Pictures From Our Atlas 'Business Growth 2012' Event

You can read more about our Business Growth 2012 event at the Atlas website here.

John and Daphne: The Movie

Picture courtesy of UKTV

For those of you that missed Atlas Business Group’s MD and Company Secretary John and Daphne Butler’s recent television appearance, you have another opportunity as the program is repeated at 8pm this evening (Tuesday 15th November 2011) on Sky Home channel 246.

The program is titled “My flat pack home” and follows the Butlers as they plan to erect an office in the garden of their home in Clyro. Eagle eyed viewers may also spot guest appearances from Joe, Sam, Ben, Lara, David, Ian, Ruth and Michael who were all captured during some of the filming at our Head Office in Globe Works, Nantwich.

Surf's Up - A Quick Guide To Web Safety Abroad

Accessing the Internet whilst on holiday abroad is an increasing trend amongst British holiday makers. But is that Internet cafe down the road from the hotel safe and if it isn't, what steps can you take to make sure your surfing is secure? Our resident Internet expert Stuart took a look at the dangers of surfing abroad.

Surfing abroad can be a risky business to the unprepared, as hidden dangers lie out of sight. It might seem that you're flying along those familiar waves as if back home, but you may be tumbling towards the rocks without even realising it. Coming from C2 Internet, I am of course talking about surfing the web. As we are leaving the busiest time of year for holiday making then this may be a little late for some of you, but hopefully with your holiday fresh in your mind it will make you take note of the risks to your data security whilst abroad, that pose danger at a time when people may be likely to drop their guard. Whether we like it or not it is getting more and more difficult to stay completely offline when taking time off, but even if you’re just checking personal emails, you must be careful.

A convenient method of getting online when abroad is to use an Internet cafe; they can be found in almost every tourist destination and can even be found within many hotels. So for a small fee someone might jump on the Internet for 30mins, before logging out and heading back to the beach. This is fine if they were just having a look the weather forecasts and catching up on the news, but not so good if they logged into their online banking, their Gmail account or even worse, their company system. The biggest threat faced in using a publicly available computer to access the Internet comes from key loggers. This is usually done using a simple application that logs the keystrokes entered. This method is used for malicious purposes to obtain the user's complete login details. It could even be a hardware key logger, attached to the computer.

The only way of getting around this problem is to use your own device to access the Internet, no other solution can ensure your data security is secure on a public computer. This could mean using your laptop, tablet or even smart phone to connect to a wireless hot spot. If using your smart phone, you need to be very careful to ensure you don't mistakenly connect using your mobile Internet connection, as this could lead to a costly phone bill.

Unfortunately for those wanting to ensure their Internet usage is not intercepted, this is still not enough. Even if using your own device, the wireless connection itself may be intercepted. Most people these days are aware that they need to use a security key to secure their Internet usage. But the key is obviously no secret if it’s a publicly available connection, and someone can therefore use that to bypass the encryption. But before you start packing the satchel of pigeons into your suitcase, there is a safe way to surf, and it’s a lot less noisy and messy than using our feathered friends to communicate with friends and colleagues.

To secure your wireless hotspot usage, the best method is to use a Virtual Private Network (VPN). This can be used to connect from any wireless point, and it will encrypt the traffic. So what VPN should you use for safe web browsing, well that depends on what device you're connecting from. Below I have included a few examples of the sites that provide these services:

http://hidemyass.com/vpn/
(paid for service - covers most laptops, tablets, smart phones)

https://www.ipredator.se/
http://www.acevpn.com/
https://www.vpntunnel.se/en/

Most of the secure browsing VPN suppliers have user guides to take you through the process. I would add that when using a VPN, there is a method of quickly confirming that it’s ready, so that you can begin browsing safely. Before connecting the VPN go to:

http://www.whatismyip.com/

This website will display the public IP that (as far as the Internet is concerned) you are browsing from. Make a note of this IP and close the browser. Connect your VPN, now go to http://www.whatismyip.com/ again, the IP displayed on this website should now be completely different.

So there you go, you've gone from casually connecting on an Internet cafe computer and having a quick catch-up, to having to connect your smart phone up, then enabling a VPN to encrypt the traffic. Well I never said it was going to be plain sailing. This is not an exhaustive list, there are many methods to lessen the risk, but using your own device and a VPN is probably the best sure fire way of protecting yourself from the main dangers discussed in this article.

The potential threats continue to increase on the Internet, this is a trend that will not be stopping anytime soon, but with a little effort you can learn to safeguard your usage, so you can continue to enjoy the benefits without putting your privacy/finances at risk. Or as Jon Kabat-Zinn put it:

‘You can’t stop the waves, but you can learn to surf’

Our MD’s talks with Bank of England Governor’s Deputy

(Outlooks and Growth 2012-2015)

(or is that better as, His talks with Me?!)

Hobnobbing and name-dropping with The Great (and, maybe, The Good)

Our Group MD participated this week in an ‘intimate’ gathering with no less a personage than the Deputy of the Governor of Bank of England, at the invitation of our RBS Corporate Bankers. He (the Deputy) was seeking in Davy Crockett scouting style (though without the skunk hat!) to get a ‘Status and Outlook’ reading from the binoculars of us ‘coal-face’ SME business leaders. He also gave us some interesting and challenging insights on where the big wise-men see our ‘seasonal climate’ likely backdrops over the next year or two; particularly the practical paradoxes of The Bank’s policies to support the funding and capital needs of businesses by our big corporate banks which the Government are ‘desperate’ to see expand and grow successfully.

Setting and Organisation of the Event

The small private dining room at Crewe Hall with its beautiful panelling and white linen place settings for twenty for luncheon certainly didn’t add to the air of open relaxed informality for the exchange of views which nice intelligent Simon (who previously was a lobbyist for the CBI) said he was looking for ... ... ... but this ‘stiffness’ was counter-acted by the fact that he had to settle for talking directly to us from his Powerpoint notes because the projector/screen was unavailable /Kaput! This was certainly just as well though! (See below!)

The ‘PPP’ Principles of Practised Hobnobbers (Position, Position, Position)

I had drifted in as ‘tail-end-Charlie’ on the in-bound procession to table, and found myself to be ‘last-man-standing’ after all my lunch companions had shown the typical English reserve, politeness, and hanging-back deference (for which we are so justly modestly famous around the world!). Thus, the only chair left for me was at ‘God’s’ left-hand (the one to his right was occupied by a lady much prettier than I, who subsequently turned out to be a solicitor, though only of the boring kind for conveyancing mortgagees into debt with their bankers!

Lunch with, or without, Refried Chips or Power points, Sir?

Accordingly, in my place right ( I mean left!) next the Great Man, I was ideally placed to observe his speaking notes on this three-to-view Powerpoint slides (as well as to pass the butter, offer him water etc. because 500 years of ‘butlering’ service do leave one with politeness instincts towards male colleagues as well as ladies!) Anyway, but for the ‘duff’ projector, I think that the Man who had come ‘to listen to us’ would have otherwise given us the treat of an hour-and-half barrage of charts (line, stack, pie, soup and nuts!) which would surely have guaranteed an unquestioning white flag surrender by any survivors from the battle of the bulge lunch!

Passive Audience becomes (slightly) Animated Actors!

As it was, however,! ... ... ... it turned out to be congenially frank and thoughtful in both directions of the conversations around the suitably elliptical table! Just over half of those 20 souls there to ask and to observe were bankers (our hosts) or auditors, financial advisers ... ... ... so I guess that makes it about representative of the same proportions that the rest of us seem to find in real life these days!

Degrees of Freedom and Constraints in the ‘Hadron Collider’ Canteen

If ‘elliptical’ and ‘frank’ seem a bit odd joined in a single sentence, it’s important to remember that there’s truth in the old proverb about ‘not biting the hand’ that you hope is going to feed you ... ... ... (at least until its clear that it won’t!)

Neither is it polite to kick sand or good white wine onto white linen in pique at the inexplicable refusal of whole wunches of bankers to give growth-inducing economic quick-start, substantial unsecured, ten-year, low-interest, capital-repayment-free, loans in the style of big corporate bonds to all SMEs that can find good use for them ... ... ...

Surely, this is what ‘QE3-SME’ ought to be all about, isn’t it? ... ... ... or are these only truly needed by those with great big commercial properties as anchors (not sure whether these are seen to be on the assets or albatrosses side and sandy bottoms of bank balance sheets these days!)

Definites, Maybes, and May-not-Bes

It may or may not be that we will all be helped indirectly by the magic of ‘trickle-down’ from Government and Bank of England policy, through further multi-billion loans and further ‘investments’ in sovereign debt of Greece, Ireland, Mexico and Brazil all over again. After all, I.O.U. £s from a ‘sovereign’ state must be more secure than ‘risky’ loans to SMEs mustn’t they? (even though the true debt value might be devalued by some healthy inflationary erosion and exchange losses between £s and sovereigns!)

Or even, from ‘Government Knows Best’ strategies through direct investments into secure ‘vital infrastructure’ projects like a new series of three-week skills transfers courses to get the unemployed assembly line workers from Bentley Crewe or BAe Wharton productive again ... ... ... as innovatory web developers, or hair stylists ... ... ... or maybe they will do a ‘direct-jugular’ injection into town-centre redevelopments, white elephant domes, virtual Camelot spires, or just more old-new state of the art fire-stations.

Making our Own Luck

Overly heavy irony and sarcasm, maybe, but the assessment from all of the above for ourselves, and our business success in 2012, is that we need to do our damndest to help all of you to succeed! ... ... ... and that you, and we, will be very well-advised not to place our faith in external helping hands, steering, buoyancy aids; and especially not banking hot-air balloons!

On the Cusp; 2011 going into Rear View, and Steering into 2012

It has been brilliant for some, and bruising for others. Regardless of what mix of good seeds, fruit, and weeds you’re celebrating or crying over on this last day of September 2011; whether for you the fat lady is singing yet, the fact is, that for almost all of our UK clients this ‘Today’ is the ‘cusp’ and cross-over point in Business Seasons between ‘current 2011’ and ‘Emerging’ 2012!

Autumn equinox passed this week, and the Harvest Festival full-moon didn’t slip late into October from its more normal mid-September timing (though many are finding that the business economic ‘flatlands’ seasons are running slower and weaker than hoped earlier in the year – unlike the natural seasonal cycles, which are wildly out of kilter the other way. Many species are starting their 2012 growing and flowering rush many months earlier than ever! ... ... ... And that’s exactly what you should be doing in your Business 2012 , starting with our Business Growth Success 2012 Workshops in early November (see separate listings for these).

Or, will the current balmy benign Indian summer weather and economic sunshine be guillotined at knees (or higher still)! by bitter winds from frozen Urals, with icy statues of fleeing bankers immortalised in Russian easterlies ice, until they thaw in five years or more from now?

John Butler

30 September 2011


PS: If, by the time we meet with you in early November, it really has transpired that Greece has fallen out of the Euro, and that an indefinite UK-wide and General Strike has been called to herald the start of a New Ice Age in January 2012 ... ... ... then we promise we shall bring you a valuable present of your own personal pair of ear muffs!

A Must For Company Laptops

Laptop protection software has hit the headlines recently with some high-profile success stories of laptops recovered after having been stolen. Always keen to protect Atlas' technical equipment, our team of techies went on the hunt of the popular software.


Prey is a small free piece of software that is designed to protect personal and company laptops from theft and enable easy recovery if they do happen to wind up in the possession of a criminal.
The website sets out the software's aims...

'Prey lets you keep track of your phone or laptop at all times, and will help you find it if it ever gets lost or stolen. It's lightweight, open source software, and free for anyone to use. And it just works.'

So how does it work and why should you use it for company laptops?

The install is clean and easy to achieve and the nice little piece of software just sits on your laptop doing not much at all until the point of panicked realisation... 'OH MY WORD MY LAPTOP HAS BEEN STOLEN/LEFT ON A TRAIN/ABANDONED WHILST I WAS HAVING THAT SNEAKY CUP OF TEA AT BURGER KING.

You then login to your control panel with the email and password you used when you set it up and click the missing button.

The software will then activate and as soon as somebody turns you laptop on and connects to the Internet it will start sending you information on where the laptop is. If you have a built in webcam the software will even provide a photo of the person using it.

The UK police recently recovered a laptop stolen during the London riots, after the software was activated by its owner. After just one day the owner had enough evidence for the police and when the offender turned it on again the police raided his house to find him sat on the sofa with the stolen laptop on his knee. He was subsequently prosecuted for handling stolen goods and the laptop returned to its rightful owner. Just one of several successful stories for the project so far.

Beetle's About!

ASM Engineer Michael Hughes blogs about the joys of owning a forty-year old VW Beetle and how the atypically German car actually has a colourful English heritage.

The long summer evenings lend themselves to escaping the television and taking my forty year old VW Beetle for a gentle amble round the leafy lanes of Cheshire.

I have owned the car for a long time, running it as my first car for nearly a decade before replacing it. But I just couldn’t part with this thoroughly reliable beast even though it had started to look a little frayed around the edges.

I had offers to buy it but that only encouraged me to keep it. I therefore decided to have it restored professionally - a project which lasted for a little over two years. It returned to home looking like a shiny new vehicle which now appears on dry days or at the occasional Classic Car show.

But how did this vehicle become iconic being manufactured across different continents of the world for forty plus years and become the centre for films Walt Disney has made based on the character ‘Herbie’? It’s not exactly an attractive or practical vehicle yet it still doesn’t look out of place on our roads. Its origins as the “Peoples Car” for the German people before the Second World War is well documented but the destruction of the factory at Wolfsburg at the end of the war may well have seen its demise.

What may not be known is that it was left to a British Army major to organise the restarting of production after the end of the Second World War. Major Ivan Hirst of the Royal Mechanical and Electrical Engineers was responsible for the Beetle project under British Administration and he restarted the production of the Beetle car. Beetle production was eventually passed back to German Heinz Nordhoff to organize production. He quickly increased production and by 1955 the one millionth beetle had come off the assembly line.

Taking the Beetle to Classic Car Shows is always interesting. Many people approach you to recall the days when they had a Beetle and discuss how reliable it was and what fun to drive. They always were reluctant to part with it but growing families meant it was no longer practical to keep it.

I have been asked by children if this is “Herbie” from the films but explained that it is Herbie’s first cousin. This has satisfied the young inquiring mind. Shortly after the launch of the last Herbie film children wanted their photograph standing by my Beetle because, being Pastel White, it is close to the colour of Herbie in the film.

The fun for me is in owning the car for so long as well as the fact it is so reliable. It is always quick to start. It also a reminder that cars of its era are very basic and that car technology has come a long way since my Beetle was built.

Bugernomics In Images

Confused about what Burgernomics is? It's an economic scale that analyses currencies, lifestyles and stability by closely analysing the prices of McDonald's Big Mac burger in countries across the globe. Don't believe us? Read our news article and check out the graphed images of burgernomics below.

The Hidden Cost To Your Business Of Not Training Your Staff

Atlas Director and project consultant Diane Lonsdale blogs about the risks businesses take when they fail to invest properly in the training of staff members and the impact this can have on their ability to provide great service to their customers.

This article, on a website aimed at employees with problems in the workplace, interested me as I train end users and am involved in our Application Systems Management department.

Your company will have invested in business software solutions in order to maximise the potential of the business and to ensure that your workflow processes are as lean as possible. One interpretation of lean is to maximise production with the minimum of labour resources. This can only be achieved if the users of the business software solutions know how to use them correctly and in the most effective way.

When your company invested in these solutions you will also have invested in specialist training, delivered in a way to ensure the solutions were used correctly and in the most effective way, but what happens when these trained staff leave your employment?

Do you have dedicated members of staff who can train any new employees effectively in all aspects of the systems they are expected to use? Or is it that the incumbent staff member simply spends a few hours showing their replacement what they think they need to know, and will more than likely just hand over the sections of knowledge that are pertinent to their job role rather than the whole spectrum of the solution. Is the potential value of the software diluted during this 'training'?

Can you afford not to invest in initial training or indeed refresher training on a regular basis?

Cost is the main reason cited for not implementing this process but if you don’t then the value of the original investment is diminished.

It may be more cost effective to ensure key members of your workforce have the necessary skills to train new employees, and this is not just about your IT solutions, it also needs to be your business processes and Health and Safety Regulations.

Another reason cited by Senior Management for not investing in staff training is that if they normally have a high staff turnaround then the investment is wasted, as soon as the employees have been trained then they leave the business and therefore incur high costs. Research has proven the opposite to this theory. In an article by Jonathan Moules in the Financial Times, he quotes the latest piece of research on the subject,

“The biggest motivator for 43 per cent of staff surveyed was having a passion for their job or company. Seven out of 10 workers said that an employer’s commitment to staff training is important in helping them feel valued, and 69 per cent said it was important in making them want to work hard.”

Training employees on a regular basis ensures your investments - in software, in people, in the very core of your business processes - don't diminish and enable your workplace to remain productive, proactive and happy. Training isn't an 'optional extra', it is a must have which empowers workers and ensures customers are satisfied.

Keeping Up to Date... Receiving Training...

In this, the second of two articles, Commericals Projects Controller Ian Skaife blogs about Atlas' constant thirst for knowledge, how we acquire it and the things he's discovered whilst on his hunt...

So, not only can we learn from reading the FT – I think the answer must be yes - but also all those other sources of rich information and comment too...

Sometimes we have to sit back and receive new knowledge, and here at Atlas over the past few months this has certainly been the case. In between helping our clients with systems we have been updating or knowledge of new products and technologies. In fact we have spent in excess of £20,000 in fees and time training a variety of people as follows.

- Microsoft Gold Partner
Two of our technology team have undertaken a variety of new and updated courses to fulfil this certification which gives confidence to many of our clients for whom we do technical systems management and hosting services.

- PropsectSoft CRM
One technical consultant on installation, two consultants for a total of 10 days on implementation and report writing in the new version 6+. We have done several upgrades and new work already using these new skills.

- QlikView
We have trained our third consultant in this growing area of Business Intelligence. She has attended 5 days of designer and development courses and is on another for advanced analysis. We have implemented this with several new customers recently.

- Access Accounts v2.50e and Web Services
Several consultants have been on training to keep us up to date in new features and the Web Services technology to link into the increasingly remote and web-based world we live in.

- AFS Suite
You may have seen in our recent blog article that this is another of the offerings which we are updating and up-skilling our consultants and those from other industry partners.

- Albany ePay
The well known provider of BACS solutions for payments and direct debits has a new offering out with increased functionality and Windows 7 compatibility. Four consultants are being trained just this week, ready to roll out to new and existing customers.

Keeping Up to Date... Searching For Knowledge...

In this series of two articles, Commericals Projects Controller Ian Skaife blogs about Atlas' constant thirst for knowledge, how we acquire it and the things he's discovered whilst on his hunt...

Here at Atlas, like most companies, we try to keep up to date with current issues and the latest thinking that affects our customers and the services and technology we employ to meet their needs. Like every other company we also have to be sure that we ‘take our own medicine’ to run our people and systems to the best advantage.

Our MD John Butler recently challenged the Executive Board recently to read more trade magazines, the Financial Times etc., on a regular basis in order to know what was happening and what factors will influence the way we and our customers do and think about business.

Taking up this challenge I picked up a free copy of the FT at a recent conference I was at – thereby keeping up to date at no cost....I read each page and extracted the following as examples of the sort of snippets that get me thinking...


‘Yell Moves into the cloud with Microsoft’
This caught my eye – a traditional paper directory company that has taken to the Internet some time ago tying up with an industry giant using a technology ‘The Cloud’ which seems to be one of those ‘buzz-phrases’ at the moment. Key points were...
• Move allows Yell to broaden its offering to small/medium businesses as its traditional print market is eroded by a move on—line...
• Microsoft provides Yell with cloud hosting, website creation and new Office 365 Suite
• Yell search results will be high up Microsoft’s Bing search engine
• A 21% increase in Yell’s share price – so someone thought it was a good idea..

‘Citrix by Cloud.com’
Citrix is one of Atlas’ business offerings and again that word ‘cloud’. The article proved that the .com bubble still exists...Cloud.com employ 70 people in California, have only being going for 3 years, have yet to make a profit and yet the price....$200-$250million...! The group works with some big customers like Apple & Facebook allowing remote groups to manage their remote data centres and provides tools to companies who want to be cloud providers.

Analysts are predicting cloud computing market to be worth $11billion by the end of 2013 as more companies opt to have their computer networks hosted remotely.

So this tied in very well with us at Atlas as we have many customers who are seeing the advantage of both Citrix to connect remote workers to company data, hosted in one of our several data centres including the ‘Secret Nuclear Bunker’ near our head office in Nantwich from which we can provide clients with private clouds.

‘Cisco eyes job cuts to reverse slump’
So not everything in the technology sector is good news...but looking more closely Cisco is planning 10,000 job losses from its 73,000+ workforce due to ‘death by a thousand cuts’ as some other large/small players have chipped away at different parts of its markets. It seems the management have looked at its diverse strategy and refocused on core technology. The comment section put it quite succinctly and is a lesson for all in the IT sector..

'It is part of the periodic pruning that all mature technology companies should undergo. In enterprise technology using your headcount effectively is not easy. Not all struggle.’’.Apple and Intel are ruthlessly efficient in squeezing more and more revenues out of each worker. But in the gritty business of selling and servicing clients’ technological infrastructure, competitors must constantly shift their mix of business to protect margins and retain customers. That means that cuts...are simply part of the game.’

Report warns of ‘cyberjihad’. This puts the topic of security of all systems in the spotlight as al Qaeda adapts to new technologies and offers new threats. Perhaps we don’t see our systems being targeted but the principle is a warning to all as ‘the Internet and virtual space will be strategically important’.

‘Infosys sees growth ahead’
The Indian software and services concern despite pressure from its increased wages sees 15.4% rise in first quarter profits and demand from Western clients in the areas of retail, life sciences and energy.

‘Managers must take the blame for systemic failures’
Finally an article caught my eye about the apparent lack of managers in its English Electric arm in 1968 prepared to take personal responsibility. Arnold Weinstock sent out a missive which abolished all internal committees and encouraged managers to delegate and involve colleagues in decisions, but this would not reduce their personal responsibility. Until this points endless meetings were held, minutes copied into everyone, no personal commitment and everyone felt relieved of the obligation to acquire the knowledge to judge effectively. People needed to be free to make mistakes and learn from them, not just try to attach themselves to good projects

The FT article was written in a week when News International executives were removing themselves from responsibility of not knowing what was going on under their watch and blaming rogue individuals. Good management means appointing good people, delegating to them, and creating an environment in which they can give their best. Failure in this is a failure of management not of subordination. It points out that Apple’s success and failures are closely associated with Steve Jobs, but he can’t do it all himself. His management style is to emphasise the role of the ‘directly responsible individual’ for each project..

So can we learn from reading the FT – I think the answer must be yes, and all those other sources of rich information and comment too...

Keep an eye out for the second of Ian's blogs tomorrow.

Atlas Mid Year Meeting Photos

Atlas held their annual Mid Year Meeting last week and our photographer was there to capture a few choice pictures of the day's events.

John Butler introduced the meeting and talked about impending changes in financial practice.

Kelvin Redmile talked business financials in a brief session in the morning.

Joe Jardine provided some feedback on some of our successful sales events.

Ian Skaife chaired the meeting and co-ordinated the presenters during the day.

Sam Turner introduced a section on Advanced Financials.

Lara Bailey covered the groups new Technical Sales strategy.

Ben Butler presented the new Atlas website (more to come soon!).

Adrian Carter presented a section on the possibilities of new developments involving tablet PCs...

...which Ben and Lara took the opportunity to test for themselves.

John Bilyj presented some recent Atlas CRM development.

Kath Welsh was recognised for her length of service with Atlas and received a framed placque for her efforts...

...as did Jenny MacKenzie...

...who also received a birthday surprise courtesy of Diane Lonsdale and Catherine Ball.

Atlas Pays Its Dues (And Its BACS)

As part of Atlas' ongoing commitment to ensure all our staff are professionally trained on the latest products, we invited Jonathan Dean from Albany in to provide some implementation training on Albany ePAY, the product that will soon replace Albany ALBACS.

The session provided some overview training of the product's functionality and some in-depth training on how to successfully implement it and support it on an on-going basis. The day also included some discussions on hot topics such as the increasing use of the cheaper Faster Payments methodology (when compared to CHAPS) and the forthcoming RTI regulation changes (Real Time Information) which will have seismic impacts on how all of you run your payroll. Atlas will be communicating further details on the RTI topic in the near future.

Atlas Lead Advanced Look At Finance

Atlas led a small group of industry professionals in a workshop entitled ‘Advanced Financial and Strategies Management with AFS Pro’ during the last week, with an aim of providing initial training and introduction to businesses interested in becoming involved in the topic. The day, delivered primarily by Atlas Consultant Richard Walliker and Atlas Group Managing Director John Butler, focused on the application of advanced financial methodology and when it was appropriate to use it above and beyond ‘standard’ financial systems. A particular focus was afforded to the topic of forecasting and business planning, covered by the Atlas AFS Pro product, which was demonstrated on the day. Attendees from Atlas, Hoge 100 and Elite Business Systems gave positive feedback on the workshop and Atlas intend to repeat the event with other businesses in the near future.

If you're interested in finding out more about the application of Advanced Finanacial and Strategies Management in your business or would like to discuss the Atlas AFS Pro product then drop us a line at newsletter@atlasbiz.com or call us on 0333 666 3330.

Rugby And Netball Mix In Atlas-sponsored Charity Event

Atlas Business are one of the proud sponsors of Residence Netball Club. As part of the sponsorship agreement Residence committed to raising money for charity through a number of events that they would organise. The first charity that was selected was Macmillan Cancer Support and their event is nearly upon us. On Saturday 25 June, on Barony playing fields between 2pm and 6pm, is a mixed sex Netball / Rugby sevens tournament, with participants from across Crewe and Nantwich. This event has grown hugely in size, scope and participation and promises to be a day of a lot of fun.

Atlas Employee and Netball Club Captain, Lara Bailey has taken on the role of event organiser. She said: “since we first started talking about the charity events, it has grown significantly. Initially, we were talking about 8 girls trying to raise £500. Since then, through the support from our sponsors, there are not one but two Residence NC teams and we have managed to secure the involvement of another four teams from the South Cheshire Netball Premier League, we have also brought Acton Nomads RFC in as well as other RFCs and general volunteers from across Cheshire. This event will now comprise 8 teams and over 64 participants plus all the organisors, friends and families and members of the public. We have upped our game and our target and would like to bring in at least £2,000 to support Macmillan. It would be really great if we could get that number up to £5,000. Macmillan is a fantastic cause to be raising money for. Nearly everyone has or will be touched by cancer at some point in their lives, whether that be personally, a family member or a friend or relative. I myself lost my grand father to cancer and my mother thankfully recovered. Macmillan is a great cause and we hope this community event will be widely supported, and we will be able to do something that can make a real difference to people’s lives here.”

Residence NC is sponsored by local Chamber of Commerce members, Atlas Business, Banks Sheridan and Residence Restaurant and Bar. Lara also said “the support we have received from our sponsors in organising this event has been fantastic, but furthermore, we have been contacting other local businesses and asking them to donate prizes for the raffle. We are trying to get as much awareness out there as we can and get the public to come out on the day to spectate and have fun and make this a real community event.” Food and drinks will be available and there will also be a raffle with lots of great prizes. We are also hoping to get a bouncy castle there on the day as long as the weather holds out. If not and it rains we’ll have a toss the welly competition for the kids.

The media have been very supportive of the event, the story has been picked up by BBC Radio Stoke and Signal Radio, there will be live coverage on the day from local community radio stations Cat Radio and Red Shift Radio. The Crewe and Nantwich Chamber of Commerce have already run an article in the South Cheshire Chamber magazine, Crewe and Nantwich Chronicle will carry the story this week and it has also be sent to the Nantwich Guardian. Signal Radio and the South Cheshire Chambers will also be doing follow up pieces on the event afterwards.

Residence NC and Acton Nomads would like to extend an open invitation to all to come down on the day, have some fun and help support and raise money for Macmillan. If you are unable to make it on the day you can donate money to the event using the JustGiving page at: http://www.justgiving.com/LJ-Bailey

Payroll ASPP

We recently received feedback saying that the subject of Payroll is a hot topic during March and April whilst we introduce the new features and legislation changes along with preparing for the year end but then it tends to get neglected for the other ten months of the year. We therefore set Joe Jardine the task of putting this right and with a ten month old at home unsurprisingly he opted to talk about the changes in paternity entitlement.

As of 3rd April 2011 any of your employees can apply for Additional Statutory Paternity Pay (ASPP) if their partner has a baby or adopts a child. If the mother intends to return to work the Father can apply for ASPP if they meet the qualifying conditions. Access Payroll can help the payroll department to decide if ASPP is due and make the appropriate calculations to save you time and effort. When you receive an SC7, SC8 or SC9 parental pay form from an employee you will need to check that it has been signed by both employees, that it has been presented at least 8 weeks prior to the ASPP start date, confirm that the ASPP date is not before the Mother is returning to work and that the Mother or adopter has taken at least 2 weeks off after the child was born. If any of these criteria are not met you will need to complete an ASPP1 form and state the reason why.

Access Payroll will continue to pay the employee the statutory amount until you reach the ASPP expiry date (or for any week where you are paying the same employee SSP). If at the end of this period the employee wishes to take any unpaid Additional Paternity leave then you will need to adjust the record manually accordingly. The employee is also entitled to the 10 KIT days (Keeping In Touch) where they can come into work but don’t lose their statutory payment.

The above is perhaps best described with an example scenario. Mrs Bloggs started her maternity leave on the 1st April 2011 and receives her maternity allowance. A fortnight later she has her baby. 20 weeks after the birth of her child she returns to work (week 22 of her maternity pay period). Mr and Mrs Bloggs complete the SC7 form and meet the qualifying conditions. Mr Bloggs takes ASPP from the date that Mrs Bloggs returned to work and receives statutory pay for the duration of her maternity period, in this example, 17 weeks. After week 39 Mr Bloggs can optionally return to work or stay at home until the child is one year old. If Mr Bloggs stays at home this will be unpaid time.

You can read more about the rules for ASPP on the HMRC website:- http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/paye/employees/statutory-pay/aspp-overview.htm.

For software assistance you will find some useful information in the Access Payroll help system or alternatively simply telephone our eagerly awaiting helpdesk team on 0333 666 3330.

The Secret Of Great Service

Joe Jardine blogs about Atlas' 'best kept secret'...

The Access Service Manager solution is perhaps one of our best kept secrets. It is an excellent tool that we have until now failed to make much of a song or dance about. Service Manager Editions also known as SME has two principal functions:-

Firstly it can manage all of your customer contracts. It stores key information such as service level agreements, renewal dates, labour rates and travel charges. SME helps to ensure that you don’t forget to raise an invoice(s) and that you bill accurately in a timely fashion. Your clients can have multiple active contracts with as many detail lines as you wish.

Secondly SME logs incoming “issues”. These might be helpdesk style queries or customer complaints. The workflow engine walks the user through categorising the calls and escalates the problem to the most appropriate team member. Unique ticket numbers are generated so that no call gets forgotten and the customer can easily ask for progress updates even if the original engineer is not available. The strong reporting suite helps to identify training requirements or areas where the product or service needs to be improved to reduce the number of reported problems. The planner allows a manager to schedule engineers or resources onto jobs. A clever colour coded system alerts users to important facts such as the client is on-stop, their product warranty period has expired or their SLA doesn’t cover them for the assistance they are requesting.

It is perhaps reassuring to know that Atlas use SME as our live in-house contracts & helpdesk management tool. Existing clients already using SME will be pleased to hear that the recently released latest edition has been extended and now includes Document Management and Postcode look-up capabilities. Give your account manager or the sales team a call to request your upgrade.

I’m sure it goes without saying, but of course this tool integrates to your Access Accounts finance system! Access customer and stock records can be seen within SME to avoid duplication of effort whilst transactions generated in SME are posted into the sales order batch queue or sales ledger account.

Service Manager is perfect for any business that needs to track warranties, contracts and renewals as well as those in the service industry who need to provide support, repairs and maintenance for their products. To request a PDF factsheet simply send an email to newsletter@atlasbiz.com with the subject line as “SME”. Alternatively call our sales team on 0333 666 3330 to enquire further or request a demonstration.

Atlas Netballers Ready To Take Cheshire Leagues By Storm

Lara Bailey and Ben Butler blog about Atlas' new sponsorship of a local netball team and how the team have performed over the season so far.

Well we are three weeks into the summer season of 2011 with Residence netball club, which is also newly and kindly supported and sponsored by Atlas Business, Banks Sheridan, Residence Restaurant and Bar and West 16. Since the last season there have been many changes at Club Residence. Some of the girls unexpectedly split from Residence and started the Rubies team, during the 4 week gap between the seasons. Lara Jane Bailey, founder and captain of the team rose to this challenge. Going on a recruitment drive in the local community, Lara (LJ) successfully managed to not only replace the five lost players but recruit 15 new players and founded a second team, a whole season earlier than planned. Residence teams L (purple) & J (navy) were born, and team B is planned for September, after a further recruitment drive this summer.

Having so many new players all starting at the same time has certainly caused some digestion problems, as players are required to be registered with the South Cheshire Netball league and affiliated with England Netball. Try outs were held, Players were assigned to teams, a new coach recruited to work with the girls, drill and coaching sessions organised, friendly matches organised, training and coaching tie ups with local team Tigers secured (from two divisions higher in the league), kit and training equipment ordered, joining fees and information collected, paper work filled, bank accounts setup, budgets and financial forecasts put in place, training and match fees tracked and audited, Internet domain name secured and work started on the new website. It was a busy four weeks between seasons that did not let up once the season started. With so many new and unknown players starting at once it has taken a few games to figure out each girls unique strengths in the different roles and positions she can play, and to then sculpt the individuals into two cohesive teams. The girls then had to get used to playing with each other twice a week at matches and training sessions with the team coach. A busy time indeed.

So Residence L are three games in now and how are things looking? Well, to be honest, rather promising considering the rushed start. Currently placed 8th in the division out of 11. Team L played Castle in their first match and were thoroughly smashed 7-56 by this new entrant, who have just voluntarily dropped from the Premier league - 3 divisions higher up. Needless to say Castle are a very strong and experienced team and the equivalent of Crewe Alexandra taking on Manchester United. Castle are currently placed top of the division in the results table. Emma Woodvine (Wing Defense) secured player of the match on the Residence L team.

Next up were The Hills, a close and exciting game where Residence narrowly lost 16-23. The Hills built up a 7 point lead in the first quarter of the game which Residence then responded by making them fight point for point for the next three quarters with Residence's defensive players doing a good job of significantly slowing The Hill's attack while the Residence attack took the fight back to them. The last three quarters of the game were effectively tied with the first quarter being the decider and Residence ultimately being unable to close the gap back up. A sterling effort when you factor in that Residence's captain LJ Bailey (Centre) and Emma Woodvine (Wing Attack) were unable to play due to sickness. So fielding just seven players and no substitutes all the girls had to play all four quarters with another newly joined team mate and returning to netball, ex-county player Kate Sherratt who started making her mark in this, (her first match) getting player of the match for her two quarters as Centre and another two as Goal Defense. LJ managed the team from the side line and continued to juggle player’s positions through the match to find the right team dynamic. All in all a very strong performance in the back three quarters from this team that is still finding its feet and was rewarded with putting their first champion ship point of the season on the league table for securing more than 50% of the score.

In the third match, Residence L drew another tough competitor, Star. Renamed from last season as Knights Grange - they were the highest placed team in the division at the end of last season that was not promoted up into the next division and are currently placed second in the division’s league table also having won all three of their matches. Residence fielded their A list line up to this match, although again due to holidays and sickness neither Amanda Lawrence or Michelle Kenyon Taker were available to play, so again the 7 girls were forced to play full matches with no substitutions. Residence's Tuesday night training coach came to the match to see the girls play and made some adjustments during the match which ended 19-30 after an early lead and then residence chasing them down in the second and third quarter before the lead extending again in the back half of the fourth, as fatigue started to take hold. A word of mention should go out to Star's Centre and Goal Shooter who both put in very commanding performances controlling the mid field and really challenging Residence's defense with the ability to sink the ball from apparently any location or distance from the net. Carley Hulse (Goal Shooter) and Laura Turpin (Goal Attack) continued to cement this new attacking partnership and learning each others style of play. Kate again won player of the match for her performance as Goal Defense and then trading positions with LJ for three quarters as Centre. The team again secured another league point by beating the 50% mark.

This week Residence L face new entrant KAM in what is anticipated to be another tough match. KAM were demoted from Division 1 at the end of last season and so are another experienced and capable team. There is a big difference between Division 2 and 1. Indigo C who remained undefeated in all but one match in Division 2 last season, and led the leader board the entire season, now reside at the bottom of the Division 1 table, after one match played losing 12:40. So any team coming down from a higher division is going to be difficult to beat and makes L's defeat at the hands of ex-three divisions higher Castle even more understandable.

KAM have only played two matches so far against Star and Residence J. Losing to Star but also managing to get 50% and then beating Residence's new team J, which is not to be unexpected, but what was a great result for the girls on team J was scoring the first goals of the season. J is a new team and comprises of many new players or players returning after a long break from netball. Kirsty Vickers won player of the match for Residence and played 50:50 Wing Attack and Centre. Centre was also shared by Lara Barrett, who playing out of normal position, delivered a strong performance in this very fitness intensive position. What is also great to see happening in J is that consistently despite only playing two matches, you can see the girls working together more and more as a team and the flow of play and awareness of game play and strategy is increasing. J is playing a season earlier than planned. We are not expecting stellar performances from J this season as this is a team in development, being prepared for the September season. J was registered in the League early to get real match experience and training under their belt rather than just in training sessions. It is astounding how much they have improved over the last two matches and training sessions. These girls had never met each other six weeks ago. It should also be noted that we are seeing good commitment and attendance from J during training and coaching sessions, something all players of both teams are very strongly encouraged to attend and take seriously. J is a work in progress and it will be very interesting to see how the team and girls grow over the course of this season. J are playing Genus Gems this week, one of the lower placed teams from Division 2 last season, and so it will be interesting to see how they bare up against this more evenly matched team, all be it seasoned team.

The Importance Of Unlocks

Sales Manager Joe Jardine blogs about the importance of making sure your software unlocks are available on time...

Lastminute.com is for holidays not software.

As most customers are aware your Access software is registration unlock code driven. Each year when you renew you need to apply a new unlock to extend the licence term. If you do not renew or if you do not apply the new unlock the software will provide users with notifications to warn you that the software will expire and after a short while the software will become locked preventing people from logging in. Likewise if you wish to extend your software’s functionality by perhaps purchasing a new module or adding extra users/employees then again we will supply you with a new registration unlock key.

New registration unlocks are generated by the software authors ‘Access UK’ rather than ‘Atlas’ your Solutions Partner. Access have always had a policy whereby they state that they will turnaround new unlocks within three working days or customers can pay a £25 premium for same day delivery. In the past Access have been promptly releasing the unlock codes within 24 hours of orders being placed and this has become recognised as the norm. More recently we have noticed that this is creeping towards 48 hours. This turnaround creep is being caused by an ever increasing customer base with thousands of licences to maintain, orders to process and some periods are busier than others, for example the recent Payroll Year end was manic! Access UK still strive for new registration unlocks within three days but where customers are used to same day turnaround we want to encourage you to place orders with sufficient time to meet your deadlines and avoid downtime.

ProspectSoft Update

Craig and Joe blog about this quarter’s ProspectSoft Partner Day where the latest exciting news, version releases, training and accreditation schedules and a roadmap for what the future holds were all revealed.
Version Information

Several mini scenario demonstrations were provided by some of the key ProspectSoft team members including MD Andrew Ardron and Sales Director Stuart McLaren.

ProspectSoft CRM 6.02.002 is now available. Having listened to customer feedback this version addresses introduces some efficiencies and addresses some of the users frustrations. New features include the ability to search for existing database records that are near a postcode, clickable URLs from within reports, adding an individual to a campaign from the contact record screen, the option to cancel quotes or orders and then re-open, plus much much more.

It was announced that 6.03.000 is in QA testing and will be released later in the year. Following is a mini list to provide you with a sneak preview of what is on the way. The VAT calculator is being re-written so that quotes can be built faster, a ‘recent objects’ feature is being introduced similar to ‘Recent Documents’ that is available in Microsoft Word, the Save to CRM feature is becoming more ‘intelligent’ so that is only requires 2 or 3 clicks and is able to make certain assumptions about what the user wishes to do and the telephony integration module will now sit in the Windows system tray rather than embedded in ProspectSoft.

Having the Telephony sitting outside of the CRM does offer significant benefit. For instance, you could be working in MS Word or MS Outlook and when someone phones in their CRM record pops up on your screen. Imagine being able to say Good Morning Mr Jones thank you for calling Atlas!

The Content Management Solution is now up to version 3.0. The latest enhancements include a new easy to navigate menu structure and a re-write of some of the core code that in bench tests resulted in pages loading at least 25% quicker.

Webinars

There is going to be a series of customer webinars available during May and June. These will offer plenty of hints and tips on back to basics core functionality, marketing, sales management and after sales. We will inform you of the dates as soon as they have been fixed. Watch this space.

New Director

From all at Atlas a big congratulations goes out to Jon Brewer, who has been promoted and is now ProspectSoft’s Client Services Director. Jon has worked at ProspectSoft for many years and is a popular figure at customer events. Jon is very experienced in the subject of CRM and has extensive product knowledge, we know he will make some valuable contributions and improvements to the helpdesk team as well as assist existing customers with any new requirements they may have.

Awards

Last year ProspectSoft won “Best Small or Medium Sized Enterprise” at the “Rate my Placement” awards and this year they made it to the final four shortlist but were pipped at the post. However Vicki Watmough their Sales and Marketing assistance did scoop the award for graduate placement company of the year for “best Student contribution”. ProspectSoft has since offered Vicki the job as Partner Liaison and she has accepted and will join full time once she has completed her degree in July.

Focussed Efforts

Having spent the last six months working hard on e-commerce, content management and email marketing, ProspectSoft and us Partners will be concentrating our efforts during quarter two back on the core topic of CRM. In particular we’ll be looking at tracking and recording all company communications, pro-actively shrinking the sales cycle, and reporting.

Performance

This Q2 meeting announced that last year was another record achieving year with ProspectSoft continuing to grow from strength to strength. Also Q1 had outperformed the same three months for last year so this year was already off to a good start. ProspectSoft only sell via Partners and therefore Managing Director Andrew Ardron thanked us all for our efforts, and then in his very next breath announced that our targets for next year were being increased significantly! He accounted the success to the roaring trade in web solutions and eCommerce.

If you would like to discuss your CRM requirements or learn more about the ProspectSoft CRM offering please do not hesitate to contact our sales team on 0333 666 3330 or email us at newsletter@atlasbiz.com.

Atlas Customers 'Go Ape' After Event Day Success

Atlas successfully ran our QlikTalk event this week at our customer Go Ape's Delamere site. You can read about exactly what a QlikTalk is and how it was received on our main site here and here. The Atlas Blog was also present at the even and we captured some of the images that told the story of the day...

David (far left) and Darryl (far right) from QlikTech set up the room with Joe (second from right) and Craig (second from left) from Atlas.

The Shell Forrest Classroom was a great location from which to launch the event.

Located towards the rear of the Delamere cafe at Delamere forest we had to procure extra seats to fit all the attendees in!

Jan from Go Ape gave the first talk which was well received by those in attendance.

Jan discussed why Go Ape had chosen the QlikView product and what they had achieved with it so far.

After a brief break for coffee, Darryl and David (out of shot) delivered a presentation about how other companies have put QlikView to good use.

We were lucky to largely avoid the rain on the day and served attendees a buffet lunch outside the classroom.

After lunch attendees were invited to join Atlas on their very own Go Ape experience. Joe and Tony Butler from Koch Glitsch get ready by reading the safety instructions.

The team from Venture, all looking very nervous!

Our brave Go Ape participants get in to their harnesses, led by David (centre) from QlikTech.

Craig crosses one of the first obstacles...

... and then sets off down a zip wire into deepest Delamere!

Leanne from Sense lands perfectly at the end of one of the courses' five 'stages'.

Joe takes care when crossing one of the later obstacles.

With the lake in the background, Leanne swings across to the next platform...

... and watches on as Craig and Tony prepare for the next zip wire...

... which Tony is first to attempt.

Atlas would like to thank all of the customers who attended the event. We hope you found it as unique, lively and engaging as we all did!

There's Sure To Be A Lara Lara Laughs!

Atlas are delighted to announce that Lara Bailey has joined the company as Business Development Coordinator. Asked to describe herself she told the blog that she is 'blonde and will no doubt therefore have many troubles'.

Previously to working at Atlas, Lara worked in Recruitment, HR and more recently training. Her work at ESTC Group involved organising training for Spectator Safety stewards at football and cricket grounds such as West Ham Football Club and Warwickshire County Cricket Ground. For a girl not interested in football or cricket, it was impressive that by the end of her employment she knew what a ‘fixture list’ was and not only that but who was playing each week!

Her favourite employment, up to now, was working for Bentley, where she had a contract as Technical Training Coordinator. This involved forming new smarter processes to enable the training at Bentley to become more efficient. Closely working with the CAD department, she was able to organise the training of the back log of new starter trainees and put in place a whole new effective training schedule.

At Atlas, Lara will be looking at our own Technical processes and proposals, as well as putting in place steps to expand Atlas Business’ portfolio of products. This will hopefully be in the shape of training and a training consultancy service.

At home Lara likes to organise her spare time as she does her professional life. She has an active social diary and tends to organise everyone else’s too. Currently she is captain of her own netball team, where she enrolled most of her friends and has canvassed some sponsorship for the kit. We are told the sponsorship for dresses is still up for grabs! On a serious note, the team hope to do well on their first season of the Coppenhall League. Lara has promised updates of their disastrous progress and welcomes any volunteer mascots or players (players however must be female – sorry to any overly keen men out there!).

Lara is mother to Jamie (5) and has lived in Nantwich now for over 5 years. This has become home to her and she loves the sense of community she has been lucky to find in the town.

As for the future Lara is looking forward to building relationships with members at Atlas business and their clients and hopes to offer something in addition to the great services and products already on offer. Everyone at Atlas is certain that this will be the case and we are looking forward to working closely with Lara over the coming months and years.