A study by the Economist Intelligence Unit that was sponsored by the Business Software Alliance (BSA) found that Thailand ranked a lowly 49th after an assessment that compared the information-technology industry environments in various countries to determine the extent to which they enabled IT-sector competitiveness. The study is now in its third consecutive year.

BSA’s vice president and regional director for Asia-Pacific, Jeffrey Hardee, said the study examined six key criteria for IT-industry competitiveness, including the business environment, IT infrastructure, human capital, the legal environment, the research and development environment and support for the IT industry.

In being placed 49th in the 2009 IT Industry Competitiveness Index, Thailand fell sharply from 42nd place last year.

The quality of Thailand’s overall business environment is ranked 30th in the world, a slight drop from 28th last year. The country is ranked 50th in IT infrastructure, a slight drop from last year’s 49th ranking, and is ranked 43rd in IT human capital, an improvement over last year’s 46th position. Its R&D environment is ranked 58th, a slight rise over 59th last year. For the legal environment, the country is ranked 57th, a drop from 56th ranking in 2008, while support for IT industry development is ranked 29th.

"The study is intended to provide a roadmap for governments in addressing their strengths and weakness when it comes to supporting a strong domestic IT sector," Hardee said.

There are five countries in the Asia-Pacific region that are ranked among the top 20 in the world for competitive IT industries. They are Australia, Singapore, Japan, Taiwan and South Korea. The Philippines and Vietnam are ranked 51st and 56th, respectively.

Reacting to the report, CDG Group chief executive Nart Liuchareon said the government should be continuing action or working on an IT Master Plan to develop and support human resources, provide IT infrastructure such as 3G and Internet broadband and expand research and development, as well as education to enable continuous development of the IT industry and the country as a whole.

Moreover, government agencies should be coordinating their activities and working together to improve productivity and support the private sector.

Nart said the government should be providing support "from the top down" and continually evaluating the country’s IT competitiveness in order to fine tune its IT Master Plan.

http://www.nationmultimedia.com/worldhotnews/30115024/IT-industry-flops-to-49th-ranking

The NHA launched its Open Source Software Master Plan last year and it is expected to be completed in 2012.

The director of the NHA’s Information and Communication Department, Tertsak Muenkaew, said open-source software had already been installed in 500 of the authority’s desktop computers and plans were on schedule for installation on the remaining 1,500.

"Our desktop computers are leased, and we separate contracts with vendors in to 500 units per year. So, when we implement open-source software we do it contract by contract," said Tertsak.

Currently, the authority’s PCs operating as computer-aided design and computer-aided manufacturing (CAD/CAM) units are yet to receive open-source software, while PCs used in daily operations, forefront services and servers are being converted one leasing contract at a time.

The first benefit will be a saving of at least Bt4.5 million per year in licensing fees.

However, using open-source software is expected to pave the way towards a further extension of the NHA’s systems in the new open-standard computing era. Importantly, it will enable the authority’s employees to familiarise themselves with the use of open-source software.

"For PCs used on routine front-end tasks, we can immediately transform them to open-source software. But for those that are operating back-end applications such as CAD/CAM, these will need modification, rather than full conversion to open-source software," Tertsak said.

The authority’s enterprise resource planning system – although implemented by a vendor – was developed by the NHA’s 30 in-house developers. It operates 12 main systems, such as a deed-management system, a sales-and-service management system, and a debt-management system.

"Our applications need a lot of customisation to imported software, which is designed to serve customers around the world. It is unable to fit our requirements, so we do a lot of customisation, and that led us to thinking about a greater use of open-source software in our critical systems. We plan to do it step by step, without disturbing routine tasks or our customers’ benefits," Tertsak said.

The NHA has an annual IT budget of between Bt150 million and Bt220 million, that is mostly spent in upgrading infrastructure and developing applications in order to improve the authority’s services.

Currently, The NHA has around 150,000 customers who are home-buyers. It also deals with about 200,000 construction companies. The authority also operates 28,000 residences under the government’s cheap-house (Ban Ua Athorn) scheme and 4,000 NHA houses.

"We can still manage the vast applications efficiently by using open source software. So, we asked ourselves why we have to pay more for unnecessary matter,’ said Tertsak.

http://www.nationmultimedia.com/worldhotnews/30114840/Housing-Authority-opts-for-open-source

For two weeks in July Marist International Solidarity Foundation (FMSI), Franciscans International (FI) and Edmund Rice International (ERI), ran an intensive conference and training on the Rights of the Child at the FI’s offices in Bangkok, Thailand. The participants (as many as 10 from each group were eligible) are supposed to work in Asia/Pacific as child rights defenders. The Marists were well represented with Mr. David L’Estrange (Marist Asia Pacific Solidarity, Sydney Province), Mrs. Cate Sydes (CEO, Marist Youth Care, Sydney), Br Jim Jolley (UN Geneva), Br Ken McDonald (PNG/SI District Leader), Br Michael McManus (Divine Word Uni Madang – Communications), Br Antonio Sanchez (Ad gentes, Asia), Br Crispin Betita (Children in Conflict with the Law, Philippines) and Br Paul Murphy (Street Children, Asia). Members came from a wide field of experiences stretching from Lebanon to the Pacific. The training was facilitated by two Irish Christian Brothers, a lawyer based in the FI’s office Geneva, the President of FMSI and several presenters from UN Bangkok. There was a good balance between input and group work. This was important as the participants had a profound depth and rich experience of walking with and being present to a variety of children at risk and exploited.

The first sessions were spent exploring the history and world of the child in the context of Human Rights. Time was taken to better come to grips with their mind-set. Several sessions followed relating to the principles and duties of protection as understood in the context of the most widely signed convention of the UN, namely the “Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC).” Participants were continually reminded and called to always act “in the best interests” of the child – this catch-cry, though sometimes elusive, was nevertheless the focus as we delved deeper into the meaning of and call to be present to, advocate for and understand the needs of children at risk. Such exhortations as “when you see something say something” and “the danger of good people remaining silent” in many ways haunted us all.

One morning was spent with the rather “maverick” Redemptorist priest Fr. Joe Meier who runs the Mercy Center in Bangkok – a comprehensive caring center for lost children and adults and for those confounded by and confronted with HIV/AIDS. A further fulfilling day was spent at the UN offices in Bangkok itself. The presenters had us all spellbound with their obvious hands-on understanding and compassion for the problems of the children in Asia. Further input was provided by very skilful presentations by experts in the areas of sexual exploitation, violence, the sale and trafficking of children for sex and body parts. Few of us will forget the very comprehensive overview of all these child issues presented by the Special UN Rapporteur Mr. Vitit Muntrabhorn.

The final toss of the training coin was flipped to us the participants to try to make sense of it all – to bring meaning, cohesion and purpose to the two weeks. The fruit of this task is yet to be realized but you can expect soon a sharper focus at both the local and international (UN) level for renewed support for children at risk. Our Marist team worked very well together and created plans for future advocacy that in time will be a blessing for such children found in Marist Australia, Oceania and Asia.

Looking at the preliminary documents of our coming Marist Chapter such advocacy issues are likely to have the prominent place they have long deserved. This preliminary training should prove to be a good first step to deal with the issues and especially the children we all love so dearly – to make their faint cry for help peal like thunder so we sit up, listen to them, take notice and advocate strenuously at the highest levels on their behalf. “It shouldn’t hurt to be a child.”

http://www.nationmultimedia.com/worldhotnews/30114647/Asian-Suppliers-step-into-Telepresence

The rapid rise in the number of users at both sites in Thailand has demanded the attention of Thai marketers, many of whom are currently calculating what share of their annual budget they should divert to the new online medium.

An adviser to the Sasin Graduate Institute of Business Administration, Ian Fenwick, has given some pointers to online-marketing success.
Social-network marketing, using both Facebook and Twitter, has become the talk of the town among marketers in all industries.He said marketing was moving towards a new digital era, for which new marketing models would be designed and developed to deliver messages digitally through a variety of end-devices and platforms including Internet web 2.0, mobile phones, Internet television, personal Internet devices, social-networking platforms, and electronic devices yet to be developed.

Referring to the "Four Ps" of traditional marketing strategy – product, price, place and promotion, he said digital marketing came with its own Four Ps: permission, participation, profile and personalisation.

"Marketers need to understand the fundamental elements of the new era of marketing first. Then they have to understand how to use their marketing budget to gain the most benefit," Fenwick said.

This year, Internet penetration around the world amounts to 1.6 billion users. Of these, 42 per cent are in Asia. These people are also spending more of their time on the Internet, from only 15 per cent of their daily life in 2003 to 30 per cent in 2008. Their main activities on the Internet are participating in social networks and reading blogs.

The best-known social-network site is Facebook. It now has 330 million users – up from 250 million in July. The trends are similar in Thailand, where there are 16 million Internet users and more than 1 million of them are Facebook users.

Twitter, the most popular microblog site, had more than 7 million users in February, up from fewer than 5 million one year earlier.

Marketing expert Thunyawat Chaitrakulchai, who is managing editor of MKT magazine, said social-network marketing, especially that using Facebook and Twitter, was the next big thing. Marketers should not ignore it, but should pay more attention to learning about it and understanding it in order to use it as a marketing weapon to reach the right target customers at a lower cost in terms of time and money.

He said it was better to use both Facebook and Twitter in parallel, with "balanced portions" devoted to each. The size of the portions directed at each channel depended on the requirements of different businesses.

"There is no one success model for all. This is a time for marketers to pay attention. They have to realise that they cannot ignore this. Both large corporations and small- and medium-sized enterprises should jump in," Thunyawat said.

A similar message came from Worawisut Pinyoyang, marketing expert and owner of Newmedia.com and MKTtwit.com. He said Facebook and Twitter had a big impact on product and brand awareness.

The beauty of social networking for marketing is that it provides a huge number of target customers with the correct demographic profile, he said. Personalisation enables marketers to get very quick feedback and their marketing message can reach a mass market in a short time by "going viral".

http://www.nationmultimedia.com/worldhotnews/30113287/Social-networks-transform-marketing