Are Women Better Managers Than Men?

Craig Cameron, IoD member and Atlas Group Director, considers the latest gender-based research.

A few weeks ago Kelvin Redmile and Craig Cameron from Atlas attended an IoD event entitled “out of the cave” in the fabulous surroundings of Booths Hall, Knutsford.

The speaker was top business coach Nick Robinson whose niche is coaching men in the leadership skills normally attributable to the very top women managers. Nick started with two startling statistics. One, women are responsible for 85% of all purchasing decisions. Two, according to research by Harvard Business Review out of 16 key leadership criteria, women are ahead of men in 15 of them.

If that is enough to make you want to tear in half this month’s copy of Muscle & Fitness magazine then think again and if you read to the end of this article you will find where to get help.

Have a guess what was the management competence where men excelled? It was the ability to develop a strategic perspective. Personally I would have thought it was Drive but apparently top women managers are 12% more driven than their male counterparts.

On closer inspection of the Harvard Business Review article, and I must stress this is a personal opinion, the true message of the research is more subtle, albeit it is an excellent headline that makes you want to read more. Taking the direct comparisons the gap between men and women for the sixteen competences measured is not that large; typically men upper 40% to low 50% and women low to middle 50%. Nowhere is anyone getting 70%, 80% or 90% so is a true reflection not that women are marginally less useless at management than their male counterparts? With scores of 49% to 56% women are not perfect managers either.

Also is there a definite gender bias or something else in the statistics? Again a personal opinion (research funding welcome if you want me to gather the facts) but my understanding is there are relatively few top-level women managers and any person that reaches these levels has to be a truly remarkable individual.

This could create the statistical anomaly where the average women surveyed is more senior, and therefore, more capable than the average man surveyed. What might be getting measured is that on average because the women are more senior they are getting better results. The fundamentals behind the results might not be to do with gender but with ability.

If you want to draw your own conclusions the Harvard Business Review article can be found at

http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2012/03/a_study_in_leadership_women_do.html

Whatever the root cause there are things to be learned from how successful leaders operate and that is where Nick Robinson can help you to help yourself. If you are looking for a speaker for one of your company events I can recommend this man, especially if you want to create lively discussion.

On a more personal level, starting in February, Nick is running an online Personal Development Course that is one event per month for six months. Having spoken to Nick, and signed-up myself, the course material takes the best possible leadership advice currently available, from both sexes, and shows you how to apply it to your 21st Century workspace.

If you want to book the course details are to be found at

http://nickrobinson.org/courses/development-for-leading-men-1/

New Features for AFS Pro Users

Atlas are delighted to announce a new set of features for users of our popular Advanced Financials product, AFS Pro.

The latest .Net 4 version 6.04 of the product is now available for new and existing users. This version includes the ability to have customised layouts for your P&L account including subgroups of Sales, Cost of Sales or Overheads and to show Budget and Last Year variances.

The variance report format P&L Account is now a standard report within the system. You can also define a custom vertical layout based on an excel template so you can include % calculations and subtotals where you would like them.

If you are interested in this new version of AFS Pro or would like to discuss the product in more detail, please e-mail newsletter@atlasbiz.com or call Atlas' friendly sales team on 0333 666 3330.

We've Not Been Quarantined!

Contrary to recent reports (from staff), Atlas have not been quarantined, we are not the source of a new zombie outbreak, we don't think we are contagious, although it may look like all of those things and more are true...

Globe is merely undergoing a bit of a facelift, for which it has had to cover up. Please watch your step if visiting the premises.

Blown Away by Bentley

Sales manager Joe Jardine blogs about his trip to Bentley Motor Cars.

This month I attended a South Cheshire Chamber business networking event at Bentley Motor Cars. I got to meet plenty of business owners and influential people but the reason for this blog article is to tell you about the inspirational Bentley factory tour.

The event included a fascinating half hour presentation about the history of the luxury automotive manufacturer and how it continues to evolve, adapting to the latest challenges whilst still delivering their vision of developing and crafting the World’s most desirable high performance cars. This was followed by a two hour tour of their Crewe site. Unlike many other car manufacturers, Bentley design, build and sell cars from the single site, in a huge all in one operation.

Despite living less than 10 miles from the factory and having driven past it hundreds of times, I’d never set foot through the big fancy glass doors. The first thing that struck me was how spotlessly clean the entire site was. I was in a group of ten and at the beginning of the tour we were invited to stop any worker along our route and have a chat. Each individual we spoke to was extremely passionate and had a story or two to tell. These ranged from how their role has changed over the years to keep up with the latest technology and the extensive training they’ve been on, to the lavish customisation requests that they have received from rich extrovert celebrities. Personalised ‘his and hers’ crystal champagne flutes in the arm rest anyone? Or what about a £5k child seat?

Bentley are part of the Volkswagen Group. In 2011 they sold over 7,000 vehicles with the new Continental GT accounting for approximately one third of them. This is a huge vamp up in production compared to a decade ago when they were making a little over 1,000 cars. During the past ten years to keep up with demand they have introduced lots of new lean practices and machine automation to ensure everything runs efficiently. They have a number of quarter million pound machines that are programmed with certain shapes that are required for the interior trim. It was fantastic to watch the machine review a piece of material, recognise the pre-marked blemishes and then make the cuts to maximise the utilisation. That said, they still employ around 4,000 people with many more jobs at key suppliers dependent on Bentley.

Some interesting facts:-

• Subject to the amount of leather, it takes a highly skilled person between 5 and 8 hours to handstich each steering wheel.
• Bentley are expecting big things for their next car as they are entering the SUV market. Their concept car received the most amount of press interest at the recent Geneva show.
• Bentley is the jewel in the VW Group crown. The VW Group also includes Audi, Bugatti, Lamborghini, Porsche, Seat, Skoda and Volkswagen.
• Rolls Royce who previously owned Bentley, chose to build the factory in Crewe because of the good railway links, the skilled workforce and for the cloud cover to help protect them from bombing raids! At that stage they were building aeroplane engines to help with the war efforts.
• Bentley have won the Le Mons 24 hour race six times, 1924, 1927, 1928, 1929, 1930 and more recently in 2003.
• Bentley source their veneers from Atlas customer, Nantwich Veneers! Visit them and see the work they do at www.nantwichveneers.com

  

Bentley run organised tours for members of the public. If you’re interested in cars, luxury or manufacturing in general then I certainly recommend you take a trip. Click here for further details.

Right I’m off to sell lots of systems to earn sufficient commission so that I can afford the Bentley Continental GT.

All Tied Up

Liam Meadows wore a tie. We realise that a man wearing a tie perhaps doesn’t seem news worthy to most people, but when Liam walked into the office with his tie on it certainly caused a few dropped jaws. Rumours quickly spread about a court case but the real special occasion and reason for the tie was because we had allowed Liam out of the developer’s dark cupboard to join the sales team in a customer facing meeting.

This got us thinking... why do we wear ties?

After all...

• They seem to be a magnet for any spilt breakfast / lunch.
• They regularly take a dip in our brews.
• They are the frequent cause of “are you colour blind? / did you get dressed in the dark?” comments/insults from our colleagues on the very rare occasion that the colours/patterns clash with our shirt.

Would you be offended if we attended a meeting and didn’t wear a tie? We’d love to hear your comments.

Planning on moving office soon, make sure you let your ISP know in advance!

Our technical team blog about the importance of good communication with your ISP.


Over the years we've frequently seen customers suffer unnecessary and often lengthy periods of downtime on their broadband service after moving office. This is always due to the customer not advising us of the office move in advance, as they assume that transferring the phone line will automatically take the ADSL service with it.


Unfortunately this is not how it works, and by the time we find out about the office move, the customer has no DSL service and its too late for us to do anything about it. At this stage we can only offer to fast track the new order, at an additional charge of £150 to keep the period of downtime to a minimum. If we are told in advance, then we will always recommend the same process to avoid any loss of service.


First of all you need to ensure that a new phone line is ordered to go live at least a week before the office move is set to take place. Ideally it would be ordered to go live two weeks prior to the move, in case of unexpected delays. Once the phone line goes live we can then order a new DSL service on the new number, you would then effectively have two DSL services running at both the old and new office for a week, so the move could be done at your own convenience during this period.


Our DSL accounts are not locked to individual lines, so you would not need to reconfigure your router/firewall etc, and could simply unplug from one office and plug into the new office. As I'm sure you'll agree, this is a stress free way of moving your broadband to the new office, which is good, as office moves are often stressful enough as it is!


If you currently get your broadband through Atlas/C2 Internet, and have an office move planned for one of your sites, then please give our TSM team a call on 0333 666 3330 for further advice.

Milestone for Gary

Everyone at Atlas would like pass on our very best wishes to company director Gary Manktelow, who turned fifty during the course of this month. You're never too old for balloons!

Planning for the London Olympics

Craig Cameron blogs about the invisible technology layers we don’t see behind the Olympic games, how these layers might have been compromised in recent weeks and how better planning when it comes to employees could have worked wonders.

It is not the purpose of this blog to be controversial or highly opinionated but given the London Olympics is starting this week, and it is the biggest single sporting event that any of us are likely to witness in our lifetime, we had to include it somewhere.

If our purpose behind these articles is to be informative then what does a once in a lifetime event like London 2012 have to teach Atlas customers at large?
The company G4S has been in the news a great deal recently but we’re not going to focus on how or why they have allegedly failed to carry out their “believed to be” contractual duties. That is being covered elsewhere and we would have very little to add.

What we do want to highlight are the very real operational difficulties involved in getting 10,000 people from not-employed over to employed, trained, on-site, supervised and ready to go. Not only do we know about that but we are experts.

For example:-

• One of our customers carries out work on power stations, including nuclear ones. They have to recruit as many as 500 highly qualified people, each of whom has very high security clearance. This has to be done in around a two week period. How do they manage this? They use the Atlas HR Hub.

• Every February, and within a three week period, another one of our customers has to recruit nearly 500 seasonal staff, suitably qualified to work with children and vulnerable adults. How do they manage this? They use QlikView Business Discovery.

• One of our customers has 10,000 employees who have to be scheduled into, each week, nearly 900 different locations. It is a legal requirement for them to have minimum numbers of suitably qualified staff at each location before they can legally open the shop. A repeated failure to comply would result in a removal of the very licence our customer needs to operate their business; it can be that serious. How do they manage this? They use the Atlas Employee Roster Software, and frankly they would not have the operation they have without it!

• Another one of our customers who are in the food processing industry have to ensure that no-one (employees and visitors) who has been on a foreign holiday in the last three days enters their factory.

Then of course apart from employing hundreds or thousands of people you have to ensure they actually turned up for work. We have solutions for that also, including options that are activated by phone calls or smart phones messages i.e. no computer necessary.

Sadly none of this Atlas software or technology is in use at London 2012, but even without our super clever stuff, we are still confident the Games will be a success.
We know this will be difficult, but for a moment let us forget the London 2012 Olympics are happening this week.

Please ask yourself this question, how big a difference to the labour management in your organisation would some of this super-clever Atlas staff make?

Armed Forces Day is extra-special for Adam’s son (and new daughter-in-law!)

You may know Adam Wilkinson, TSM engineer at our Leeds office. His son, Thomas, was married on Saturday to Stephanie at a service & reception in Wetherby, north of Leeds.

What made the day extra-special is that Thomas is in the army and a veteran of both Iraq and Afghanistan, and Saturday 30th June 2012 was Armed Forces Day.

Thomas wore his full military dress uniform for the service and displayed his medals proudly. A joyous occasion for all concerned and all of us at Atlas wish Thomas and Stephanie our warmest wishes for the future.

Compilation: Well Wishes for Joe

Sales Manager Joe Jardine collates all of the 'well wishes' he's recently received from colleagues...

As plenty of you will be aware, I recently broke my collar bone. I'm lucky enough to have a bunch of supportive and sympathetic colleagues who have been chauffeuring me around to meetings and making my brews. They've also been finding their own ways to wish me well over the past fortnight...

'Sorry to hear about your injury, but why the chip on your shoulder?'

'Welcome back to work, I hear you had a cracking few days holiday.'

'I heard you broke your arm in 2 places, I would avoid those 2 places in future.'

'A man walked into a bar. He now has a broken collar bone.'

'It couldn't have happened to a nicer chap. You're armless.'

'If you think I’m going to make you a cuppa you can ‘sling’ your hook.'

'You're armless for a change... you're usually legless'

My Learning Experience With The Institute of Directors

Recently Atlas Director Craig Cameron went through the first stage of the Institute of Directors learning and development programme. Just in case you are the only person on the planet he has not told, he got the best possible mark, a Pass with Distinction. Here his report.

As you can imagine the Institute of Directors (IoD) has strong opinions as to what constitutes best practice when it come to running organisations of all shapes and sizes. Much of this is continuing from the recommendations contained in the various “independent reviews” set up by UK regulatory authorities to investigate and report on governance issues: Cadbury; Greenbury; Hampel ; Higgs ; and Smith. When you throw into the mix the well-publicised failing of risk management at RBS and their ilk in the years leading up to 2008 there is a substantial body of evidence to say that how well organisations are run is important and affects a much larger number of people than just those directly involved.

I know there are exceptions but many people become company directors because they excelled in their previous role. The significance of this? It is a totally different type of job.

For one, there are the contradictory forces of balancing short-term and long-term priorities. Second, the magnitude of the decisions are greater both in terms of the money involved and the duration. Third, the style of decision making is different. Hopefully, in a well-run operation all the information needed to make a robust decision is available. You might have to dig around a bit (shameless self-promotion – Atlas can provide you with award winning, market leading Business Intelligence software that will do just that) but my point is the information is available.

If you accept that strategic decisions involve complex judgements as to what the situation will be in 2 years time, then it becomes clear that information might be available but it won’t be what you are used to. Then include topics such as succession planning (only 15% of family businesses survive to third-generation), mergers and acquisitions (over 70% fail to create significant value)...and I could go on from there. As I said earlier, it is a different job.

The IoD is very much into learning and development and keen for their members to participate in their professional learning programme which has three levels of qualification; the Certificate in Company Direction, the Diploma in Company Direction, culminating in the Chartered Director programme. This very week I have completed the Certificate Examination, after taking part in a 6 day intensive “boot-camp” in February.

My thoughts about my recent experiences would be as follows. The 6 day “boot-camp” was tough going, especially by the time you reach the last couple of days. When I say this I don’t think that my brain is defective in anyway, but there was just too much information to absorb in the time available. Each of us left with in excess of 1,000 pages of Course Notes plus the cautionary tale that Exam questions could come from anywhere within that. Having just sat the Exam I can confirm that was good advice.

There are three exams per year, and laden down with over 1,000 pages of essential reading material, I thought that the March Exam would be too soon, so I went for June. To help me there was an excellent e-learning portal on the IoD web-site and I made sure that I found time to fully revise, every weekend, bank holiday and two weeks of holidays to be exact, and I was glad that I did.

The actual format of the Certificate Exam is 48 multiple choice questions in three hours with a pass mark of 50%, which does not sound like a lot, but wait and see the questions!
What is the biggest single thing that I have gained so far? An improved ability to manage complex decisions, largely due to having a better framework. That benefits me not just as a Director of Atlas but it also enables me to deliver greater insights to our customers when in conversation with their senior management teams about their company plans and ambitions.

The IoD is not just about learning and exams. Membership brings many benefits both on a personal and business level. The IoD does make available to its members many excellent resources and I would wholeheartedly recommend membership. There is a minimum criteria in terms of personal experience and size of organisation plus you have to be proposed by an existing IoD member.

If this is something that might suit you then please drop me an email craig.cameron@atlasbiz.com and I will be happy to discuss in more detail.

Craig Cameron, MIoD

Education, Education, Education

Ruth Doe from our Customer Sales & Support department blogs about being a first-time learner of Access Accounts.

 Having recently taken on some responsibility in the accounts department here at Atlas, I was pleasantly surprised to learn that using Access Accounting software was so much easier to use than the accounting solutions I have dealt with in a previous life.

After attending the same training Atlas provide to our customers – delivered by Keltha Borey, one of our trainers and experts in Access and ProspectSoft - all became crystal clear in no time. Keltha has the skill and wit of talking on every level from the very high end accounting functionality to the simple features that make users’ lives easier - and a good job too in my novice case! Keltha managed to take the usual “fear of the unknown” away very quickly and succinctly and at a pace I could cope with.

Training is imperative if you are to get the most out of your software and your investment. As some customers will be aware I have worked in the Customer Services department here at Atlas for sometime and often talk to users with hand-me-down training, rather than those who have been on an official Atlas course. So, if you’re in the same boat as I was, talk to us about having an Atlas trainer come to your offices and show you the quick and easy way to use the software properly!

Functional Features: Accruals and Pre-Payments

Atlas Director, Diane Lonsdale, blogs about finding out just how useful the Access Accruals & Pre-Payments feature is.

Amongst my many external commitments with clients, I have been tasked this year with working out the value of Atlas’ own deferred income for our annual audit. If, like Atlas, you raise invoices for work and services which span several periods then you will be interested to learn that there is new functionality in Dimensions 2.50e to make accruals and pre-payments automatically over a series of dates.

Sales and Purchase Analysis codes can be configured so when used on a detail line in SOP, POP, PL and SL there are additional fields to complete to allow the software to automatically post a nominal journal to reverse out the revenue or costs from the PL and post to an account in the balance sheet. Recurring journals are then automatically created to release the revenue/costs from the balance sheet to the P&L.

This, we have seen in practice, results in more accurate monthly management accounts and less work at the end of the year to work out any deferred income or costs – and less work at the end of the year is a very good thing indeed!

If you would like more information about how to use this functionality then please contact us on 0333 666 3330.

Nantwich Gets its First FTTC Connection

TSM engineer Stuart McKindley blogs about being the first person in Nantwich to get super-fast broadband.

Fiber to the cabinet (FTTC) is the new super fast broadband service sweeping through the UK, transforming the potential speeds of most lines that are enabled for this service. A great deal of work has already taken place in the nationwide FTTC upgrades, however we’re still in the fairly early stages and currently most of the UK is yet to be FTTC enabled.

It’s felt like a long wait for FTTC to become available to my connection at home, Nantwich was certainly not at the top of the list for Openreach, so with great envy I’ve spent the last 12 months or so ordering super fast FTTC connections for other people, while having to make do with standard broadband at home. But finally last week my cabinet was enabled for FTTC and a few milliseconds later i put my regrade order through.

The engineer that arrived to install my new master socket was pleased to tell me that my cabinet was the first to go live in Nantwich, and not only that but i was the first person in Nantwich to get FTTC. It is now all up and running and is noticeably quicker, and my speed test result showed that my line now had a downstream speed of 37Mbps, a lot quicker than the 5Mbps speed the connection ran at previously. If it follows the same trend as the other lines that we’ve upgraded to FTTC, it should also be more stable and less prone to BT related faults.

Unfortunately i expect it won’t be long till i get used to my speedy connection, at which point i will no doubt find myself getting annoyed whenever surfing on the Internet on a connection that isn’t 37Mbps. But hopefully this type of connection will become the norm for everyone soon as Openreach continue their nationwide installation of the service. The benefits to businesses of faster broadband are obvious, especially for those that require a faster upstream speed. If anyone reading this is interested in the new FTTC service, please don’t hesitate to call me for more information.

Stuart can be reached on the normal Atlas number - 0333 666 3330

The Atlas Team - Life With The Edge

Atlas customers may already have had the pleasure of speaking to new team member Mark Edge, who joined the company in the TSM team last month. Here's our introduction to Mark, in his own words.

I've always had an interest in technology since I was young... normally breaking objects and trying to fix them before anyone else noticed!

After various administration jobs, I took a job in IT, repairing faulty PCs and laptops. I started off without knowing what the inside of a PC looked like, but quickly developed the knowledge and skills to repair computers within hours, not the days it can take when dealing with some larger companies.

Taking this thirst for knowledge further, I am currently studying a foundation degree in ICT, to build up experiences of the different sectors of ICT, business concepts, hardware and networking, software development and website design. Some aspects of which will no doubt help in my job role within the Atlas Business TSM department.

The first few weeks have passed quickly and I am starting to get a grasp on all the different systems in use at Atlas, the knowledge building is progressing and this is when the real work begins...

My personal interests include both ends of the motor sport spectrum; from the high tech, glitz and glamour of Formula 1 to the action-packed, almost no-holds barred racing of the British Touring Car Championship. In addition to this I also try and play football and golf a few times a month, when the British weather allows it.

My other major interest is films. I don't know if this is a good or bad thing, but I will pretty much watch most films and normally end up at the cinema most weekends.

Everyone at Atlas welcomes Mark to the team, where we are certain he will be hugely successful.

Atlas Get an 'Icy Reception'

April is always a challenging month for our project consultants and helpdesk engineers as they face an 'avalanche' of queries from customers requiring payroll year end support - unfortunately, the payroll year end comes 'weather' you like it or not. April 2012 is proving no different. Our customer Longcliffe Quarries based in Derbyshire realised they were 'skating on thin ice' and wanted to avoid the common mistakes made on the year end 'slippery slope'. They therefore requested some Atlas professional services assistance. Whilst being 'snowed under' with her workload Diane was willing to go the extra mile to ensure we had a happy customer.

Sorry if you found this blog article 'snow' joke. The pictures will help to explain the puns.

Have an 'ice' day.

Payroll 2012 Upgrade Help

Atlas are aware that, for Payroll customers, this time of year can be taxing (ha ha!), with year ends and upgrades to go through, HMRC submissions and endless forms to produce.


We've always tried to make Payroll year end as easy as possible for everyone involved and this year is no exception - our helpdesk has been as busy as ever and we're sure many of you have already had your questions answered by our experts at the end of the phone.


This year however, we've also got a new tool ready to help customers: our fantastic Payroll training videos!


Each video takes you through, step-by-step, how to complete various elements of your upgrade; from getting to grips with new legislation to performing the upgrade yourself; we've got you covered in our five videos for Payroll Year End 2012.


Click the links below to go to the video most appropriate for you. Or start on the Atlas YouTube page and work your way through from there.

Video 1 - Welcome to Payroll Upgrade 2012

Video 2 - Payroll News Update 2012

Video 3a - Year End Update

Video 3b - Year End Update

Video 4 - Software Install

Video 5 - HMRC Communications

Supporting The Community, Atlas Welcome Work Experience Student

Last week we supported one of the Nantwich local schools during their work experience term. We were delighted to welcome Megan Green into our team and we hope she enjoyed her time at Atlas. Megan was given the opportunity to see what happens within most departments and we were particularly impressed by her attitude; she wanted to positively contribute to tasks rather than just spectate.

Below you can find a brief synopsis of what she got up to (in her own words).

“My name is Megan Green and I am a student at Malbank School. I have recently taken part in a week’s worth of work experience, so I can understand how to work in the various departments and discover what job roles are important within the business. I am specifically looking at how the companies communicate with internally with each other and with their customers.

During the time I have worked at Atlas I have been working alongside some of the people who work for Atlas Business, for example, I have done some sales research which allowed me to understand that customers do not come to you, you have to find them and research into their company’s background to see whether they will be useful to your company.

I have observed and taken part in the filming of the Access Payroll user training video. Video not only proves more interesting than reading instructions, but also makes it clear and easier to understand how to install Access Payroll software at the beginning of the new tax year.

I have been given tasks to work on independently which gave me some invaluable experience of having a job. I have updated information on contact details using ProspectSoft CRM. This meant I had to do the procedures of going through all of the contacts, checking to see if they were correct and then changing the details that were incorrect.

The time I have spent here at Atlas Business, has taught me that verbal communications is one of the main parts to this business. The telephone is used by all the workers in this company every day. Video conferences are used to allow meetings to take place, which gives the people within the business a chance to discuss their ideas. Presentations are also used to show people’s ideas thoughts and theories.

I have also discovered that personal image is an important part to being involved in a business, it shows professionalism and gives a great first impression. Having good organisation skills makes information easy to find when there is something to guide you. For example, keeping important documents in files and labelling them, keeping things in order so when you come to find them it is not very difficult, using highlighters to highlight specific information and keeping all tasks up to date. Writing notes down is another example of being organised, as you are able to write down information that is needed, to either pass on to a colleague, file or use yourself.

My time at Atlas Business has been an enjoyable and very useful experience. It has changed the way I think about having a job and has allowed me to understand that every role a person has is important and makes a big difference. I will be able to take the skills I have learnt with me and use them in any future careers I may embark on.”

Megan, everybody at Atlas that had the pleasure of meeting you said that they enjoyed working alongside you. We wish you all the best with your school work, exams and chosen career path. Keep in touch!

Windows 8: Are Microsoft Looking at Another Vista?

Microsoft are currently preparing Windows 8 for its final version launch, later in 2012. Advanced consumer preview editions are with some users now, some of whom have questioned quite how atuned to people's needs the new operating system is. Watch what happened when technology writer Chris Pirillo asked his Dad, an 'average consumer', to use the system for the first time.

The closing lines of the video should really strike fear into many an Microsoft executive's heart. Should we, as users, be worried?

Leeds Office Move

Atlas are delighted to announce that we have agreed new tenancy at better-appointed offices for the Leeds arm of our business. The offices, which also have more parking facilities, will be occupied by our Redcliffe CSN team from Monday 12th March. The new address for all correspondence heading to Leeds is;

Unit 7
Madison Court
George Mann Road
Leeds
LS10 1DX

We hope you're able to join us at the new offices very soon.

Introducing our Exciting New Website Features

Regular visitors to the Atlas Business website may have noticed some enhancements to the site recently and we thought you'd like some brief details about what they are and how we're planning on using them.


Live Help

Many of you will have noticed a pop-up message which appears un-obtrusively in the bottom right-hand corner of the page when browsing the site. This is the new Atlas Instant Messenger. It allows us to have one-to-one conversations with website visitors, enabling us to talk with you on a variety of topics, instantly.

Currently, Atlas Instant Messenger is in a testing phase and is only being used for Technical Sales Enquiries. The plan is to role the messenger out across departments, meaning you can easily chat with a member of the ASM team, who may be able to solve your query without you even picking up the phone! For now, we invite customers interested in making a technical purchase to give it a go!

RSS

On our news page, you may have noticed some new icons across the top. The first two of these are links to RSS feeds of the regularly updated main website news and the news articles we publish on the blog, right here. This makes subscribing to the pages easy in your regular RSS reader, making it impossible to miss an important news item from Atlas ever again.

Social Media

Also added along the top row of the the news page are links to various social media sites, including twitter, facebook and youtube. As you will see by clicking on them, some are not quite yet active. Don't worry: we're planning on putting them to good use soon. If you're using one of these sites already, why not head over to the Atlas page and say hello! We're always happy to chat using new media.



Look out for new website enhancements over the next few months.

Pictures From Kath's Retirement Party

As you may already be aware if you've read our Kick Off Meeting report or looked at the photographs from the event, Atlas' Kick Off Meeting on Friday 13th January marked the last day in the business for Kath Welsh, who retired from Atlas after being involved with the company for ten years.

Kath's colleagues, friends and family, joined together to wish her a fantastic retirement and to thank her for all her hard work over the past few years. A selection of (carefully edited) photos is available below.

Kath (centre) partys the night away.

Atlas director John Bilyj is, erm... 'asked', to join in with the band.

Daphne and John Butler enjoy the celebration...

...along with Atlas Director Craig Cameron and wife Jacquie.

Pictures from Atlas Business Kick-Off Meeting 2012

Atlas held our annual Kick-Off Meeting at Oulton Hall near to Leeds on Friday 13th January. Below are some pictures from what turned out to be an energetic, productive and lively day.  You can read a full report of what happened in our main news section.

Our hosts at Oulton Hall provided great facilities for the meeting, held in a room at their golf club.

ASM Engineer Michael, ready for the day's action.



Ben Butler prepares for his presentation.



TSM Engineers (l-r) Adam, Gary and Matt.

Melanie Bilyj and Kath Welsh, during the day. The Kick-Off Meeting was Kath's last day before she retired from Atlas, having been involved with the company for over ten years.

Group Managing Director, John Butler, kicks off the Kick Off Meeting



Director John Bilyj shows the room how to accurately hold an imaginary box.



All Atlas employees not involved in customer work on that day attended, making for a crowded and productive room.

ASM Engineers Ruth and Michael gave a lively a humour-filled presentation.

John and Keltha are entertained by the presentations.

Adam and Stuart represented the TSM team.

Head of TSM David Lambert and Richard Walliker work on a task together.

Director Diane Lonsdale and John share a joke.

John presents Kath with a certificate commemorating her long and excellent service with the company.

Kath's colleague Catherine presents her with a bouquet of flowers.

At the end of the day, Kath looks over the signatures from her many friends in the company.