The Atlas Business Group Blog

Pictures From Kath's Retirement Party

2012-01-30T16:08:00.000Z

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

2012-01-30T16:07:00.001Z

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.

Pictures From Our Atlas 'Business Growth 2012' Event

2011-11-23T12:43:00.001Z

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

John and Daphne: The Movie

2011-11-15T15:58:00.001Z

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

2011-10-25T11:05:00.000+01:00

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

2011-10-03T15:29:00.000+01:00

(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

2011-09-26T11:56:00.002+01:00

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!

2011-08-22T13:07:00.001+01:00

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

2011-08-18T14:06:00.000+01:00

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

2011-08-15T11:56:00.002+01:00

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...

2011-07-29T10:01:00.001+01:00

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...

2011-07-28T16:47:00.004+01:00

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

2011-07-28T13:50:00.001+01:00

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)

2011-07-28T11:04:00.000+01:00

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

2011-07-27T11:55:00.001+01:00

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

2011-06-22T10:35:00.000+01:00

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

2011-06-13T10:32:00.000+01:00

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

2011-06-10T11:40:00.000+01:00

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

2011-06-07T12:46:00.000+01:00

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

2011-05-24T13:32:00.000+01:00

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

2011-05-23T12:00:00.000+01:00

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

2011-05-20T14:46:00.000+01:00

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!

2011-04-11T10:57:00.002+01:00

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.

Access Payroll 4.70a

2011-04-07T16:28:00.000+01:00

It’s that time of year again! 6th April brings with it the new Payroll Tax year which means you get a nice new shiny version of Access Payroll (if you’ve ever wondered why the tax year falls on the 6th of April then we suggest you read our blog article). Within the past three or four weeks you should have received a CD in the post containing Access Payroll 4.70a.

Please find below a list of the changes and enhancements available in Access payroll 4.70a;

The Payroll software has been updated for the Tax Year 2011/2012 and contains: the NIC, PAYE, and SSP/SMP appropriate parameters for the new tax year.

P11D Car
The following changes were announced in Budget 2009 for cars made available in 2011/12 which will be reported in 2012/13

The 80,000 price cap is abolished meaning that the 'appropriate percentage' will be applied to the full list price of the vehicle.
The appropriate percentage for electric-only cars will be 9% (rather than a 6% reduction on 15%). The 9% charge will now apply from 2015/16.
Reductions for hybrid, bi-fuel, and bio-ethanol cars will no longer apply.
3% Diesel supplement will apply to all diesel cars including Euro IV standard and those first registered before 01/01/2006.

P11 Earnings Thresholds

From April 2011 the text 'Earnings Threshold' changes to 'Primary Threshold' The headings for columns 1b, and 1c will change to:

Earnings above the LEL, up to and including the PT
Earnings above the PT, up to and including the UAP

P14/60 Earnings Thresholds

From April 2011 the text 'Earnings Threshold' changes to 'Primary Threshold' The headings for columns 1b, and 1c will change to:

Earnings above the LEL, up to and including the PT
Earnings above the PT, up to and including the UAP

See also the HMRC Guidance

Electronic P60

PAYE regulations have been changed to allow employers to provide P60 information electronically and comes into effect for the year ending 5 April 2011.

Fuel Type Changes

From 6th April 2011, the P46 Car submission will report only 3 fuel types:

E - Zero-emission (whatever the technology) - includes Electric
D - Diesel cars of all kinds (includes types D and L)
A - All other kinds (includes types P, B, C, H, and G)

ASPP

The ability to pay Additional Statutory Paternity Pay has been added to the software.

P46 Car Notification
From 6th April you will now be required to transmit details of replacement cars.

P46 Starter Form
With effect from 6th April 2011 employees that start working without a P45 will notice the following changes in Tax Code depending on the choices made when filling in a P46:-

Where 'Statement C' is ticked – code BR will still be applicable.
Where 'No P46 or P46 Incomplete' is ticked - code 0T Week1/Month1 will be used.

Co-op Bulk BACS

Access Payroll SE now supports the Co-op Bulk BACS format. It is identified as 'Co-Op Bulk' in the selection drop-down.

If you have renewed but are still awaiting your delivery please telephone our helpdesk team and they will organise a replacement to be despatched immediately. On this disc along with the software you will find a set of installation instructions. If you require any assistance with the installation or year end procedures please do not hesitate to telephone our helpdesk team on 0333 666 3330.

But Why The 6th?

2011-04-05T14:23:00.004+01:00

Have you ever wondered why the Payroll Tax Year starts on the 6th April? We did too......

When asked, most people in our office suspected that it was aligned with the UK Government’s Financial Year, which whilst this sounded plausible it still wouldn’t have answered why they chose the 6th of the month rather than the 1st, but they were wrong anyway.

The reason for this date is because of the calendar and the tax man. Back in the Middle Ages the calendar was made up of quarters, with the first day of each quarter falling on a religious festival (24 June = Midsummer Day, 25 December = Christmas, 25 March = Lady Day and 29 September = Michaelmas). Traditionally each of the four quarter days were when employers hired their servants, pay was processed and all rents were due to be paid. Lady Day was in fact the 1st day of the New Year and it therefore also made sense that it was the start of the Financial Year too. In 1752 the 1st January became recognised as the start of the calendar year but the tax authorities found it unacceptable to lose out on 11 days of revenue (caused by leap year differences between the Gregorian calendar and the Julian calendar) and so they moved the Tax year start date to the 5th April. It remained as the 5th April until 1799 when the powers that be decided to ‘skip’ a leap year and so the tax authorities moved the start of the tax year to the 6th April.

So now you know!

13/04/11 - Of course there may well be more than one plausible explanation as to why the 6th April is the start of the tax year! James Cooper from Ripon Select Foods wrote in to the blog to put the case forward for an alternative reason behind the date. We've included James' response below to add further explanation for the reasons behind the choice of the 6th.

I believe it is much simpler than that and is related to agricultural workers and 'flitting day'. A journeyman agricultural worker would be employed for a year ending 5th April, when his contract was up he would pack up all his possessions including wife and family and move on to another farm. Just why the 5th I am not sure but logically a spring flit makes sense. He would have had to leave his small piece of allotted ground fallow and dug over ready for the next worker to then spring plant seeds, potatoes etc.

Even More Virtually Certain Than Last Time!

2011-03-09T13:24:00.000Z

The level of interest in our last article about virtualisation was high and so, back by popular demand, Director John Bilyj returns to the blog this week to give a practical example of how the technology can work in an active business environment.

Ripon Select Foods is a large manufacturing operation in (you guessed it) Ripon, North Yorkshire, and their processing lines are monitored at many points with weighers which measure the flow of raw materials in and finished product out. The weighers are all connected to Atlas systems, distributed throughout the plant which take the weights and, as well as providing visibility for operatives of how lines are performing, feed the figures back regularly to the main system, which runs the Atlas ‘BarRed’ application, providing them with complete and live capacity & performance analysis of the whole plant.

The issue was that the 6 distributed systems are all slightly different, as different weighers throughout the plant provide their own, usually unique, interface for taking readings, so each system has its own unique combination of interfaces.

The mission was to provide backup in case of the failure of any of these individual systems. Atlas came up with a solution which provides a single machine with 6 VMs, each with an exact image of one of the systems out in the works. In case of the failure of any of these, rather than the machine being disconnected for a time whilst being repaired or replaced, and the attendant loss of vital production information, the PC with the virtual machines is connected in its place and the VM configured for that system is started and production monitoring is continued with minimal loss of information. The fact that one PC covers all the systems out in the works made the project a viable and valuable business backup solution.

If you have a similar requirement that lends itself to virtualisation, or indeed have production monitoring requirements of your own that Atlas could help you with, please contact your friendly Atlas consultant on 0333 666 3330 and discuss this mission-critical component with him / her.

One For The Ladies - A Man In Uniform!

2011-03-08T11:39:00.000Z

Many of you will have met and spoken to Malcolm Black, who was a valued member of our sales team until he left Atlas in 2010 to join the Royal Navy. He is progressing very well with his Officer Training and really enjoying the experience.

Malcolm’s fame in the Navy appears to be growing following an appearance on the Discovery Channel this week! As part of his training he was lucky enough to go aboard the flagship aircraft carrier “HMS Ark Royal” on her final voyage for her final deployment before being decommissioned. It just so happened that the camera crew were aboard filming whilst the Officer Cadets were preparing for an exam. The highlight of the show was hearing the results being called out, “Mr Black, top of the class, 99%”. A big well done Malcolm, keep up the hard work.

The series has been interesting to date as it follows the illustrious ship during its mission to head up the largest International Naval peacetime exercise whilst trying avoid the ash cloud and experiencing having engineering issues forcing her to dock back at Portsmouth. You can watch the show on the Discovery Channel at 10pm each Tuesday. Episodes are currently repeated on Thursday at 10pm, Saturday 3pm and Sunday at 5pm. Keep an eye out for Malcolm.

Globe Works – The Colourful History Of Our New Home

2011-03-01T12:53:00.000Z

Company secretary Daphne Butler has delved into the archives and explored the history of our new offices at Globe Works. From its build in 1895 to its use today as offices, the colourful history of a remarkable building is all here...

Globe Works is a building with attitude; it has history; is well-connected; and has always embraced new trends and technology. It stands four-square to the weather, in Cheshire, on Hospital Street, the east road to Manchester and London from Nantwich. Constructed out of brick in 1895, Globe Works was a state-of-the-art factory for the tanning industry which along with salt production had long been fundamental to local prosperity, but times and technology change, leather tanning dwindled, and Globe Works fairly soon was re-utilised as a warehouse for animal feed. Thus it remained until the 1970s when it was abandoned, became derelict, a ‘brownfield’ site, dangerous, fenced off; a blot on the genteel townscape.

Probably it would have all ended there, but in 1981 Crewe and Nantwich Council, with some relief, approved the plans of a local businessman with an eye for a bargain, to rescue the shell and restore it as Globe House, a five-bedroom home for his family plus an adjacent workshop for his repro furniture business. A ‘grand design’ that was an eco-friendly mix of reclaimed materials, original features and modern amenities including, in addition to central heating and double glazing, a heat-exchange system, an indoor swimming pool, a billiard room and a music theatre. Pool parties and music sessions became a source of notorious gossip.

Attracted by this trendy life-style, a local dentist put in an un-refusable offer for the property which was promptly accepted. But the odour of chlorine proved too much for his wife; the swimming pool was filled-in, and the heat-exchange system abandoned. The dentist experienced a professional hiatus, and another dentistry team took over, living in the main house and converting the one-time workshop into a modern surgery. The business grew to enjoy a very respectable reputation around the town.

Arthritis in the thumb joints (bad news for a dentist) forced early retirement, and so it was that in August 1991 John and Daphne Butler moved into Globe House complete with two teenage children, two large hounds, one Siamese cat, and a live-in Granny. They had come from ‘down south’ escaping to the country long before the notion became a gleam in a TV producer’s eye.

An out-sourced job turned into Globe Enterprises, and in 1996 the resulting IT business, Atlas Business, began trading with offices in the now updated and refurbished former workshop. Atlas grew tentatively but steadily. Cat-5 cabling networked Globe House, fibre-optics connected it to the internet. In 2001, a data centre was added just 4 miles away in the ‘Secret Nuclear Bunker’ at Hack Green – a new venture – what we might now call ‘cloud computing’.

By 2003 Atlas had out-grown its accommodation and moved out.

Seven years later, like the prodigal son, Atlas returned, now considerably bigger and stronger, to occupy the whole site, with space to spare for growth. ‘Globe Works’ etched high onto the south wall was re-adopted; an up-front Victorian building with modern high-speed links extending around the globe; a fitting and poignant location for a 21st century IT company.

Atlas Business - IT that works @ Globe Works – Moving still faster and better than the world around it!

Pisted Off

2011-02-24T13:15:00.000Z

More used to meetings of the board room variety, Atlas Director Craig Cameron had a different type of 'meeting' on a recent skiing holiday: with a Swiss family who were trying to teach their young children to ski.

Craig was skiing down what was a challenging Red Run in the Swiss resort of Les Crosets when he saw ahead of him a family with small children stopped right in the middle of the Piste immediately after a particularly steep and icy section. Slowing down, as you should, Craig approached just as the family member on the right looked as if they were beginning to move off.

Keen to avoid a collision and (wrongly) believing he had the time (and the ability) to make one final left turn above them, Craig “lost an edge”, landed sideways on the slope and because of the gradient started to slip down the hill and towards the family.

The end result was Craig’s skis became entangled with the skis of the familiy's youngest child. No one was hurt but as the little girl tried to move away she fell over backwards and in the process knocked over her father and two others .... leaving Craig lying against the slope and the Mother screaming as she watched her family roll down the hill.

Fortunately they didn’t go far and were soon getting back up on their feet again. Feeling a sense of responsibility Craig skied down towards them and asked if he could help. The Father’s shouted reply was “OK please go” which Craig likes to think really meant “thank you for enquiring after the wellbeing of my family but we are fine and it’s OK for you to go on’.
P.S. We are pleased to at least confirm that no animals were harmed during the Cameron skiing holiday. Any keen skiers will also be pleased to know that Craig currently has no holidays booked for next ski season and will be conducting all his 'meetings' in the Atlas boardroom for the forseeable future.

Microsoft Mainstream Support End Dates

2011-02-14T16:19:00.001Z

With windows 2011 small business server now available we felt customers should be aware of the Microsoft products which have been or soon will be taken from mainstream support, some of which are still being used.

Key mainstream support end dates;

SQL Server 2000 - 08/04/2008
Windows Server 2003 - 13/07/2010
Windows Server 2003 R2 - 13/07/2010
SQL Server 2005 - 12/04/2011

As you can see only SQL server 2005 is still on mainstream support and that runs out shortly,.

If you are running any of these older or obsolete versions, there are many reasons to talk to us about an upgrade:

Enhanced Security,
Much Better Performance,
Increased Stability,
Easier Administration,
Access to Microsoft updates and service packs

So, if you are still running any of the above and would like some advice on what this means to you please feel free to contact us on tsm@atlasbiz.com or by calling 0333 666 3330.

We Are Virtually Certain This Will Interest You

2011-02-03T12:33:00.000Z

Director John Bilyj has long been an advocate of virtualisation and all of the benefits it can bring to a business. Here he blogs about what it is, what it can do and why you need it!

Virtualisation is the use of a single machine to run more than one operating system session. All sessions may be the same operating system or each one may be different. This has obvious attractions to us in the IT business - testing programs on different versions of Windows may be done on one computer rather than one for each operating system, for instance.

What attraction does it have for the IT end-user, though? Well if you have more than one server at your office (say one for storing documents, one for email, one for hosting your database) it may be that consolidating all of these onto one physical machine may have advantages for you. These advantages include:

• Save time - administering virtualised servers over physical servers can save a huge amount of time.

• Save money - any way you measure it, virtualisation comes out as a cost-saving proposition. Money is saved in less administrative time, fewer infrastructure requirements and less energy utilisation.

• Simplify management - virtualisation enables the use of advanced features like resource optimisation, high availability and point-in-time snapshots of servers.

• Recover from disaster – having a reliable disaster recovery plan is essential for ensuring business continuity.

Virtualisation offers hardware independence and decreased recovery time in case of a disaster or failover.

If any one of these is of interest to you, please contact us at Atlas Business Group of Companies to discuss what we can help you do to get more efficient, in reality as well as virtually!

Atlas can be contacted on 0333 666 3330 or by e-mail; sales@atlasbiz.com.

Atlas Kick-Off Meeting 2011

2011-01-27T15:46:00.002Z

Selected photographs from our 2011 Kick-Off Meeting, the annual gathering of all the Altas staff, this year held at our new head offices at Globe Works, Nantwich. A summary of the day's content can be found on our main website.

The L-Shaped Executive Meeting Room at Globe House made it a perfect venue - albeit a difficult one to get all attendees in one shot! Rest of staff members just off-camera, to the left.

Group Managing Director, John Butler opens proceedings.

Members of the technical department (right) along with ASM engineer Tony (far left) and consultant David (back left) get stuck in to one of the morning workshops.

Customer Services Manager Kelvin Redmile lead a lively session involving ventriloquist's dummies!

John Butler took to the floor again to end the morning sessions.

Lara Bailey delivered a presentation about evolving both our own website and those of our customers.

As has become custom at Atlas meetings, John Bilyj sang us out. The crowd went wild!

Another Atlas tradition of awarding high performers was also adhered to. Here, Ruth Doe collects her award for contributing to our excellent customer-facing team.

Ben Butler collects his award for pitching in and helping out with a variety of our bigger projects - just when they needed him!

Yulia Ellis from our accounts department collects a long service award to recognise the great years she has had with Atlas. Yulia will be leaving at the end of January and will be greatly missed by the whole Atlas team.

Catherine Ball was another award recipient for her hard work on a number of intricate projects this year.

The final award went to Matt Watson for leading the way on streamlining communication within the technical department.

Atlas Team Help Kath Celebrate 60th Birthday

2010-12-14T13:27:00.000Z

Congratulations go out to Kath Welsh who many of our customers will be familiar with and who celebrated a milestone birthday last week in the company of friends and co-workers. When asked if we could use some pictures for the blog Kath responded with a 'yeah I guess so – could have been much much worse' which suggests everyone had a great time, especially Adam, whose novelty donkey ears went down a treat.

Many happy returns Kath, we hope you had a great evening!

Where Are They Now?

2010-12-13T10:53:00.001Z

Where are they now?

One of our ex colleagues Nick Chan popped in to see us recently and kindly dropped off a Christmas card and tin of chocolates. It was great to catch up with Nick who left seven years ago to work for the courier firm ‘DHC’. Nick recognised most of the current Atlas team as many of us have worked here for over 10 years. The name Nick Chan may ring a bell to many of you long standing customers, Nick was part of our sales team and assisted with numerous client implementations, those of you that were on the receiving end of one of his hand shakes certainly won’t have forgotten him!

Nick’s visit got us thinking about other previous team members, many of which we’re still in touch with; so we thought you might be interested to know what some of them are up to nowadays!

Team Member: Steven Nottage

Atlas Department: Application Helpdesk

Current Job: Fireman

Team Member: Malcolm Black

Atlas Department: Sales

Current Job: Navy

Team Member: Kim Flook

Atlas Department: Sales

Current Job: (Last we heard she was working for GCHQ...but don’t tell anyone because it’s top secret)

Team Member: Steve Borwell

Atlas Department: Technical Services Management

Current Job: Working for Toiletry Sales Ltd - an Atlas customer.

Team Member: Teresa Chappell

Atlas Department: Sales

Current Job: Accountant (Emigrated to the Isle of Man)

Team Member: Phil Oakley

Atlas Department: Sales

Current Job: Started his own “open source” company http://www.outserveweb.com/

Team Member: Marilys Yaselli

Atlas Department: Developer

Current Job: Now Marilys Jardine (married Joe) & is a freelance web designer but currently stays at home looking after their little newborn daughter.

Team Member: Mike Skaife

Atlas Department: Developer / QA

Current Job: BAE Systems (Ian Skaife’s son, now relocated to Yeovil)

We’re sure you’ll agree with us when we say that the training and experience they gained at Atlas has served them well and set them up to progress their career paths, follow their dreams and make a difference. We wish them and all other previous Atlas team members success in their chosen paths. Don’t be strangers.
We know you follow our blog Nick.... Happy Christmas and thank you for the choccies!!!!

Joe's Big Cover-Up

2010-12-10T09:35:00.000Z

Sales Manager Joe Jardine and Director John Bilyj recently visited a prospective customer – a food manufacturer in the North West. As part of the visit, they went on a tour of the works, and of course, as it is a food factory, hygiene is a fundamental issue. So the company kindly provided overcoats and hair-nets.

We thought it would be interesting for everyone to see the lengths and humiliations that our staff go through to secure new business!

Joe was asked if he wanted to take home the (disposable) outfit, but graciously declined.

You Won't Get A Frosty Reception At Atlas!

2010-12-02T13:44:00.000Z

Some views from our homes and offices in Scotland, Yorkshire and Cheshire as the snow came down hard over the past week, forcing many of our team to remain at home as schools were closed and the roads were blocked. Our business continuity planning paid off, most people are set up to work from home offices and so they were able to continue with their daily tasks from relative warmth and comfort, whilst still providing all customers with a full service. With more snow set to come down over the next few days they'll all be bracing themselves for the chilly times ahead!

The Cheque Is In The Post - I Promise!

2010-11-19T15:00:00.000Z

The postal system in the local area of our Head Office in Nantwich has been thrown into complete chaos. Atlas have had instances of both post sent to us and items that we have attempted to post either going completely missing or being seriously delayed. Local residents and businesses have made an avalanche of complaints to Royal Mail since they closed their Crewe sorting office as part of their £2bn investment in modernising their operations. Postal workers have admitted that they are close to breaking point. The Post Office are reviewing their delivery routes and hope to resume a normal service soon whilst promising that they are doing everything to minimise disruptions.

We ask our customers and suppliers to be patient with us during this period. Where possible as part of our green environmental policy we try to communicate electronically but where we have to rely on the postal system we hope you can appreciate that this matter is out of our control. If you fear that we may not have received something that you have sent please give Ruth Doe a call. Alternatively, 21st Century technology has proved itself more reliable than a 19th Century postal system and if you would like to talk to us about enabling your business to pay by BACS then don’t hesitate to give us a call!

You can read more about the disruption by reading the Crewe Chronicle’s news article.

Breaking News

2010-11-03T15:59:00.000Z

Those of you who frequently receive emails from Joe Jardine may have noticed that his content has been brief and to the point over the last week. This is because he broke his right arm on Sunday and has it in a cast and sling. So how did he do it? He has been telling people in the office all sorts of stories including saving young children from a house fire, and my personal favourite; that it was the result of a tough negotiation, but the truth is he did it playing football. As you know you play football with your feet and he is not tall enough to be the goalkeeper! We have since discovered his injury was due to his over exuberance of trying to stop the ball crossing his team’s goal line; as we know Joe does not like to lose! Sympathetic colleagues have been heard saying "that this is what happens when old men try to play a young man's sport".

Joe is unable to drive for at least 6 weeks and cannot demonstrate solutions so we are in the process of re-assigning people to his scheduled meetings. Joe has more x-rays on Wednesday where we hope he'll be told that the radius bone is setting fine and will not require plates or surgery! In the meantime Joe is still in the office and is available to discuss your projects or any new requirements. Hopefully you'll join us in wishing him well/laughing at him incessantly.

Flu Jabs - The Things We Do For Our Customers

2010-10-18T16:45:00.000+01:00

Atlas has teamed up with our local branch of The Co-operative Pharmacy and has been able to secure some vouchers so that the Atlas team members can get a discounted flu jab. Whilst not compulsory, there has been a very good take up, so you’ll be pleased to hear that when you telephone during these wet and cold Winter months we will not only have people here to answer your calls but we shouldn’t be sniffling or sneezing either.

Atlas takes the health and welfare of its people very seriously. Our Atlas HR Software Package allows the management team to monitor absence levels and we’re pleased to report that we lose very few working days each and every year due to sickness. Tony Hutchinson, the Atlas Group Health and Safety Officer commented “This seasonal jab is proven to reduce workplace absence by up to 25%”. The flu and common colds account for over 90% of the UK short term illnesses and represents a huge cost in productivity. This particular jab also includes a strain of the H1N1 swine flu vaccination, which we’re hoping will protect our office from a serious outbreak.

Unfortunately however there is still no known cure for man flu.

If you would like to talk to somebody about HR Software Packages please do not contact our sales team on 0333 666 3330 or email customerservice@atlasbiz.com.

Horsing Around

2010-10-11T09:58:00.000+01:00

Over the years Atlas has taken part in a number of events to help support the local communities and charities in Cheshire, Yorkshire and Glasgow. Our latest sponsorship proved somewhat controversial amongst colleagues, as representatives from the Nantwich office sponsored a fund raising event for Crewe Alexandra Football Club’s away supporters to help keep their cost of travelling to a minimum. Controversial because there is plenty of inter-company rivalry and banter regarding which team individuals support. This has been particularly tense recently with various exchanges of SMS messages and emails following Leeds United losing 6-4 to Preston having been 4-1 up and Crewe Alex drawing 5-5 with Chesterfield having been up by the same score.

Atlas were one of the key sponsors for the Travelling Crewe Fans race night. The race night proved a big success and was enjoyed by all who attended. Craig Cameron was the big winner on the night having turned a 50p bet (last of the big spenders) into £8. In between the races the organisers had auctions and bits of trivia to keep people entertained; Joe Jardine proved lucky during one such game (although he will tell you it was skill) when he beat approximately 100 other contestants in a ‘heads or tails’ challenge and correctly predicted which side the coin would land on 11 consecutive flicks. He won an extra large Crewe Alex training t-shirt, those of you that have met Joe will see the funny side of this.

'Proof that gambling doesn't pay'

'The Atlas Classic features on the race night program'

Why I'm Nuts About Time Manager!

2010-10-10T15:32:00.001+01:00

Company Secretary Daphne Butler finds herself with little to do with Project-based work, but still finds herself using our innovative Time Manager software on a daily basis. In this blog article she writes about how she's found the solution incredibly useful, despite some initial concerns...

Atlas Time Manager is a very handy bit of Business Software. I never used to think this but I’ve had a dramatic change of mind.

Atlas first developed Time Manager as Project Management Software to keep track of time spent by individuals on jobs and this is the version we have installed in-house. There are other modules though with different functionality like managing rostering, or integrating time worked to Access Payroll.

Since I rarely work on projects, my time being generally split between admin, accounting and marketing, there was never really anything that I could enter that anyone was remotely interested in knowing about. So it wasn’t really worth my while putting anything in there. In fact it was a complete turn off.

But recently I’ve moved to a four day week and in advance of this was asked the question ‘how much of your time is spent on what exactly?’ In anticipation I began to use Time Manager ... ... ... in great detail ... ... ... and quickly began to realise that this was a grand way of managing my time and my jobs list. The discipline of tracking what I was doing was making me even more effective at what I did.

At the beginning of the day, I select the broad areas of work that I need (from the tasks box bottom right) and I drag them to the column under the day of the week (big box in the middle). The box bottom left is free text and relates to the task highlighted. So I make a note of the time and type in a brief description of the job I am about to begin ... ... ... like so:

12.00 - Create blog about timesheets.

When I finish the job I enter the end time. If my next job falls into the same category, I simply scroll down, put in the start time and description for the new task. If it is a different kind of task, then I highlight the appropriate box, or pull a new task across from the tasks list.

At the end of the day I count up the hours spent for each task, and adjust the figure in the quantity box for that task (little box above the free text box). The software automatically totals the time for all the tasks selected on each day by each person and displays it in the box top left.

This is just one example of using Time Manager to great effect. The Business Software is fully configurable to satisfy your work flow processes and it integrates with both Access Dimensions and Access Payroll. If you think Time Manager could do something for you why not explore further by calling one of our Consultants on 0333 666 3330 or email customerservice@atlasbiz.com.

Anything You Would Like To Know About Your Business?

2010-09-20T15:25:00.000+01:00

Congratulations to Craig, Joe, Liam and Jenny having just completed their annual accreditation courses on sales, and technical to secure our continued Partnership status with QlikView, the Business Intelligence specialists. We are finding that Business Intelligence is a hot topic for many businesses across lots of industries at the moment as they try to unlock their data to make accurate, timely and informed decisions.

Many reporting tools force you to produce multiple reports and drill-down on data in a highly regimented fashion.

QlikView allows you to get straight to the point by working in a very similar way to the human mind does even allowing you to ask the last question first if that’s what you want.

Whilst at the intensive courses QlikTech took the opportunity to inform us all about their new features and enhancements that they will be delivering in version 10. Version 10 is due for release at 10.10am on the 10/10/10.

The key enhancements include:-

Performance:- With its in-memory methodology V9 was already impressively quick; during a bench test it displayed results for 2.5 million rows in 95 seconds. In v10 this waiting time is slashed to just 13 seconds. Without getting too techie, QlikView achieves this using parallel loads, this means it utilises all available processing cores unlike most of the competitors who would typically only utilise a single processor. This business intelligence tool really lets you see the full value of the money you invested in your big powerful servers, and when you think that Intel use QlikView to beta test their processors, that kind of says it all!!

Efficiency:- If your dashboard contains several dials, graphs and charts it will load the results partially, with the fastest report being displayed first. This means that the users can start to analyse data immediately rather than waiting for the full set of results.

Security:- Previously permissions were defined on a per report basis; the administrators can now apply these across a range of reports rather than one at a time.

Bulk cosmetic changes:- If you change your branding or wish to change your template to align with your corporate image as per the security settings mentioned above you can now do this on bulk rather than one at a time.

Reporting Analytics:- Management can review which users run which reports, when they run them and where they choose to drill down. Reviewing this information helps you to decide what your Management team are interested in and where it is worth investing your time to get future reports developed so that decisions makers are in the best possible position to make the right choices.

Searching:- Qlikview has Google style search capabilities. This is easier to show than describe but it is extremely powerful. If for example you were searching your sales history and you have the capability to simple search by sales rep, before doing so, you can insert some criteria into the free text search box, such as North 2010, the clever software would recognise that you are only interested in transactions that have happened during 2010 where the customers are based in the North and on this selection would reduce the number of sales reps available in the search criteria to only those names that match your search.

If you would like to know more about Business Intelligence or QlikView V10, please email customerservice@atlasbiz.com or telephone our customer services team on 0333 666 3330. We would be more than happy to email you some informative PDF brochures or alternatively we can organise a “Seeing Is Believing” meeting.

Virtual Desktops, Holidays, Blue Oceans and Citrix

2010-09-15T10:46:00.001+01:00

With summer well and truly drawing to a close and Autumn winds of change heading our way, Company Secretary Daphne Butler takes a moment to reflect on the chance for holidays and the Blue Oceans being aimed for in the business arena.

You could be forgiven for thinking that virtual desktops, holidays, blue oceans and Citrix have little in common, but, as so often, there is more to it than initially meets the eye.

In this rapacious, unpredictable recession year, I’ve only managed to squeeze a bare couple of weeks away, and even that was time-sliced with business meetings on the outbound and return journeys.

Blissfully rested, we waved goodbye to a small town in northern France on a sunny Monday morning; a contrast that could not have been more poignant when Dover greeted us with sullen seas, grey skies and persistent rain. We were headed, flanked by bumper-to-bumper mostly articulated lorries, for an overnight stop in Beaconsfield and the Citrix Partner event the following day in nearby Chalfont St Giles.

The Citrix HQ building is enviable, set in Chalfont Park and shielded from the persistent traffic noise of the busy south-east by banks of trees and a golf course. Inside it is as serene and well-managed as a discrete five-star hotel. After coffee we were ushered into a small cinema-style lecture theatre and then followed a couple of fascinating hours (plus by way of a bonus a masterclass in how to present a client event).

In a nutshell, Citrix have made a Business Software step-change, and alongside XenApp, their server hosted applications software, have released XenDesktop which serves the entire desktop to each client machine, in fact it can serve different desktops depending on the requirements of the client user. Clever n’est-ce pas?

To achieve this Citrix identified the following business drivers:

The tough economic climate is driving cost reduction
Security is imperative to protect intellectual property and data on the move
Increasing trend to a distributed workforce accessing company systems using a wide range of static and mobile devices
The traditional desktop model is insecure, inflexible and hard to manage
Increasing migration to Windows 7 operating system and 64 bit ushering in new application versions

Installation of Citrix Xendesktop addresses all of these drivers, and AtlasBusiness are eager to help you achieve successful adoption. The success indicators for hosted virtual desktop worldwide are huge with the market predicted to surpass $65 billion in 2013.

What might you ask has all this to do with blue oceans – since we have only mentioned grey ones up till now?

Blue Ocean Strategy is to be found in a book of the same name by Professors Chan Kim and Renee Maugorgne. It has been translated into more than 40 languages; is taught as the major strategy at leading business schools; has sold more than 2 million copies.

The book proposes a business strategy for success based on the following logic:

Industry condition can be shaped
Create a quantum leap in buyer value to dominate the market
Go for the mass of buyers and willingly let some existing customers go. Think in terms of embracing key customer value commonalities
Think free from a company’s existing assets and capabilities. Ask, what if we start anew?
Think in terms of buyers’ solution even if that transcends the industry. Seek to solve buyers’ major bottlenecks/chief compromises in using the products/services of the industry.

Maybe someone somewhere at Citrix took it to heart!

For more information about Business IT Solutions visit http://www.blueoceanstrategy.com/; http://www.citrix.com/; http://www.atlasbiz.com/

Telephone 0333 666 330

Or Email customerservice@atlasbiz.com

Not just any Financial Statement

2010-09-10T15:35:00.001+01:00

We appreciate in most circumstances a Business Financial Statement is nothing to get excited about.... in fact I’ve heard comments along the lines of “I would rather read the Yellow Pages”. But we believe a bit like the Carlsberg adverts “Carlsberg don’t write Management Reports but if they did it would probably be the best Financial Report in the World” or the Marks and Spencer advert “not just any Financial Report, Marks and Spencer Financial Report” we believe our Chairman’s annual statement makes our report somewhat of an exception to the rule.

We’re pleased to announce that the next thrilling chapter of the Atlas Financial Statements has been submitted to the powers that be at Companies House. Over the years we have received a lot of feedback from people who have enjoyed reading the frank and witty writing style of our Group Managing Director in his Chairman’s report. We have Directors from companies whose projects were completed many years ago who still continue to keep a close eye and eagerly await John Butler’s next release. Who can forget John’s scathing attacks on the HMRC over their approach to R&D.

His Atlas Business Group of Companies plc report for year ended 31 December 2009 doesn’t disappoint. Just one of the paragraphs in his introduction includes comments about the Watford Gap, Quantitative Squeezing, Isambard Brunel and guillotines! I might be wrong but I suspect this could be a World’s first where these topics have all been referenced in the same paragraph in any document never mind a Financial Statement. If you didn’t already know John you would be forgiven in wondering what all of this has to do with a Systems Integration company, but John delivers this and brings it all together in his own unique way. I don’t want to spoil your reading but other highlights to wet your appetite include references to the Andrew Marr show, the England versus Slovenia World Cup match and the 2012 London Olympics!

In brief the report has a happy ending highlighting a 50% revenue increase for the 12 months January to December 2009 versus the same period in 2008, as well as a slight 5% improvement in our gross margin. John does however warn that there are numerous external circumstances that could affect all UK businesses and how we perform over the next 12 months, not least Mr Osborne’s budget and the risk of a double dip recession.

What are you waiting for?? Take a look at the report now!! http://www.atlasbiz.com/docs/A027Dated2009consaccounts.pdf

Atlas Director Celebrates Special Birthday!

2010-08-31T17:06:00.001+01:00

We just thought we'd share a few pictures with you today: from company secretary, Daphne Butler's birthday celebrations no less! Daphne was presented with several items of bird-related paraphernalia to adorn the garden of her and John's new house in Hay-On-Wye, which no doubt they'll enjoy upon their return from holidaying on the continent. Everyone at Atlas would like to pass on their best wishes to Daphne for her birthday and the people who run the blog would particularly like to point out that nowhere in this article does it reveal her exact age... we take it the cheque is in the post?!

15 Years Service For Atlas Sales Manager

2010-08-24T10:45:00.000+01:00

This month we celebrate Joe’s 15th anniversary of working at Atlas. Joe joined Atlas back in August 1995 straight from school when he was just 16 years old. We recruited Joe as a junior administrator performing day to day clerical tasks such as answering the telephone, reception duties, sending sales statements etc. As part of his remuneration package Joe successfully completed a two year BTEC National course in Business Studies at South Cheshire College and we were delighted with his Diploma result.

Joe displayed a keen interest in computers and was very customer focused and as such after just a short period of time we promoted him to the help desk team. Joe picked up the product portfolio very quickly not only showing a good understanding of how the products worked but also the forensic approach on how to investigate problems when customers experienced issues. Joe proved very popular with our customers many of whom passed on lots of complimentary feedback. On a couple of occasions the sales team recruited Joe’s assistance for demonstration preparation, one thing led to another and before we knew it Joe was joining them for customer account manager meetings, and then prospect demonstrations.

When asked, Joe said that he quickly caught the bug for the sales life when some of the prospects gave him tours around their offices and factories to explain who they were, what they do and the nature of their requirements. This helped him to piece together how the clients use the Atlas solutions on a day to day basis and the important role the applications play in helping management make informed decisions. Joe has now been part of the sales team for approximately 8 years and currently wears the Application Sales Manager’s hat. “I really enjoy getting out and about and meeting representatives at organisations from a wide spectrum of industries. No two days are the same. The thrill of the chase and the tight deadlines keep me on my toes, and as the software industry is so innovative there is always something new to learn”.

Atlas have an excellent reputation as a local employer, with a majority of the team having worked at the company for over ten years. We would like to publicly thank Joe for his long and loyal service, and again congratulate him on the birth of his first child Sofia. John Butler, Group Managing Director said “Joe has been with us man and boy, over the years we have seen him achieve many goals and he has picked up many high achiever awards along the way. He represents an excellent role model to others.”

Atlas Swap Keyboard & Mouse For Cheese At The Nantwich Show

2010-08-20T11:12:00.000+01:00

Atlas joined other local firms at The Nantwich Show this month, the largest single day agriculture show in the UK, which was set in the beautiful grounds of Dorfold Hall in the heart of the rich Cheshire countryside.

As a member of the South Cheshire Chamber Atlas sent Ruth Doe, our Customers Service Manager, to take advantage of our VIP tickets and attend the pre-show evening event where she got to see a sneak preview of all the exhibitors from around the country and a chance to sample some of Cheshire’s finest foods. The Nantwich Show attracts tens of thousands of visitors each and every year and is a must attend event in the horticultural calendar.

At the pre show Ruth was not only networking with other South Cheshire Chamber members such as Bentley, Wulvern Housing, Banks Sheridan Ltd (one of our customers) etc, but she was also 'hob-nobbing' with the Chain of Mayor’s of Crewe & Nantwich. Atlas always enjoy supporting local events, but especially those that provide delegates with fine food and wine!

Talking of fine foods, this year’s pre-event was sponsored by another of our customers: Joseph Heler Cheese.... 'I highly recommended their Original Reserve' Ruth said whilst wiping the crumbs off her keyboard!!! Nantwich Show is now the biggest Cheese show in the world with 3,200 entries coming from 25 countries and Atlas were once again, delighted to be a part of it.

Picture courtesy of The Nantwichnews Blog

Special Delivery For Sales Manager!

2010-08-11T09:22:00.003+01:00

Atlas are delighted to be able to pass on our best wishes to Sales Manager, Joe Jardine and his wife Marilys, who gave birth to their first child on Thursday 5th August.

Sofia Louise was born weighing 6lbs 10oz and both mother and baby are doing well, although Joe is beginning to think that there is something wrong with his eyes as everything continues to turn pink!

Everyone at Atlas would like to pass on our warmest wishes and loving congratulations to Joe and Marilys and look forward to seeing Sofia grow up over the next few years!

Don’t Be An ADSL Salmon - Get Upstream Faster With C2!

2010-08-04T17:33:00.002+01:00

Excellent Hot News! As of today Atlas can offer (via our Business Networking company C2 Internet) increased and enhanced upload broadband capabilities to our clients.

ADSL is always geared for downloading files, and so, if your need is for uploading data you will regularly experience bottleneck frustrations. Those of you who subscribe to C2 ADSL2+ can benefit from a new option now provided to C2 by BT Wholesale across their network.

Annex M is the name of this new product which allows the user to substitute a portion of their download speed to increase their upload speed.

Who would benefit from more upload speed?

Annex M is most suited to customers that require greater upload speeds, such as:

- Remote Workers – Companies that have remote workers connecting through either VPNs or Remote Desktop Services / Citrix

- CCTV - Companies who have CCTV security systems linked to central monitoring via ADSL2+.

- e-commerce - Companies with an online presence requiring frequently uploading of images to catalogues.

- Upstream Guarantees - Companies needing guaranteed upstream throughput are particularly suited to Annex M as most throughput guarantees only apply to downstream traffic. Annex M carries a BT guarantee ensuring an upstream throughput of 85% of the upstream sync rate, 8am to 5pm Monday to Friday (excluding UK public and bank holidays).

What will this upgrade give me?

Annex M provides up to 3Mbps upstream.

What are the costs?

The additional charge for Annex M is only £10 per month.

How do I find out if it is available to me?

If Annex M is a service you need, call 0333 666 3330 and ask to speak to an Atlas engineer, or email tsm@atlasbiz.com .

It takes about 24 hours to activate Annex M onto an already-active ADSL connection. Also your router needs to support Annex M; when you talk to us we can confirm the status of your existing router.

Annex M is currently only available on selected exchanges.

Testing Times For QA Engineer

2010-08-02T17:35:00.001+01:00

Atlas are delighted to announce that our QA Engineer, Samantha Moss, has had a bouncing baby boy. Harry arrived weighing 8lbs 2oz. Both Mother and child are well (albeit already feeling sleep deprived).

Sam works as part of our Quality Assurance team (QA) ensuring that all our customised solutions or Atlas developed products meet their original specifications and exceed our customer’s expectations. Sam will be off on maternity leave for the next couple of months. In the meantime Steve Webster and Kelvin Redmile have been sharing her workload. Steve is reported to have less hair as each day goes by, and there has been mutterings heard along the lines of “come back Sam all is forgiven, I’ll even share my doughnuts!”.

Congratulations Sam! Enjoy these valuable first few months bonding with your baby!

A Fond Farewell

2010-07-30T14:52:00.000+01:00

Atlas would like to take this opportunity to pass on our best wishes to Kelly Owens. Many of our customers will know Kelly as she has worked as a vital part of our accounts team for over six years and has probably spoken to most of you at some point in time. Kelly played an instrumental role in streamlining all of our annual renewal invoices and in particular the ADSL rental fees where there is a lot of volume. Daphne Butler, Atlas Company Secretary, said “Kelly has always been meticulous, professional and very efficient in the way she has gone about her job, we will certainly miss her.”

Kelly has decided to spend more time with her family, and although we will really miss her we respect and understand her decision. Kelly’s son, Josh who is 5 years old and growing up fast, has a busy and demanding schedule with friends birthday parties, out of school clubs, football and swimming all of which keeps Mum's taxi service very busy.

Not that some people can’t wait to see the back of Kelly because she does have a very enviable desk in the office, and she has already started to notice some of Roger’s belongings in her drawers!

We wish you all of our best for your future and you know where we are if Josh starts to drive you mad, the door is always open.

Kelly’s last day at Atlas will be on the 30th July.

Atlas Mid-Year Meeting 2010 Report

2010-07-26T16:15:00.000+01:00

The annual Atlas Business Mid Year Meeting was held at Rochdale’s Cricket, Lacrosse and Squash Club on Friday 16th July. The location was chosen as it was equally inconvenient for all team members from our Cheshire, Yorkshire and Glasgow offices. The Mid Year Meeting is something Atlas has been doing for the past 12 years and is considered a ‘must attend’ event for all employees, including Director Gary Manktelow who hobbled in on his crutches following his desk accident... don’t ask!!!! The all day session provides the Management team the opportunity to sit with the whole company and review and analyse where we are up to versus our goals and aspirations that we set during our Kick Off Meeting in January.

The event was also used as a chance to introduce new colleagues Liam Meadows and Dave Alcock to the rest of the team who as we are multi site hadn’t previously had the pleasure of meeting everybody.

The 2010 Kick Off meeting had a big emphasis on ‘Changing Times’ and as such the Atlas developers have been particularly busy during the first 6 months of this year giving some of our solutions a modern face lift and introducing lots of new features and functions (many of which had been requested by you the users). Some briefing sessions showcased these in all their glory and the sales team were spotted rubbing their hands as they could all think of at least one customer or prospect who could benefit from these enhancements.

The financial analysis provided some positive news with our filed accounts showing 50% revenue growth in the year January to December 2009 over 2008. This is of course despite the economy and doom and gloom reports from Plimsoll reporting that one in ten IT suppliers are predicted to go bump during 2010.

Certain individuals were highlighted as providing an excellent service or having gone the extra mile. These included representatives from our sales, development, implementation consultants, technical and helpdesk departments. We reserve ‘thank you’ bonuses until our January meeting once we have a full 12 month picture but for now a big pat on the back to you all.

Unfortunately the miserable weather put a stop to a few team building exercises John Butler had in store for us all, these apparently included French Petanque (AKA Boules), mini cricket games, lacrosse and Squash. Interesting fact of the day.... Did you know that our very own Jenny Mackenzie (a consultant from our Glasgow office) has played Lacrosse Internationally representing Scotland. Her role was ‘the stopper’ and had a reputation for achieving this via any means. As such it is probably best that we managed to escape these inter company ‘friendly’ games as we might have had some trips to casualty.

All of us here at Atlas would like to wish you and your businesses all the best for the final two quarters of 2010. Doesn’t time fly, if the second months are anything like the first six months it’ll be Christmas before we know it! More pictures from the day can be found below.

SIFT Software Awards Are On Us Again

2010-07-13T15:37:00.001+01:00

It is that time of the year again and Atlas are encouraging their customers to provide feedback on the SIFT Media Software Satisfaction survey. This particular award is highly regarded as it is voted for by you the software users rather than so called, ‘industry experts’. Access has won awards at this prestigious event for several years on the trot, including ‘Green Software Provider of the Year’ for the last two years as well as ‘Top Provider of Mid-Range Accounting Software’. It only takes one minute to complete as having populated your email address and company name there are just four quick multiple choice questions to answer, so what are you waiting for... click this link to register your opinion.

Monkeying Around

2010-07-05T13:35:00.000+01:00

Atlas were delighted recently when Go Ape!, suppliers of ‘high-wire forest adventures' for people looking for something different to do in the outdoors, decided to partner us as one of their software suppliers. Go Ape's business is unique but provides a really simple way to get people out and active, as their website explains;

'we build giant obstacle courses up in the trees using ladders, walkways, bridges and tunnels made of wood, rope and super-strong wire, and top it all off with the country’s best zip lines'

As part of the 'getting to know you' exercise, Go Ape! invited several Atlas team members to have at go on one of their 26 courses, at Delamere, Cheshire. What followed was a fantastic and fun day out with a company whose ethos and friendly manner fit very nicely with our own! Pictoral evidence of Atlas acting like monkeys can be viewed below.

Atlas would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone at Go Ape! and, in particular, the staff on duty at Delamere who all made us feel incredibly welcome and ensured our day was fun, safe and challenging!

The World Cup's Effect On YOUR Office

2010-06-29T10:10:00.000+01:00

Whilst everybody else finishes crying into their cornflakes this morning, industry analysts have been hard at work dissecting some of the technology facts and figures about the world cup tournament and how they impacted on the typical working environment. Never ones to pass on the opportunity to meld technology and sport, we at Atlas thought we'd take a closer look at just how the World Cup has affected businesses up and down the country. Carry on reading below for some of the key statistics.

- 800,000 viewers managed to watch the England v Slovakia game on Thursday (which kicked off during work hours at 3.00pm) online according to the BBC.

- Our sister company, C2 Internet, reported a 400% rise in internet traffic through the same time period. Although way above normal levels, we still had plenty of capacity left to ensure all of our customers experienced an optimum viewing experience.

- ThinkBroadband reported increases in both latency and packet-loss during the game, meaning internet users may have been affected by dwindling speeds and failed connections. Some providers also appeared to be experiencing reductions in speed tests although our performance remained strong throughout (C2, not England!).

- Akami have a nice little tool here for monitoring Internet traffic by country. Interestingly enough, Italy's traffic peaked during Monday morning, long after they left the tournament... must have been a replay of last year!

- The Financial Times reports that, overall, the World Cup could cost the economy as much as £1bn in lost time and productivity levels.

- Although this could be nothing when compared to Chile, whose workers lost an average of five hours each during their World Cup performances, according to one sporting website.

Atlas Welcomes New Team Member!

2010-06-03T11:00:00.001+01:00

Atlas are very proud to announce the addition of another team member to our growing list of staff!

David Alcock has joined Atlas from Quinton Hazell Automotive Ltd and will be working closely with the project team on our many implementations. Like many of our project team, David trained as a Chartered Accountant, starting his career with Arthur Young by working at their Crewe and Manchester offices. David followed this career by moving to one focused in industry, working in a number of businesses in the head finance role where his responsibilities extended to covering companies with turnovers ranging from £4 million to £50 million and accounts teams ranging from 4 to 20. In addition, David also gained operational experience working as Managing Director of a £10 million business where he initiated a change to lean manufacturing, improved quality standards and was significantly involved in purchasing, with a particular focus on supplier development and engineering product improvement.

David relaxes with a variety of hobbies including walking, boats and computers along with a keen interest in all things related to aviation having held a pilot's licence at seventeen.

Although David is no longer an active pilot, we're sure you'll agree he looks destined to be a 'high flyer' here at Atlas, with his wealth of business experience and financial management expertise. We warmly welcome him to our company and look forward to sharing many years of success with him in the future.

Atlas Partner 3CX In New Telecommunications Offering

2010-05-21T11:06:00.005+01:00

Atlas are always keen to extend our technology offerings in all areas and are very happy to announce a new partner in our telecommunications offerings in 3CX Phone Systems.

3CX Phone System is a software-based IP PBX for Windows which replaces traditional PBX hardware phones. It is based on the SIP standard and supports standard SIP software / hardware phones. It allows calls to be made via a VOIP service provider or via the regular PSTN. Easy to install and configure, it includes a web-based configuration interface, voice mail, auto attendant, call hunting and other features.

Recent clients of the company include Lotus Racing, who chose 3CX for their phone system to enable their F1 Racing team to maintain conversations with engineers back at their Norwich offices.

A short video on the strengths of the 3CX product is included below, the article continues after the jump.

In partnering 3CX, Atlas have become the largest provider of certified professional installers outside of the company themselves, with several of our engineers now qualified to handle the system.

Atlas would like to extend a warm welcome to everyone at 3CX as a valued business partner - we look forward to working closely with you in the future.

If you're interested in what 3CX can do for your business then feel free to give Atlas a call on 0333 666 3330 or drop us an e-mail at sales@atlasbiz.com

QlikView Shows Power With General Election Application

2010-05-06T15:39:00.008+01:00

Interpreting the election through our powerful Business Intelligence application

With Britain going to the polls today to elect a new Prime Minister, Atlas' Business Intelligence partners, QlikTech, have used the readily available election data to show the power of their QlikView application. The QlikView application is used by businesses the world over to interpret and share crucial business data and its ease of use is clearly on display in QlikView's new topical piece of development. You can read what Qlikview have to say about their 2010 General Election Application and find out how you can try it out for yourself below.

'We’ve developed an application in QlikView to demonstrate how complex sets of data – like the political views of the population, their geographic or demographic characteristics, even what paper they read - can be simplified and shared with your friends and colleagues.'

- QlikView, April 2010

To try out the application for yourself, or to receive a tailored demonstration from Atlas, send an email to sales@atlasbiz.com with 'QlikView 2010' in the subject box. We'll organise the rest. Happy voting!

Atlas Support Club's 50th Year With Shirt Deal

2010-03-30T13:12:00.004+01:00

Atlas have always tried to take an active role in getting involved with the local communities near to where our offices are based and this year has been no different over at our Yorkshire office in Leeds.

This year sees the 50th Anniversary of local club Sherburn White Rose Under 18s, an active and lively local football team based just down the road in Sherburn In Elmet. Sherburn combine a similar dedication to the local community with a winning mentality and have been promoted in five out of their last six seasons.

Our deal with Sherburn sees the Atlas name appear on their kits throughout the season when they will once again be gunning for a high placed finish.

Of course, it wouldn't be a proper footballing story without a family connection in there somewhere and Atlas Director John Bilyj has been watching his son Adam play in goal since the Under 11 age group. Adam is now the Under 18s first choice goalkeeper.

We would like to take this opportunity to wish all the players and staff at Sherburn the best of luck for the forthcoming season.

Atlas Payroll Workshop: The Wrap-Up

2010-03-22T14:26:00.007Z

The Atlas Payroll Workshop was held on Tuesday 16th March at Leeds United Football Club and we're pleased to announce the day was a great success! Attended by around twenty-five of our Payroll users, the day was a great day to interact with some of our customers as well as provide them with some help and guidance as we approach the year end.

Atlas booked the Jack Charlton Suite for the event and the Leeds United hospitality team were on fine form as well with waiter service for teas and coffees throughout the morning and a really great meal for anyone who stayed on at the end of the day.

The day itself consisted of looking closely at the Payroll upgrade procedure, examining and demystifying legislation and software changes, a section on useful hints and tips and some brief looks at other Atlas products - including our HR Hub solution, another hot topic at this time of year.

Atlas would like to thank all our customers who attended the day, if you weren't one of them then don't worry - we're still here to help. If you're an existing customer, please feel free to call our ASM team on 0333 666 3330, they'll help you through all your year end procedures. If you're not already an Atlas customer but feel you need a Payroll solution then call the sales team on the same number or drop us an e-mail at sales@atlasbiz.com - whatever your problem we're sure we can be of assistance.

More photographs from the day are included below.

Imminent Hardware Price Increases

2010-03-08T09:07:00.002Z

What are you waiting for? Invest now to avoid price increases!!

Have you allocated some of your 2010 budget for new servers or client workstations kits? Are you currently considering your requirements? Don’t wait, place your PO now to avoid pending price hikes.

If your subscribe to any of the various computer trade magazines or follow an IT related blog you will have no doubt noticed that now is the best time to purchase computer hardware. Leading manufactures such as HP, Fujitsu and Sony VAIO have all confirmed that due to the weak pound and rising components costs they will be forced to increase their prices next month (April 2010).

Don’t panic, we’re here to help. Do you need advice to help future proof your investment? Would you like to discuss suitable specifications? Don’t know whether to opt for 32bit or 64bit? Feel free to give our sales team a call. As an HP reseller we can typically turn orders around within a week to help you beat the price increase. Our highly qualified and experienced ‘techies’ can help with your implementation, networking, printing, basically all of your technical requirements.

Call us now: 0333 666 3330.

The Annual Atlas Payroll Workshop Is Back!

2010-02-25T14:47:00.002Z

After increased demand from our customers, we are pleased to announce that the Atlas Annual Payroll Workshop is back!

The AAPW is aimed at anyone currently running Access Payroll who feels they would benefit from help in the following areas ahead of the Payroll year end in April:

Guidance and advice on the new 2010/2011 rules and legislation

Refresher training on how to apply the Access Payroll upgrade

Training or re-training on the year end procedure (printing P45’s, holiday year end, electronic HMRC submissions)

Overview guides to the new Payroll software features and hints and tips you might not be aware of

In the past these events have been a great success and everyone who has attended them has found that their Payroll year end has run much more smoothly as a result. Covering just half a day, they are a great way to arm yourselves against the hustle and bustle of typical Payroll year end procedures, well ahead of time.

Events will be running at the following offices on the following dates:

Leeds - Tuesday 16th March

Glasgow - Thursday 18th March

Nantwich (Cheshire) - Tuesday 23rd March

As well as taking our users through the above payroll procedures, we'll also be taking the time to discuss some other issues that normally arise at this time of year. We've been taking suggestions from our users on what topics they would like to see covered and this year will see us briefly cover the following issues, amongst others:

Staff appraisals
Recruitment
Training requirements
Attribute matching
Organisation charts
Absence tracking
Timesheet management
Rostering / scheduling
Employee HR Record self service
Qualifications
Expenses
Vehicle & Equipment management

The events take just half a day (9.30am till 1.30pm) and are all led by our highly experienced trainers and payroll experts. After the events, members of the customer care department and account managers will be standing by to have informal one-to-one discussions if there is anything else you wish to talk to us about.

The event was only launched yesterday and already we've booked several companies and attendees on to the events so don't miss out on what is always a popular course.

To book, fill out the registration form through this link, give the sales department a call on 0333 666 3330 or drop them an email @ sales@atlasbiz.com

Was Your Business Heart Broken On Valentines?

2010-02-15T09:53:00.003Z

In a bit of guest blogging over Valentine's Day, our Technical Director, Gary and Sales Manager, Joe, have combined to write a love letter to the humble (but vital) database...

Dear database administrator,

Over the years we have built a long and trusting relationship. You have been generous providing me with plenty of information and I have rewarded you by complying with legal regulations, helping you to make informed management decisions, allowing you to spot trends, monitor performance and allow your team to perform efficiently. However, recently I have felt somewhat neglected. You don’t back me up as much as you used to, and when was the last time you gave me a test restore?

I'm feeling somewhat corrupted.

Good bye

Your vital database

xxx

No one likes feeling neglected especially around Valentine but what part of your business is needed but not appreciated until it is too late?

BACKUPS.

Try answering the following questions. If you can't answer them all off the top of your head then it might be worth spending some quality time with your database.

Who within your organisation is responsible for this very important task?
Does that person actually check the backup has successfully completed?
Who is responsible for backups when the main person is away?
Do you backup every day?
Do you verify the backup?
Do you actually know what is being backed up?
Are any changes to your system backed up?
Have you ever tried a restore from your backup?
Do you take the backup media off site?
Do you rotate your backup media?

If you love your business you should love your backup.

So now that all the fuss is over and you and your database have kissed and made up, perhaps it's time to get some professional relationship advice to ensure this doesn't happen again?

Atlas have a team of technical consultants that would love to assist. We are just a call away and are willing to discuss your existing practices and where necessary can offer improvements.

We have recommended software solutions, hardware tools and even an automated online scheduled service that can store backups at our remote secret nuclear bunker facility.

Call our technical sales team on 0333 666 3330 for honest, free and valuable advice.

PRESS RELEASE

2010-02-08T16:43:00.000Z

Reorganisation of Atlas Business Group for our Growth Strategy through 2010 and Beyond

Following solid trading results showing about 50% growth in revenues for the year 2009, Atlas Business has reorganised the company group structure to enhance and focus strategically our targeted business performance through 2010 and beyond.

Atlas Business plc has changed name to Atlas Business Group of Companies plc and moved its focus towards overall management of the whole Group. This is effective from 1 February 2010.

A newly formed subsidiary Atlas Business Software & Technologies Ltd has assumed responsibility for most of the trading activities formerly carried out under the Atlas Business plc name.

C2 internet Ltd which became wholly owned by Atlas Business on 1 January 2009 has also now changed name to C2 Business Networking Ltd and in addition to its traditional ISP function will expand to embrace the technical systems management, hosting and networking interests of Atlas Business.

Redcliffe CSN Ltd in Leeds and Sanders Jones (Scotland) Ltd in Glasgow retain their current trading names and services to clients.

The Directors of Atlas Business are confident that this streamlining of the organisation will enable the Group to further develop and enhance the services provided to all of the many valued clients of our businesses.

Atlas Business - Looking Ahead To 2010

2010-01-26T09:58:00.010Z

The annual Atlas Business Kick Off Meeting was held at Crewe & Natwich Vagrants Rugby Football Club on Friday 22nd January with the clear message being encapsulated in the soundtrack for the day; Bob Dylan's The Times They Are A-Changin'

Covering topics directly and indirectly related to Atlas Business the day was its usual mix of retrospective analysis and forward-looking planning, always with one eye on our changing times. With today being the day that the UK has officially come out of recession it seems particularly apt that Atlas' own meeting sought to plan for the changes that this would bring, both to ourselves as a business and our partner businesses, both on supply and customer sides.

The day was also one for celebration of recent achievements and Group Managing Director John Butler presented awards to the Applications Systems Management (ASM) and Technical Systems Management (TSM) teams for their hard work in achieving ever-improving customer feedback. The Developers Group also benefited from a group award and project consultant Catherine Ball received a personal award for her hard work and dedication on numerous projects this year which have seen her travel the length and breadth of the country on an almost daily basis. Senior team members Ian Skaife and Kelvin Redmile were also awarded a joint prize in recognition of their continued effort and inspired management at the forefront of the company.

As we move from recession into recovery and from January into February, all of us here at Atlas would like to wish you and your businesses all the best for 2010, whatever its own changing times may bring you!

The ASM and TSM teams receive their award

Representatives of the Development group receive their award

Catherine Ball receives her personal award and (below) Ian Skaife and Kelvin Redmile are presented with their joint award.

The Atlas Business Team - looking to the future in 2010.

Top Trumps - The Atlas Secret Nuclear Bunker

2010-01-18T14:15:00.006Z

We often refer to our Secret Nuclear Bunker which most of you will know is an actual decommissioned ex-Government bunker built for the cold war threat, located near to our offices in Cheshire. The bunker not only hosts our Disaster Recovery Facilities and Secure Server Environment but parts of it also serve as a museum with lots to see and do. It is both educational and interactive, well worth a visit.

As a light hearted way of conveying some of the interesting facts and figures of our data centre and why you should speak to us about all of your hosting, transit, internet connectivity, domain names and business contingency requirements please find below our Top Trump card. Come and 'ave a go if you think you’re hard enough!!

So confident are we that your place of work cannot top trump our facility, we have 5 family tickets to give away on a first come first served basis. If you believe you can beat any one of our 5 stats send an email to sales@atlasbiz.com substantiating your claim and proof that you work there!

If we’re so confident that our house is better than your house why have we limited it to five tickets, you may well ask? Well it’s just in case those guys from Area 51 are still subscribing to our blog!!!

Blast Defenses - 10/10

Hack Green Bunker was built to withstand impact from airblast, fragments and flying debris. The doors will sustain impact from a 5kg steel ball at 20 meters per second and the re-inforced walls at 900 meters per second, without sustaining any fragmentation of the inner surfaces.

Radioactive Defenses - 10/10

Hack Green Bunker was built to withstand the mechanical & radioactive effects of a 1-megaton weapon detonation at 2600 meters or a 300-kiloton weapon at 300 metres. This is equal to a pressure of 1 bar of incident pressure & 2.5 bar of reflected pressure.

Wall Thickness - 10/10

The bunker walls are 2 meters thick and made from special concrete. Every 150mm vertically and 150mm horizontally set 150mm from both the inner & outer surfaces of the concrete is a 25mm fully welded carbon steel bar.

Ground Shock - 10/10

Hack Green Bunker can survive a sustained ground shock of an acceleration force through the ground of 80 meters per second. This is the vibration the bunker is subjected to by the pressure wave propagating through the ground.

Cost - 9/10 (well... the government could have thrown a bit more money away on it!)

Operational in December 1982 the bunker cost £126 million of which £66 million was spent on the construction & £60 million on systems installation. Source: The Times 1996

To read more about the bunker, click this link - http://www.hackgreen.co.uk/

To speak to a consultant about your technical requirements please call 0333 666 3330 and ask for technical sales.

Picture Courtesy of Espresso Addict reproduced from its original form here.

It’s Snow Problem With The Right Technology

2010-01-05T14:27:00.002Z

Despite the much publicised ‘Deep Freeze’ causing havoc up and down the country, Atlas are happy to confirm that we are still working with a full compliment of staff through the current sub-zero conditions.

Having braved the blizzards and icy roads, our Nantwich, Leeds and Glasgow offices are still busy, warm and full of staff, although there are a few disagreements still ongoing about who had to battle against the worst conditions to get there.

Similarly, our disaster recovery sites are fully functional and staffed and we can continue to offer business critical support to those clients who rely on us every day. In fact, we are proud to say that the current climate has not caused a second of downtime to any of our supported customers and has not affected our high standards of customer service in any way.

For those who can’t make it into the office, regardless of how much they would love to, Atlas are able to provide remote access to all the systems and documents that we all use on a day to day basis. This infrastructure, using our specialist networking solutions and Citrix virtualisation, has allowed us to continue to operate with minimal disruption, even when nature tries it hardest to stop us.

All offices are running on a common SIP telephony system, which as well as offering free internal calls and savings on external calls, also allows us to forward calls to mobiles and external land lines automatically or at the touch of a button, ensuring that no matter where we are we never miss that important phone call and all staff can stay in touch quickly and easily.

If you would like to find out more about disaster recovery and business contingency, remote access or flexible telephony solutions, then please do not hesitate to call technical sales on 0333 666 3330 or alternatively speak to your account manager

Save Us Some Turkey...

2009-12-23T16:43:00.004Z

On behalf of every one at Atlas we wish you and your business a very Merry Christmas and a prosperous and happy New Year.

Details of our opening hours and support arrangements over Christmas and New Year can be found on our website through this news article and we would like to reassure customers that we are here to help should you need it over the festive period.

Best wishes,

The Atlas Business Team.

VAT Changes - January 1st 2010

2009-12-17T15:28:00.003Z

Service packs for many versions of the Access Dimensions system are now available for download on our main website

These service packs are intended for use by an experienced user, and if you feel you would be better served by one of engineers talking the process through with you then please contact Application Systems Management for help and guidance.

The files are self extracting archives, '.exe' executables, so please be careful.

The first thing to do is to right-click on the one for your system and save it somewhere on your hard disk. Then run it and it will self extract into your chosen location. There is a 'readme.txt' file in each so use this as an instruction manual.

If you require any assistance whatsoever then please do not hesitate to call the Applications Systems Management department on 0333 666 3330 or send them an e-mail at asm@atlasbiz.com

Meet Tony – Atlas Helpdesk Engineer … … … with a taste for Murder, Mystery and Suspense

2009-12-10T10:12:00.007Z

As usual it started out as quiet evening; hotel, 3 course meal, friends and weekend chatter. In the hotel reception we found Helen: knife through her chest and a paramedic in attendance. Only minutes earlier she had been arguing with an off-duty police sergeant over some missing money …

As the evening progressed and questions were asked, Tony became a victim too; horrific burns and a blow to the head with a heavy dumbbell. We know why it happened. Tony it transpired, is an ex-convict, blackmailing a prison governor for thousands of pounds. Seems Tony has an alias too - Joel Landon for some reason….

This is the world of Murder Mysteries. None of the above is really 'real'. Tony is one of a bunch of actors who put on murder nights for wannabe detectives. During the day he’s quite normal and works for Atlas Business supporting accounting software customers.

It’s in the evenings that his alter ego appears. Tony has been heavily involved in the theatre for over 25 years. On Saturday mornings he can be found teaching drama to 8-16 years old for Leeds Children’s Theatre something he really enjoys and gets a lot of satisfaction from. Over the years this group has produced some outstanding talent, such as Angela Griffin of ‘Corrie’ and Waterloo Road fame. Tony has acted in many shows and musicals, and directed one or two as well, has performed in a variety of locations, even doing a ‘pilgrimage’ for local charities and street theatre.

A few times each year he heads for The Bridge Hotel, Wetherby to weave a web of intrigue and murder for the gathered audience to solve. Seems he and his mates do this just for fun…. They have been to RAF bases, hotel chains like DeVere, and even wedding receptions! There is no script. The players follow a timetable of events and the whole ‘happening’ is interactive. The guests talk to the actors who stay in character the whole evening. At one event Tony was dragged across the floor by a guest who thought he was the main culprit – he wasn’t on this occasion.

The driving force behind these endeavours is Tony’s best friend, Sue Gibson. The make-up is so realistic that she was once arrested as a murder suspect after she had taken some photos to be developed of apparently dead bodies. That took more than a bit of explaining….

Should you feel inspired to ‘have a go’ or ‘join up’ just have a word with Tony on 0333 666 3330 and he will be delighted to point you in the right direction. Alternatively you can email him at tony.hutchinson@atlasbiz.com.

Atlas Bulks Up Training Facilities

2009-12-03T12:16:00.008Z

All our customers are probably aware that Atlas are expert trainers in all of the solutions that we provide. What you may not know is that this training doesn't necessarily have to take place in your offices. Often, we find that training sessions benefit a great deal from having delegates away from their phones and e-mails, and in a customised computer environment, set up by our qualified engineers.

We've always had our training room at our Nantwich head office and Atlas have recently further invested in this training facility, adding another four dedicated HP PCs to the existing hardware that was already in the suite. John Butler, Group MD, said that “we made this decision to show our commitment to delivering value to our customers.” We know these powerful new machines will prove popular with delegates; applications will launch quickly and reports will produce results promptly ensuring that users spend their time learning rather than looking at egg timers!

There are many more advantages to receiving training professional services off-site and below are just a few examples:-

You receive more value for your investment. Whilst off-site you will get no distractions or interruptions from colleagues walking into your office, ringing your telephone or sending you emails allowing you to cover more content during the day.

We have machines and the environment already set-up and so you can rest assured that the day will run smoothly with no technical hiccups.

The software is already installed and configured so the day is spent learning rather than on set-up.

The room layout is set-up in such a way that the delegates can all see the trainer and the projector screen and there are several PCs so the users can have a hands-on practical experience rather than just watching and listening. In our experience, most clients don’t have a dedicated training environment and as such setting one up can prove difficult.

Where possible we will always try to host the training session using the clients data rather than demonstration data, this way it is very specific and relevant to the user’s day to day requirements.

Pens, pads, teas, coffees, biscuits and lunch are all provided at no extra charge.

Both our Leeds and Glasgow offices have similar training suites available. Speak to your account manager or a sales consultant on 0333 666 3330 to discuss your training requirements further.

Bomb Squad Isolate Globe House - Shut Down For Five Hours

2009-11-26T16:19:00.004Z

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

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

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

Happy Birthday Adam!

2009-11-25T15:35:00.005Z

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

QlikView: Atlas Sales Team Sent to Coventry

2009-11-19T12:50:00.003Z

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

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

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

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

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

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

Friday Night and We Headed For Crewe Hall...

2009-11-08T20:04:00.003Z

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

South Cheshire Chamber
Business Awards 2009

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Compliance and Corrections: Ask The Expert

2009-11-03T10:25:00.004Z

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

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

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

Q: And how does it do that exactly?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Q: Great! How do I order it?

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

Meet The Team: My Boss is Better Than Your Boss!

2009-10-28T10:38:00.001Z

We're aware that sometimes many of our valued customers and prospective clients only ever see a couple of familiar faces at Atlas. Maybe you deal with Joe on a regular basis, or always speak to our ASM Manager Roger whenever you call in. In this new series then, we'll introduce you to the Atlas team starting at the very top!

Whether you're a customer, prospective client or supplier, you will probably know (or at least, know of!) one of our JB’s. If you’re on the East side of the Pennines you are more than likely familiar with John Bilyj, whereas if you’re based on the West side of the Pennines you will have no doubt met John Butler. You perhaps didn’t know that the other JB existed. Can you have too much of a good thing? Can the real JB please stand up? In a light hearted way of introducing you to the other JB we pitted the two against each other…… which regional office has the best boss, you decide!

John Bilyj (left) and John Butler share a joke during the toughest interview of their career

Question	John Butler	John Bilyj
Position	Group Managing Director	Director
What do you do when you’re not at work?	Enjoy my leisure time with my dear wife. [have you read these questions already John...]	Generally watch Leeds United but I'm also a keen photographer and I play the guitar and piano.
How did you meet your wife?	Erm... I was forced to get out of the back of a sports car to fit someone else in. As I got out I saw a blonde lady and I thought 'by God, you're fantastic' and the rest is history.	She used to work with my Brother and I went to his company's Christmas party.
DIY or call in the experts?	There is a cusp in the life of a man. At one side you're a DIYer. At the other side you're a GMIer (Get a Man In). I'm on the later side of that cusp.	Oof, that's a tough call! [no pressure John...] If my wife's reading, DIY. If she's not, call in the experts!
What was the first LP you bought?	Awww... [JB takes great pains to remember something in the mists of time] It might have been Bill Haley 'Rock Around the Clock' but I suspect it was Elvis' 'Jailhouse Rock'.	LP or Single? LP? [Without hesitation, John likes his music...] 'Every Good Boy Deserves Favour' by The Moody Blues.
Favourite film?	Probably Dr. Zhivago for a good weepy or Deer Hunter which never fails to 'get me'.	Hmm it's got to be Citizen Kane.
If I was Prime Minister, the first change I would make would be…	[thinks for a long period in silence] Probably something to do with bankers that I won't go into detail over.	[again, thinks for a long period in silence, the two John's take politics very seriously!] That's difficult. Restore funding for medium and long-term blue sky science research in Universities. [John's thought about this before!]
Favourite tipple?	Depends what’s got £8 off in the supermarket. At the moment, I'm happy to say it's The Glenlivet 15 year old.	Pint of Strongbow. Definitely.
Do you Tweet?	No, I twonk.	No. Enough said.
Beach or city break? Where?	Not a big fan of beaches nowadays so probably a city. We're looking at going somewhere near the fjords in Norway.	Beach. Anywhere in the South of Thailand would do me fine.
Why did the chicken cross the road?	To get to the Birds-Eye shop... on no wait, that was the one about the blind chicken.	[Laughs] Who wrote these? I can't think of a better answer than 'to get to the other side'!
Favourite three letter acronym?	Oh... I thought we'd gone past three and were at four or five now? No? Well for three I guess JDI (Just Do It) is not bad.	Favourite Three Letter Acronym? Oh its got to be TLA (Three Letter Acronym). [Yes... very clever John...]
What is the best thing since sliced bread?	Everything is better than sliced bread which is only fit for wall insulation. Everything.	Hovis Granary from TESCO is brilliant!
Christmas every day of the year or never again?	I think every day is Christmas.	Never again. Moving on...
Your house is on fire! Which one possession will you grab on the way out?	Well I suppose it's your money or your wife. Definitely my wife.	My wife! [Has a change of heart] No don't put that, she might take offence! My hard-disk backup.
Your side of the Pennines is better than the other JB’s because…	I'd better be careful here. I think we get more sun. Yes, more sun.	Oh that's where Leeds United play. Definitely.

Look out for more meet the team face offs soon!

Sales Manager Ties The Knot!

2009-10-19T14:34:00.006+01:00

Joe and Marilys Jardine celebrating their wedding

The 26th September was an extremely happy occasion for everyone working at Atlas Business and especially for one particular member of staff. Long-serving Sales Manager Joe Jardine finally tied the knot with fiance Marilys Yaselli at a lavish wedding ceremony split between St Mary's Church, Crewe and Cranage Hall, Holmes Chapel.

It was a particularly special day for everyone at Atlas as it was at the company that the happy couple first met. We were very pleased to welcome Marilys on board around eight years ago and little were we to know that a few short years later we would celebrating her marriage to one of our longest-serving employees. Despite leaving Atlas for pastures new in 2007, Marilys has remained a member of the extended Atlas family, making it a delightful double-celebration for us.

The day started with a remarkably calm Joe awaiting the arrival of Marilys at the church in Crewe. Joe was joined by Atlas directors John Butler, Daphne Butler and Craig Cameron as well as Atlas team members Sam Turner and Phil Potter. Together we all watched a beautiful ceremony which featured live choral singing.

After the wedding ceremony the newly-wed Mr and Mrs Jardine made their way to Cranage Hall, set in the rolling Cheshire countryside where the Wedding Party hosted the traditional wedding breakfast and speeches. Keeping it in the family, Joe's best man was brother and local businessman Ryan Jardine who, despite being more nervous than the groom, performed an active Best Man speech in front of the head table.

The evening was rounded off with many more of the Atlas team joining Joe and Marilys for a disco and live band performance late into the night.

Everyone at Atlas Business would like to send their warmest wishes for the future to Joe and Marilys and thank them for letting us be a part of their very special day.

Reminder for Access Payroll Administrators

2009-08-15T15:33:00.000+01:00

Statutory Returns and Multi-Part Submissions

When 'Multiple Databases' is selected, the 'SSP Recovered' functionality is switched off deliberately and has to be deducted manually from the HMRC payment.

This is done intentionally due to the fact that the amount (if any) recoverable is calculated on the amount of NI payable across the (multiple) databases carrying the same PAYE reference, and is based on a percentage of the Gross NI payable across the combined group total.

SSP is not neccessarily recoverable but where it is, it may be adjusted by means of a manual amendment to the HMRC payment. This is not a major issue but Payroll Administrators should be made aware of it so they can action accordingly.

Jack Welch - It's Everybody's Business

2009-08-11T12:23:00.002+01:00

Jack Welch has posted a new video over at Microsoft's 'It's Everybody's Business' website (well, we suspect Jack may have not done it himself, Microsoft may just have given him a helping hand).

In this episode Jack imparts some more of his sound business advice on to the team at Domino's pizza who are looking to increase their market share of lunch time sales. You can view the trailer for the new episode below and watch the full 20-minute episode the other side of the link.

Watch the full episode here...

Operating Systems - Hints and Tips for Installing & Running Access Applications under Vista

2007-03-06T16:37:00.000Z

1. Installation
The software must be installed by an administrator.

2. Gadget Bar
If the Gadget Bar within Vista is activated and set to always be on top then our current Access applications and earlier (Dimensions 2.43b, Payroll 4.20a, Horizons 4.00h) will crash. This will be addressed in the next versions of these applications.

3. User Access ControlIf User Access Control is switched on, the following should be noted:

a) All applications
If more than one user is going to use the application on the workstation, you may find that the application has to be registered for each user. This is due to the registration information being saved into each users Virtual Store.

b) Dimensions
You may find that each user has to fill in their User ID, Password, ODBC Datalink name and Database name the first time they log in. This is due to the local.df1 file being stored in each users Virtual Store.

c) Payroll & Horizons
It is strongly recommended that the datafile is not kept within the Program Files folder as this also is copied into each users Virtual Store. This could result in each user working on separate copies of the common datafile.

Helping good businesses get better, faster, bigger; Winning, consistently, sooner! John Butler FCMA

2007-02-20T14:17:00.000Z

A Question

In our own sector, Atlas Business, are ‘taking part’ voluntarily or involuntarily in stamina and ability taxing triathlons; regardless of whether we think we’re swimming the red ocean of deadly competition, or the open ‘blue oceans’ leg at present … … … we’re ‘in the swim’.

And in the cycling stage? What is it that sees (a few) business riders keep their wheels turning, quickly, smoothly, purposefully and effectively … … … keeping the rubber in intimate contact with the ‘road’, of customers, work, profit … … … whilst many others suffer frequent punctures, slow-downs skids and injury – even when apparently evenly matched with equals?

A Pointed Direct Question for You in Your Business

Do you believe you’ve got all your ‘wheels’ turning to maximum effectiveness and success results right now? … … … or are some of them merely spinning, or worse, prone to coming off the business wagon?

If ‘yes I have’ is your answer to this, congratulations – you’re one of the minority to achieve such great productivity … … … that or else you are maybe being a bit ‘gentle’ on your team’s potential!

Your Business Wheels, and the Way You See Them

What is the central axis, or hub around which your business principally moves and operates? Wheels, too, are like this, rotating around the axle at the hub centre. Hubs, spokes, rim and rubber are all part of the wheel but the hub is the obvious central focal point of the action; it is where most of the mass, pedal power, management and directional forces get applied.

Obvious but wrong! In businesses which under-perform their potential, managements often become hypnotised by their own proximity to the centre, to the beauty of the engineering gears, the perfect symmetry of the spokes and the inside-out view of what’s important in life.

High performing businesses know that the hub and the spokes are only a means to an end for support and power transmission; that the hub only rotates because the rims contact the race hill-climb up which the business must succeed.

Putting the enhancement of effectiveness of the ‘rims’ of your business, which is where all the movement and muddy ‘contact’ interfaces, work, frictions, grip and slips occur between men, machines, customers, suppliers etc., is as much a cultural strategic issue as it is systemic, processes, informational, or communications based.

Taking Atlas RACS into your Business as Your RACS

Atlas ‘RACS’ provides a software and knowledge-base framework based on modern products and tools-set capabilities that provides a suite of powerful business functions which you can embrace, take into, and deploy across the whole of your business under you own special unique ‘imprimatur’ comprising your ‘crown jewels’, knowledge, processes, branding needs.

They can just as easily and equally validly be used to enable at a very specific level the rapid roll-out of a new transactional or quality process, as they can to encourage corporate-wide cohesion, identity and communications effectiveness in widely dispersed or newly acquired businesses.

RACS deployment will deliver the greatest benefits when coupled with critical and genuine re-examination of opportunities for rebalancing some of the ‘centres of gravity’ in the actions, accountability, authority practices in your business because there is a natural tendency for ‘aggregation of mass and power’ at the centre, and so to the progressive emasculation of rims into useless myopia, poor sight and even more spectacular crashes in the future!

Is ‘RACS’ right to take you off the Rack?

The Atlas product, toolset and consultancy services suite comprising ‘RACS’ is particularly needed by businesses in one or other of the following contexts:

Fast-growing smaller businesses where the informal, short-linkages insights and knowledge of the core business ‘seniors’ is being increasingly diluted and stretched as new hires arrive and perimeters expand.
In mid-sized businesses which are experiencing overload or breakdown situations in product or service quality, communications misunderstandings, or operating cost inefficiencies because they have continued to operate with only small changes in business practice and cultures from ‘Founders Days’ times gone by.

R A C S
rims accelerators cultural strategies and systems

About the author:

John Butler, Managing Director of Atlas Business - a systems integration company and strategic development centre for Access Accounts Dimensions – was formerly involved in systems consultancy for KPMG and GE Information Services.

About the product:

RACS is a browser-based umbrella that can organise information from any SQL database and is utilised by Atlas to co-ordinate Accounts, Payroll, HR, CRM etc. into a coherent, customised company hub in harmony with a company’s specific processes and unique business culture.

Happy Christmas from Atlas Business SSM

2006-12-07T15:54:00.000Z

The Atlas Wheel of Fortune

‘Fortune favours the Brave!’
FT.com/Business Life Why fortune favours the business brave 30 April 2006

‘A wise man will maketh more opportunities than he findeth’
Sir Francis Bacon (1561 – 1626)

‘All is safely gathered in ‘ere the winter storms begin … … …’
Henry Alnod (1810-1871)

As luck would have it, the annual festive winter celebration coincides with the end of the first half of the Atlas financial year. This year it is particularly poignant because Atlas and C2 are departing to a secret location for their Christmas Party on the afternoon of Thursday 22 December (mobile cover for emergency support!) … … … and then we won’t be seriously back in the office until the New Year.

Until that time, we are all still frantically gathering the harvest home … … …
The implementation and development teams have been rocking round the clock to ensure that a healthy clutch of new fledgling projects fly successfully on time … … …. the sales team have been testing their tyres on the motorway network … … … back at the bunker, the technical and marketing teams have been stoking the infrastructure furnaces, while over in the relative tranquillity of Globe … … … accounts, Atlas Applications and C2 Internet support, have been balancing … … … the former the books and the latter pair keeping the customers up, running and happy.

So taking the crystal ball off the shelf and wiping away the dust, what of 2007, after the party’s over … … … Well, we return fresh-of-eye and light-of-step (after all the sun will be over the Capricorn yard-arm and have started to wend its way back to us) to face our first challenge … … … the company Year Start Meeting on 5th January – the annual convention at which we count how well we have done with that harvest in the first half of the financial year, and set out our strategy for 2007.

Rumour has it, and it is only a rumour because these things are kept a closely guarded secret until the doors open, that this time around the agenda is likely to focus on the essentials of customer relationship, the secrets of systems security, and the new Vista’s of Microsoft’s latest gift to technology … … … but who knows? Like I said it’s a closely guarded secret. Anything can happen and probably will.

So a Merry Christmas to you All, and watch this space for my Atlas New Year Horoscope predictions.

Dell recalls 4m laptop batteries

2006-08-15T17:27:00.000+01:00

Dell have revealed they are to recall 4.1 million of their notebook computer batteries because of a fire risk.

Most batteries are in computers sold in the US but more than 1 million are thought to be elsewhere.

Dell says it knows of six instances since December when the batteries, made by Sony, overheated or caught fire.

The US body responsible for consumer safety says it is the biggest recall of electrical products in its history.

A spokesman for the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), Scott Wolfson, said users of affected laptops should only run the machines on a power cord.

The Sony lithium-ion batteries were placed in laptops shipped between April 2004 and July 2006.

They were included in some models of Dell's Latitude, Inspiron, XPS and Precision mobile workstation notebooks.

"In rare cases, a short-circuit could cause the battery to overheat, causing a risk of smoke and or fire," said Dell spokesman Ira Williams.

"It happens in rare cases but we opted to take this broad action immediately."

Dell has already launched a - website - telling customers how to get a free replacement battery.

No injuries had been linked to Dell laptops with defective batteries, the company told Reuters news agency.

The CPSC has identified 339 incidents in which lithium batteries used in laptops and cell phones - not just Dell products - overheated between 2003 and 2005.

Some incidents involved minor skin burns or actual injuries as well as property damage, Mr Wolfson said.

Access Accounts Horizons 4.00H Release

2006-08-04T10:06:00.000+01:00

Atlas Business and Supportive are pleased to announce the release of Access Accounts latest verion of Horizons... Horizons 4.00H. This is predominately a maintenance release, but a number of new features/updates have been included. Below is just a brief snippet of soome of the important new features/updates:

- 4.00H has the capability to electronically submit your EC sales report to HM Customs and Excise. Please note the paper report submission approach will no longer be accepted from the 31st of July 2006.

- There has been an update to the Access Crystal Design (ACD) driver. This brings it up to date with the latest Business Objects releases and fixes some error messages users may have experienced if printing using a pcl driver.

- The EU list has been updated with some of the newer entrants such as Malta.

Access have put a lot of time and effort into replicating, fixing and testing the fault reports that we as your dealer have been submitting on your behalf. The software industry is particularly fast moving, and Access being a very innovative company regularly embraces the latest technologies and as a Gold Partner tightly integrates with new Microsoft releases. We all know that being on the bleeding edge of new exciting features can sometimes introduce the odd “unexpected knock on effect.” To tackle this Access has invested £80,000 in their QA software and have a strong full time team who are dedicated to checking the software. On release of a new version Atlas also internally 'kick the tyres 'before making it available to you our end users. All these things happening hidden behind the scenes are all designed to ensure that you, our customers, have a frustration free, user friendly and enjoyable experience whilst using the software.

Any users wishing to upgrade should contact support on 01270 613000.

Important Notice - Placing Calls With Atlas Business Plc

2006-07-25T10:23:00.000+01:00

We are dedicated to providing our customers with the superlative response and support that you have come to expect from Atlas, many of our long standing clients will be aware that we have changed our support and enquiries telephone number over the last few years from 01270 613000 to 01270 615000 and then back again!

We are now continuing to use the 01270 613000 number, and although you will find the 01270 615000 number will still put you through to the Atlas offices, this is now on a call forwarding system and so response times will be slower.

If you are not doing so already please use the 01270 613000 telephone number when contacting Atlas to ensure the quickest and most efficient response and service to your query.

Macintosh Client... Tiger Operating System

2006-07-12T11:15:00.000+01:00

If you have upgraded your Macintosh client machine up to the Tiger operating system you may have experienced problems with connecting to your Access Horizons / Foundations datafile. There is an easy solution to this issue - simply download the required patch.

Should you still experience problems please feel free to call 01270 613000 and speak to the support hotline or alternatively email your query.

If you would like to know more about the benefits that Tiger could deliver to your business please telephone and ask for sales or alternatively email.

Upgrade to Citrix Presentation Server 4 before 15 September 2006

2006-06-27T14:11:00.000+01:00

Are you still with Citrix WinFrame 1.x, Citrix MetaFrame 1.x, or Citrix MetaFrame XP?

If so, now is the ideal time to upgrade to Citrix Presentation Server 4. Atlas Business Plc are offering you the opportunity to upgrade your current Citrix product, regardless of age or release version before September 2006.

Not only will you save significantly on the standard license fee, but included in the price is also a fresh Subscription Advantage agreement - giving you access to all product updates for the following twelve months.

What’s more.. you no longer need a minimum order of 20 concurrent users to take advantage of this excellent opportunity.

Citrix Presentation Server 4 - benefits!

Citrix Presentation Server 4 is the most scalable, flexible and powerful version ever - with more enhancements than any previous release.

- Faster, more user-friendly printing

- Better support for applications, PDAs and peripherals

- Enhanced performance and usability

- Improved smart card capabilities

- Up to three times more users per server

Find out more about Citrix

So now is the time to enhance your Access Strategy.

MetaFrame 1.x and MetaFrame XP are no longer on sale and maintenance for MetaFrame 1.8 has been discontinued. So there’s no better time to upgrade to Citrix Presentation Server 4.

If you are interested in upgrading please contact Steve Webster for a quotation on 01270 613000 or email