run my own business and we definitely have to use legitimate software, or face the music from the authorities. The fines are hefty and the reputation you lose is worth more. I met a prospective interior designer a few months ago, and when he opened his notebook, the first thing that caught my attention was the HUGE sign stating he was possibly using pirated software. Needless to say, he did not get the job.

Before you get caught, do consider legalizing. You might not be able to do it all at once, but do it bit by bit. Take a look at some of these horrific newspaper articles on what happens when you get caught.

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Though I am traveling, life must go on, and so must the business that I run back home. Enter a suite of products that Microsoft offers to help keep you connected. Despite the uber-long name for the suite, it’s actually pretty good for SMEs and available at a low cost-per-user (starts from USD5.40 per month).

There are four main benefits from Microsoft via this BPOS service – email, CRM, communications and collaboration. If you’re a seasoned user of Microsoft products such as Exchange, Sharepoint and Live Meeting, you will love the seamless ability to use the cloud for intra-company communications.

After signing up for a trial account, the first thing I had to do, was to change my temporary credentials. I had a few problems due to the mandatory secure password requirements (mix of capital and small letters, a number and more than 8 characters!). With that out of the way, I was able to proceed and set up my account for a few colleagues and myself.

Microsoft Exchange / Outlook

Email is presented in a fairly standard webmail interface, but with the ability to jump very quickly to the Calendar and Contacts section, much like the desktop version of Microsoft Outlook. The user interface is pretty similar, but subject to web limitations. The faster your Internet connection, the more you’ll love it.

Composing emails is also straightforward, except that I realised I couldn’t use rich text to make text bold or italicise certain parts of my message. Aside from that, the integration with the company-wide contacts is excellent, as we can centralise all our vendors and clients and allow access to all staff.

Jumping over to the Calendar, there isn’t much to say about it as it just works. I scheduled appointments and set alarms, made them recur, etc. I am used to the month view, and couldn’t seem to activate it, though.

Contacts is one area where BPOS excels. I like the ability to share the company-wide address book and maintain my own list of contacts. There are sufficient fields to keep a data hog like me happy. Yes, yes, I do like to save as much extraneous information about people (I even save friend’s children’s names so that I can impress by seemingly “remembering” them).

Microsoft SharePoint

SharePoint is exactly as its name is – a central point for people to share information! It allows users to manage files of all sorts, schedules and tasks all under one “collection”. For me, I’d label it as a tool that project managers can use for making sure the team are working as per scheduled.

Many organisations fail to monitor and assign tasks well, and I feel with a tool that has calendaring and centralisation of data, it could potentially help a business to deploy and complete projects in a better way. Discipline definitely does play a HUGE part in the process too, of course.

Final thoughts

I did not get to try the Microsoft Office Live Meeting as I was greeted with an error that stated my browser wasn’t supported. Oh well, it’s a Mac thing, I guess. Anyhow, it’s supposedly an excellent tool for hosting web conferences and allowing employees the ability to collaborate remotely via video conferencing. The multi-party functionality sounds exciting, and tools like these definitely save a lot of time and cost.

I definitely hate traveling to client meetings halfway across town, spending 2 hours on the road to realise the person I’m meeting has a last minute engagement and cannot attend to me. I wish every office was equipped with web conferencing capabilities and that the PEOPLE are comfortable using VOIP technologies.

In my ideal world, technology would be harnessed to the full so that people can communicate without hindrances. It should be invisible and seamless, so that we would feel connected and not disjointed. Technology should be mobile, so that we can have remote workers based anywhere on the planet (yes, I am dreaming of pina coladas beneath coconut trees in Mauritius). After all, a happy employee should be a productive one.

Several weeks ago, I accompanied 3 friends who were starting their respective businesses (2 providing IT consulting services, and 1 who sells products via her blog and the lowyat.net forum) to the Registrar of Businesses. They wanted to formalize their business operations and register their respective enterprises. Initially, there were mixed reactions to the process as one of them had tried to do it online, but failed, due to the convoluted process. They also started off with a negative perception towards government departments and their lack of processes!

Anyhow, the three of us trooped over to KL Sentral, as the new headquarters for the Companies Commission of Malaysia (or better known in Malay as Suruhanjaya Syarikat Malaysia, SSM) is based there now. We were prepared to spend a few hours in queue, filling in forms, waiting and waiting some more.

Since witnessing it, I thought of sharing with you the step-by-step process on how to set up a sole proprietorship or partnership.

WHAT YOU WILL NEED.

Your identity card, money and a small bit of patience.

ONE.

Head over to Menara SSM@Sentral (No. 7 Jalan Stesen Sentral 5, Kuala Lumpur Sentral, 50623 Kuala Lumpur) and go on up the escalator to the first floor. Other branches nationwide are listed here. It’s a fairly small area with not that many counters, but they are surely efficient!

TWO.

Get a number, then ask for Form A from Counter 7 or 8. You can download a sample of this form here. Complete your form and wait for the number to be called.

THREE.

Submit your form and make payment. The fees are RM30 if you are registering a sole proprietorship based on the name as per your Identity Card. If you’d like to register a sole proprietorship or partnership with a name you’ve spent days choosing, then the fees will be RM60. An additional RM10 is charged to get a print-out of the business registration.

* These fees are for registration for a year. Yearly renewal is RM30 and RM60 respectively.
* They seemingly accept Visa, Mastercard and American Express cards, but don’t count on it. It was not functional when were there.

FOUR.

Now, put that little bit of patience to good use. When they call your name, or new business, confirm that all details are accurate, then, you may leave.

Honestly, the process is amazingly quick. The promise is that the process will not take longer than 1 hour. We were out of there within 45 minutes! How cool is that, considering it’s a government-based operation.

FACTS TO NOTE.

A sole proprietorship is a business enterprise that lists a single person as the owner. You may apply for online banking (Maybank2U) at no extra fees.

A partnership is a business between 2 or more partners. You will have to pay a monthly fee to use online banking services.

Both sole proprietorships and partnerships do not limit your liability to the business alone – if you are sued, you may stand to lose your personal property and belongings. To limit it, a limited liability company is formed (Sdn Bhd) instead, but it comes with a lot more costs and paperwork.

Now that you’ve registered a business, what should you do next?

Well, you should have already checked for domain name availability beforehand. If you haven’t, you can head over to www.integricitytechnology.com to get it registered. Then, you can set up your email and website if necessary.

Learn about accounting and how to keep track of your income and expenses.

Look out for business tools to help you run your business better – interestingly, Microsoft has an entire website dedicated to small and medium business owners. It’s particularly relevant to find out what you can do, since most if not all would have Microsoft products running within our offices.

Here’s a little more about what I’ve found out within this Customer Business Centre portal.

There are many simple-to-understand videos made to help you understand business topics better. My top 3 favourite articles+videos from here are (Presenting Data in Charts, Using Microsoft Office Excel Templates to Manage Financials & Make a Flyer Fast with Microsoft Publisher). My favourite section in the whole portal is the business resources portion – there are lots of interesting and updated articles on practical issues such as, “5 Ways to Keep a Customer Happy”.

Finally, for those of you wanting to learn a bit more about what Microsoft has to offer, there are 2 things you can do – attend FREE informational sessions and evaluate their volume licensing schemes.

I hope this helps you to jump-start your new business and go much further. All the best in your new ventures!

Many times, I review documents while waiting for meetings and need to make changes to them. When I’m done with the amendments, my team can continue to quickly get the work done. Lugging a notebook around all the time quickly tires you out and the 2.5kg machine suddenly feels like a ton of bricks.

Enter a mobile device with suave Microsoft Office editing capabilities and many problems fade away. You may argue that there are third party applications that edit Microsoft Office documents – but what can compete with a native program DEVELOPED BY Microsoft! AND… you can even edit Powerpoint documents. I was blown away with the ease at which the documents could be amended (not created – it’s too difficult still) on the HTC HD7 phone.

Presenting a quick Powerpoint deck is also beautiful as the high contrast and large screen make it quite natural to do so.

Presentations look really crisp and the text is unbelievably sharp. Transitions seem to work exactly as on the notebook. Kudos, Microsoft for making your mobile version cool too.

Editing the Powerpoint is quite easy. Click on the Pen tool, then the area of text you’d like to make changes to and you get an editable text area.

Microsoft Word seemed a little simple, but I guess it gets the basic task done, if you merely need to make minor amendments. Microsoft Excel on the other hand, looked gorgeous. You can navigate through the cells, change the text and save the file. I can see many people using it for shopping lists and more.

Overall, the mobile Microsoft Office experience on the HTC HD7 was amazing. It was quite a pleasure to use, but as I’ll reiterate, it’s only good for making changes. Creation of documents should still be done on the full-fledged software. After all, even tablets like the iPad have shortcomings – they don’t do a great job at presentation creation with Keynote.

Here’s Bill Gates of Microsoft fame – note the snide comments to Steve Jobs. Looks at the contextual advertisement that appeared on the right hand column too!

And now, Steve Jobs, the man who brought us Apple computers (and nearly Apple everything these days!). Once again, note the advertising on the right.