In-house vs Outsourcing for your IT Support?

As technology becomes more standardised, reliable and simpler to maintain, law firms should re-examine their IT support costs. It has been customary for many to have in-house technical staff for rapid response when needed, but now with low cost redundancy servers and advancements in hardware and software, the blue screen and network downtime are finally becoming a thing of the past (or at least should be if you have the right IT team). This means firms can realistically expect to outsource IT without worrying about being seriously inconvenienced should mishaps occur.

Studies show that there is an increasing trend to outsource, and law firms are leading the trend. So does outsourcing IT mean you are compromising? Far from it! Actually outsourcing allows law firms to concentrate on what they do best whilst your IT partners do what they do best. Below are some common areas where outsourcing your IT makes perfect sense.

Cost Savings
As you only pay for time used, outsourcing results in significant savings. Also, setting fixed costs for projects allows better budget control.

Better service quality
As IT is now handled on a client/service provider basis, service tends to be better than that provided by in-house staff.

Keeping up to date
Technology changes rapidly, and outsourcing providers will have greater appreciation of developments in other industries and be able to determine which emerging technologies can be beneficial to your firm.

Better Risk Management
Risks are reduced as the IT partner will have prior knowledge and experience on projects and only offer proven working solutions. Not only will they have far more real-world experience in many industries they will also be better at mitigating the risks involved in handling delicate tasks like upgrades and security management.

Hiring and Training services
For projects that must be handled in-house, top professional IT outsourcing companies can assist in hiring and training staff to ensure they have the appropriate skills. This training can be conducted on the job, with IT outsourcers providing secondment arrangements where their staff can work at your location.

Economies of scale
Most small firms simply can not afford to match the in-house support services that larger firms have, limiting what can be done, and when. A good outsourcing firm will have the resources to start immediately. Outsourcing also helps small firms act "big" by giving them the economies of scale, efficiency, and expertise that large firms enjoy. Sometimes far better solutions due to less internal bureaucracy...

Local outsourcing partner
When outsourcing is mentioned one often thinks of working with staff in developing countries like India. However effective outsourcing can be done locally so you have a familiar faces in the office, it's also good to know who you are working with. Choosing the right partner is the key to success. Never forget to consider the following questions:

• How good is the company's infrastructure?
• What is the quality of its workforce? How qualified and experienced are the employees you will be relying upon?
• How successful has the firm been in handling projects in the past?
• Who are they currently working with and for how long?
• How confidentially or discreetly will the company be able to carry on your work and what are their security policies?

Once you have satisfied yourself on these counts your firm can unhesitatingly go ahead, outsource and benefit from it...

Garry Smith is Managing Director of Compelite Limited, an IT services provider with a wealth of experience helping law firms in Asia implement cost effective outsourced IT solutions.

Featured Website - SquareFoot.com.hk

In our Featured Website section this month, we take a look at http://www.squarefoot.com.hk/. Launched in late 2007 but already a popular stop for those looking for middle to high end property, http://www.squarefoot.com.hk/ provides visitors with detailed listings of residential property for sale or rent in Hong Kong, Kowloon, New Territories and Outlying Islands.

As usability and clear presentation of information are critical to the success of a website of this nature, Compelite worked very closely with the client to develop a layout design which was practical, efficient and attractive. But there was also another perspective to consider. As the property agents who list their properties on the website are also important, their feedback and suggestions we taken into consideration as well.

Striking the appropriate balance between form and function, while satisfying the needs of the various stakeholders was an involved process, and the design went through many adjustments and refinements before final approval. All throughout Compelite’s design team worked in close concert with Square Foot’s management team to ensure that the end result was just right.

Of course, a property portal needs more than a great look and feel - it needs an array of applications designed to make the process of home hunting simple, efficient, and yes, even fun. Building on Compelite’s existing CMS system framework, several custom designed modules were created with both the end user and the administrative users in mind. These include:

Property Search Tools

• View the property and area details
• Contact the property agent directly from the website
• Search expansion feature gives users one-click function to find more properties with similar details, in the same building or from the same agent

Property Management Tools

• A specially modified Content Management System was created to make it easy for property agents to upload individual or bulk property listings, minimizing the administrative work involved in keeping their listings up to date.
• Reporting tools provide information to the agents detailing how many views their properties received, which were clicked on, and requests for more information/view appointment.
• Scheduled expiration of property listings, with one-click listing extension for properties which are still on the market.
• User management feature allows property company to add multiple representatives, and specify which properties each are responsible for.

Whether your need is for a basic ‘brochureware’ web page, a full scale portal with custom programmed applications like Square Foot, or for something in between, Compelite can provide solutions to match your needs and your budget. We’d love to discuss your requirements with you - please call us at 2524 3303 or send an email to info@compelite.net.

Yahoo Search Marketing Panama Upgrades

Yahoo is extending the reach of its Panama Pay Per Click System throughout Europe over the coming months. Up until now, it had only been launched in the US.

The promise to improve geographic targeting will bring much relief to those who use Yahoo's current system.

Panama also promises quicker approval time, allowing ads to be shown quicker. Previously, this took between 1 and 3 days, compared say to Google AdWords where you can have ads showing within 15 minutes of signing up for your account. Panama will now be in par with Google on this front.

Panama will use the feature of ad testing (much like Google's existing feature), whereby ads will be rotated evenly, and tested simultaneously for best performance. Those performing better will be shown more often.

A Visible Quality Index will be implemented (again much like Google's Quality Score) to ensure that advertisers who optimise their accounts and provide users with a quality experience (Google's term), will achieve a higher Quality Index. This will ensure that they achieve a higher ad position at a lower cost in comparison to their competitors.

The new system has been developed so that it can evolve with market trends easily. Hopefully, when Panama has been released worldwide, it will offer the ability to target multiple countries from one log in account. As it stands now, users must create separate accounts for the countries they wish to target. Not only is this frustrating, but also extremely time-consuming and costly as each account must be managed individually.

Find more information on the Yahoo! Europe Panama Upgrade here.

SEO or PPC or BOTH?

Many people assume that if they are appearing in the organic results (through Search Engine Optimisation - SEO) in search engines such as Google, Yahoo or MSN that there is no need to use the respective Pay Per Click (PPC) systems such as Google AdWords, Yahoo Search Marketing or Microsoft adCenter.

This assumption is wrong.

Recent results carried out by Google show 3 major statistics:

• AdWords: 1000 impressions will recieve on average 10 clicks in top position
• Organic: 1000 impressions will recieve on average 20 clicks in top position
• BOTH: 1000 impressions will recieve on average 60 clicks in top position

These results show that you can double your traffic by being at the top of results in both PPC and organic listings.

What must also be taken into consideration is the syndication that takes place when PPC is deployed. When opted into the search network in Google AdWords for example, your ad will be syndicated across seven other search engines including Lycos, Netscape, Alexa, Ask, Hotbot, AOL and Go. Yahoo Search Marketing have a similar system spanning Altavista, Alltheweb, Yahoo and Dogpile.

Therefore, taking this into consideration, it is important to be at the top in both the organic results (through SEO) and the sponsored results (through PPC Management) to get the most traffic to your website.

What is more important is to have a fully optimised PPC account to get the best Return On Investment (ROI). Google has the most advanced PPC system and the widest reach on the internet, therefore Optimisation is a must. Unless you are making use of all the features available to you in your PPC account, you will lose money as you will be paying top price for the top position. With a fully optimised PPC account, you can increase your quality score, resulting in a higher position with a lower Cost Per Click (CPC). Our PPC techniques page shows all of the functions in Google AdWords that you should be using to get the best ROI. If you are not using these functions, then contact us for a quote on PPC Management to maximise you Return On Investment.

Unsolicited Electronic Messages Ordinance

Compelite take pride in the fact that they have followed respectable eMarketing practices since introducing their eMarketing system to the public over 6 years ago. The Australian Spam Act 2003, which came into force on April 10th 2004 had no affect on Compelite's eMarketing system, as all rules set forth, were already being adhered to. Therefore with the introduction of the Unsolicited Electronic Messages Ordinance (UEMO) to Hong Kong on 1st of June 2007, we can proudly say that we have one of the first eMarketing systems in Hong Kong that fully comply with the regulations of the new ordinance. Having said that…

Hong Kong’s promises to enact an anti-spam law have finally come into realisation with the release of the Unsolicited Electronic Messages Ordinance (UEMO).

It should also be noted that these UEM’s (Unsolicited Electronic Messages) apply only to messages that are sent by someone residing in Hong Kong; to someone residing in Hong Kong.

Due to commence in two phases, with phase 1 beginning on the 1st of June 2007, we will see the end of spam messages with the purpose of advertising, promoting or offering any goods, services, business opportunities sent via:

• Pre-recorded voice messages sent to telephones
• Text messages sent via SMS
• Multimedia messages sent via MMS
• Faxes or
• eMails

Phase one, due to be deployed on the 1st of June 2007, will consist of the following parts:

Part 4 of the UEMO includes fraud and other illicit activities related to the sending of multiple commercial electronic messages including:

• falsifying header information in sent emails
• using a false identity when registering electronic addresses or domain names that are used to send multiple emails
• falsely representing to be the registrant of an email address or domain name that is used to send multiple emails.

Offenders to the above activities will be liable to an unlimited fine and/or imprisonment up to 10 years.

Part 3 of the UEMO includes the use of dishonest techniques to increase the number of recipients, including:

• Supply, acquisition or use of email address harvesting software or harvested address lists for sending multiple emails without the consent of the recipients
• Automatically generating email addresses to send unsolicited emails
• The use of automated techniques to register for 5 or more email addresses to send multiple emails
• Relay or retransmission of multiple emails to deceive recipients of the source of these messages.

Offenders to the above activities will be liable to a fine of up to HK$1 Million and/or imprisonment up to 5 years.

Individuals may also take out civil action against those who commit these unsolicited activities, due to any loss or damage caused under the UEMO.

Phase two is due to be deployed by the end of 2007. This involves the ability for members of the public to register their phone, fax and SMS/MMS numbers in a do-not-call register.

The following article was recently published in the South China Morning Post:

Unsolicited Electronic Messages Bill ignores cold calls
Telesales escape curbs under anti-spam law
Main provisions of the legislation

• Commercial e-mail, SMS, fax or phone calls must include sender’s identity and information allowing receiver to unsubscribe
• Senders must keep unsubscribe request for seven years
• Senders have 10 days to remove subscribers upon request
• Do-not call register to be set up
• No misleading subject headings
• Penalties range from HK$100,000 to HK$1 million in fines and five years in jail
• Appeal board to be set up
• Overseas e-mails exempt
• Employees’ spam action can be blamed on employer

Cold calls from telesales agents plying goods and services have been excluded from an anti-spam law passed yesterday – an exemption which the government says could save tens of thousands of jobs.

Secretary for Commerce, Industry and Technology Joseph Wong Wing-ping said commercial activities involving person-to-person telesales were estimated to amount to HK$7.2 billion. To restrict this under the anti-spam law would affect the livelihoods of sale agents.

But he pledged the bureau would closely watch these activities and would not rule out the possibility of taking future action to regulate them.

The Unsolicited Electronic Messages Bill – aimed at stemming spam e-mails, text messages, pre-recorded calls, faxes and video and audio messages – was passed in the Legislative Council yesterday.

The bill covers unsolicited electronic messages from businesses advertising, promoting or sponsoring goods or services, taped phone messages, and unsolicited messages with a Hong Kong link included – meaning messages sent from registered addresses or numbers in Hong Kong or to local numbers.

E-mails from overseas addresses cannot be included as no international protocol for dealing with such messages exists.

The law also includes a provision under which people can sign up to a “do not call” register and anyone who contact people on the register can be prosecuted.

People who send spam e-mail or enable others to do so may face fines ranging from HK$100,000 to HK$1 million and up to five years in jail once the law is enacted. The section of the law covering the sending of spam e-mails will become effective on June 1. Other aspects will come into effect by the end of this year.

Legislator Wong Ting-kwong proposed an amendment to include person-to-person calls in the bill, saying it was unreasonable for cold-callers to do business at the expense of the “innocents…. When you receive a letter, you can choose not to open it. But with cold calls, you pick it up without knowing it is one”, he said.

However, bureau chief Mr. Wong said it was “technically” difficult to collect evidence for the prosecution of person-to-person cold calls.

The legislator’s motion for an amendment was vetoed after two thirds of the voting members backed the government’s bill.

Randall Davidson, chairman of the Hong Kong Direct Marketing Association, welcomed the decision not to include cold-callers in the bill.

We don’t feel that person-to-person calls came under the definitions of the bill,” he said, adding that his association members did not usually use recorded messages in marketing campaigns.

"They have a terribly low response rate and everyone, including our own members, consider them a nuisance.”

In an earlier submission, his organization, along with the Call Centre Association, estimated that more than 400,000 people relied on phone contact to promote their products and services.

The Consumer Council, which previously submitted views on the bill to Legco, had pushed for cold-calling to be included under the provisions of the bill.

A spokeswoman for the consumer watchdog, Rosa Wong Wan-ming, said the bill was not proactive enough.

“But it [does] take steps to combat the problem of spam,” she said. “We hope the effectiveness of this legislation can be reviewed after a period. If it’s not working, we hope more proactive steps can be taken to amend the situation.”

When the new law comes into effect, you may report any unsolicited messages to OFTA (Office of the Telecommunications Authority) via the form found on their website here: http://www.ofta.gov.hk/en/enq_help/uem.html. This form will also be obtainable through a fax-on-demand service (call 2961 6333, press 3 for English then 9 for ‘Information by Fax’).

For further information regarding the UEM, you may visit the OFTA website at www.ofta.gov.hk or call their hot line on 2961 6333 (press 3 for English then 4 for UEM matters).

Competitive Edge Dynamics Registration System

Competitive Edge Dynamics Ltd. have chosen Compelite to implement their Customer Registration System, which allows users to register and log in to their system when placing orders etc.

Compelite offer a wide range of web applications, including customised applications built to your specific needs. Several of these applications include Content Management Systems (CMS), eMarketing, on-line surveys, event registration, and web monitoring.

Pay Per Click Management

Due to popular demand, Compelite have expanded their expertise in Pay Per Click (PPC) management, and now offer Yahoo Search Marketing and Microsoft adCenter management.

Although Google offer the most advanced PPC system on the market, we have decided to expand our services to include Yahoo Search Marketing and Microsoft adCenter so that we can offer our clients a wider range of services.

Yahoo Search Marketing have recently upgraded their PPC system in the US to their new Panama ad system in order to better compete with Google AdWords. Although Yahoo started the PPC systems that we see today (formerly called GoTo, then Overture, then Yahoo Search Marketing), we now see them continuously playing catch up with Google. Their lastest addition has been their ad ranking system which closely resembles Google's Quality Score system.

Microsoft have also recently updated their ppc system from MSN adCenter to Microsoft adCenter, as well as updated several aspects of their tools available.