SMEs - Make your IT resources go further

Smaller businesses and organisations are having to move fast in order to keep up with and make the most of new technology opportunities. It has been suggested that 2009 will be ‘the tipping point’ where businesses start to switch over to the cloud, as they gain more understanding of it.

It is expected that small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) will suffer more than most in the current economic downturn. A combination of smaller cashflows, shrinking IT funds available for investment and a lack of internal resources are among the obstacles they all face.

The answer lies in the SMEs ability to be more adaptable and innovative than larger corporations and those who can find the best IT deals available will be heads above the rest. There are signs that this is exactly what SMEs are doing, by looking for new ways to gain technology without paying through the nose.

Tim Jackson, chairman of technology consultancy Inflector, has noticed that SMEs are moving more towards outsourcing their IT. He has seen the demand for web hosting rise dramatically. He says that, “This trend is likely to be replicated in other areas, with SMEs expected to start outsourcing services to other countries in much the same way as larger enterprises do now.” He also said that, “This move will be pushed by a number of elements including virtualisation, a reduction in computer costs, and the availability of faster network connections due to expanded broadband rollouts.”

BroadGroup, a consulting group has published a recent report suggesting that SMEs will increasingly turn to cloud computing and software-as-a-service (SaaS). Both models can help smaller businesses to deliver new products and services quicker and at a lower cost.

The SaaS model is gaining a lot of clout in the business world, with large software vendors and application service providers like HP, IBM and Microsoft, now offering business applications such as customer relationship management (CRM), databases, knowledge management and web development software as web-based utilities.

Analyst Gartner estimates that organisations are typically saving between 25 and 40 per cent by using SaaS-based CRM applications. The savings are made up of reduced application expense and lower implementation costs.

SaaS offers a pay-as-you-go approach, which is particularly appealing to SMEs as it allows them to only pay for the resources they need without the worry of installing, upgrading, maintaining or securing those systems. They avoid the expense of hardware, installation, maintenance fees, software licensing and the need for the dedicated internal IT resources needed to administer systems.

“Some of the earlier adopters [of SaaS] were SMEs, but it is down to cashflow and the fact that many organisations do not need to keep their own servers under the stairs,” says David Mitchell, senior vice president of IT research at Ovum.

“Driving down cost is the obvious reason for moving to SaaS/cloud computing, but there are two aspects to cost – ­ total cost of ownership and cashflow,” says Inflector’s Jackson. “If you save 20 per cent off the cost of the IT over five years, that is nice, but if doing it involves spending 80 per cent of the money right now, that has a more dramatic effect.”

Part of the appeal is the flexibility it affords its users. In the past, if a company wanted to offer a new service, it would need to build the technology infrastructure to support that and factor in the cost of paying the money upfront.

“With the cloud model, you can actually try it out without incurring significant capital costs,” says Jackson.

In future, suggests Jackson, some of the larger SMEs will start examining options that look more like cloud services, where they lease computer power to run intensive applications and storage space by the megabyte.

Up until now, the new cloud computing model has tended to focus more on the consumer market, with companies such as Google and Amazon offering simple and standard on-demand applications such as word processors or spreadsheets, coupled with online storage resources.

“Many executives are still very sceptical about the cloud,” says Jackson. “But there are millions of consumers already using it. It is gaining rapid and universal adoption – ­ 2009 will be the tipping point where a wider business community will start switching to the cloud as they come to understand it more.”

Other ways SMEs are avoiding the expense of software licensing include the use of open-source software, where firms pay maintenance and support costs but the software is free.

Nevertheless, the fees for commercial open-source packages such as those on offer from Red Hat, Novell or Ingres, can often equal the total cost of ownership of propriety software over time.

“It is difficult to move people onto open-source software on the desktop if they are used to Windows and Word environments,” says Ovum’s Mitchell. “Also, is it actually going to save them anything by moving to OpenOffice and Linux for instance? Because when it comes to replacing those assets in two or three years’ time, there might be an issue.”

For many SMEs, however, IT delivers sufficient business benefits to justify owning their own hardware and software. In such cases, SMEs lack the clout to establish direct relationships with technology vendors, and instead buy goods and services through the reseller channel.

This does not mean SMEs should expect lower levels of service, says Glenn Morrison, managing director of UK business-to-business reseller Upgrade Options. Resellers are better able to forge a close relationship with the user, he says, and have better insight into available inventory, ensuring they can deliver orders to schedule.

Eximium MD recognised as ‘Technology Entrepreneur of the Year’

Further to my previous posting about the Bright Sparc awards, I’m proud and honoured to announce that I was crowned ‘Technology Entrepreneur of the Year’ at the Bright Sparc awards evening at the Cranfield Management Research Institute, part of Cranfield University, on 13th May!!

This is the second award I’ve received so far this year, and represents a major achievement, particularly given the stiff competition I was up against. This is a reflection on the whole team at Eximium, and the quality of their abilities and approach, so I can’t take all the credit myself!!

My award was sponsored by The Open University, and so was presented by Brigid Heywood who is their Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Research and Enterprise).

Here I am accepting the award.

I was given a free ticket and space to exhibit at Cranfield’s Venture Day on May 14th, which was an excellent event.  I was particularly inspired by terrific keynote speeches from Lord Karan Billimoria, CEO of Cobra Beer, and Mel Young, founder of the Big Issue in Scotland.

Cranfield University’s CMRI is a world class facility for the study of business management.

The Sparc Technology network is managed by the Milton Keynes Enterprise Hub and run by knowledge-based organisations for technology, who are seeking to develop face-to-face networking opportunities.  They run regular monthly events featuring high profile keynote speakers, an annual awards evening and competitive pitching for local technology led businesses.

Chris Dunkley, Sparc’s network director, said in their press release about my award: “The Bright Sparc Awards have provided an excellent opportunity to celebrate the achievements of some of the region’s most innovative entrepreneurs and technology-led businesses. Derrick Cameron has been instrumental in bringing the benefits of technology to businesses in the East of England. He has also enabled Eximium to both survive and thrive in the current economic climate through the adoption of the Procession tool.

“As a business Eximium is bringing the true power of IT within the reach and understanding of businesses throughout the region, by delivering its unique approach and the latest advancements in business software technology.”

I’m absolutely delighted to have been chosen for this prestigious award and I hope I can continue to live up to the standards that the judging panel felt I had set!

Start them early

They say that the children of today are more at ease with technology than generations who have gone before them. I can believe it when I see how they zip around the computer as if it were something as simple as a colouring book. They use computers in nursery schools now and I think it’s a good thing.

It is also said that children are much more susceptible to learning in the first five years of their lives and it has been suggested that languages should be introduced at a much earlier stage within schools to take advantage of this fact.

Bearing all this in mind, I am an avid believer in starting the learning process at a young age, but I think you can take things too far! Look at these photo’s of the youngest members of Eximium Limited hard at work on their latest project.

It’s just too cute.

How to find the right people for your organisation

Make sure that you advertise the job in the appropriate place. You need to aim it at the type of people you are looking to employ. A technical role would need to be advertised in a technical publication or on a website for technical roles. Advertising it in a local paper will produce very little, if any interest.

UK ID Card Scheme

Home Secretary Jacqui Smith has said that Post offices and pharmacies could act as enrolment centres for the Government’s ID card scheme. These cards will cost £60, £30 being for the card and £30 to cover the cost of collecting the data which is to be stored on a Government database.

The launch of the £5 billion scheme will take place in Greater Manchester this autumn. Anyone who lives in the city, who holds a valid UK passport and wants an ID card, or biometric passport as they are also known, can go to their local post office or pharmacy to have their fingerprints and a scan of their face stored. You can also sign up for information alerts at directgov website.

Ms Smith is meeting with pharmacy trade groups and post office managers to discuss the plans for them to become enrolment centres.

“The companies interested in working with us to deliver the service will play a key role in ensuring the public can apply for an ID card or passport simply and easily,” she said.

“While private companies will clearly benefit from the increased footfall from offering this service, their customers will benefit from being able to quickly provide their biometrics while they are out doing the shopping.

“With an identity card, people will be able to prove their identity quickly and conveniently while helping to protect themselves against identity fraud.

“ID cards will deliver real benefits to everyone, including increased protection against criminals, illegal immigrants and terrorists.”

Opposition parties believe that the scheme should be scrapped, as £5 billion is a lot of money to spend in the current economic climate, when the government’s finances are already being squeezed. The Home Office argues that it will save money in the long term, which is currently being spent on fighting crime, terrorism and fraud.

Our concern would be how are they going to protect the data once they’ve collected it? If past experience is anything to go by, they wouldn’t do a very good job! These ID cards are voluntary at the moment, so when you consider whether to get one, you need to consider whether you want to risk your information potentially getting into the wrong hands?

We have several articles commenting on security issues involving the government. They are Learn your lesson from Revenue and Customs to avoid a security meltdown, Another Security Meltdown and More Data Security Issues.

You can find further information on the proposed ID cards on the directgov website and the Identity and Passport Service website.

Everybody has a different opinion as to whether they think ID cards are a good idea or not. You can have your say on the BBC news website.

How to find the right people for your organisation

If you find you’re having trouble making your mind up, don’t be afraid to ask them back. Use the opportunity to talk about some more specific areas and get to know them better to see how well you think they would perform in your department.

Bright Sparc Awards 2009

I’m extremely pleased to announce that I am a finalist for this year’s Bright Sparc ‘Technology Entrepreneur of the Year’ award.

The Bright Sparc awards are provided by the Sparc Technology and, this year, are in association with Cranfield University, Business Link and Bedford i-lab, among others.  The purpose of the awards is so that technology-led businesses and entrepreneurs from across the region have the opportunity to be recognised for innovative achievements and will honour those businesses or individuals who have truly excelled in their specialist field.

These are the second Bright Sparc Awards and are a great way for innovative companies in our region to showcase their work to an expert panel of judges and gain recognition for their achievements.  Milton Keynes and the surrounding regions are home to many technology companies all of whom are pushing the boundaries of their chosen specialism.  The awards were closely fought last year and gained significant recognition for the winners!

There are a total of 9 awards, in the following categories:

• Young Technology Entrepreneur of the Year 2009
• Technology Entrepreneur of the Year 2009
• Technology Led Business of the Year 2009
• Use of Sustainable Technology in a Business 2009
• Business Innovation Support Person of the Year 2009
• Best Interaction between an HEI and Business 2009
• The Best Use of Technology by a Business 2009
• Overall Bright Sparc Award 2009

The winners will be announced at an awards dinner on 13th May.  The evening starts at 6pm with drinks and the presentation of the awards at 6.30pm. There will be the chance to network over a glass of wine and a hot buffet until the end of the evening around 9pm. There are a limited number of additional tickets available, on a first come first served basis and can be purchased using a Ticket Request Form.

A great benefit of being a finalist for this award is that we will also have a free ticket to attend and exhibit at Cranfield University’s ‘Venture Day’ on the following day - 14th May.  Cranfield VentureDay 2009 is a one day conference and networking event for entrepreneurs and those interested in cutting-edge entrepreneurial performance. 

The event comprises keynote addresses by leading entrepreneurs, exposure to the latest research, exhibits by new enterprises and a networking zone.  The extensive range of workshops and plenary sessions will focus on business start-up, growth, finance and business strategy and will incorporate leading entrepreneurs, business angels, venture capitalists and academics.  Tickets for the event are £120 each.

I’m honoured and excited that we are part of this year’s awards and the Venture Day, and there is of course the possibility that I will actually win the award, which would be truly fantastic!!

Please do come and speak to me if you decide to attend either event.

Do Businesses trust workers out of the office?

The snow that crippled the country at the end of last year left many people unable to get to work. It raises the question, should businesses make it easier for people to work from home, therefore significantly reducing the cost to the business of employees not being able to make it to the office?  Many people say yes, though it has been suggested that managers still aren’t doing anything about it.

It would seem that managers are still reluctant to allow their employees to work remotely, as less than 1 in 10 businesses trust employees to work from home, according to new research released by BT and Nortel. This is surprising considering 42% of them were confident that their employees could do a better job at home!  Does this mean that many managers are stuck in the past, keeping outdated working models, rather than moving with the times and moving people away from their desks?

BT and Nortel results showed that some employees felt that they could be more productive on the road, working with customers if they had the right technology.  However, 58% of them didn’t feel confident of being able to do a better job outside the office.  Perhaps this shows that employees are as uncomfortable with remote working as their managers.

The fact remains, however, that remote working would benefit business, as the snow-related problems demonstrated.  It is concerning that so few managers trusted their employees to work remotely.

“This boils down to a matter of trust,” said John Wright, chairman of small businesses in a statement. “In the current climate, small firms need to be operating at full stretch.”

According to BT and Nortel, the research pointed at outdated research practices such as ‘presenteeism’, where it was thought that if workers weren’t at their desks, they weren’t working.  BT claimed that business investment in unified communications could help solve the problem, as managers could check the productivity of their staff.

Eximium believe that remote working is a very powerful tool which should be utilised wherever appropriate. Our consultants work on site, with clients, and from home - so remote working is certainly a day-to-day occurrence here.  As with everything, you need to have the right tools for the job, but as long as you are properly equipped, there should be no stopping you getting the benefits of flexible remote working in your organisation.

How to find the right people for your organisation

Don’t take what they say on their CV for granted. Many people exaggerate the truth. Get them to tell you in their own words about anything which is important to you. A good way to do this is to get them to talk you through their CV. Part of the benefit to this is as much how they talk as what they say. It’s often enlightening to discover what people really know, despite what they have put on their CV.

Strength of convergence shown by growth of business IP phone

Research by In-Stat, showing that 31 million voice-centric business IP phones will have shipped by 2012, demonstrates the popularity of  converged networks that carry both voice and data traffic.

Converged networks offer firms of all sizes great benefits in terms of streamlined network efficiency and reduced maintenance and operational costs as companies need only be acquainted with one, not many, network topologies.

The uptake of IP phones in the business sector is so pronounced  that among voice-centric IP phones, businesses will outpace consumers more than 10 to 1 according to the In-Stat report.

In-Stat analyst Norm Bogen said, “IP-based communications in general are rapidly replacing tradtional networks at a steady pace in the workplace, but adoption is slow among consumers. Within the business market, corded IP phones remain the standard, and will continue to dominate the enterprise IP phone market through 2012. However, WLAN and IP DECT phones continue to grow, especially within some specific vertical and geographical markets.”

In-Stat also found that Wi-Fi integration in cellular phones is growing rapidly even if the majority of Wi-Fi/cellular phones are not designed for VoIP. Cisco, Avaya, and Nortel are leading the market for enterprise IP phones.

How to find the right people for your organisation

Whilst some unstructured discussion is useful in an interview, it’s also important to have some questions prepared in advance that you can ask everybody and use as a direct comparison. Some of both styles works best.

Our New Partners - Procession plc

We are extremely pleased to announce that we have created an exciting and important new partnership with an innovative software company based in Chesham - Procession plc.

Procession plc are the creators of a fantastic software tool, known simply as Procession, which has revolutionised the capabilities of businesses software.  Procession has been developed over the last 20 years and is capable of both computerising and automating any aspect of business process - and it does this in a quick, flexible, and highly cost-effective way.

We will be selling, developing and supporting Procession implementations, using our IT skills and our experience in helping business owners, directors and managers benefit from using IT in their business.  The nature of Procession means that it can benefit any organisation, of any size, and in any sector - and can be used to computerise and/or automate as little or as much of their business processes as required.  It works extremely well when allowed to grow organically in line with the business needs, rather than having to do everything all at once.  The first place to use it is where the most pain exists, and then expand things from there.  The great thing about Procession is that the business themselves can take ownership of their business logic, and can make changes, without technical assistance.

UK Sport have made excellent use of Procession over the last 7 years, to computerise and automate their complex grant management processes for Athletes, and they are delighted with the efficiency, control and flexibility that Procession gives them.  However, there are literally hundreds of other applications that Procession can be used in - there is no limit to the ways in which this tool can be used to benefit businesses.

A major benefit of Procession is the graphical tool that allows processes to be mapped out in a visual environment, using building blocks, which business people can understand and comment on.  Once that is done, and the relevant business people are happy with the process, then the application is ready and can be tried out straight away - there is no coding required to make the process work, so what you see is what you get!  This makes the process quick and easy, provides a permanent view of exactly what has been deployed, means that there is no room for misinterpretation, and even makes ongoing changes and improvements to the process possible simply by changing the picture!  This is an incredible acheivement that has to be seen to be believed.

We are looking at applications for Procession with our smaller customers (one of them is a one man band), both medium sized and large organisations (including a multi-million pound international corporation), and even into public sector tenders.

Procession represents the ideal mixture of the benefits of packaged software (i.e. the work to develop the framework has already been done) with the flexibility of custom-built software (i.e. you can have it reflect exactly the way your business works) but without the drawbacks of either.

This is an important partnership for us, because Procession is exactly the type of tool business owners and managers need to unlock the benefits of using IT to help them run their businesses.  It is a business tool, created by business people, and aimed at business people.  Given these values are absolutely at the core of our business, there is a perfect fit between us and Procession!

There is much work for us to do now, to integrate Procession into our other product and service offerings, and to produce marketing materials, etc. so we can start to spread the word about this fantastic tool.

In the meantime, if you would like a demo, please just drop me a line from our contact us page.

How to find the right people for your organisation

Put the candidate at ease to get past their polished interview technique. You could walk them to their car for instance. Get them to relax. It can tell you a lot.

Further Dates for Business Link Seminars

As previously announced, I have been asked by Business Link East to run a course of 6 workshops called ‘Growing IT in Your Business’.

In addition to this, I’m pleased to confirm another 6 dates for my original Business Link Seminar ‘Getting Maximum Benefit From Your IT Systems’, as follows:

 5th Jun 09 - Chelmsford, Pontins Park
10th Sep 09 - Hatfield, Homestead Hall Hotel
16th Oct 09 - Bedford, Wyboston Lakes
24th Nov 09 - Ipswich, Holiday Inn Orwell
3rd Feb 10 - Cambridge, Villiers Park Educational Trust
30th Mar 10 - Norwich, The Forum Trust

Both of these seminars are part of Business Link East’s ‘Growing Business’ events programme. You can book onto any of the events within this programme online through their Events Booking Service.

Also, I’m delighted to say that Business Link have recently produced the video shown below, to introduce the type of briefings they offer, which features footage from one of my seminars.  As well as showing me waving my arms very enthusiastically, the video shows a general flavour of the events and includes some customer testimonials.

These briefings are really excellent and are all led by expert speakers.  I heartily recommend finding out what events are on in your area, and I hope to see you at one of my seminars soon!

Mobile computing a necessity despite recession

The Nielsen Company has conducted research in the five larger Western European countries and the United States for Tellabs, which shows that the global economic downturn will not hamper the use of mobile computing platforms to access the Internet.

Findings show that more than half of the approximately 200 million mobile data users in those countries expect to increase use in the next two years and mobile computing will flourish as professionals intend to ‘dramatically’ increase use of mobile data services with significant growth over the course of the next twelve months. More than a quarter of those who do not use mobile data services today intend to start using them within a short period of time.

Even though they expressed concerns about cost, speed and quality of service, up to 71% of consumers in the survey anticipate daily use of services such as mobile Internet.

There will be strong growth in network traffic from around 175 million consumers for services such as mobile Internet, E-mail and multimedia services, according to Tellabs.

“Mobile data services are not a luxury, but a necessity that consumers plan to purchase despite economic conditions,” explained Pat Dolan, vice president, Europe, Middle East and Africa, Tellabs. “By planning urgent and strategic network upgrades, operators can quickly and cost-efficiently address users’ issues and meet increasing demands on networks.”

The detailed breakdown of the top five services that non-users intend to start using shows that anticipated demand is not evenly split. Around half of U.S. non-users of the mobile Internet intend to use it in the next two years, compared with a third of non-users in Europe: U.S. consumers will drive more new mobile Internet use than Europeans.

Here at Eximium we would be lost without our mobile computing. We do a lot of our work off site at client’s sites, so we need to be mobile, but also efficient. Derrick has written two articles about the benefits he gets from his Nokia E61 Smart phone, which he uses for his emails and jotting down important thoughts, which can come to you at the strangest of times. It helps you to make the most of your time when you can use the odd five minutes here and there in the day, which would usually be wasted waiting around, doing something useful to you.

Read Derrick’s full articles, Diary of a Nokia E61 User - Making time for creative thinking and Mobile Internet - now this is more like it.

How to find the right people for your organisation

If the role involves meeting your clients, use the interview to assess how suitable the candidate is for that type of role. Would you be happy with them representing your company in the same way as they represent themselves?

Google Earth dives into the deep

Google announced its new release of Google Earth version 5.0 in February, with a map of the ocean floor allowing users to dive beneath the water surface and explore a 3D underwater terrain, making the world’s largest habitat less of a mystery.

In the newest version of Google Earth has the ocean feature is on by default. Users can zoom in on the ocean and will see a dynamic water surface, which they can dive beneath to navigate 3D sea floor terrain.

It also introduces an Historical Imagery feature. This enables users to virtually travel back in time through archival satellite and aerial imagery. It is simple to create a narrated tour in Google Earth using ‘Touring’ and this is shared Google Mars 3D, which features hi-res imagery and terrain of the red planet.

It also contains information contributed by the world’s leading scientists, researchers, and ocean explorers in 20 content layers. These include an “Explore the Ocean” layer containing photos and videos about ocean hot spots around the world contributed by over 80 individuals and organisations; a National Geographic Magazine geo-quiz and overlays from their new Atlas of the Ocean; and videos from the archives of Jacques Cousteau, featuring never-before-seen footage of historic ocean expeditions.

Eric Schmidt, Google’s CEO, said: “In discussions about climate change, the world’s oceans are often overlooked despite being an integral part of the issue”, during the launch at the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco.

“About one-third of the carbon dioxide that we emit into the atmosphere ends up in the oceans. Furthermore, biodiversity loss in our oceans in the next 20-30 years will be roughly equivalent to losing an entire Amazon rainforest, but this goes unnoticed because we can’t see it. This is why today’s launch of Google Earth 5.0 is so important - it gives us an opportunity to change everyone’s perspective.”

As the saying goes, ‘knowledge is power’ and we at Eximium think that the use of technology in such a powerful and positive way, which opens up a wealth of information and a capacity for learning by exploration, has to be applauded.

Visit Google Earth today to see for yourself.

How to find the right people for your organisation

To save everyone’s time, ensure that your recruitment partner has confirmed the key attributes of the role, e.g. working hours, amount of travelling, salary etc with any potential candidate, before you see them for interview. This should avoid the situation where you find yourself  interviewing a candidate who is obviously unsuitable, e.g. they are not prepared to travel.

Growing IT in Your Business

I’m excited to announce that we’ve been asked by Business Link East to provide another series of seminars as part of their ‘growing business’ events programme.

We’ll be developing and presenting a 2 hour briefing session for them, aimed at SME business owners, directors and managers entitled ‘Growing IT in Your Business’, in their April 2009 to March 2010 events season. There will be 6 sessions at various venues across the region.

I’m pleased to announce that the dates and venues for each of the 6 sessions are:

• 17th Jun 09 - Thurrock, Orsett Hall
• 16th Sep 09 - Hemel Hempstead, Holiday Hill
• 23rd Oct 09 - Luton, The Leaside Hotel
• 10th Nov 09 - Bury St Edmunds, Ickworth Hotel
• 24th Feb 09 - Wisbech, The Boat House
• 24th Mar 10 - Norwich, The Forum Trust

You’ll be able to book online via their Events Service.

Twitter is fastest-growing website 2008/09

According to research by Hitwise UK, Twitter is the fastest growing website of the year. Traffic to the micro-blogging site has increased ten-fold (947%) from January 2008 to mid-January 2009.

The site, www.twitter.com, is the 23rd most popular social networking site in the UK and has risen from being the 2,953rd most-visited website to the 291st most-visited.

Hitwise’s Research Director, Robin Goad, said: “If anything, the service is even more popular than our numbers imply, as we are only measuring traffic to the main Twitter website. If the people accessing their Twitter accounts via mobile phones and third party applications (such as Twitterrific, Twitterfeed and Tweetdeck) were included, the numbers would be even higher.”

“Many people seem to find Twitter addictive: the average amount of time that people spend on Twitter.com has more than trebled from less than 10 minutes a year ago to half an hour now.”

The most-followed celebrity on the site is currently Barack Obama, who has over 647,853 followers. UK celebrities are also popular – Stephen Fry has more than 362,797 followers, John Cleese has 124,064, while Jonathan Ross has 180,114, even used the site to communicate to fans during his suspension from the BBC.

The BBC has also fared well from Twitter’s success as around 10% of Twitter’s traffic goes to news and media websites. BBC News currently ranks as the 7th most popular site visited after Twitter.

However, Facebook remains the most popular social networking site overall with a 37% market share – on Christmas day 2008 the site received 1 in every 22 UK internet visits – far out-performing You Tube, the next most popular site with a 17% market share.

How to find the right people for your organisation

Make sure you know exactly what skills will be needed for the role. If this is an existing role, it’s always worth trying to learn from your experiences with the current job holder to help you establish your ideal replacement. What does the current person do well, what are their weaknesses and is there anything new you want brought to the role and or the team? It isn’t always easy, but try and think ahead to where the role is going and what further soft skills it might be useful for them to have.

Fight the Credit Crunch with IT

I’m pleased to announce that the ‘Fight the Credit Crunch with IT’ workshop we delivered for EEDA’s takeITon campaign has now been published as 4 online rich-media seminars!  This was acheived using a recording of the morning workshop at the prestigious Hethel Engineering Centre in Norwich.  You get to see me delivering the seminar and see the presentation alongside, plus there are links to useful content from the workshop.  You can easily jump around the sections, as required.

This means that that people who came can revist some of the information, plus anyone who missed this workshop can now see me in action and get the benefits of the workshop directly from the takeITon website!

Just use this link to watch the 4 online seminars taken from the workshop: ‘Fight the Credit Crunch With IT’ Video

Facebook celebrates fifth birthday

Popular social networking site Facebook celebrated its fifth birthday on the 4th of February this year by giving users each a free virtual gift.

Facebook was founded by Mark Zuckerberg in 2004 and currently boasts over 150 million users. It has overtaken MySpace, which has around 130 million users, as the world’s favourite internet social networking website in recent years.

In his blog, Zuckerberg thanked Facebook users: “While we at Facebook make products that enable people to share information efficiently, Facebook is mostly the product of the people who use it.

“Without you and the connections you make to others, the products we create wouldn’t have much meaning.”

The blog also shares images from the website that show the development of Facebook from its humble beginnings in a Harvard dorm room to the multinational and multilingual social network it is today.

As a thank you to users, Facebook is offering each user a virtual gift free of charge, which is available from the Facebook Gift Shop.

Zuckerberg also commented on the state of Facebook and the internet today: “The culture of the Internet has […] changed pretty dramatically over the past five years.

“Before, most people wouldn’t consider sharing their real identities online. But Facebook has offered a safe and trusted environment for people to interact online, which has made millions of people comfortable expressing more about themselves.”

Millions of people use Facebook everyday to keep up with friends, upload an unlimited number of photos, share links and videos, and learn more about the people they meet.

Derrick Cameron, MD of Eximium Limited said “Social networking has become a massive phenomenon in recent years and studies have shown that it can sometimes be as valuable as business networking. So much in business is about who you know and where you make these contacts is irrelevant.”

How to find the right people for your organisation

Make sure you know exactly what tasks are involved within the role. Sit down with the person who does the job and review and update the job description. It may have evolved considerably from when the vacancy was last filled.

How to Market Your Business Online

I ran the first two of my ‘How to Market Your Business Online’ workshops for EEDA’s TakeITon campaign yesterday at Sprowston Manor Hotel, Norwich.  With more than 60 people attending, I was delighted to see how popular the sessions were and how engaged everybody was. 

The feedback was excellent with many people taking time to tell me what a great difference the briefing made to their understanding and approach towards online marketing.

This seminar is a follow up to the earlier ‘Fight the Credit Crunch with IT’ briefing for EEDA, which also forms part of their TakeITon initiative.   However, attending the previous seminar is not a pre-requisite!

I received some great feedback from Penny Lindop at Penny Lindop Designs this morning.  She attended one of yesterday’s workshops and was very complimentary of both the content and my delivery.  She has posted a great comment on her blog, which you can view by clicking the following link:

Card Art Norfolk blog

If you would like more information or to attend one of these free workshops, please use the following link:

TakeITon website

I’m off to Bedford on Thursday to deliver another 2 of these sessions.  It’s quite hard work delivering so many seminars in such a short space of time, but very rewarding – especially when business owners like Penny are finding them so useful!!

The Queen’s new website

The British Monarchy launched a revamped version of its website on Thursday the 12th of February.  The Queen attended a reception in the Blue Drawing Room at Buckingham Palace, to mark the occasion.

Sir Tim Berners-Lee OM, KBE, inventor of the World Wide Web, travelled from the US for the launch, and said a few words about the history of the web. He then introduced a short film featuring students at Kingsbury High School where the Queen launched the first version of the Monarchy website in 1997.

The Queen, 82, who visited Google last year, is keen to make her website, Royal.gov.uk, more user-friendly and relevant to modern-day society – it is visited by approximately 250,000 users from around the world each week.

The new website has a more accessible design and utilises a number of new technological features, such as Google maps integration with the Royal Diary of Engagements, integration with the Royal Channel on YouTube, a password protected Media Centre, a new Personnel module to allow job applicants to apply online, and a new search function.

It also features a wealth of new content including expanded information on the Commonwealth Realms and a new section on Royal animals – such as her infamous pet Corgis and Dorgis.

Rarely seen video and documents from the Royal Archives will also become accessible, including the original recording of the Queen’s first public speech (as Princess Elizabeth) on 13 October, 1940, with a radio address to the children of the Commonwealth.

 “It is important to move with the times and keep your websites up to date with new technologies and as user friendly as possible”, said Derrick Cameron of Eximium Ltd.  “It must draw people to it and keep them interested once there”.

How to find the right people for your organisation

Read people’s CVs carefully.  They can give you a real insight into what the person thinks is important to a potential employer, and their communication style and skills, e.g. if the role demands attention to detail, then a CV full of spelling mistakes will tell you that they are not the right person for the job.

‘How to Market Your Business Online’ Workshop

As many of you will already know, we created and delivered a series of 6 workshops for EEDA starting in November last year, as a key part of their takeITon development programme.  These FREE seminars were aimed at SME business owners and managers and entitled ‘Fight the Credit Crunch with IT’, and I’ve now delivered this workshop 8 times, with a further 2 planned for next week.  It is also available online via the takeITon tv channel.  These events all went extremely well and the feedback received has been very positive.

So, I’m delighted to say that we have now developed the second workshop for the takeITon programme, entitled ‘How to Market Your Business Online’, covering the essentials of online marketing - including the creation of a online marketing plan during the session!  So far, this workshop is being held at three venues across the region with two sessions available each day, as follows:

• 17th March  — Sprowston Manor Hotel, Norwich
• 19th March — Bedford Swan Hotel, Bedford
• 26th March — Selwyn College, Cambridge

These sessions are all fully booked.  However, there is a further event being held at our very own Basepoint Business and Innovation Centre on 30th April, which still has spaces available.  To book, contact Basepoint directly by either calling Heather Pedder on 01582 434 206 or email her at heatherpedder@basepoint.co.uk.

However, there is every chance that EEDA will be able to run this again at further venues - watch this space!

For more information about the new seminar see the takeITon website.

Debenhams’ IT investment pays dividends

With daily statements from retailers reporting poor sales figures, Debenhams has bucked the trend by recording positive financial figures for the Christmas period, based on store trading and boosted by a strong e-commerce performance

Debenhams Direct, the online branch of the well known department store registered a growth in yearly visitor numbers and sales up 39.2 per cent and 37.4 per cent respectively. Despite posting a 3.3 per cent drop in like-for-like sales for the 12 week period since 21 October, the retailer reported an increase in profit from last year’s figures, with a ‘creditable’ festive season.

“Our increase in profit is pleasing and reflects our stated intention to invest gross margin gains in strategic promotions as needed but overall to run the business focusing on cash profit rather than just sales,” said Debenhams’ Chief Executive Rob Templeman.

The organisation has spent in excess of £30 million since 2007 on upgrading its IT systems in both the front and back offices. Measures have included the implementation of a programme to use radio frequency identification (RFID) technology to record in-store stock levels, as well as a data conductor to gather sales data from stores across the UK.

“In these times of economic recession, it is good to hear that a high street name like Debenhams is trading profitably,” comments Derrick Cameron of IT business specialist, Eximium. “We work with many clients from the retail sector, and having efficient software in place which is able to give you the information that you need is an essential part of running a retail organisation. Having a wealth of information at your fingertips also enables a business to analyse how they are performing and what they can do to improve. It seems likely that the investment that Debenhams has made in upgrading its IT systems will have had a major impact on performance.”

How to find the right people for your organisation

If you are looking for someone for a specific technical role, consider setting them a task to complete when they come in for the interview, although don’t just surprise them with it when they arrive!  Let them know of your intention in advance so that they are prepared for it.  Completing a task for you in this situation will show you how they perform under pressure and will give you a practical insight into what sort of person they are. You may need advice as to what to ask them.

ICT Training in Schools

I was interested to read an article about the content of ICT lessons in schools. My daughter left school without a qualification in ICT. After studying for two years, the whole year group discovered that the practical work submitted by the school, didn’t meet the qualifying criteria. A failing on the schools and the examining bodies part. Now I find an article about how the skills taught in these lessons are failing the brighter pupils.

Technology plays such a big part in all our lives today, both working and domestic, that we should ensure that we equip the kids of today with all the information and skills available to us. After all, they are the business people of tomorrow.

To read the article in full, click the following link:

http://tech.uk.msn.com/news/article.aspx?cp-documentid=14732444