Faced with intense competition, property developers have been on a drive to market its units with unique architectural designs to gain a bigger slice of the market.
However, developers have occupy most, if not all, of their attention into the ‘hardware’ aspects of development, forgetting that after-sales service (software) plays a greater role in sustaining the player’s brand-name in the long-run.
“It is a very competitive playground out there. Property developers are so caught up with the design of their products and its quality that service itself is neglected. In the past, traditional developers are only concerned about the number of units sold with very little emphasis on the management afterwards,” said Amber Skyline Sdn Bhd (Amber Skyline) executive director Wee Ai Na to The Borneo Post.
A member of the Wee Boon Ping Group, branding consultancy firm Amber Skyline has been on a vigorous mode to market and brand its clientele’s portfolios on both regional and global landscape. The group has been forming strong alliances with real estate networks, one being Remax Singapore.
With years of experience within the real estate segment of the Asia Pacific region, occupancy rate, as Wee observed, in Malaysia has been ‘ridiculously’ low as compared with other countries like Singapore.
“Perhaps one of the main issues that differentiates the local properties and projects in other more developed nations like Singapore, Hong Kong and Japan is our low occupancy rate. We actually did a survey where in Malaysia, occupancy rate on average is trending at about 30 per cent to 40 per cent. Singapore, on the other hand, is standing at an average rate of 80 per cent where it is owner-occupied, and the remaining 20 per cent is out for leasing.
“That is what a developer should expect upon completion of their projects. Given the densely -populated Kuala Lumpur, I think 30 per cent or 40 per cent occupancy rate is unjustifiable. Hence, it is a completely different ball game seen here in both countries. A good infrastructure is nonetheless integral in this sense, but there should also be more initiatives on the part of the developers,” she lamented.
‘Software’ development, as Wee opined, should be warranted more emphasis amongst property developers. This would include tie-up with services solutions provider to run corporate leasing and branding exercise to attract not only domestic customers but international investors as well.
She cited China as an example of a nation that had gone through the same path that Malaysian was heading.
“The same thing happened to China about 10 years ago when they started to boom. They can copy very well on the architectural and technological part of the business (hardware) to the point that they became very technically inclined and could not catch up with the intangible part of the deal, in the sense of value-added solutions were lacking.
“Take into example, in terms of law, what was passed here in Malaysia could be the same compared with Singapore; but why is it that the development and progress in the neighbouring nation different? This boils down to the enforcement role of the state. If we are implying enforcement into the property market per se, solutions provider in Malaysia is pretty weak,” she underscored.
Singapore, although smaller in size, possessed a comprehensive marketing real estate system that was mature and transparent, according to Wee.
“They have very good agencies that provide very good link-up. At one touch, the whole world can view the records of the market, which is what international investors are seeking for – they like transparencies. They must feel at ease with the database of the market in terms of the clarity of these database and how clean it is without going into the country.
“How reliable are these source of information and how easy can they obtain these information from the platforms are amongst aspects that will attract foreign investments. These platform areas in Malaysia need to be improved,” she underlined.
Adding to this was councillor of the Malaysian Institute of Real Estate Agents, Alex J Gomez, who stressed that developers in the country had been adopting the same approach over and over again.
“What we are seeing is that developers are continuously striving for that excellence in presentation that they do not give much importance to the buyers after they sold their products.
“Branding exercise should be pursued more firmly because people are generally cautious of uncertainties hovering within the external market. A lot of the retail outlets and even residential units are empty and take-up rate had been sluggish so to speak.
“Taking into account the situation, our government has started its move to seriously begin attracting investors abroad through Malaysia Property Incorporated (MPI). While this is a good starting point, more still needs to be done,” he said to The Borneo Post in a recent phone interview.

Source:http://www.theborneopost.com/2011/11/16/property-developers-encouraged-to-focus-on-%E2%80%98software%E2%80%99-solutions/

As people across the country suffer from long-term unemployment, the tech industry is experiencing a shortage of qualified workers. Particularly in software development, employers are waging bidding wars over a tightening supply.

Take the case of Mike Champion. He and his wife, Sandra, live in the Boston suburbs with their 9-month-old daughter, Molly.

When the couple found out they were going to have another mouth to feed, Champion had just started working as a software developer at a small startup company — the type of early-stage, risky venture that often fails and goes out of business. But he wasn’t worried about getting a pink slip.

“The market, especially right now, is really hot. A lot of folks are looking for people, and so I felt very comfortable that if I needed to do a job search on short notice that I’d have a lot of options,” Champion says.

The number of job options for software engineers surprised Ben Johnson, who graduated from college this spring with a computer science degree. He remembers going to a job fair in Boston.

“Everyone in the room wanted to talk to me,” he recalls. “It wasn’t like, ‘What interviews will I get?’ It was ‘What interviews do I want to have and take?’”

Johnson chose a job at a small company that writes applications for iPhones and other smartphones. He’s not making quite as much as his friends, who are getting $70,000 to $80,000 salaries straight out of school. But he’s not complaining.

“I have a job, and I’m paid to do it, all day, and it’s awesome,” he says.

It’s not so awesome, however, if you’re paying those salaries.

“It’d be awesome to get developers at 50 percent of the price. The reality is that’s not the market,” says Dharmesh Shah, founder of an online marketing firm called Hubspot.

Shah says he’s doing everything he can to attract software engineers — paying top salaries, making the workplace as fun as possible, including, he says, “the requisite startup beer fridge, Ping-Pong table and foosball table.”

But it hasn’t been enough. Hubspot still has almost a dozen software jobs posted right now. So it’s offering a bounty for new hires.

“If you’re out there and you know someone who would make a really good Hubspot employee, we’re willing to pay you really good money — $10,000 — in order to refer that person to Hubspot,” Shah says.

Those referrals, high salaries and amenities are all costs that consumers end up paying. Shah says the other downside to this tight labor market is not being able to staff projects.

“We’ve got 50 times more ideas, really good ideas that our customers would love that people are asking for, that just never make the cut simply because we’re resource-constrained,” he says.

The main reason for the tight labor market is growing demand. As the number of apps grows, so, too, does the need for software. Andrew Bartels of Forrester Research says the hot market for developers is bound to cool off. But he says the field will continue to grow, as software plays a bigger role in our lives.

“For example, [software] in refrigerators, that’s tracking and monitoring what goes out so you can prepare a shopping list. Or software that’s showing up in medicine cabinets. Those are not places you’d normally expect to see software,” he says.And writing that software will be somebody’s job.

Source:http://www.npr.org/2011/09/05/140194803/for-software-developers-a-bounty-of-opportunity

As marketers, we have to move at the same warp speed as the technological world we live in. This app provides the opportunity to provide consumers access to our message at their fingertips. The segment that demands this is growing exponentially” said Scott Coe, Senior Vice President, Marketing at Coasthills.
The new Nine Multimedia platform is different than the small number of apps being published by other credit unions and banks. Virtually all of these 100 or so apps offer just mobile banking functions. The Nine Multimedia app adds marketing offers and current news to its mobile app’s banking functions. This means app users will get mobile banking convenience and receive up-to-the-minute news about the Credit Union and or Bank.
“Mobile banking apps improve the customer’s quality of life, while enhancing the financial institution’s ability communicate directly to members”, said CEO of Nine Multimedia, Tom Marchesello.
Nine Multimedia’s app provides mobile banking via secure access to the Credit Union or Bank’s Home Banking system, which has a complete set of controls to access a member’s account through encrypted Internet connections. Members can check account balances, transfer funds between deposit accounts, make loan payments and generate on-demand account statements from their smartphones, just like they do from their computers.
Other commonly used features include a national database search of the fee-free CO-OP or Branch ATMs nearest the mobile app user, wherever they are at that moment.
The Nine Multimedia platform will also provide marketing offers to the members, alerting them through the application itself. This will allow the Credit Union or Bank to quickly and inexpensively communicate with members. Making this the cheapest and most direct marketing channel available to financial institutions to date.
Nine Multimedia has been successfully designing and developing the Mobile Apps, Online Video Portals, and e-Commerce systems of fortune 500 media brands for over 6 years. Tom Marchesello, the CEO has an 18-year history of creating innovative technology and advertising platforms for institutions like Sony and the US. Air Force. Nine Multimedia is located in San Diego, California.

Source:-http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/10/prweb4724124.htm

Looking to make New York City more convenient for both locals and tourists? There’s an app for that. Or at least there can be — when you make it.

NYC BigApps 2.0, the second annual city-sponsored contest for software developers, was launched on Tuesday by Deputy Mayor Robert Steel at the New York Tech Meetup, a gathering of tech enthusiasts and entrepreneurs. The contest, whose stated goal is to make New York City “more transparent, accessible and accountable,” will give out a $20,000 grand prize to the best mobile app created that delivers data from the city to any interested user.

The city plans to release data from over 40 different agencies, including the Department of Transportation and the Department of Education. The data will be organized in 350 different datasets, all of which can be used by the developers to create software applications. The first competition received some criticism last year for both the amount and the quality of data that was released. City agencies are not required to give over their data, and there are some hold-outs, including the NYPD.

The winner of the first BigApps contest was called My City Way, which mixes data from the Department of Transportation, the Landmarks Preservation Committee, and the Department of Mental Health and Hygiene to help city-goers find anything from city landmarks to public restrooms.

The competition is open to individuals, non-profit organizations, and companies with fewer than 50 employees.

Source:http://www.nbcnewyork.com/around-town/events/New-York-City–104861239.html

The World Bank last week offered to reward Uganda’s finest software developers with $45,000 (Shs101 million) in awards and financial support.

The reward will be given to software developers with the capacity to come up with applications that can help to solve today’s development problems.

The world’s development challenges include; corruption, climate change, conflicts, lack of access to finance, and poor public infrastructure; transport, communication and energy, especially in developing countries such as Uganda.

Mr Robert B. Zoellick, the World Bank president, announced the awards while unveiling the “Apps for Development” competition, at the bank’s annual meetings inclined to Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in the United States.

Tackle problems
“Create applications to analyze and tackle the world’s long-standing problems,” he said in a statement, on Thursday in Washington.

Ms Shaida Badiee, the World Bank director, development research data group, added that the bank is seeking creative ‘apps’ that bring ground level insights of development challenges posed by the MDGs.

Software developers who will participate in the competition are expected to utilise the bank’s data collection centre to get ideas on which applications may be necessary.

The centre has global data on economic, human development and the environment problems encountered across the world.
“We’d like to see examples of developers everywhere using our data and combining it with their own data to build useful applications addressing local problems,” said Mr Aleem Walji, World Bank Institute innovation practice manager.

The competition challenges developers to create software applications, tools, and data visualisations or whether web-based, mobile, through SMS, smart phone, desktop, or tablet.

“The apps created in this competition will allow policy makers, researchers, and civil society to track the impact of policies, develop new solutions, and measure improvements more accurately,” said Ms Baidee.

Mr Zoellick, challenged developers around the world to enter the contest which will allow entries by January 10, 2011.
The contest comes hot on the heels of another global software development competition, which was won by Mr Alex Nyika, a Ugandan software developer based in Kenya.

Mr Nyika scooped the Base of the Pyramid award at the 2010 Mobile Monday Peer Awards that took place in Helsinki, Finland.
He beat participants from 37 counties including; United States-based Super Technologies, to the prize.

The 26-year old was recognised for developing iCheki, a mobile phone software solution designed to help users of public transport in Kenya to track taxis coming their way.

Two Ugandans participated in the hotly contested awards that seek to honour the world’s best mobile software developers.
Mr Nyika’s success speaks volumes about the potential of locally developed applications.

Source:http://www.monitor.co.ug/Business/-/688322/1029878/-/39779x/-/