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Techno Thom's RSS Feedhttp://www.technothom.com/index.htmFrom the desk of Techno Thomentechnoblog01@techno-removethis-thom.comCopyright 2006-08 Techno Thom Poole2010-03-16T08:36:43+00:00 hourly 1 2000-01-01T12:00+00:00 Tue, 16 Mar 2010 08:38:40 +0000Selling Onlinetechnoblog01@techno-removethis-thom.come-Marketing2010-03-16T08:36:43+00:00http://www.technothom.com/Blogs/blogs/files/453839d6f7910d26b87e14c671c57743-28.html#unique-entry-id-28http://www.technothom.com/Blogs/blogs/files/453839d6f7910d26b87e14c671c57743-28.html#unique-entry-id-28In the early days of the Internet everything was free – well I say everything, early e-commerce was driven by the adult-entertainment industry.
Modern e-commerce allows everyone to trade and to make/save money online, but there are a few simple rules to obey.
For the most basic online transactions many small businesses use eBay. They set up a small shop and wait for the customers. It is true that eBay does generate a great deal of traffic, but it would be akin to setting up your stall in the busiest Bazaar in the middle of Istanbul, you can easily be overlooked!
So how about going it alone. This used to be expensive and complicated. I won’t say that it is a walk in the park now, but with the modern e-commerce packages, life has got easier. So how do you go about it?
If you only have one or two products, setting up the store is easy. If you sell, say over 100 products, you need a strategy. I would advise you to take things a step at a time (the old adage about how to east an elephant… one mouthful at a time!). Pick your top two or three products per product group and then have something with which to launch. Trying to get all 100 or 1,000 products online before you launch will just delay things.
Prepare your legal policies - your terms and conditions; your privacy policy if you intend contacting your customers about the latest deals; and your returns policy. Many businesses launch without the latter, and this comes back to bite them.
So if everything is place, check your online processes. There is a rule of thumb in designing online shops called ‘two-clicks to buy’. If a customer is sent on a long journey through multiple screens before they can checkout, you are likely to lose them. ‘Two-clicks’ means that they confirm that they want the product – “Click”. They then log in or register their details and payment information and confirm – “Click”.
You may have seen Amazon’s “One-click to buy”. If you have the customer’s details and they are already logged in, this is a great way of getting them to impulse buy – but you must have your returns policy in place for these customers.
Make sure that you have the prices right – all necessary taxes, shipping, etc., because nothing annoys customers more that being told that they need to pay extra because you calculated things wrongly.
OK, so you are set up. Now back to eBay, well almost – the payment engine for eBay is PayPal, and this is available to anyone who wants to trade online, not just via eBay. It is easy to set this up as a payment gateway, and they will then take the headache out of collecting credit card details. Other payment gateways are also available – some people feel that PayPal looks to ‘amateur’ because of the eBay link, so we offer a range of options.
So, if you have your products ready, you have your legal policies prepared, and you have traffic coming to your website – you are ready to earn money in what we can only hope will be the next dot.com boom!
Good luck.]]>Football's failuretechnoblog01@techno-removethis-thom.comPersonal2010-03-15T16:09:13+00:00http://www.technothom.com/Blogs/blogs/files/bbb6e0a716239b1958313ed8f1234b29-27.html#unique-entry-id-27http://www.technothom.com/Blogs/blogs/files/bbb6e0a716239b1958313ed8f1234b29-27.html#unique-entry-id-27Leeds, Chester, Bournemouth, Southampton, Portsmouth... The list goes on and on. Football is dying.
The Football authorities - Football Association and Football League have consistently failed football fans. It is true that the end of the wage cap started the decline, but without this you could argue that the 1966 World Cup win would not have been possible. An internationally policed wage cap would help all of football, but is unlikely to get passed.
In 1966 the lowly side, Accrington Stanley went bust. They were one of the founding clubs of the football industry we now know. It wasn't the first, and as we have seen, it isn't the last. Unfortunately, the authorities did nothing.
The prizes on offer are immense, whether you are talking about promotion to the next division or a spot in Europe, or the ultimate prize - a Champions League place. These prizes on offer are the reason many clubs bet their futures.
So when, in 1992, the Football Association decided that it wanted to keep more of the TV and sponsorship revenues for themselves. The premiership clubs in their greed welcomed this with open arms, although many of the clubs that have since fallen down the pyramid may regret what they did.
The FA, in taking a larger cut of the profits cut off the supply of funding to the lower leagues, including the non-league or semi-professional/amatuer leagues. This has in the last 18 years also helped cut off the development of new English footballers. The FA wanted the new Premiership to help support the efforts of the national team in wining the World Cup again. Their actions have, however, probably led to the opposite occurring.
Portsmouth are now the first top-level club to go bust. They have had numerous owners in this fateful year, despite the FA supposedly vetting club owners. But it doesn't stop there.
One of the world's most successful clubs - Manchester United was sold seven years ago to the American Glazier family who bough the club with huge amounts of debt with which he lumbered the club. Supporters now want to buy it off the family, but they are unlikely to sell their cash cow! But with the debt still in place, the club are in peril, despite success on the pitch.
Where to now? Well I think that we will see many more clubs going busy whilst the football Lords sitting in their ivory towers in Soho Square continue to ignore the problems. Grassroots football is being strangled, and top levels are producing young footballers who are over paid, uncontrollable and bankrupting their clubs.
Many of your favourite clubs will undoubtedly die before anything happens, but too little and too late. And as for the World Cup - we will have to continue to wait. When the greed leaves football, and we focus on the sport, we may stand a chance.
Pity really, seeing as we invented the game!]]>SEO Best Practicetechnoblog01@techno-removethis-thom.come-Marketing2010-03-15T15:57:11+00:00http://www.technothom.com/Blogs/blogs/files/c5ceff4b81dcb2f979e68a02c8051f43-26.html#unique-entry-id-26http://www.technothom.com/Blogs/blogs/files/c5ceff4b81dcb2f979e68a02c8051f43-26.html#unique-entry-id-26Optimising your site
Everyone is talking about Search Engine Optimisation or SEO nowadays. It as become one area in which the modern ‘Snake Oil Salemen’ operate. It is not the easiest thing to do, not because it is particularly difficult, but because they are time consuming and heavily detailed.
So how can you do this yourself? Let us start with things you can do quickly and easily. There are approx. 80 different elements that we think are included in the search engine algorithms. Unfortunately, these algorithms are trade secrets so we can only guess what is included and how they are prioritised. To complicate things, the search engines change them regularly too!
Select a keyword or keyphrase that you think your customers will use to find each particular page. A common error is to try to optimise for too many words or phrases. Ideally your domain name will contain this word or phrase, but failing that, you can use folders and document names to fulfil this.
In the coding of the page – the meta information as it is called, provides a description of the page. This description provides an advert for people searching for the keyword – if your description is good, it will attract visitors. Try to include your keyword or phrase in the description, but as part of natural language, not as a list of keywords or phrases.
You do, however, have an opportunity to list the relevant keywords or phrases within the meta information. It is said that this is no longer important in SEO, but it is good practice to use your keywords tag to list the important words and phrases – you can double check what is happening on your page this way.
The meta information is hidden within the code – only the description can be seen in search engine results. One of the most important factors is your content. If your keywords or phrases are included in your content you will score highly with the search engines. Use emphasis to highlight the keywords you want to stand out to your visitors and the search engines.
Make use of headings – again if your keyword is included, you will benefit from being ‘relevant’.
There are so many other factors that will help you increase your search engine rankings, and you can contact professionals to help you (not all are bad), but by following these techniques, you can do a lot yourself. Remember though, each page is different, and you have different customers for each page, so do not fall into the trap of copying the code of one page into all others – spread your net wider!]]>Economic Depressiontechnoblog01@techno-removethis-thom.comBusiness2008-12-15T13:09:24+00:00http://www.technothom.com/Blogs/blogs/files/16db79f4ba3242c4de87e8997edd1024-25.html#unique-entry-id-25http://www.technothom.com/Blogs/blogs/files/16db79f4ba3242c4de87e8997edd1024-25.html#unique-entry-id-25We are now in a recession - officially. Infact, it appears to be so deep, some people are calling it a depression! Gordon Brown's Government are borrowing to try to relieve the crisis, printing more money and praising themselves for their economic prowess.
The financial and economic experts didn't see any of this coming, the banks lost trust in each other, and changed their lending criteria almost overnight. The banking system is not allowed to collapse, but the industry has not faired well. The US banking system, where the financial crisis is said to have started, did almost collapse with the big names of Lehman Brothers, Beare Stern and the mortgage giants - Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae. The short selling of stock and hedge fund fraud further decayed the market.
In the UK, Northern Rock, who had been lending irresponsibly hit the buffers and were nationalised. Many of the bosses who created the problem, got bonuses and golden handshakes ]]>Housingtechnoblog01@techno-removethis-thom.comUK2008-06-23T13:29:15+01:00http://www.technothom.com/Blogs/blogs/files/ffa09e2049f3c6c7fd799167eb1d3a69-24.html#unique-entry-id-24http://www.technothom.com/Blogs/blogs/files/ffa09e2049f3c6c7fd799167eb1d3a69-24.html#unique-entry-id-24The recent credit crunch in the UK has been also seen a drop in the consumer confidence. The Government's mismanagement of the economy, and the media's Schadenfreude in the depression they helped to develop.
We have experienced this directly in our attempts to sell our house. The house selling process in England and Wales is archaic at best, and criminal at worst. The paranoia created by the media led too our buyers, who had to that point been pushing us to exchange contracts, suddenly to pull out citing fear of the economy.
The system in England allows someone to make a verbal contract, with an offer and acceptance (normally all you need for a commercial contract), but then to escape from it without any financial or moral repercussions - and the law allows this. So we had to complete surveys and mortgage evaluations, all of which cost us financially for our new property.
So the newspapers talked the market down, causing a slump not only in the housing market, but also the whole housing an property market. We have now found that buyers have been frightened off, with no new buyers looking. Buyers who are selling, are stuck, and people who have sold are waiting for the prices to fall further, because the media is telling us that this will happen. Other buyers are feeding off the misery of people who are being forced to move, by offering ridiculously low prices and further feeding the media frenzy for prices slumping.]]>Champions League Semi Final - Chelsea v Liverpooltechnoblog01@techno-removethis-thom.comPersonal2008-05-01T13:11:37+01:00http://www.technothom.com/Blogs/blogs/files/ac8dd3d94e87cb860340dcb2aa11c97d-23.html#unique-entry-id-23http://www.technothom.com/Blogs/blogs/files/ac8dd3d94e87cb860340dcb2aa11c97d-23.html#unique-entry-id-23The recent Champions League Semi Final between Chelsea and Liverpool has identified many issues with modern football. As a Chelsea fan, I am obviously delighted at finally putting the jinx of Liverpool in Europe to rest.

I was watching the match on Sky Sports which, in conjunction with other UK media, appear to have a general dislike for Chelsea, and an unnatural and inappropriate love for everything to do with Liverpool. Let me start with my team - Chelsea - I have supported them through thick and thin. The recent successes have been amazing, when you consider that only 20 years ago or so, Chelsea were struggling to stay in the then first division, with wet and windy evening matches against the likes of Rotherham.

I would have been heart broken if Chelsea had been pushed into liquidation as was reported just prior to Roman Abramovitch's take-over of the club. Mismanagement by Ken Bates, and his desire to buy success without the resources have caused similar problems at Leeds United (not all Bates' doing though).

It appears that Abramovitch's money has grown the resentment of Chelsea Football Club, with supporters of Arsenal in particular, claiming that you cannot buy a title. This is true - under Ranieri, Chelsea could not win the Premiership title. It took the 'genius' of Mourinho to weld a Premiership winning team from these highly priced, and highly paid sportsmen. Liverpool's so called 'money take over' by the American millionaires has not really delivered success - the last trophy was won before their intervention. But Chelsea were despised before this, and there is no rational reason why.

I freely admit that I was one of the 'glory boys' who started supporting the club after the FA and European Cup Winners Cup successes of the early 1970's. At that time, Liverpool were a second division side, and remember that on the road to FA Cup success, Chelsea beat Liverpool's quarter final conquerers, Watford!

Coming on to Liverpool. The media love Liverpool - they are unable to do anything wrong. It was afterall Liverpool fans who were involved in the Hilsborough disaster - both as victims and as perpetrators. Likewise in Heysel in the European Cup Final. The Liverpool supporters, fuelled by the media, believe that they have a 'right' to win the Premiership, and their trophy - the European Cup or Champions League. 'Champion's League' - please note the first word - Liverpool have not finished above 4th in many years! They are certainly not Champions!

Back to the Semi Final - Sky Sports were waxing lyrical about the history, player qualities and 'fantastic' supporters of Liverpool, almost dismissing the great achievements at Stamford Bridge. When they did laud the club, it was in a back handed way, criticising the supporters for not backing Avram Grant. I ended up watching most of the match on German satellite TV, where the interest was on Ballack, but the commentary was far more balanced.

I am not a great fan of Manchester United, and hope we can repeat the score from the last Premiership meeting and beat them in Moscow on the 21st of May, but I would like to say that despite their success over the years, they do not believe that it is their right to win a trophy or a match - they believe in the ability of their team and their management. They have been proven to be the world's biggest club, and the attitude of their fans leaves the attitude of fans of Liverpool and Arsenal in their shadow. Chelsea fans are still in a state of bewilderment with the recent success - competing with the Arsenal fans who think that they SHOULD be the best in London - they have failed in this for a great many years now, and do not have the right to expect this.

Arsenal and Liverpool fans - prove it on the park, there are no rights in football, and money can only buy short-term success, if that.]]>Government incompetencetechnoblog01@techno-removethis-thom.comUK2008-04-23T15:43:29+01:00http://www.technothom.com/Blogs/blogs/files/1d7fd444706d7afec39d334a3badf70d-22.html#unique-entry-id-22http://www.technothom.com/Blogs/blogs/files/1d7fd444706d7afec39d334a3badf70d-22.html#unique-entry-id-22OK, so I am stating the obvious! I know. Gordon Brown's Government is incompetent in almost everything it does.

The Sub-Prime credit crisis, the loss of personal data, the sleaze, etc., have all been badly managed by the Labour Government. It has been said that Brown's economic successes were the delayed result of the previous Conservative Government policies, and that we are now in the process of reaping Brown's incompetent fiscal management policies of 1997.

It is true that we have never had it so good - many millions of people sitting on huge nest eggs provided by the astronomical inflation in the house prices. The downside, of course, is that their children and grandchildren struggle to get onto the ladder. This is exacerbated by the increase in Buy-to-Let that takes up many of the properties that first-time buyers look to buy. The high divorce rates also take up much of that lower end market, as couples buy two smaller properties when they split.

The first-time buyers don't help themselves though. Many have little to no savings, and many live at home so that they can continue a luxury life instead of joining with friends to buy a property together, and get their feet on the property ladder. The Buy-to-Let market has grown disproportionately because of Brown's taxing of pension schemes - buying a property substitutes the pensions many people feel they have lost.

The greed of the institutions throughout 1990 to 2005 has led to the sub-prime crash. Salespeople in the banks and financial institutions have been pushing credit onto people with little or no security, and little ability to repay. Thankfully we are not at the 15% mortgage rates we saw at the end of the 1980's, were repayments are a struggle in themselves. The average adult now owes £33,000 through mortgages, credit cards and personal loans compared with £17,000 in 2000, the international accountancy firm PricewaterhouseCoopers claimed in November 2007 in the Daily Telegraph.

The data fiasco overseen by the Government is another disgrace. The loss of 25 million personal records by the Inland Revenue when they created an insecure data disk to send via the public postal system to the Child Support Agency has been blamed on a junior employee at IRCE. OK it can happen, but the pinball that ensued when the blame was being placed was disgraceful. One loss is bad, but a few months later, disks containing 6,000 learner driver details from Northern Ireland were lost at a data management company in the USA - supposedly under the Safe Harbour policy. A month later more Northern Irish names were lost on an MoD laptop.

This is all bad enough - but what do Brown and his cronies do - ignore it all. If they ignore it, they probably think it will all go away. If these were private companies there would be lawsuits, huge fines and prison sentences as deterrents for other companies. The Government, of course, make the rules, and therefore feel that they can break them at will. It is up to the public to demonstrate that this is not acceptable.

If I, or you were to buy the 'lost' data from the Inland Revenue, or DVLA, we would be charged with handling stolen goods, and breaching the Data Protection Act. The IRCE, however, bought data illegally harvested from a private bank in the tax haven of Liechtenstein, with a view to using it to prosecute about 100 UK tax evaders. Another case of double standards and illegal behaviour - after all, two wrongs do not make a right!

Following the lead of the Government, the banks, whose greed has led to the Sub-Prime crash, are now recipients of £50 billion in Government bonds to protect them from bad debts. My business is also at threat from bad debts, and for a lot less than the price of an average house! The bank's greed has been underwritten by a corrupt Government, and those bankers who live a blessed life in financial terms are now increasing their profits by keeping their rates constant despite the decreases in the central Bank of England lending rate. So who pays for their blunder - us of course, again!

If you get one of those credit card offers through the post, or the bank try to flog you additional insurance for a loan or such like, I would advise that you charge the bank for the rejection. Charge them the standard £10 - £25 for writing a letter rejecting their money grabbing attempts, and suggest that they operate ethical businesses so that they do not have to adopt such aggressive sales techniques. You can also cite the Sub-Prime fiasco as something of their own making cause by just these sorts of practices!]]>The Credit Crunchtechnoblog01@techno-removethis-thom.comInternational2008-04-23T12:26:16+01:00http://www.technothom.com/Blogs/blogs/files/0bd763b70db1208a6744599d0c2a92ef-21.html#unique-entry-id-21http://www.technothom.com/Blogs/blogs/files/0bd763b70db1208a6744599d0c2a92ef-21.html#unique-entry-id-21So the banks have played their cards! We can now see exactly how greedy they have become. The Sub-Prime credit fiasco has highlighted what many of us knew a long time ago.

The banks around the world have been gambling, and as their gambles have paid off, they have increased their risk. It was only a matter of time before this blew up in their faces, and boy has it done that! The fat-cat salaries the banks have been paying have been fuelling and rewarding the risk takers.

One of the first rules of financial management (and one that your bank would tell you) is that if you spend more than you earn, you are in trouble.

A famous quote from Charles Dickens' classic work, David Copperfield. In it, Mr. Micawber notes the difference (in his view) between happiness and misery.

"Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen pounds nineteen and six, result happiness. Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pounds ought and six, result misery."

So we are now in a credit crunch - first time buyers, who have been suffering because of the high (and increasing) house prices, are now unable to get the mortgages to get onto the housing ladder, despite house prices coming down. Existing mortgage customers will face a problem when they remortgage - what if the mortgage provider decides that despite a perfect record, that the person is no longer 'creditworthy' in the modern climate - what happens to their property? Will their house be repossessed? Will they be forced onto an unaffordable high lending rate - to further fuel the fat-cat pay deals at the top of the banking system?

It is an old story - the banks hold our money and charge us for the privilege, they gamble with our money and charge us for the privilege, and they screw up and charge us for the mess. The CEO of Northern Rock screwed up, and got a huge payout - and who pays for this? The shareholders - in the case of Northern Rock - this now means the taxpayer!

And then the Government offer to bail the banks out with our money. Very few of these banks are British only, and have been making the same mistakes overseas, but we are bailing them out. I leave you with one question - have you ever seen a poor banker?]]>Data & privacy ethicstechnoblog01@techno-removethis-thom.comLiechtenstein2008-04-23T12:25:47+01:00http://www.technothom.com/Blogs/blogs/files/dafc0532341e7afa56e426a41fd2cdcc-20.html#unique-entry-id-20http://www.technothom.com/Blogs/blogs/files/dafc0532341e7afa56e426a41fd2cdcc-20.html#unique-entry-id-20You may have read over the last month about a breach of data privacy involving bank customers in the Principality of Liechtenstein. A disgruntled German employee downloaded the private information of thousands of customers enjoying the secret banking protection offered by this Alpine state.

This is bad enough - a breach of this type being allowed to happen. The really unbelievable action then occurred from the national taxation offices in many European Union countries, and the USA - the tax offices bought this illegal data with a view to prosecute the tax evaders identified in the files.

If a private company were to do this, they would be sued, their officers sent to gaol, and the companies identified as unethical law breakers. I do not condone the tax evasion, but Liechtenstein charges tax on all deposits, so account holders are paying taxes, albeit often lower than their home country, but two wrongs do not make a right, and the Inland Revenue are handling stolen data - obtained and resold criminally - so what makes it right for them to pursue the account holders?

The UK Government is not whiter-than-white in this matter, as offshore accounts in the Channel Islands and Isle of Man attract the same sort of people as deposited money in Liechtenstein (although they may have trusted Liechtenstein more due to their increased independence from other states).

Liechtenstein is not new to claims of inappropriate money management, even laundering. The late newspaper tycoon - Robert Maxwell - set up a number of trust funds in Liechtenstein, possibly with ill-gotten funds. Many of the world's despots are also claimed to have money deposited in Liechtenstein bank accounts - the banking secrecy legislation protecting them from their national, and to some extent, international recovery.

The Principality has been on a list of uncooperative countries complied by the UN for many years, and so generates little compassion amongst commentators. They claim to be reforming their banking rules, but they are a very popular destination for 'money tourists' who want to squirrel their money away from their national taxation authorities. This extends to company formation - where post-box companies are set up to take advantage of the cheaper company taxation rules, and banking regulations.

There is obviously a question of ethics on both sides of this argument. The Liechtenstein authorities have been trading on their banking secrecy since World War 2, and it could be said that the secrecy has been exploited by Governments around the world since then - for both good and bad. Liechtenstein should come more into line with the international community - but British bank accounts, for example, can only be accessed with bonefide warrants, something that I believe is also the case in both Liechtenstein and Switzerland.

My real ethical bug-bear on this matter is that the UK Government supports the Inland Revenue in it's illegal purchase, use and pursuit of 'tax evaders' bought on the lists removed from the LGT Bank. The Government are currently operating as though they are Teflon coated - they are mud slinging, and think that nothing will stick on them. Brown's cronies have lost young driver data from Northern Ireland overseas (in contravention of the Safe Harbour agreement). The Inland Revenue lost data that was sent insecurely on a CD-ROM to another Government department via the public postal system.

Two wrongs definitely do not make a right - and I am sure that any court actions taken against the names liberated from LGT will use this as a powerful defence. Unfortunately, as their names are now known to the Inland Revenue, they will be pursued to uncover other 'proof' of tax evasion so that the Inland Revenue will not have to rely on the data disk. This is all underhand, and demonstrates the double standards throughout public life.]]>New bookstechnoblog01@techno-removethis-thom.comMarketing2008-01-03T10:15:59+00:00http://www.technothom.com/Blogs/blogs/files/094900bf0f6762d90e5217e4cac58441-19.html#unique-entry-id-19http://www.technothom.com/Blogs/blogs/files/094900bf0f6762d90e5217e4cac58441-19.html#unique-entry-id-19Happy new year to all readers of this blog.
This is a quick notification to plug more of my books - I have just written a number of small pocket books for people wanting to understand particular issues about marketing. There are 20 books planned, but the initial batch include:
Principles of Marketing
Product Marketing
Marketing Pricing
Watch out for others in the HowTo Marketing series. Please click on the links to buy either the download or pocket book versions.]]>Data Privacy fiascotechnoblog01@techno-removethis-thom.comEthical Marketing2007-11-23T08:26:20+00:00http://www.technothom.com/Blogs/blogs/files/0fece773290acd553e1cdd7bbde869f4-18.html#unique-entry-id-18http://www.technothom.com/Blogs/blogs/files/0fece773290acd553e1cdd7bbde869f4-18.html#unique-entry-id-18No doubt you have followed the recent Governmental cock-up in IT with a mixture of disbelief, interest and anger. HMIRCE burning the records of 25 million individuals onto CD's and then sending it unprotected in an insecure mail system.
If a business were to do this, they would be rightly chastised, and the officers of the company facing huge fines and possible prison sentences. The Teflon Government, whilst getting a hard time about the issue are blaming it on a 'junior' - how convenient!
Data Protection and privacy are key elements to building and maintaining customer trust. Unlike other areas of legal compliance, there is only to be a single company (www.privacy-audit.co.uk) that offers audits of a company's privacy procedures.
Don't get caught out like HM Inland Revenue Customs Excise. Make sure that your database is safe, your security procedures solid and your privacy policies are understandable and relevant to your customers.
Privacy Audit provides an objective and impartial approach to auditing your data security procedures, providing you with a snapshot of your data privacy operations, and your database marketing, as opposed the technical IT elements. At the end of the process you will get a quality mark proving your compliance with the audit criteria, and therefore with the Data Protection legislation.
In this age where identity fraud is rife, and information easier than ever to compile, surely it is time for companies that value their customers to engage in ensuring adequate (or better still, more than adequate) data security procedures, and to be able to prove it to all stakeholders within the company?
What does this do for your business? By proving that you take privacy seriously, you will build trust amongst your customers and partners, which in turn will strengthen your relationships with them. So what does your company look like in terms of data privacy - could you be the next HMIRCE, or can you prove to your customers that you take your relationship with them, and their privacy serious? Can you afford to be another HMIRCE? If not, contact Privacy Audit today.]]>Taking unethical businesses to courttechnoblog01@techno-removethis-thom.comBusiness2007-11-20T12:12:10+00:00http://www.technothom.com/Blogs/blogs/files/aad73179e7b011799cf31008662dd51a-17.html#unique-entry-id-17http://www.technothom.com/Blogs/blogs/files/aad73179e7b011799cf31008662dd51a-17.html#unique-entry-id-17As readers of this blog know, I have been forced to take a former client to court over unpaid invoices. Almost 9 months on, and I am still awaiting for payment, with the former client having lost a county court judgment without contesting the judgment in court, and waiting until the 11th hour before contesting the result.
This is, of course, something they are free to do - but due to the unethical nature of the blocked payments, this is just drawing out the conclusion of this sorry situtation.
I have, until now, resisted the call to name and shame the unethical client. The recent moves have led me to reverse this decision, and I am now prepared to name the company, and lay out the evidence against them.
The London School of Business and Finance, or LSBF are a private school run by a Russian family. They offer qualifications for professional courses, and run Masters degree courses for other institutions. Unfortunately for them, they are highly reliant on a very small number of lecturers who they generally treat very poorly. Their website lists a large number of lecturers, including myself, who have no links with the company, or, no longer have links.
I developed a Masters degree for the school, and until their failure to pay, was due to manage the programme. The problem for the school is that they do not have the Intellecual rights to run this programme as this was never signed over to them - just part of the illegal activities the company undertakes. Their contempt of the British judicial and legal system in general is astounding - with documented abuses of Health & Safety, VAT and employment legislation.
My advice is for everyone to avoid doing business with the London School of Business and Finance (LSBF), and the officers of the company.]]>iPhone hypetechnoblog01@techno-removethis-thom.comGadgets2007-11-14T08:51:46+00:00http://www.technothom.com/Blogs/blogs/files/1229aa893e894319a95aafef8fa7be77-16.html#unique-entry-id-16http://www.technothom.com/Blogs/blogs/files/1229aa893e894319a95aafef8fa7be77-16.html#unique-entry-id-16So the iPhone has finally been launched! The 'geeks' were sleeping on the pavements of London in anticipation of the launch - to the amusement of 'normal' shoppers. But why the hype?
iphone_home

Apple has consistently been a major innovator in the field of electronic gadgetry, and their following has grown from the loyal computing community to which I belong. The iPod has become an iconic fashion item, undergoing three revamps since its launch. But will the iPhone cannibalise the iPod market? The iPhone does include a touch-screen iTunes players (iTunes is the computer-based player for the iPod), so the owner can listen to their music, browse the Internet and phone and text friends.
So far so good. So why is it hype? The iPhone uses an old technology for the mobile internet - namely GPRS - the telecoms industry is now focused on 3G (GPRS is 2.5G), so connections are not as fast as they could be - this will mean that downloading music and movies will take longer, therefore costing the user more.
The interface, whilst used on the new touch-screen iPod, is relatively untested, and could be subject to some teething problems. Touch screens also appear to have problems when they age, though it is interesting that the iPhone makes use of 'finger' power, rather than the PDA stylus - the sharp point on the stylus being a major contributor to the scratching of the screen. I don't know how useful 'finger' power is in cases such as mine, where I have fat fingers! Some keyboards cause my fingers problems!
So, will I be buying an iPhone? Not yet. I have just upgraded my phone to the new XDA - a smaller PDA, as I found that for 'normal use', the old XDAII was too large and cumbersome - it has a similar footprint to the iPhone! Whilst I am an Apple fanatic, I will be waiting until the release of the iPhone2. A tried and tested interface and 3G connectivity will provide the features I will be looking for. My iPod will probably need updating/replacing by then, and I am not the sort of person who needs the newest gadget - just the best!]]>South Downs National Parktechnoblog01@techno-removethis-thom.comUK2007-11-05T10:42:59+00:00http://www.technothom.com/Blogs/blogs/files/e869efa488de9f21952f83e135cca930-15.html#unique-entry-id-15http://www.technothom.com/Blogs/blogs/files/e869efa488de9f21952f83e135cca930-15.html#unique-entry-id-15The South Downs National Park covers one of the most beautiful areas in South East England, stretching from Hampshire to the East Sussex coast, along the historic ridge of the South Downs. The debate has been raging for years now, and the most recent development has excluded the Western Weald that includes a Greensand ridge north of Midhurst. The area they are excluding contains a large number of areas of outstanding natural beauty (AONB), that will be lost to the greed of developers if excluded from the park. The old boundary proposal is available at the DEFRA website.
Most of the area that is proposed to lie outside the park is in the Chichester District Council area, and this council has been very vocal in its opposition to the park - they will, of course lose much of their power of the area. For the north of the district, however, the people have long felt second-class citizens and a dumping ground of problems for the council, and the though of having a national park between the councillors and the towns and villages in the north is worrying the inhabitants.
Once a national park has been set up, it appears that AONB status will be removed from surrounding areas - because of the additional protection the park offers nearby. But I would argue that the Downs are nothing without the Weald, and it is the differentiation of the landscapes that make the Downs so beautiful. The views from the Downs escarpment, north over the Weald are spectacular, and much of this will be endangered when the park is established. I feel that it is vital that we keep at least some of the Weald, especially where it has already been designated an AONB, to provide this contrast, and maintain the important ecosystem of highland/lowland margins. We cannot have an island of highland Downs, surrounded by the millions of houses the Government wants to build in the South East.
The Government has now reopened the inquiry on the South Downs National Park, to revisit the issue of the Western Weald. I would implore you to sign up on the petition to get the area included in the park again - the website for the petition is: http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/western-weald
An action group has been set up and their website is available at www.southdownscampaign.org.uk]]>Play It By Trust - finally publishedtechnoblog01@techno-removethis-thom.comEthical Marketing2007-11-05T10:29:58+00:00http://www.technothom.com/Blogs/blogs/files/23afb6aab399ed254599403d2469ffb1-14.html#unique-entry-id-14http://www.technothom.com/Blogs/blogs/files/23afb6aab399ed254599403d2469ffb1-14.html#unique-entry-id-14Play It By Trust - a guide to ethical digital marketing. Thom's book has finally been published to help marketers and business leaders understand the new media landscape, and to remove the stigma of unethical and illegal activities that dominate this lawless media.
In addition to the book, Thom has also set up a website, with a blog to discuss issues of ethics and trust in the marketplace. You can find the website at - www.play-it-by-trust.com.
The book is currently available at the publisher's website as a download or as a hardback version, and will soon be available on store websites such as Amazon - look out for it.]]>Business start-upstechnoblog01@techno-removethis-thom.comBusiness2007-11-05T10:05:54+00:00http://www.technothom.com/Blogs/blogs/files/a9b58a9a328f4171276da02476e8f025-13.html#unique-entry-id-13http://www.technothom.com/Blogs/blogs/files/a9b58a9a328f4171276da02476e8f025-13.html#unique-entry-id-13I was speaking to a colleague over the weekend, discussing a mutual friend who is starting up a new business. It worries me that there are so many entrepreneurs out there who really do not understand marketing. As a marketer, I am sure that you would expect me to big-up the role of marketing, but I can assure you that marketing is a vital component of any business.
Let's take a quick look at what marketing does for a business, and hopefully you will agree with my view. Marketing starts with an evaluation of the marketplace - finding the customers who will be paying you for the products or services you offer. But it is not goo enough just to identify the marketplace - this may be too big for you to tackle, so marketers also segment the market into easily targeted, profitable groups. This allows your efforts to be more successful and targeted - reducing waste.
Once you know the market, you can develop or fine tune your offer to the customers. This makes use of the research you undertake, and the extrapolations you make, including reviewing the state of the competition - you do not want to launch into a highly competitive marketplace where your promotion could be lost.
When you have your product/service right, you need to promote it correctly. I have always said that one of the aims of marketing is to provide sales people with ammunition - the right product at the right price, promoted correctly, properly distributed, etc. So all press releases, adverts, brochures, etc, should promote the product/service to the prospective customers.
OK - so the customers have seen the ads, read the press releases and bought the product - that's the end for marketing isn't it? No - not really, selling something as a one-off is relatively easy to a section of the public - what we call the innovators. The way to make money is to generate repeat business, and build advocacy amongst your customers. This reduces the promotional costs, and spreads the brand to a greater population. We do this by providing customers with great support - 95% of all UK customers leave without ever having complained, so feedback is not often forthcoming, therefore, you need to ensure that the customer support is ready and effective from the start.
You cannot rely on a single product for too long either - your products will die at sometime, and you need t o have some replacements for those products. So marketers can help here too, restarting the process all over again, to develop new and/or replacement products. This will keep your company going, with a decent cashflow.
There are marketing courses for small businesses, but many of them are courses for a qualification, and run for a number of weeks. Colleges should start to address the need for half- or one-day courses for entrepreneurs - not to teach them every aspect of marketing (or any other business skill, for that matter), but to give them an appreciation of the skills and allow them to manage a professional consultant brought in to manage a particular aspect of the business process.]]>Lead generationtechnoblog01@techno-removethis-thom.comBusiness2007-11-02T13:17:45+00:00http://www.technothom.com/Blogs/blogs/files/a9e3157693172cb5444394c321662713-12.html#unique-entry-id-12http://www.technothom.com/Blogs/blogs/files/a9e3157693172cb5444394c321662713-12.html#unique-entry-id-12Businesses thrive on generating new business - in fact, a Harvard study claims that we lose half our clients in 5 years. I actually think the situation is worse than that, especially for small businesses, and my experience is that with few exceptions, the turnover is approximately every year.

I have recently been contacted by a number of companies offering lead generation services. This is a valuable service for many larger companies with commodity products, but smaller businesses will either become overwhelmed by leads that they cannot fulfil or under utilise the lead generation company (but it is unlikely that there will be a reduction in price!).

Many B2B businesses will find that most of their leads come from recommendations or networking - this is certainly my experience. As such, it is important for business owners to network effectively, both on- and offline. There are a number of online networking organisations - I belong to eCademy and LinkedIn to name but two.

There are a larger number of offline networking clubs and associations - Chambers of Commerce are the most famous. Many of the clubs I have come across insist on highly regimented attendance in closed groups. As a result, they end up as no more than glorified clubs with little to no real business and commercial value.

Business briefings and presentations, such as are organised by professional business associations and institutes are also a good source of contacts, but if you work say in marketing, do not expect to pick up marketing business from a meeting organised for and by marketers. You can, however, find alliances in those networks, and for small businesses, alliances are the best way that we can compete against the larger competitors.

If you are interested in joining in an alliance with any of my businesses, please go to the relevant website (see the useful links page) and make contact.]]>Ethical businesstechnoblog01@techno-removethis-thom.comBusiness2007-11-01T09:51:34+00:00http://www.technothom.com/Blogs/blogs/files/5b5319c7d4d9f151e541eefa1064c67a-11.html#unique-entry-id-11http://www.technothom.com/Blogs/blogs/files/5b5319c7d4d9f151e541eefa1064c67a-11.html#unique-entry-id-11Back after a long layoff, I have been busy building my businesses and publishing my book - more of that shortly.

I would like to address the unethical business practices of an increasing number of companies - normally operated by foreign businessmen. My latest tangle came from a client that I was forced to sack. The CEO, a Russian, always felt that he could do a deal in EVERY transaction, nailing suppliers down almost to bankruptcy. He attempted to do so with Jack Marketing Solutions, something that I resisted.

The outcome of this altercation was that, without a contract (he consistently refused to sign a contract), I sacked the client without providing any notice (there would have been a notice period in the contract), and had to take the client to the County Court to reclaim the outstanding invoices. He refused to acknowledge even the official court orders and now has a CCJ against his company and the bailiffs are moving in to get my money in the next week or so.

There was never any need for this to escalate to this proportion, but the guy is consistently opposing legal and moral standards in the way he operates his business - at the expense of his employers and suppliers. Since leaving the client, many of his employees have informed me of illegality in his business practices - so whilst the loss of the client hurt my cashflow during a very poor summer, I am pleased to have stayed clear of such a bad customer.

A few years ago I had a similar experience with an Irish company, who employed me to deliver a training course that they pre-approved. I had the expense of going to Dublin to undertake the training, but they then claimed that the delegates got the wrong level of training and refused to pay the invoice. In my opinion, this was wholly unethical, but because to the complexities of international law, I had to write the invoice off. But, for the £1,000 I was owed, the company lost approximately £160,000 in recommended business that I redirected. This was not a vindictive act, but if I cannot trust a supplier (and unethical activities relate to untrustworthy actions), I will not pass a recommendation onto others. In the meantime, I have set up a successful rival to the Irish business, seriously undercutting their prices and adding a great deal of credibility to the business area.

Now, why is ethical behaviour important? Ethics drive trustworthiness, which in turn, drives credibility. If you trust me, and I make a recommendation of a product or service, you will find the recommendation more relevant and trustworthy. You should also find that the product or service fulfils your requirements more fully. Trust is a major driver in modern business, though few companies actually pay it more than lip service. This is why I wrote my long awaited book - Play It By Trust - available now at the publishers website, and in a few weeks at Amazon and other online bookstores. Alternatively, you can visit the website of the book at www.play-it-by-trust.com.]]>More football rantstechnoblog01@techno-removethis-thom.comPersonal2006-08-09T13:24:55+01:00http://www.technothom.com/Blogs/blogs/files/7d5435d9a3854ecceb7c9e73b384f5af-10.html#unique-entry-id-10http://www.technothom.com/Blogs/blogs/files/7d5435d9a3854ecceb7c9e73b384f5af-10.html#unique-entry-id-10With the start of the football season upon us now, I thought about our summer of football with the World Cup and its associated disappointments.

The thing that everyone was talking about was the play-acting by nearly every team. The diving was an absolute disgrace, and I heard and read commentators in England, Germany and Switzerland all deploring it. You may say with the German voice included, that this was a case of the pot calling the kettle black, but to be fair their team were at least aggressive and played attractive, offensive football - in fact the best game I saw was between Germany and Italy!

So, how do we sort this out? I would refer the Football Association to a case in Germany about 8 or 9 years ago, where Andreas Möller dived for a penalty for his club Borussia Dortmund. The dive outraged the German public in such a way that the German Football Association viewed the video evidence and fined the player heavily and banned him for about 6 games. I would suggest that the Football Association, UFEA and FIFA employ a similar process to stamp out diving at the top level, because even though we do not have our games videoed on the village green, the players are influenced by the actions of the top professionals.

Just image how a José Morinho or Arsené Wenger or Sir Alex Ferguson would react to half of their stars out of action for league or cup matches if they were suspended because of diving - the play-acting would go the way of the Dodo very quickly.

I would also like to bemoan the standard of footballing brain many of our players seem to have. We all know that they generally lack brains in terms of vocabulary and their social behaviour, but on the pitch, I see many of the players running into crowded spaces, hiding behind opposing players whilst awaiting a pass. Any schoolchild knows that you can't pass solid objects through other solid objects, and yet these multi-millionaires are trying to do just that, or expecting others to do it.

Whatever happened to footballers playing the ball into space? And players running onto the ball - everything seems to have to played to feet, slowing the game down and allowing defenders to get behind the ball. The direct game as, famously played by Watford and Wimbledon, worked very well because it gave the defenders no time to think. It is normally seen as a less professional and less skilful way of playing football - but I would disagree - you need to think far faster and a few moves ahead of the current play to perform in this way.

I suppose it does come back to the fact that modern footballers are not the brightest, and need extra thinking time. It is certainly the case with the large number of players, worldwide, who are ridiculously one-footed - you will always have stronger side, but you should be able to put a half-decent pass together. Only using one foot is obviously another way of limiting the neural load on these 'stars'.

Having had my rant, I must say that I am looking forward to the new season, both for professional and local football. Players such as Ballack and Shevchenko at Chelsea, and the fact that clubs such as Liverpool are likely to provide more competition for Chelsea this season make for a mouth-watering Premiership. Locally, we are celebrating our centenary this year, and are very confident that the season will be successful for both teams, and the new teams we are planning.]]>Finally back infront of a computer after meltdown!technoblog01@techno-removethis-thom.comInternational2006-08-09T08:59:07+01:00http://www.technothom.com/Blogs/blogs/files/ef1a7956e7e0bd0bf3c7a772208e1eec-9.html#unique-entry-id-9http://www.technothom.com/Blogs/blogs/files/ef1a7956e7e0bd0bf3c7a772208e1eec-9.html#unique-entry-id-9So, sorry for the silence from me! It has been a busy time for me, combined with the heat-wave and the World Cup.

In fact, it is the heat-wave I want to address today. Global warming - maybe - but can we take the chance that it isn't? Whilst hot summer temperatures is a pleasant change - blue skies and that unusual thing called the sun in the midst of the 'blue' - our houses, infrastructure and lives are not geared up to temperatures of 30 degrees plus for weeks on end. As I write, I am watching some 'affordable housing' being built on a Greenfield site (don't get me started on that), and they will probably be OK for the temperate temperatures we have had for the last 10 or so years, but excessive heat or cold, and these places will offer little comfort, unless the owners use heaters and air conditioners - hey, don't they add to the problem?

This week, the Government in the UK mentioned that speed limits should reduce on motorways, and the Chelsea Tractors (urban 4-wheel drives) should be taxed at a rate 1,000% higher than 'normal' cars. This, they reckon, will reduce the UK's carbon emissions. I do not dispute that these measures will have an effect, but how about enforcing existing speed limits, and slapping 1,000% import tax on the Chelsea Tractors to kill off demand for them before they hit the road?

Unfortunately, the UK is unlikely to listen too hard, and the politicians will have little courage to implement such regulations. In Liechtenstein they encourage the population to leave their cars behind, with 'Car-free' Sundays when special cycle lanes are created and buses are put on for free. During the rest of the year, bus transport is very cheap and reliable. A small state can do these things, but surely a cheap, reliable service is not too much to ask for - I for one would make more use of the public network if that was the case.

Europe is aware of the issues of Global Warming - some countries more than others, of course. The biggest polluter, however, is oblivious to all the uproar - the USA continues to ignore the Kyoto agreement, increasing its dependance on fossil-based fuels, and using excessive petrol, electricity, etc. I remember my first visit to the US in 1979, air conditioning units were set so high that you froze in the stores and public areas, and almost passed out as you stepped out onto the street.

The problem with the US is that they are likely to wake up only when it is too late (someone recently told me that this is what almost happened in the last two world wars too!), So do we have to experience a collapse of the Gulf Stream, plunging Northern Europe, and the North-Eastern US seaboard into a mini-Ice Age?, or the melting of the Ice Caps that will flood areas such as the Netherlands, East Anglia in England, and more importantly for the Americans - Most of Florida, Louisiana, South Carolina, and important centres such as Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore and Washington DC, as well as the Caribbean and West Coast ports.

Nations such as the Maldives and Bangladesh will disappear, and many of the world's island playgrounds in the Pacific and Caribbean will be swamped. And what of the knock-on effects. Salt water flooding subduction zones could trigger massive earthquakes and volcanic activity, especially around the Pacific rim - California and the Rockies be warned.

So what can we do about it? Not being a scientist or environmentalist, I cannot claim to have the answers, but I would say that everything and anything we can do now should be done. I also believe that it is already too late, and unless we can find some way of removing the greenhouse gases from the atmosphere from the atmosphere, reinvigorating the ocean currents, etc., we will experience a catastrophe - the level of which is the only question for debate. I, for one, would not buy a property on land under about 50m above sea level - just as well that I love the mountains!

Internationally, the polluters - the USA, Russia, China and India to name but few - should be forced to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions, and product manufacturers forced to make their products more environmentally friendly in their manufacture, usage and disposal. Taxes can go some way to do this, but consumer power is the main driver here - use this wonderful (and probably not too environmentally friendly) medium of the Internet to inform yourself of the impact buying one product has over another.

Finally, I would like to ask if I am being hypocritical? I love my cars and I love travelling, so I probably am a net contributor, despite planting trees, trying reduce the emissions, etc. I just feel that I want to try to do all I can, even if I am adding to the problem slightly - give me cars that have no carbon footprints, allow me to generate my own free electricity, etc., and I would do it.

How about you?]]>Bureaucracytechnoblog01@techno-removethis-thom.comBusiness2006-06-26T07:49:57+01:00http://www.technothom.com/Blogs/blogs/files/95d1c8a8ad4368ad68884c292a1c5229-8.html#unique-entry-id-8http://www.technothom.com/Blogs/blogs/files/95d1c8a8ad4368ad68884c292a1c5229-8.html#unique-entry-id-8I have just been compiling an application for a grant for a community project. It is unbelievable that we need to jump through so many hoops nowadays.

OK, I understand it for large financial grants, but we also see such barriers when we try to sign up to anything. I heard recently of a 16 year old child who tried to open a bank account. He was told that the only way he could open a current account was to bring a pay slip in - no possible as a child! So as an alternative, details of his previous bank account - this was his first account, etc, etc. Have you ever tried changing a bank account? I did that about two years ago - and it was not a pleasant experience!

So back to the application I am doing at the moment. I suppose it is far more complex thanks to the fact that I am completing it for 4 sports clubs as a single entity. We do, however, have to complete forms using the same information packaged in a number of different ways. This is all time consuming and liable to lead to confusing, especially if I am not careful enough with the transcribing.

But this is not limited to banks and public funding bodies! In business, I have often had to complete business cases, feasibility studies, risk assessments and white papers for product development that repeat information, one-to-one, or summarised, refocused, etc.

Why is it that no one stands up to this tidal wave of paperwork. We are told that a typical arrest in the 1950 took a policeman off the streets for approximately 30-40 minutes, whist today's paperwork will keep them off the street for anything up to 6 hours! Teachers are also spending more and more time on paperwork, as opposed preparing lessons and marking work. No wonder these two professions are struggling to recruit and retain people.

So whatever happened to the paperless office? Surely, form filling should be automated now, we also have voice recognition software that has improved considerably. In his book - Business at the Speed of Thought - Bill Gates states that he removed many layers of bureaucratic paperwork from Microsoft, simply by asking for each paper report, and questioning why it was needed. Why is it that he can do this, and no one else can challenge the bureaucrats? Just think of the wasted time, trees and nerves caused by this practice!

I live in France for a time, and I know that for anything official, the French State is the most bureaucratic (though I believe the Italian system also takes some beating!), whether it be for a rental property, car registration, or to start working. Having said that, the French identity card seems to cut a number of corners, and yet there is a reluctance to accept ID cards in the UK - possibly because of the cost more than the loss of 'privacy'. Unfortunately, applications for these ID cards will presumably involve even more bureaucracy. So long as we only have to complete the forms once, and not provide the same information in addition to producing the ID card - we all have precious little time to waste on this.]]>Futuristic Marketingtechnoblog01@techno-removethis-thom.come-Marketing2006-06-17T09:41:23+01:00http://www.technothom.com/Blogs/blogs/files/bfaeb7f52f881001d2c47e46b27f3925-7.html#unique-entry-id-7http://www.technothom.com/Blogs/blogs/files/bfaeb7f52f881001d2c47e46b27f3925-7.html#unique-entry-id-7
My presentation focused on Mobile Marketing. Originally, I was asked to focus on mobile phone marketing, but when I look at the future trends, I have difficulty seeing the mobile phones we have today. Smartphones and PDA's, wireless laptops, GPS devices, etc are all merging providing a multiude of product options, and delivery methods.

Have you seen the Googlezon movie. This was developed about two years ago as a prediction of the future of the Internet. If you are unmoved by this video, I would suggest that you haven't grasped the magnitude of the potential problem. Take a look yourself - epic.makingithappen.co.uk/new-masterfs1.html This tracks the story of the rise and merger of Google and Amazon as a world-beating news media organisation. In terms of mobile marketing, however, the final section of the movie is important - in this, the future is full of podcasts - people all over the world providing up to the minute, local news - things like reports of traffic accidents, notification of the opening of a new shop, of just that it is a beautiful day - get outside!

This all adds to the noise of communications that people will be bombarded with. As we get older, this increase probably gets intrusive (leading to the notion of Grumpy Old Men/Women!) and a perception that it cannot last. But the kids are growing up in this world, and adapting to this media landscape. Just think - people who are now 18 years old were born in 1988, so ever since they remember, they have had computers, when they got interested in these products, there has been the Internet, Digital TV, etc. I can remember just having 3 TV channels and being envious of my cousins in Liechtenstein because they got TV from Switzerland, Austria and Germany - a total of 10 stations!

We also had a laugh at the conference remembering the early mobile phones. I remember having the 'car-battery' attached to a phone. Stretched arms, bad backs, etc - all a result of wanting to accessible. Today, of course, products such as Blackberry, wireless PDA's and laptops means that we are not only able to speak to people on the move, but can send and receive emails, browse the internet and organise our lives anyway in the world.

Podcasts are a further extension, as I outlined above, are allowing people to listen to 'magazine articles' on the move. Indeed there is also software out there to translate your emails into voice so that you can listen to them in the car or on the train. I showed an example of a car that some Mac enthusiasts have modified. They have installed a Mac Mini computer with a small LCD touch screen on which they display Radio (digital and analogue), TV/DVD, GPS, music player (in this case - iTunes), Bluetooth mobile phone connection and WiFi access from the computer when the car is parked in a hotspot. Some people have also included some form of engine monitoring.

So image the scenario - you synchronise your email's before you leave the house in the morning. On your way into work, you listen to your emails, a podcast and perhaps part of a radio show. Later you go to visit a client. You listen to more emails, chat a while on the phone (hands-free of course), whilst the GPS uides you to the client. As you arrive you find a hotspot (or use your mobile phone) to access the Internet and check a detail or two about the customer. On the way home, you are stuck in a traffic jam - noone is moving. You write a few emails, a perhaps watch the TV news or a DVD until the traffic starts moving, switching the screen off the distraction.

Now think of the marketing opportunities - a WiFi computer coming in range of say McDonald's and you get a message saying "Why don't you come in for a cool drink, bite to eat, and you can use our WiFi network?" You approach a petrol station transmitting it's prices and telling you that the next petrol station is 45 miles away - perhaps also providing a traffic and weather bulletin.

Do you think you could live in such a world? I think I could, and I also think I could make money in such a world. And all this whilst you are not chained to a desk (though the roads may be less safe ...)]]>Knowing your customerstechnoblog01@techno-removethis-thom.comCRM2006-06-11T09:07:38+01:00http://www.technothom.com/Blogs/blogs/files/13e463ae2e72f7f0921ff07bac8f590f-6.html#unique-entry-id-6http://www.technothom.com/Blogs/blogs/files/13e463ae2e72f7f0921ff07bac8f590f-6.html#unique-entry-id-6
If you are in either of these positions, you are not alone. The latter is more problematic, as you have already invested in something and are, in most cases, unable to write such an investment off and buy a new system. The way round both, however is the same. I undertake an audit of the customers and relational issues - identifying customer drivers and motivators; and the channels of communication that the customers will react to and interact with.

When you understand what makes your customers tick, and how you can build a relationship with them, you will be in a position to identify the information you should be collecting from each customer at each level of interaction. You will also, hopefully, identify the communications methods, content and tone of voice that will stimulate them to take action - remember the AIDA model (Attention - Interest - Desire - ACTION).

As far as the systems go, most do exactly the same, and you need to understand how you and whoever uses the system will work with it, their technological understanding, computing capacity, etc. Many systems now also link into finance packages, allowing you to track through to sales completion - is this important to your business, or do you believe it will be?

Many of the mid-high priced systems offer fairly comprehensive (and at times, complex) predictive behaviour modelling. The best way to explain this is to refer to Amazon - have you noticed the 'People who bought this also bought these products' section once you have made your selection? This is using a predictive modelling algorithm and allows Amazon to cross-sell and up-sell to their customers, increasing their revenue. Amazon also uses previous purchases and browsing habits to build tailored, dynamic pages of products, further stimulating the customer interaction. You too could do this.

A few years ago, I helped design and build a bespoke sales configuration and contact database system for a heavy engineering company. Initially resistance came from the sales staff, as these were the people with the CRM in their heads. This was, however, unsatisfactory as other people were involved in the customer relationship - sales support staff, designers, warehousing, finance, etc. By providing them all with access to a system that tracked and logged all customer contacts, they eliminated errors, sped up the sales and build processes, and most importantly - they understood the profitability of each product and component. This system was quite basic really, they did not use online sales or support and were not involved in direct marketing communications with their customers, but they did build more trust and respect amongst their customers as a result of this.

So should you spend millions on a SAP or Siebel system? Maybe the answer is yes. There are cheaper alternatives, but it could be that a properly installed, supported and operated high-end system is exactly what will make you stand out in your marketplace. Normally we see people operating at the other end of the market. These systems are limited in their overall performance, but if you understand the customers and your requirements, you may be able to find something that suits you perfectly without breaking the bank.]]>Usability & Accessibilitytechnoblog01@techno-removethis-thom.come-Marketing2006-06-05T16:12:22+01:00http://www.technothom.com/Blogs/blogs/files/808e0afe9b26f4b64f21d9efda28a273-5.html#unique-entry-id-5http://www.technothom.com/Blogs/blogs/files/808e0afe9b26f4b64f21d9efda28a273-5.html#unique-entry-id-5
As I have said before, accessibility shouldn't cost you any more (the cost of redesigning a site has a cost in itself, but no-one should be developing illegal sites). In addition to this, we are talking about two additional benefits. Obviously, you are going to comply with the law, but you are also going to have a website that is accessible and useable to all users, including the automated users - namely the search engine spiders and 'bots. If you are struggling to get your site into the front pages of the search engines, you can spend a lot of money with search engine marketing companies, but if your site is inaccessible - you are wasting your money.

When I teach business owners web design, I recommend they use a book. It is not complex, it is not full of technobabble, and it shows you the commonsense approach to design. This book has the fantastic title - Don't Make Me Think - by Steve Krug. (Please follow this link to Amazon if you want to take a look at it/buy this title). This is a book about usability. It won't actually help you get your site to WAI standards, but will help open the site up to all users by being useable. Some features of usable sites:

Content flow to move top-left to bottom-right
People in the West read from left to right - so the most important information should be top left

Make use of page titles and descriptions
People know what they are looking at - especially if you want the page bookmarked

Keep content scannable, concise and readable
For more information, I would point you to Jakob Nielsen's website

Make your site consistent
Ensure your page design, colours and navigation are consistent to help your visitors

This is not the whole list, I don't want to spoil all the fun of learning web design with me!

Add to these elements, full tagging of your images, careful selection of colours and removal of speciality coding such as JavaScript and you will be well on the way to providing an accessible site.

For more information on accessibility, please look at the previous blog, and check out the relevant brand sites - Jack Marketing Solutions and DDA Audit.]]>Football Fevertechnoblog01@techno-removethis-thom.comBusiness2006-05-30T09:32:17+01:00http://www.technothom.com/Blogs/blogs/files/5cff170bac9baeabb0792057636424ef-4.html#unique-entry-id-4http://www.technothom.com/Blogs/blogs/files/5cff170bac9baeabb0792057636424ef-4.html#unique-entry-id-4
I have to say that I feel that business has been somewhat slow in backing this global event up. This could be partly due to the legal protection offered to the 'official' sponsors, or maybe the football overload in the media. But companies are starting to wake up!

My company - Jack Marketing Solutions has been ready for a number of months, unrolling our traditional forecasting spreadsheet. This Excel document has surprised us for every tournament, predicting the winners with uncanny accuracy. It is just a series of calculations, but it overrides my gut feelings about the winners. If is also good fun, so why not take a look at it - www.jack-marketing.com/about/sport.htm.

Obviously businesses such as Pubs, Clubs and drinks vendors will be doing a roaring trade this summer, but as a committee member for the local football club, I can see smaller clubs at the grass levels of the sport benefiting from this interest. Most clubs, including many semi-professional teams rely on bar sales to bring sufficient funds in to run the clubs. Showing the World Cup games could benefit them financially through the bar takings alone (licensing issues do, however, apply).

But this interest can also be tapped for next season. Business owners who see the increased interest in football will start looking at the smaller clubs, sponsoring shirts, facilities and players. At Fernhurst Sports FC we have developed a Media Pack to introduce the club to the local business leaders, and inviting them to sponsor the team in its centenary year. Take up has begun, but it is slow - but come the World Cup, I would expect interest to grow considerably.

There are many different options companies can take, on- and offline, but you now need to be quick, the tournament starts on the 9th June. I was talking to someone recently who had a great product idea, and invested a large amount of time and money into developing this idea. The only problem was that the timing was way out. The bigger the idea, the longer the lead time, generally. My spreadsheet took about a week to develop and test (having already developed it previously).]]>Local or 'Global'technoblog01@techno-removethis-thom.comMarketing2006-05-25T08:38:03+01:00http://www.technothom.com/Blogs/blogs/files/3655eaae281da9760682935e773d10e1-3.html#unique-entry-id-3http://www.technothom.com/Blogs/blogs/files/3655eaae281da9760682935e773d10e1-3.html#unique-entry-id-3
Even 'virtual' companies must have a base, even if it someone's back bedroom. These local links are often overlooked by companies, especially when they leave the area. We have had a recent case of a large company that left the local area with a promise to help 'smooth' the transition in the community. Many of the company's former employees still live in the area, having decided not to relocate abroad, and as a result the unemployed and early retired population is higher than in surrounding areas.

As the company is still trading, it is seen as an act of goodwill to help the community with certain community projects. Obviously this support will be time limited, but it does show a sense of Social Responsibility.

Now that story relates to a community devastated by the relocation of a large organisation from a rural area. But do you chase the high paying customers, just for the sake of a good income, even if the outgoings eat into your cashflow. The alternative is to attract the local customers, charging less but enjoying shorter travel times, and lower costs.

In my business - e-marketing - I find this to be a serious dilemma. Many of the local customers are seriously uneducated in terms of Internet presence and marketing. The low prices they expect (and therefore the entry point for doing business with them) means that I have to do a great deal of work for their ever changing views, whilst educating them, and getting frustrated by their lack of e-business understanding (I am a great believer in educating the customer - but I find these locals "know their business" and are difficult to persuade otherwise).

The only way to drum home the fact that these local customers are getting a good deal is to highlight the NORMAL price, and show the discount they are receiving. Some will, of course be unaffected by this, but you will find some who will be willing to accept more from you when you demonstrate your actual worth.]]>Doing Businesstechnoblog01@techno-removethis-thom.comBusiness2006-05-15T07:43:25+01:00http://www.technothom.com/Blogs/blogs/files/bd85f1ecfd1e493d8d63be0f270967ee-2.html#unique-entry-id-2http://www.technothom.com/Blogs/blogs/files/bd85f1ecfd1e493d8d63be0f270967ee-2.html#unique-entry-id-2
Cashflow is of course the most important factor in any business, and if customers are taking the mickey, they are endangering your own business. No-one should have to provide credit facilities to other companies. I have a general problem at the moment with companies constantly pushing for the cheapest deal, or getting advice or services for free - whatever happened to fair-play. Unless I compete with your company or product, there should be a mutual benefit to encouraging business - after-all, the greater the number of businesses, the more money should be flowing around the system.

One of the companies causing me problems is overseas, and they are trying to wriggle out of a fixed price contract, for which the service has already been provided. Given their location, and their unethical, unbusinesslike and illegal approach, I have no problems now with taking them to court - after-all - I do not want to do business with companies like that. The company does, however, have much more to lose - their business is dependent on being seen as trustworthy and ethical. If during a court case, they are proven to be anything but - they are likely to lose a lot more than a simple court case.

I suppose my rant is - why do companies do this? If I employ someone to do something, I expect to be charged for it, and I will pay for it within the agreed time. I will also ensure that I get the product or service I want and will be paying for.

Any comments on this - have you had similar experiences? Please let me know.]]>Accessibilitytechnoblog01@techno-removethis-thom.comEthical Marketing2006-04-22T10:33:28+01:00http://www.technothom.com/Blogs/blogs/files/6a57ab6d6c7a03480d9b56f3cdc728ce-1.html#unique-entry-id-1http://www.technothom.com/Blogs/blogs/files/6a57ab6d6c7a03480d9b56f3cdc728ce-1.html#unique-entry-id-1
Since the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) came into force there have been a number of companies popping up claiming to provide accreditation. For the exorbitant prices they charge, I feel that companies are getting a raw deal, but more of that shortly.

To comply with the DDA a website must be able to be read by all visitors. This means that websites written in Flash are generally inaccessible, as the code merely states that the site contains a flash file. There are ways to make Flash accessible, but I feel that there are also other ways to open the site up, after all, the companies with Flash splash pages as their homepage are generally shooting themselves in the foot with regards Search Engines.

If you have images, and that includes buttons for your navigation, you should tag them. This is using the Alt (or alternative text) tags - a very simple process that I get my students doing from day-one when I teach web design. It can also be a useful way of increasing the mention of certain keywords, again helping with your Search Engine listing.

The use of style sheets (CSS) also improves the readability and accessibility of your website as it strips the page code of such extraneous code as font and colour information, and can also help in controlling the layout, and even the navigation. I recently built a site that uses CSS to provide a pull-down menu navigation system - check it out at www.about-liechtenstein.co.uk.

The main topic of this blog, however, is the wanton abuse of customers by these companies offering certification. Web consultancies are charging customers for an audit, and then pushing their consultancy services onto them for even minor errors or issues. The Royal National Institute for the Blind is also offering accreditation, whilst also trying to encourage case law through legal action, and setting up a consultancy and training business. Finally, the quality assurance insurance has leaped on this bandwagon, offering audits (which I agree, they are good at) for the technicalities of a website (which they have no track record in). A phrase comes to mind here - SNAKE OIL SALESMEN!

So what can you do?

The WAI was set up by the W3C - The World Wide Web Consortium - led by the founder of the web, Sir Tim Berners-Lee. It has a checklist of attributes for certain levels of accessibility, which anyone can follow, and audit their own site. There are tools that will allow you undertake automated audits of your website - tools like Bobby from Watchfire, or Ask Cythnia - which give you a detailed assessment of code or page assets that are inaccessible.

Interpretation is where you may find things problematic. In this case, why not hire consultants to help you interpret and correct the information, rather than pay them to use the same tools to tell you what needs doing? Save some money! They may claim that you are getting a 'recognised, international standard' - rubbish - you can link to the WAI standard if you meet the criteria. That is the only international standard, and it is free. There is NO other international standard - don't let them kid you otherwise.
I wrote an article for the Daily Telegraph Business Club on the subject of Accessibility, which you can get from the Club's archive, or via a site I put together to compile interesting marketing articles (and all my own articles!) - just visit www.professional-marketer.co.uk. In this article I was telling readers that the W-Mark from the Excellence Ireland Quality Assurance company was the best standard. I would like to publicly withdraw this, as I have had dealings with this company and doe not find them trustworthy. I also feel that they have jumped onto this bandwagon, and are not providing a cost-effective service to customers. In the article I also mention other suppliers of 'accreditation' - my previous comments apply to these companies too.

So, my advice is to do yourselves a favour and do your own audits. Get expert help when you have the results of the audit, and be specific about your requirements - this could save you a 5-figure sum!

If you are redesigning, or about to embark on a new website, you should insist that it is built to WAI standards - anything less will mean that your site is being built to illegal specifications. And it should not cost you any more. I recently quoted for a website, and lost the tender. I was double the price of the company that won the tender, but that is because I know the value of my time. The new website, however, was not built to WAI standards, and I was asked to quote to get it to the standard - that would have cost the company the same price as the original build, bringing it up to my quote - retrofitting is not easy! They refused and are operating an illegal website, which for their business, I would say is highly unethical and financially dangerous.

Accessibility is good, right and proper, but you needn't get fleeced when being legal.]]>Web design made easytechnoblog01@techno-removethis-thom.comHome2006-04-18T17:18:31+01:00http://www.technothom.com/Blogs/blogs/files/6d2bb49b8812988d630dde82d8e10493-0.html#unique-entry-id-0http://www.technothom.com/Blogs/blogs/files/6d2bb49b8812988d630dde82d8e10493-0.html#unique-entry-id-0
I teach a course called Web Design For The Terrified, but I won't tell them about this programme. For one, many people don't have Macs, and secondly, people still need to learn how to do the develoment process (that should keep me in a job).

Web design itself is a dying art, there are many people out there who dabble in it, but trade as professionals. just look at the spelling mistakes, the poor designs and deplorable navigation. You can expect this from amateurs, but not from people taking money from companies and individuals.

Another issue that is close to my heart is the accessibility of websites. The recent law called the Disability Discrimination Act, relates to disabled access to buildings, product and services, and this includes Websites. Most of the FTSE100 companies are way off complying with this law, although many claim that one of their sites is compliant, and therefore claim that this applies to all of them!

In the same way that there are the amateurs providing web design, there are some companies who are claiming to provide 'International Accessibility audits'. The ISO have only recently brought out guidelines, and all these companies providing Accessibility audits are using the WAI standards - freely available on the web. I have set up a site (in development at the moment) called DDA Audit, as I am as capable as the next to audit a website, and my certification is as authoritative as anyone elses. In fact, because I also audit the e-marketing as a whole, I can bring my extensive e-marketing experience to bear on advising companies and website owners.

If you are employing a web designer to build you a site, they should not charge you any extra to build a DDA compatible site - not doing so is ILLEGAL. If they don't understand the legislation, or the techniques, my advise is to find another developer. Contact me if you get stuck, I know a number of very good, professional developers who understand the techniques and issues.]]>