Atlas Business - Looking Ahead To 2010

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

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

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...

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Happy Birthday Adam!

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

QlikView: Atlas Sales Team Sent to Coventry

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

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


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

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

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

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