My Learning Experience With The Institute of Directors

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Craig Cameron, MIoD

Education, Education, Education

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

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

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

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

Functional Features: Accruals and Pre-Payments

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

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

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

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

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

Nantwich Gets its First FTTC Connection

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Atlas Team - Life With The Edge

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Atlas Get an 'Icy Reception'

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

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

Have an 'ice' day.

Payroll 2012 Upgrade Help

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


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


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


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


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

Video 1 - Welcome to Payroll Upgrade 2012

Video 2 - Payroll News Update 2012

Video 3a - Year End Update

Video 3b - Year End Update

Video 4 - Software Install

Video 5 - HMRC Communications

Supporting The Community, Atlas Welcome Work Experience Student

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Windows 8: Are Microsoft Looking at Another Vista?

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

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

Leeds Office Move

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

Unit 7
Madison Court
George Mann Road
Leeds
LS10 1DX

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