Bomb Squad Isolate Globe House - Shut Down For Five Hours

On Tuesday lunchtime, workers clearing the out-buildings of 17 The Gullet next door to Globe House - the registered office of Atlas Business Group companies - found unexploded what is believed to have been a Second World War hand-grenade. For the first time in her life Jan, our local landlady at The Boot and Shoe, saw a black armoured van turn up with 'BOMB SQUAD' writ large along the side. Police cordonned off The Gullet to prevent pedestrians and vehicles approaching the area.

Fortunately nobody was present at Globe House at the time and no evacuation was necessary.

17 The Gullet has recently been sold proceeds of the estate of Mr and Mrs Shakeshaft. It was auctioned in October after being empty for around two years. The workmen are clearing the outbuildings on the instructions of the new owner.

Happy Birthday Adam!

Today sees a very important event in at least one of our employee's lives as Hardware and Systems engineer Adam Wilkinson reaches the young age of 50. Adam has been with us 'longer than we can remember' according to Director Gary Manktelow, who manages Adam over at our Leeds office. To celebrate Adam is hosting a party which will be attended by many of the Atlas staff and, as you can see, the party might start a little early with a celebratory glass of Port bought for Adam by his colleagues. It goes without saying that everyone at Atlas would like to send their very happy returns to him and we look forward to drinking all his beer tonight!

QlikView: Atlas Sales Team Sent to Coventry

OK, so it’s not quite as drastic as it sounds, however the Atlas Sales Team have just returned from Coventry, attending a training course run by QlikTech in one of the most exciting products to be added to our portfolio; QlikView.

Offering flexible, meaningful and real-time data analysis and business intelligence, QlikView has been described as “Next Generation Business Intelligence” software and it is clear to see why.


We have all been very impressed with the people at QlikTech and the QlikView product so far and it was a great opportunity to put some faces to names as well as meeting and sharing ideas with a number of other QlikView partners.

Founded in Sweden in 1993, QlikTech were named the fastest growing BI provider in the world by IDC and were recently selected as a Technology Pioneer 2008 by the World Economic Forum, joining global innovators such as Google on the list. If you’ve not heard of them before today, prepare to hear much more about them in the next few years.

So what does this mean for you? Well, the good news for both existing customers and potential clients is that we are now even more qualified to discuss your Business Intelligence needs and have another great option when it comes to bringing your data together, interrogating it and displaying it to you in a way that is flexible, easy to navigate and adds real value to your business processes.

For more information on QlikView check our recent news update or contact us for more information on QlikView Business Intelligence or any of the reporting tools available from Atlas Business.

Friday Night and We Headed For Crewe Hall...

Friday night saw the 2009 edition of The South Cheshire Chamber Business Awards. Representing Atlas were Group Managing Director John Butler and Director (and John's wife) Daphne Butler. Here, Daphne blogs about the evening and the Butler's favourable impression of young local businessmen and women.


South Cheshire Chamber
Business Awards 2009

Appropriately frocked and suited, John and I mounted the steps of Crewe Hall last night, guests of Tracey Barcroft our indispensible bank manager. Tracey is with the NatWest Commercial Office in Nantwich which sponsors the Best Large Business of the Year Award at this now well-established annual event. It was a bit of a trip down memory lane for John and I since Atlas won this award back in 2001, then at Stapeley Water Gardens Tropical Oasis … … … and although many of the main players remain the event itself has definitely grown-up and moved on.

These sort of formal get-togethers can be a bit daunting, but you can’t live and work in a town for nigh on 20 years without getting to know people, and we had barely escaped the wet November evening and connected with a glass of something fizzy before we were chatting with Martin and Heather Kynch old friends from way back in the early days of Atlas Business.

One of the best things about reaching an uncertain age is that the achievements of others, young, fresh and going places acquire a bottomless fascination, so that when the award ceremony got underway (very capably presented by Sam Plank of Moorlands Radio, and Verity Hilton of BBC Radio Stoke) I found myself enchanted by the string of bright young people and companies who made their way to the rostrum collecting certificates and plaques.

Companies like Best Small Business of the Year, Amita UK, who describe themselves as ‘an IT dept in a box’ and provide a comprehensive range of IT services for their clients. (Hey, wait a minute, that’s Atlas territory. Is there something we might learn here?).

And then Employer of the Year was the Commercial Training Division North West of St John’s Ambulance – amazing people training other amazing people to do amazing things. (Are Atlas amazing enough to compete with that, I wonder?).

The International Trade Award … … … International Trade? … … … The winner here turned out to be Event Stewarding & Training Consultancy Ltd (ESTC for short – an acronym just up John’s street) who work with sporting and music venues advising on safety management of stadiums and spectators with an impressive testimonial list starting with Crewe Alex and ending with the Hellenic Football Federation.

In all there were nine different awards, which I am sure will be very ably reported on next week by the Crewe Chronicle who are joint-sponsors of this razzamattaz with the South Cheshire Chamber, but I would just like to mention one more award that caught my attention. The Visitors’ Choice Award is sponsored by Visit Chester & Cheshire and is voted on by the people who find their way to visitor attractions in the county. There were eighteen contenders, and the winner was, for the second year running, Nantwich Players Theatre*.

Good food, splendid company, what a lovely way to end the week! Thank you NatWest.

* For those who are not aware, Nantwich Players is where the absent Atlas Business and C2 Internet director (Benjamin who?) first took to the stage www.west16.co.uk refers.

Compliance and Corrections: Ask The Expert

With the recent major new launch by Access of the Compliance and Corrections module, Dimensions and Dimensions Lite users find themselves with the ability to purchase a module with potentially huge benefits. We decided to sit down with our resident Access Expert to find out just what the practical application of the module is for businesses.

Question: OK Expert, I'm a relatively small Access Dimensions Lite customer with only a few users. What's this new module going to do for me?

The Expert: Well, the Compliance and Corrections module has many applications for all sizes of business. For smaller businesses, the most likely use of it is in its Corrections functionality. As a small business you've no doubt got plans to grow - Compliance and Corrections is another tool that allows your software to grow with your business.

Q: And how does it do that exactly?

TE: As you grow your demands on your software will change. Your customers for example, will come and go and probably merge and change. Similarly, when you start using the software, it's only natural that a few mistakes will be made. Compliance and Corrections helps with both of these things: adapting your accounting software at the top level.

Q: So as my business grows, Compliance and Corrections will help my systems to meet my needs? Basically to be flexible to changing conditions?

TE: Exactly, but crucially, the module helps your software to grow in a coherent and structured way. If two customers merge for example, the module gives you the functionality to combine their accounts and assign them a new account code if necessary. All your transaction history is moved as well meaning any new employees can immediately see a clear picture of how your company operates.

Q: OK, that sounds good but what about when I become a bigger business. Lets say I've got 10 or more users on Dimensions.

TE: Well once you get to this size, you're probably going to want to take advantage of the Compliance side of the module. This enhances the audit capability of the Access software. Have you heard of the Sarbanes-Oxley audit and compliance legislation?

Q: Yes, but doesn't that only apply to American companies?

TE: It does but increasingly UK businesses (and more so their parent companies) are choosing to follow its recommendations of greater auditability as a matter of good business practice. The Compliance side helps you to show you are taking the correct steps to address auditing requirements. We all hope that we won't ever have a situation where a staff member is engaging in fraudulent activity but, as I always say, the first rule of holes is don't fall in! With Compliance you can monitor individual fields within your software so, for example, bank codes or delivery addresses. You then generate a report which will show when the field was changed, what it was changed from and to and which user changed it.

Q: That sounds great! So I can have a complete record of what happens in my system?

TE: Exactly, if you really wanted to you could even generate an audit log for a specific transaction type, fully monitoring any activity against it. It's a very powerful way of ensuring your accounts are accurate and your business is protected.

Q: So you'd recommend this for all businesses?

TE: Absolutely! It's rare that an Access module has so wide an application across the Atlas client base but we really would recommend this for all of our customers. The benefits are potentially huge and it is extremely easy to use and definitely affordable. It really is a no-brainer to add it to your system.

Q: Great! How do I order it?

TE: Give the sales team a call on 0333 666 3330 and they can take your order and answer any questions. Alternatively drop them an e-mail at sales@atlasbiz.com and they'll get back to you as soon as possible.