Office Renovations

Officially today, we have received the keys to our new office space in HDB Hub and we would be starting our renovation works in the next few weeks to come. Clashing headlong with the festive season makes it a little complicated, but we hope to have our renovation completed by end of March 2007 and start the second quarter with a bang! So far, the design has looked fantastic, and as a team, we are really looking forward into moving to the new office.

With our increasing staff size, our office is starting to get a little cramped… Not to mention the fact that we are still currently sharing an office with another company, and things do get pretty complicated sometimes. At the same time, I believe that it is a good morale booster for our staff as well, and it acts as a powerful indicator that our company is indeed growing.

At the same time, it would make our internal communications simpler. Right now, because we are all pretty scattered around the office, we have to walk quite a fair bit just to talk to one another. The close proximity that we can have with one another will hopefully create an even better bond between all the staff at Emcom!

We have recently added another web designer to our team, and we are quickly accelerating our marketing efforts. To coincide with our move to our new office in Singapore, we will be launching a marketing campaign in April 2007. With a strong focus on customer satisfaction and needs, our campaign will be geared towards the end consumers. We strongly believe that we will be able to impact the way that people live, work and play. Wireless communications and lifestyle is here to stay!

Use IT! Love IT! Live IT!


Ignious Yong

Managing Director
Empire Communications Technology Pte Ltd (Emcom)

Marketing Plans

With the festive season coming up, all staff in Emcom are getting ready to give the company a great present… Finally, we will be getting our corporate profile and “M-Taichung, Connected City” profile! With the marketing profile scheduled for completion by the 20th of December 06, we hope to have our profile ready by the festive season. Here is a short teaser of what we would be coming out with!


Having been in contact with many vendors and partners, we would be tying down some important partnership agreements soon. Things are really beginning to look really exciting, and we will keep everyone posted on our progress!

That is all for today and Thank God Its Friday!

Expansion Program

These few weeks have been really hectic! The groundwork that we have laid over the past two months is slowly falling into place. Negotiations with various vendors and content providers are finally in the midst of being concluded, and we should be able to give our Consumer Services Division a strong push over the next few months. Our initial range of services that we will be coming up with should include Voice services, Downloadable mobile content, IPTV, Online Games, and SMS applications. At the same time, our backend support staff are working furiously to rush out the initial marketing collaterals. It is extremely gratifying to see that we have such a committed group of people working together towards a common vision.

It is indeed rare for a start-up company launching simultaneously into several countries at once. By the end of next year, we target to have a strong marketing presence in Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Taiwan and The Philippines. As of now, in addition to our M-TAICHUNG, CONNECTED CITY project in Taiwan, we are developing a growing presence in Singapore. Through our recent acquisition of Bluengine Asia Pacific Pte Ltd, we have developed a strong marketing and trading presence in Indonesia.

The huge amount of workload that we have to complete would mean that our staff have to stay in overdrive mode right through the holiday season and probably even after Chinese New Year. I would like to take this opportunity to thank all the staff of Emcom for their continued commitment to the company. Without everyone in the company, there is absolutely no chance in the world that we succeed in building a strong company. But with you guys, not only will we succeed, but we will grow beyond our wildest dreams!

Till next time!


Ignious Yong
Managing Director
Empire Communications Technology Pte Ltd

The New Global Economy

As I was having lunch with a close friend today, one of the topics that came up for discussion was on the viability of different business models. This good friend of mine has a fiery entrepreneurial spirit, and at a very young age (he’s only 22!), he has managed to build a good reputable marketing consultancy company. As a friend that I respect tremendously for his energy, enthusiasm and flair, the conversations that we have are generally extremely enjoyable. For both of us, we love the idea of being in business, having the freedom to choose our working hours, and the enjoyment of being immersed in our work.

At the end of the day, we realized that it is not so much the technology, financial resources, or even the business model that is the critical success factor, we felt that it was the people behind the company that would determine the success or failure of an enterprise. And if people are the most important resources a company can have, are the future generation of our nation equipped to deal with the challenges of the global village?

Having in the past few months having been invited to share my experiences in business with students in some of the tertiary institutes and universities in Singapore, and having observed some of the behavioral traits, I do wonder whether we are doing enough to educate students with the realities of the working world. In an era where the competitive wages in China, India and some other countries creates irresistible cost savings to enterprises, our competitive edge would no longer be in lower-costs and better infrastructure. And even in terms of talents and value-added knowledge capital, the sheer amount of talents in populous countries like China, India and even Indonesia would mean that there is no lack of talents in these countries.

What edge, then could Singaporeans hold over some of the counter-parts in other countries? Since we are neither smarter, nor more hardworking, nor more charming, probably one strategy that we could adopt is to master the art of working with people.

Liu Chuanzhi, past Chairman of Lenovo, once said that some people are like pearls, and that they are able to shine on their own. For others, they are not pearls, and on their own, they are unable to shine. But, they are like the string that holds many pearls together, and the string of pearls would shine more brightly than a single pearl. A great asset that Singaporeans have overseas is that we have a trustworthy reputation. With relationships being formed on the basis of trust and integrity, this is an intangible asset that we should strongly leverage to create strong relationships and partnerships with overseas partners.

Overseas expansion might be the only way for us to thrive and prosper in the new global economy.



Ignious Yong
Managing Director
Empire Communications Technology Pte Ltd

Link Up to the Wireless World!

The Singaporean government initiative Wireless@SG was made available to the public with much publicity in the local newspapers, and while I was reading through the reports a thought just flashed through my mind… It is absolutely great that finally, we are able to get access to the gateway of the Information Age for free! Nowadays, especially for the Gen-X and Gen-Y population, the Internet is something that is especially difficult to do without. More importantly, the explosion of the Net has resulted in powerful innovations in the area of voice, data and video communications. Through VOIP, people potentially are able to make unlimited calls for free! Video communications and live feeds through the Internet are able to produce almost the same video qualities as cable television! Emails have resulted in lightning speeds of communications. The Wireless@SG has a great potential to positively impact the way that people live, work and play. I would strongly recommend people to sign up now and start linking up to the Wireless World and start playing with your tech gadgets!

The Wireless@SG programme bears striking similarities to the project that we are currently embarking on in Taichung, Taiwan. Conservatively speaking, we expect that we would be able to complete the construction of a Seamless WIFI Network that will cover approximately 95% of the city area in Taichung. Offering tremendous business possibilities, we are confident that through our unique business model, we would be able to capture a large percentage of the target audience in Taichung. At the same time, by integrating our wireless broadband services with our Voice and non-voice services, we would be able to offer to our consumers substantial cost savings and value for money. Right now, we are very excited about the progress of the project and so far, we have completed the coverage of roughly 20 square kilometers of area space! ( link to see pics)




For anyone who wants to link up with this Blog, do drop me a comment!

Take care!


Ignious Yong
Managing Director
Empire Communications Technology Pte Ltd