Archive for July, 2007
BENEFITS OF A DATABASE
By maintaining your list as a database, you can segment in many ways for
targeting. Targeting improves the productivity of your offers. You can use a database to
isolate the segment of your list most likely to respond to a particular offer. With a good
database, you’re not “mass-mailing” your offer to parts of your list that may have no
interest in it (based on their characteristics). Because the number you’re mailing is smaller,
your response rate (number responding/number mailed) – one measure of productivity -
should be higher. (And, of course, you’ll save on printing and postage costs.)
Here are two simple examples of targeting using database information:
1. You’re the owner of a neighborhood beauty salon. For each customer, you
keep a record (with dates) of all the services you’ve provided to that customer. You’re
planning a special pre-summer promotion on permanent waves for the month of May.
Instead of mailing an announcement of the sale to your entire customer list (many
of whom don’t have their hair permed), you select only those customers who had a
permanent at least three months ago. In this way, you’re targeting those customers who
are most likely to take advantage of your upcoming sale.
2. You’re the dinner chairperson of a local fund-raising organization. Your
mailing list is made up of a wide range of contributors, from those who’ve donated only a
few dollars to those who give annual gifts of thousands of dollars. For each contributor,
you maintain a record of all past donations and functions he/she has attended, in addition
to basic mailing information.
This year, you’re asking for donations of $100 a plate for the annual dinner dance.
To get the best response to your invitation, you first target those contributors who were at
last year’s dinner dance. Then you target those who weren’t at the dance, but who
donated more than $100 in the past year. Depending on the response you expect from
these first two groups, you may next want to target those names on your list that didn’t
attend the last dance, but contributed $50 in the last year. You may even want to have a
phone follow-up to the first two groups but use the mailing only for the third group.
A properly set up database can provide many benefits for your business or
organization. But the usefulness of a database depends entirely on what elements you
include in it.
WHAT TO INCLUDE IN THE DATABASE
Depending on your type of business or organization, you will want to include
different fields in your database. Later in this report you will see some examples of the
fields that are appropriate in specific instances. For all businesses or organizations,
though, certain basic information is always necessary.
By including basic information in your database, you ensure that the people or
companies on your list are deliverable. That is, the mailings you produce using your list
will get where you want them to go – into the hands of the individual who is most likely to
respond to your offer.
1. Basic information for Business Audiences
If your audience is made up of businesses, you will need to include the
following fields for each name on your list:
a. A unique account number.
This number should not be tied into any other information about the
customer, for example, phone number or address, since this sort of information may
change over time. The account number should never change throughout the life of the
customer. A sequential numbering system is simple and effective.
b. Company name.
c. Street Address.
d. Suite number, is necessary
e. P.O. Box, if necessary.
f. City
g. State
h. Zip Code, five or nine digit.
i. Phone number (with area code).
j. Job title or name of contact.
Some business mailers maintain the name of the individual within
the customer’s business or organization. Others simply use the appropriate job title. The
alternative you choose will depend on the nature of your business and the amount of
turnover associated with the position that is your contact.
2. Basic Information for Individual (Non-Business) Audiences
If your audience is made up of individuals, you will need to include the
following data for each name on the list:
a. A unique account number.
b. Individual’s name.
c. Street address or P.O. Box.
d. Apartment number, is necessary.
e. City.
f. State.
g. Zip Code, five or nine digit.
h. Phone number (with area code).
The basic information listed above is necessary to make sure that the names
on your mailing list are mailable. But how do you decide which names are more
productive?
3. Data Elements to Evaluate – Recency, Frequency and Monetary Value
Regardless of whether you’re mailing to businesses or individuals, there are
three factors – recency, frequency and monetary value – that are commonly used to
measure the value of a name.
a. Recency: Recency refers to the last time that the customer ordered
or responded to an offer.
b. Frequency: Frequency is the number of orders or responses that
the customer has made since becoming a customer (or during the last year or other
specified time period).
c. Monetary Value: The monetary value is the amount of money the
customer has spent since becoming a customer (or during the last year or other specified
time period).
How do these three factors determine the value of a customer (the
likelihood he/she will order again)?
* The more recently a customer has ordered from you, the more
likely he/she will be to respond to your next offer.
* The more often a customer orders from you, the more likely he/she
will be to respond to your next offer.
* The more money a customer spends with you, the more likely
he/she will be to respond to your next offer.
All three factors – recency, frequency, and monetary value – are considered
to be good indicators of whether or not a customer is likely to respond to a future offer.
But they are not equal. Recency is thought to be the best indicator, followed by frequency
and then monetary value.
In order to use these valuable pieces of information, here are the specific
fields you need to maintain on your database:
* For recency: The date of the last transaction with the customer – the date of the customer’s last order, purchase or donation.
* For frequency: The dates of all previous transactions with the
customer over a certain period of time.
* For monetary value: The size (in dollars) of all of the customer’s
previous purchases or other transactions. (It is also common to maintain the dollar
amount of the customer’s most recent order as the monetary value indicator.)
In addition to evaluating the recency, frequency, and monetary worth of
your audience, you will probably find that there are many other important ways to analyze
the names on your database.
4. Additional Information for Business Audiences
If your audience is made up of businesses, there is additional descriptive
information, some specific to your product or offer, that could be valuable to have.
You might want to consider storing some of the following data elements
for each of the names on your database:
a. Number of employees in the business/organization.
b. Type of business/organization.
c. Annual sales volume.
d. Credit status code
The credit status code could be developed by you, based on the
customer’s payment history or perhaps obtained from a commercial credit report.
e. Items ordered from you.
With data in this field, you can select customer for programs
designed to get them to reorder an item, or to order complimentary or supply items.
f. Location.
Is it a headquarters, subsidiary, branch, division, etc.? If you are
making an offer that requires a decision by someone at the headquarters of a company,
you may not want to send it to the branch office (unless there are employees involved in
the decision too).
g. Source of the name.
This field is usually a code representing where you got the name.
Assign a unique code for each referral program, publication advertisement, list, etc., you
use to get a new name. Assigning a source code to each new customer allows you to
evaluate the effectiveness of each technique you use to get customers or to collect
prospect names.
5. Additional Information for Individual Audiences
If your audience is made up of individuals, you may want to collect
information on the household unit, often the most relevant purchasing unit. Here are some
suggestions for demographic information that could be useful to you in analyzing the
names on your mailing list.
a. Household income.
b. Occupations of household members.
c. Number of people in the household.
d. Ages of the members of the household.
e. Genders of members of the household.
f. Marital status of members of the household.
g. Information on property belonging to the household:
* Type of living quarters.
* Owned or rented living quarters.
* Number, make, model, etc. of each automobile.
* Number, make, model, etc. of each major appliance.h. Political
affiliation.
i. Hobbies and leisure time activities.
Now you know the secrets of how a database can turn your mailing list into a valuable asset for your business or organization. You understand what basic fields to
include. And you have had an overview of what additional fields might be added to the
basic ones that make a list mailable. Be sure to carefully analyze your own needs and to
include information that would be of help to you in mailing.
Syed Akram, Certified E-Business Consultant. We offer you e-business tools including hosting, interactive site design, webcast video conferencing, listservers, mailing list options, video recording, advertising, site traffic, and database development. http://www.onlineprofitsite.com
Only a few manage to sell everything under the sun over the internet. There are billions of web sites running online business, trying to outdo each other by various means.
But only a few succeed in building, promoting and sustaining a profitable, professional, successful online business. Only a few web sites are able to deliver what they preach and make sale.
How do they do it? Some magic formula….??? Nope 
What they do is -Plan, Develop and Strategize- their efforts in building a successful online business. They paln their moves or strategies wisely and invest intelligently on services and products that help them build, promote and grow their online business.
What kind of products or services do they use?
Good question…. 
There are many services and products that helps in developing an online business, but none comes across Site Build It!
Site Build It! (SBI!) is the only all-in-one site-building, site-hosting, and site-marketing product that makes it easy for you to build a professional, popular, and profitable Online Business.
Whats so significant about Site Build It?
Its significance lies in its simplicity, effectiveness. It is user-friendly. It does all the work for you. All you have to do is to feed in the necessary ingredients like, planning the designs and outlets of a website, creatively writing high-info value-keyword-focused preselling contents that ranks well with the search engines and turns visitors into customers. Just follow the instructions, and you are up and running with a web site that sales and builds you an online business.
Site Build It! (SBI!) is the single most powerful driving force behind a website’s success.
It doesn’t only builds web sites but builds business. It’s a complete R.O.I, Return On Investment service.
In 2004, Enquiro.com conducted a study of the search behaviors of men vs. women. They found that women spend more time in their searches and at specific sites. The study also revealed that women tend to be more deliberate in reading search results, linger longer at sites and have a greater satisfaction in the overall shopping experience. Another study conducted by iProspect.com revealed that women are more apt to click the paid search advertising because they find it more relevant to their searches than do men (WebProNews – July 14, 2004).
What does this mean? It means that if we understand the searching and shopping patterns of our target audience we are better able to create marketing strategies to effectively drive traffic to our sites. Don’t yet have a website?
Electronic commerce or ecommerce is used to describe doing business over the Internet. Selling products and services to customers over the Internet can be accomplished a number of ways and various levels of sophistication.
The first thing you need is a professional Web site with its own domain name. You need to design and promote a Web site. You’ll need access to expertise that can regularly design and maintain this Web site for you. A good website which gets visitors to return is constantly evolving and therefore, require ongoing attention. There are thousands of resources available for you to take advantage of, many of which are free. You can surf the Internet for what you need or you can simply visit www.WECAI.org to see the many resources we have listed. We have resources for guests and if you are a member we have even more resources to help you get started. In fact, you can search our domain registry and purchase your own unique domain name at www.wecaidomains.com.
Developing a business over the Internet requires many of the same major activities as starting any other business. You need a business plan, something to sell such as a product or service; you need customers and you may even need financial backing to get started. In addition, you need to market products to your customers, exceptional customer service practices and many other resources just as you do with traditional bricks and mortar enterprises. They may include inventory, fulfillment, shipping banking relationships and more.
Your store will need a “merchant” account, or the ability to process your customers’ credit card transactions over the Internet. This includes needing a “secure server,” (security certificate such as Versign or Geotrust) so that thieves cannot gain access to your customers credit information. Your merchant processing can be as simple as accepting payments through PayPal or as complex as a custom designed shopping cart system you pay for.
Getting a Merchant Account – If you have a good relationship with your bank and they don’t require a security deposit this may be your best option for setting up a merchant account. Alternatives to getting a merchant account through your bank are to go through a broker, a fulfillment house, or using third-party billing.
For more information on establishing an ecommerce presence check out the e-book entitled: Show Her the Money – The Woman’s ECommerce Handbook for Online Transactions (www.showherthemoney.com). If you are, or become a member of WECAI – www.wecai.org, this resource is yours with your membership.
Excerpted from The PMS Principles – Powerful Marketing Strategies to Grow Your Business ฉ 2005 – Heidi Richards
Heidi Richards is the author of The PMS Principles, Powerful Marketing Strategies to Grow Your Business and 7 other books. She is the owner of Eden Florist & Gift Baskets and the Founder & CEO of the Women’s ECommerce Association, International http://www.WECAI.org (pronounced wee-kī) – an Internet organization that “Helps Women Do Business on the WEB.” BASIC Membership is Free. She can be reached at http://www.HeidiRichards.com or heidi@wecai.org. You have permission to publish this article electronically or in print, free of charge, as long as the bylines are included. A courtesy copy of your publication would be appreciated.
The board of Airports of Thailand has rejected its management’s proposal to shorten the Suvarnabhumi airport security service contract with the Loxley-ICTS consortium, to avoid legal troubles. AOT board chairman Gen Saprang Kalayanamitr said after a board meeting yesterday that the board could not approve the management’s proposal to halve the consortium’s service contract to five years in response to its substandard security service, as the consortium has made it clear it disagreed with the plan.
The board did not want a legal dispute as the consortium had acquired the contract legally, he said.
Gen Saprang denied the board was protecting the contractor. He said the board was aware of the investment burden taken on by the consortium and would see to justice for both sides.
But he insisted the security service provided by the consortium was still poor and needed to be improved.
Chirmsak Pinthong, spokesman for the AOT board, said the consortium fielded 1,200 guards a day, which was short of the 2,000 stated in the contract.
Their service consisted of two shifts, each consisting of 600 guards who must work as long as 12 hours a day.
The board suspects that this arrangement, instead of three eight-hour shifts, may affect service quality.
The board believed that if the consortium was not able to improve its service in line with the contracted standards, the AOT management should terminate the contract instead of shortening it, Mr Chirmsak said.
However, a source said the board feared such a move could land it in legal trouble with the consortium.
Also, Mr Chirmsak said the board had yesterday resolved to grant 200 million baht to the army, which had sought financial support for its procurement of anti-explosives equipment for use in the deep South. AOT will also lend some of its explosives detectors at Suvarnabhumi and other airports to the army for use in the troubled region
By AMORNRAT MAHITTHIROOK
In Part One we talked a little bit about what Ecommerce is, getting a domain name and setting up a merchant account. Ecommerce is more than that, much more. To have a really good online presence that gets people to stop and shop you need a strategy for success. Your strategy must include your USP or Unique Selling Position in the marketplace. What makes you stand out from all the other online entrepreneurs looking for the same type of customers as you? Can you stand out from the competition based on quality, price or benefits? Once you know your USP, you can begin the monumental task of telling the world about your site. A really unique selling position will give you an advantage over all the competition – well that and a lot of planning and investing of your time and money.
FOCUS
Emphasize the benefits and the results the customer will get from purchasing from you and using your product or service. You can discover the benefits by listing all the features and then converting them to benefits. List everything your product or service offers. For each feature list a relative advantage from the customer’s perspective. You can discover the customer’s perspectives when they buy. Simply ask them, ” Why did you place an order today or use our service?” BE very specific when creating your benefit statements. An example of this is, “You will save $100.00 sells better than “you will save money.” “You will loose 20 pounds in 10 days” sounds better than “you will loose weight.” Rank your benefits in order of importance to the customer. If you have enough of them, use bullet points for emphasis.
Emotion sells. People make most buying decisions with their heart and not their head. Paint a picture of the results the customer will get when they purchase from you. ” You will look 20 years younger.” “You will be $100 richer.”
Make sure you include a call to action. Want them to make a buying decision today? Give them a reason to do so. Offer a bribe (discount, bonus, something for nothing).
Your website must load quickly and function easily. If your site loads slowly people will get impatient and go elsewhere. Do all your links work? Have you tested your order page by running sample orders? Have you tested load time using different connection speeds? You can get a fr*ee analysis by visiting Submitplus.com.
Make your website easy to look at and read. I find dark background tend to be more difficult to read than do pale backgrounds. The overall look of your site should be clean and professional. When we were first creating the Women’s ECommerce Association, International we did everything in-house. Not being truly adept at HTML coding we thought we could just use a simple program to create a professional site. It was okay, but the one we now have is so much better. Why? Because we hired a professional. You can create a website with a good template program. We are using ECommerce Templates to create our new look for WUN Publications. It is simple to use and relatively inexpensive.
When it comes to graphics, be conservative. Sites that are laden with graphics and flash tend to take longer to load. If your site takes more than 3 seconds to do so, you will loose many visitors and potential buyers. If you must use graphics, make sure the files sizes used have been reduced as much as your image editing/compression software will allow.
View your site using as many different browsers as possible. In addition to Internet Explorer and Netscape, there is Opera, Mozilla, Lynx and those are just the ones that run on Microsoft Windows. WebMonkey has a chart of those supported by Macintosh, Unix/Linux and others. Also, many people will surf with their browser’s graphics switched off. Make sure you know what your site looks like without the graphics and that it is still easy for visitors to surf.
One last thought Make sure all your important information is above the fold. If you know that visitors are looking for something specific and you make them scroll down to find it, chances are they won’t.
Excerpted from The PMS Principles – Powerful Marketing Strategies to Grow Your Business ฉ 2005 – Heidi Richards
Heidi Richards is the author of The PMS Principles, Powerful Marketing Strategies to Grow Your Business and 7 other books. She is the owner of Eden Florist & Gift Baskets and the Founder & CEO of the Women’s ECommerce Association, International http://www.WECAI.org (pronounced wee-kī) – an Internet organization that “Helps Women Do Business on the WEB.” BASIC Membership is Free. She can be reached at http://www.HeidiRichards.com or heidi@wecai.org. You have permission to publish this article electronically or in print, free of charge, as long as the bylines are included. A courtesy copy of your publication would be appreciated.
“Your home page is the world’s introduction to you and your company. Make it COUNT!” – Heidi Richards
Think of your home page as the cover of your brochure. It features exciting information about your company, but like a brochure it must be opened to reveal the rest of the message. It is connected to other pages in a way that allows other visitors to your site to move from one page to another by clicking on the highlighted text or images.
Getting your home page up and running on the Internet requires design, operations, and the update of your information. Many Internet Service Providers offer home page construction for free, often with a standard format in their “host” package. This is an inexpensive way to get up and running more quickly on the Internet. In the beginning, it might be an option for your site.
The options of design, operations, and update depend entirely on how much maintenance your site would require and how much information you want the surfer/customer to have. It could be as simple as listing your location, hours of operation, and the types of products and services you provide. Or as elaborate as picture graphics, movement, and even sound.
Design It yourself. This no-frills approach is inexpensive. The many new and easy-to-use software applications available make it affordable to get started. Provided you feel comfortable with this do-it-yourself approach, and feel comfortable learning a new program you can create your own home page. There are, however, some disadvantages. There is no guarantee of quality for the finished product, and it requires a lot of time and energy.
Microsoft offers a free package that allows Word users to build a Web site from their word processing software package. Check out their web site for Internet Assistant for Word (http://www.mircrosoft.com). Adobe has a package called PageMill 2.0, using click-and-drag commands that create web pages. Less than $100, it has the basics needed to create a site. Just call 800-833-6687. Corel offers a Web Graphic Suite of products. More expensive, but you can get more features. Corel’s number is 800-772-6735.
New packages become available frequently. Check out the computer software catalogs and local stores for what’s out there.
Hiring a Designer. Companies specializing in Web site design are abundant. And new companies are springing up all the time. Of course, it can cost up to $500.00 to develop a modest site. And about $30.00 per hour for updating the site. You will still need the Internet Service Provider to host your site.
Updating your site. The more often your site is updated, the more successful it will tend to be. Active sites are updated weekly, maybe even more frequently. If you want your Web site to be more than a billboard, it could require several hours per week to keep the site current. It all depends on the types of products and services you provide.
Make sure your Web Site is “linked” to other similar industry sites, and professional associations.
Excerpted from The PMS Principles – Powerful Marketing Strategies to Grow Your Business ฉ 2005 – Heidi Richards
Heidi Richards is the author of The PMS Principles, Powerful Marketing Strategies to Grow Your Business and 7 other books. She is the owner of Eden Florist & Gift Baskets – http://www.edenflorist.com and the Founder & CEO of the Women’s ECommerce Association, International http://www.WECAI.org (pronounced wee-kī) – an Internet organization that “Helps Women Do Business on the WEB.” Basic Membership is FREE. Ms. Richards can be reached at http://www.HeidiRichards.com or heidi@wecai.org
Professional Web Hosting $5.95
With the ambitious plan to become the IT hub of Southeast Asia by 2008, Thailand has been ramping up efforts in software development–currently the fastest growing IT segment in the country. Indeed, ZDNet Asia’s IT salary survey revealed that a majority of respondents (58 percent) are experienced in application development.
ด้วยแผนงานอันทะเยอทะยานที่จะให้เป็น IT hub ของเอเซียตะวันออกเฉียงใต้ภายในปี 2008 ประเทศไทยได้ผลักดันความพยายามในการพัฒนาซอฟต์แวร์–ปัจจุบัน ITเป็นส่วน ที่เติบโตเร็วที่สุดในประเทศ จริงๆแล้ว การสำรวจเงินเดือนทางด้าน IT ของ ZDNet Asia แสดงให้เห็นว่าส่วนใหญ่ของผู้ที่ถูกสำรวจ (58%) มีประสบการณ์ในการพัฒนาโปรแกรมประยุกต์อยู่แล้ว
Industry observers, however, note that Thailand will need to confront several challenges before its goal can materialize. Apart from language barriers and infrastructure deficiency, experts have pointed out a more serious problem–the lack of skilled IT manpower.
อย่างไรก็ดี นักสังเกตุการณ์ของอุตสาหกรรมเห็นว่าประเทศไทยจะต้องเผชิญกับการท้าทายอีกหลายอย่างก่อนที่จะบรรลุเป้าหมายได้ นอกจากอุปสรรคด้านภาษาและข้อบกพร่องทางโครงสร้างพื้นฐานแล้ว ผู้เชี่ยวชาญได้ชี้ให้เห็นปัญหาที่หนักหนาสาหัสกว่า–การขาดแคลนบุคคลากรที่มีความสามารถด้าน IT
Dion Wiggins, director of strategic development at Bangkok-based technology consultancy Strat-etech Consulting, said: “The lack of available skills is the single biggest impediment to the growth of the ICT industry in Thailand.”
Dion Wiggins ซึ่งเป็นผู้อำนวยการของการพัฒนากลยุทธของบริษัทที่ให้คำแนะนำทางด้านเทคโนโลยีชื่อ Strat-etech Consulting ที่ตั้งอยู่ในกรุงเทพฯ กล่าวว่า “การขาดแคลนผู้มีความชำนาญเป็นสิ่งขัดขวางความก้าวหน้าที่ใหญ่ที่สุดหนึ่งเดียวของการเติบโตในอุตสาหกรรม ICT ในประเทศไทย”
He told ZDNet Asia: “All IT related skills are on the critical list and holding back development and growth. A lack of focus from government and poor IT curriculum in the education sector mean that IT graduates are not well-trained in the skills that businesses require and need to be trained further before they are of use.”
เขาบอกกับ ZDNet Asia ว่า “ความรู้ความสามารถที่เกี่ยวเนื่องกับ IT อยู่ในรายการที่เป็นวิกฤตกาลและดึงรั้งพัฒนาการและการเติบโต การขาดจุดศูนย์รวมจากรัฐบาลและหลักสูตร IT ที่ย่ำแย่ในส่วนของการศึกษาหมายความว่าผู้ที่จบจากสาขา IT ขาดการฝึกฝนที่ดีในความสามารถที่ทางธุรกิจต้องการและต้องถูกฝึกอบรมเพิ่มเติมก่อนที่พวกเขามีประโยชน์พอใช้งานได้”
According to ZDNet Asia’s IT salary survey, IT management jobs are the highest paid. The average annual salary for IT Management is THB 1,423,448 (US$38,721), 43 percent higher than the overall country average of THB 994,203 (US$27,044).
ตามการสำรวจเงินเดือนทางด้าน IT ของ ZDNet Asia งานด้านการจัดการบริหารทาง IT เป็นงานที่มีรายได้งามที่สุด เงินเดือนเฉลี่ยทั้งปีสำหรับงานด้านการจัดการบริหารทาง IT เท่ากับ 1,423,448 บาท ($38,721) 43% สูงกว่ารายได้เฉลี่ยทั้งหมดของประเทศคือ 994,203 บาท ($27,044)
The second highest-paid group is Project Development, where the average annual salary is THB 1,268,867 (US$34,516).
กลุ่มที่มีรายได้สูงเป็นอันดับสองคือการพัฒนาโครงการ ซึ่งเงินเดือนเฉลี่ยทั้งปีเท่ากับ 1,268,867 บาท ($34,516)
Across industry verticals, IT professionals are better paid in the Legal and Finance sector, a trend that is also seen among respondents in Hong Kong, Singapore and the Philippines. Respondents in the IT, Web and Telecoms sectors command the second highest salaries compared with other verticals.
ถ้ามองในแนวดิ่งของอุตสาหกรรม อาชีพ IT ในส่วนของกฏหมายและการเงินจะมีรายได้ดีกว่า เป็นทิศทางที่ยังเห็นได้จากผู้ที่ถูกสำรวจในฮ่องกง สิงคโปร์และฟิลิปปินส์ด้วย ผู้ที่ถูกสำรวจในส่วนของ IT Web และ Telecoms ได้เงินเดือนสูงเป็นอันดับสองเมื่อเทียบกับแนวดิ่งอื่นๆ
Years of experience matter, too. Thai IT professionals with more experience command salary premiums. The average annual salary of respondents with more than 10 years’ experience is THB 1,571,384 (US$19,879), 58 percent higher than the overall country average.
ประสบการณ์ที่สั่งสมหลายปีก็มีความสำคัญเช่นกัน อาชีพทาง IT ของคนไทยที่มีประสบการณ์สูงจะมีได้รายได้สูงตามไปด้วย เงินเดือนเฉลี่ยทั้งปีของผู้ที่ถูกสำรวจที่มีประสบการณ์มากกว่า 10 ขึ้นไปเท่ากับ 1,571,384 บาท ($19,879) 58% สูงกว่ารายได้เฉลี่ยของทั้งประเทศ
The average annual salary for respondents with less than five years’ work experience is THB 351,186 (US$9,553) compared with the average of THB 797,811 (US$21,702) for those with between five and 10 years’ experience.
เงินเดือนเฉลี่ยทั้งปีสำหรับผู้ที่ถูกสำรวจที่มีประสบการณ์ในงานน้อยกว่าห้าปีคือ 351,186 บาท ($9,553) เมื่อเทียบกับรายได้เฉลี่ยของ 797,811 บาท ($21,702) สำหรับผู้ที่มีประสบการณ์ระหว่างห้าถึง 10 ปี
However, Wiggins said that the limited supply of good people with the right skills is not enough to meet the needs of Thailand’s domestic IT market. This means local IT companies aiming to expand their footprint in global markets will face an even greater challenge.
อย่างไรก็ดี Wiggins บอกว่าปริมาณที่จำกัดของบุคคลที่มีความสามารถตรงกับสายงานไม่เพียงพอต่อความต้องการของตลาด IT ภายในประเทศไทย นี่หมายความว่าบริษัท IT ในประเทศเองที่มุ่งจะขยายรากฐานไปสู่ตลาดโลกจะพบกับการท้าทายที่ใหญ่มากขึ้นไปอีก
“This can be addressed to some degree by working with the leading vendors that offer education initiatives and by streamlining the process and making it more attractive to bring in international ICT talent,” he added.
“นี่สามารถบรรเทาลงได้บ้างโดยการทำงานร่วมกับบริษัทชั้นนำที่เสนอความคิดริเริ่มทางด้านการศึกษาและโดยการลดขั้นตอนลงและทำให้ดูน่าสนใจมากขึ้นในการดึงดูดบุคคลที่มีความสามารถด้าน ICT จากต่างประเทศ” เขากล่าวเสริม
According to a research note by ICT Forward, a Bangkok-based technology think tank, no more than 5,000 Thai IT professionals are engaged in intellectual property production areas such as software programming and digital content creation.
ตามที่การค้นคว้าโดย ICT Forward ซึ่งเป็นสถาบันจัยทางด้านเทคโนโลยีตั้งอยู่ในกรุงเทพฯ มีชาวไทยที่มีอาชีพทางด้าน IT ไม่มากกว่า 5,000 คนที่ทำงานในด้านการผลิตทรัพย์สินทางปัญญาเช่น การเขียนโปรแกรมซอฟต์แวร์ และการสร้างเนื้อหาเชิงดิจิตอล
ICT Forward acknowledged that the total manpower employed within the Thai ICT sector “is many times higher than that”, but noted that excluding those engaged in assembly at electronics manufacturing plants, and others involved in selling overseas products into the Thai domestic market, or who work inside large companies, “the creative pool that is left is very small”.
ICT Forward รับรองว่าแรงงานที่ถูกใช้ทั้งหมดภายในส่วน ICT ของไทย “สูงกว่านั้นหลายเท่า” แต่สังเกตว่าหากไม่นับผู้ที่ทำงานในการประกอบชิ้นส่วนในโรงงานผลิดอุปกรณ์อิเล็กทรอนิกส์ และอื่นๆ ที่เกี่ยวข้องกับการนำผลิตภัณฑ์ต่างประเทศมาขายในตลาดภายในประเทศไทย หรือผู้ที่ทำงานในบริษัทขนาดใหญ่แล้ว “กลุ่มความคิดริเริ่มที่เหลือนั้นเล็กมาก”
The think tank estimates that less than 1 percent of the total number of IT professionals employed in Thailand are actually producing high value-added, exportable intellectual property. A large portion of what is produced is limited to the game and entertainment portion of technology.
สถาบันจัยประมาณการว่าน้อยกว่า 1 เปอร์เซ็นต์ของผู้ที่มีอาชีพทาง IT ทั้งหมดที่ถูกว่าจ้างในประเทศไทยได้ผลิตทรัพย์สินทางปัญญาแบบมีมูลค่าเพิ่มที่สามารถส่งขายต่างประเทศในระดับสูงอย่างแท้จริง ของที่ถูกผลิตส่วนใหญ่แล้วถูกจำกัดอยู่กับเทคโนโลยีในส่วนของเกมและความบันเทิง
Key findings of ZDNet Asia’s IT Salary Benchmark 2006 Survey
To gain insights into Asia’s IT workforce and salary trends, ZDNet Asia conducted a survey on the Internet between Aug. 25 and Nov. 6, 2006. The survey drew 5,090 respondents from industry sectors such as government, healthcare, IT, services, telecommunications, legal and finance, across seven Asian countries: Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore and Thailand.
Spotlight: Thailand
The survey drew 149 respondents across several IT positions, which are broadly categorized into IT management, project development and systems development.
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| Data | Charts |
   Average annual IT salary in Thailand
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ที่มา : http://www.zdnetasia.com/insight/specialreports/itemployment/0,39055182,62002201,00.htm
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BENEFITS OF A DATABASE
By maintaining your list as a database, you can segment in many ways for
targeting. Targeting improves the productivity of your offers. You can use a database to
isolate the segment of your list most likely to respond to a particular offer. With a good
database, you’re not “mass-mailing” your offer to parts of your list that may have no
interest in it (based on their characteristics). Because the number you’re mailing is smaller,
your response rate (number responding/number mailed) – one measure of productivity -
should be higher. (And, of course, you’ll save on printing and postage costs.)
Here are two simple examples of targeting using database information:
1. You’re the owner of a neighborhood beauty salon. For each customer, you
keep a record (with dates) of all the services you’ve provided to that customer. You’re
planning a special pre-summer promotion on permanent waves for the month of May.
Instead of mailing an announcement of the sale to your entire customer list (many
of whom don’t have their hair permed), you select only those customers who had a
permanent at least three months ago. In this way, you’re targeting those customers who
are most likely to take advantage of your upcoming sale.
2. You’re the dinner chairperson of a local fund-raising organization. Your
mailing list is made up of a wide range of contributors, from those who’ve donated only a
few dollars to those who give annual gifts of thousands of dollars. For each contributor,
you maintain a record of all past donations and functions he/she has attended, in addition
to basic mailing information.
This year, you’re asking for donations of $100 a plate for the annual dinner dance.
To get the best response to your invitation, you first target those contributors who were at
last year’s dinner dance. Then you target those who weren’t at the dance, but who
donated more than $100 in the past year. Depending on the response you expect from
these first two groups, you may next want to target those names on your list that didn’t
attend the last dance, but contributed $50 in the last year. You may even want to have a
phone follow-up to the first two groups but use the mailing only for the third group.
A properly set up database can provide many benefits for your business or
organization. But the usefulness of a database depends entirely on what elements you
include in it.
WHAT TO INCLUDE IN THE DATABASE
Depending on your type of business or organization, you will want to include
different fields in your database. Later in this report you will see some examples of the
fields that are appropriate in specific instances. For all businesses or organizations,
though, certain basic information is always necessary.
By including basic information in your database, you ensure that the people or
companies on your list are deliverable. That is, the mailings you produce using your list
will get where you want them to go – into the hands of the individual who is most likely to
respond to your offer.
1. Basic information for Business Audiences
If your audience is made up of businesses, you will need to include the
following fields for each name on your list:
a. A unique account number.
This number should not be tied into any other information about the
customer, for example, phone number or address, since this sort of information may
change over time. The account number should never change throughout the life of the
customer. A sequential numbering system is simple and effective.
b. Company name.
c. Street Address.
d. Suite number, is necessary
e. P.O. Box, if necessary.
f. City
g. State
h. Zip Code, five or nine digit.
i. Phone number (with area code).
j. Job title or name of contact.
Some business mailers maintain the name of the individual within
the customer’s business or organization. Others simply use the appropriate job title. The
alternative you choose will depend on the nature of your business and the amount of
turnover associated with the position that is your contact.
2. Basic Information for Individual (Non-Business) Audiences
If your audience is made up of individuals, you will need to include the
following data for each name on the list:
a. A unique account number.
b. Individual’s name.
c. Street address or P.O. Box.
d. Apartment number, is necessary.
e. City.
f. State.
g. Zip Code, five or nine digit.
h. Phone number (with area code).
The basic information listed above is necessary to make sure that the names
on your mailing list are mailable. But how do you decide which names are more
productive?
3. Data Elements to Evaluate – Recency, Frequency and Monetary Value
Regardless of whether you’re mailing to businesses or individuals, there are
three factors – recency, frequency and monetary value – that are commonly used to
measure the value of a name.
a. Recency: Recency refers to the last time that the customer ordered
or responded to an offer.
b. Frequency: Frequency is the number of orders or responses that
the customer has made since becoming a customer (or during the last year or other
specified time period).
c. Monetary Value: The monetary value is the amount of money the
customer has spent since becoming a customer (or during the last year or other specified
time period).
How do these three factors determine the value of a customer (the
likelihood he/she will order again)?
* The more recently a customer has ordered from you, the more
likely he/she will be to respond to your next offer.
* The more often a customer orders from you, the more likely he/she
will be to respond to your next offer.
* The more money a customer spends with you, the more likely
he/she will be to respond to your next offer.
All three factors – recency, frequency, and monetary value – are considered
to be good indicators of whether or not a customer is likely to respond to a future offer.
But they are not equal. Recency is thought to be the best indicator, followed by frequency
and then monetary value.
In order to use these valuable pieces of information, here are the specific
fields you need to maintain on your database:
* For recency: The date of the last transaction with the customer – the date of the customer’s last order, purchase or donation.
* For frequency: The dates of all previous transactions with the
customer over a certain period of time.
* For monetary value: The size (in dollars) of all of the customer’s
previous purchases or other transactions. (It is also common to maintain the dollar
amount of the customer’s most recent order as the monetary value indicator.)
In addition to evaluating the recency, frequency, and monetary worth of
your audience, you will probably find that there are many other important ways to analyze
the names on your database.
4. Additional Information for Business Audiences
If your audience is made up of businesses, there is additional descriptive
information, some specific to your product or offer, that could be valuable to have.
You might want to consider storing some of the following data elements
for each of the names on your database:
a. Number of employees in the business/organization.
b. Type of business/organization.
c. Annual sales volume.
d. Credit status code
The credit status code could be developed by you, based on the
customer’s payment history or perhaps obtained from a commercial credit report.
e. Items ordered from you.
With data in this field, you can select customer for programs
designed to get them to reorder an item, or to order complimentary or supply items.
f. Location.
Is it a headquarters, subsidiary, branch, division, etc.? If you are
making an offer that requires a decision by someone at the headquarters of a company,
you may not want to send it to the branch office (unless there are employees involved in
the decision too).
g. Source of the name.
This field is usually a code representing where you got the name.
Assign a unique code for each referral program, publication advertisement, list, etc., you
use to get a new name. Assigning a source code to each new customer allows you to
evaluate the effectiveness of each technique you use to get customers or to collect
prospect names.
5. Additional Information for Individual Audiences
If your audience is made up of individuals, you may want to collect
information on the household unit, often the most relevant purchasing unit. Here are some
suggestions for demographic information that could be useful to you in analyzing the
names on your mailing list.
a. Household income.
b. Occupations of household members.
c. Number of people in the household.
d. Ages of the members of the household.
e. Genders of members of the household.
f. Marital status of members of the household.
g. Information on property belonging to the household:
* Type of living quarters.
* Owned or rented living quarters.
* Number, make, model, etc. of each automobile.
* Number, make, model, etc. of each major appliance.h. Political
affiliation.
i. Hobbies and leisure time activities.
Now you know the secrets of how a database can turn your mailing list into a valuable asset for your business or organization. You understand what basic fields to
include. And you have had an overview of what additional fields might be added to the
basic ones that make a list mailable. Be sure to carefully analyze your own needs and to
include information that would be of help to you in mailing.
Syed Akram, Certified E-Business Consultant. We offer you e-business tools including hosting, interactive site design, webcast video conferencing, listservers, mailing list options, video recording, advertising, site traffic, and database development. http://www.onlineprofitsite.com
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