If your business isn't online, you don't exist to an increasingly large number of customers. That's the bad news.

The good news is you can get online without having to change your business by becoming a technology firm. Instead, focusing on your business goals and using proven technologies and business models to achieve those goals can keep expenses to a minimum and help ensure success. Even a purely online business can benefit from this approach. Scott Blume, CEO of online travel company Zuji, agrees.

"Our shareholders saw the success of the online models in the US and Europe and they wanted to participate in that growing business segment in the Asia-Pacific," says Blume. And to do so, this Asian travel portal headquartered in Singapore knew that it must focus on its core business rather than divert its energy by looking on how it can build the best online travel engine by itself.

Furthermore, keeping costs under control is important for the young start-up. That is why it chose to license the core booking technology from an existing player, Travelocity, rather than develop its own. With now three other local language sites in Australia, Hong Kong and Taiwan, and over 200,000 members under its wings, Zuji is proof that combining proven business models and technology can often be the key to online, as well as offline, success.

Outsource Hardware
Even if you have got a strong business model and the necessary IT tools to support it, one of the most challenging aspects of doing business online is deploying and maintaining the hardware. To manage this efficiently, you have essentially three options: buy and operate your own hardware at your own premise, co-locate your server, and outsource your Web hosting.

In the first option, the cost of hardware, software, human resources required to maintain the Web site, and a dedicated Internet connection can easily run into the tens of thousands of dollars to start and continue to cost thousands every month. In fact, the capital expenditure, as well as the ongoing expense of administration, were Blume’s reasons for avoiding this approach.

The second option is similar to owning and operating your own hardware. But in this scenario, although you own the servers and software, you locate them on the premises of a company that provides network access, and physical and network security. Running the server remains your responsibility. Again, capital expenditure is an issue.

Finally, when you outsource to a Web hosting company, you have the option to buy exactly what you need with no capital costs. “The hosting company will run the servers. This is the approach Zuji took. We didn't go and invest in [hardware from] big hardware shops," says Blume. Currently, the company's travel booking functions are hosted by its US-based partner, Travelocity. Other Web operations are hosted by a company in Adelaide, Australia. This company was selected after a competitive tender, explains Blume.

Hosting tips
If you do indeed decide to go with the hosting option, you can choose either to go for shared hosting where many different Web sites are hosted on one server, or dedicated hosting your site is the only one running on the server.

With shared hosting, the hosting company puts scores of sites on a single server. This means that the costs of running the server, plus the hosting company's profit margin, are shared across many companies.

This makes shared hosting a lower cost option. For instance, shared hosting in Singapore can be as little as S$20 (US$11.8) per month. This can include an e-mail address, a company domain name, and enough space to host a modest informational site. The down side is that because there are many other sites on the server, response time can be slow if some of the sites on the server experience heavy traffic.

In a dedicated hosting environment, all of the server's resources are dedicated to your site. You will usually have better response time. The environment is more secure, as only your files will reside on the machine. You will also have more flexibility in configuring your server. All of this cost money, though. Your hosting provider will charge much more (hundreds or thousands of dollars per month) for this service as all of the operating costs and their profit for that server come from just one customer--you.

If you select a hosting company which offers both shared and dedicated hosting, you can, as Zuji did, start with a shared server and move to a dedicated service when your needs require. This demands little more than copying and testing of files. The process can be done in a week or two with little stress. Moving from one hosting company to another, however, requires co-ordination to avoid downtime. So it is best to choose a company you intend to stay with for some time.

Selecting the right company and package for your company need not be a mystery. "If you're dealing with professional hosting companies, they've done this before and they will know what you're after. [Make sure you] search their references and talk to some of their existing customers," says Blume. An online presence, whether it is a simple site or an online store, need not consume all of your time and money. Everything you need to make it happen is out there.

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