Social media sites are all the rage now days, anyone who’s anyone is on some form of social media site, The past few years have seen the launch of Facebook and Twitter, both sites have taken the world by storm, for business owners Facebook is golden as they can advertise their company all over the world, here is some advice on how to integrate these tools into the marketing and recruiting efforts of your company.

It wasn’t until 1997 that the Internet reached 50 million users in the United States. Facebook gained over 100 million users in the U.S. from January 2009 to January 2010, marking a 145 percent growth rate within one year, according to research by digital marketing agency iStrategy Labs. 100 million users in the US alone, that does not including the rest of the world. If you’re a business owner that hasn’t embraced social media networking as a major component of your success strategy, it’s advised that you start. A source for A Vision Network said “The internet has flourished in more ways than anyone really expected, it’s become part of our everyday lives and many people will admit they struggle without the use of the internet, since the launch of Facebook social media sites have been in constant competition with each other with the one trying to out do the other, for business owners the internet is without a doubt the best way to spread their company news as it’s a personal touch from them” Lon Safko, social media expert and co-author of The Social Media Bible: Tactics, Tools, and Strategies for Business Success, of the site’s global reach said “When you’ve got 300 million people on Facebook, that’s a huge business watering hole, The profile is like an index to your company.”

While Facebook has become the most popular social media site, there are plenty of others for your company to explore. LinkedIn, for example, houses 55 million professionals seeking jobs or basic business or networking opportunities. MySpace which allows users to tinker with music and themes is targeted toward youth and teens. All of these sites have one primary thing in common: the profile. Why?

The user profile is generally what distinguishes social networking sites from other social media sites. It helps set the stage for building relationships with people who share the same interests, activities, or personal contacts, as opposed to primarily disseminating or digesting information feeds. This also means social networks enable companies to invite audiences to get to know its brand in a way that traditional forms of marketing or advertising can’t. A Source for A Vision Network has said “The outcome of the profile is a big part of a social media site as its all about making that site relatable to you and others, if the profile site was for personal use you would fill it with your interests but for a company the social media profile could enhance how people few their business, Most small businesses are seldom heard off because the word did not reach the public. Facebook is relatable to everyone and with the press of a ‘like’ button your company name can be worldwide”

http://www.prlog.org/11828941-vision-network-comment-on-plans-for-cardiff-university-business-school.html

http://www.facebook.com/pages/A-Vision-Network/167248013372986

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Automobile Association saves money and increases security moving to paperless processes

Founded in 1905, The Automobile Association (The AA) is a British motoring association that changed in 1999 to become a private limited company. It currently provides car insurance, driving lessons, breakdown cover, loans and motoring advice, and other services. The AA Motoring Trust was created in 2002 to continue the AA’s public interest and road safety activities. More recently in 2007 the AA merged with Saga Group to form Acromas Holdings and motoring advice.

The organisation employs over 8000 employees countrywide, of which 3000 are field based workers. Until recently the AA has managed its payroll in the traditional way, sending paper payslips through the post. However, with a drive to be more environmentally friendly, the AA has recently introduced electronic payslips for its employees using an online hosted electronic payslips service from Wealden Computing services. As a result the organisation is not only saving the paper and postage costs that equates to thousands of pounds a year, it has also improved its engagement with employees by providng payslips faster and more securely.

Gary Lukehurst, Payroll and Benefits Manager at the AA, said; “As a large organisation and employer corporate social responsibility is very important to us, and particularly the impact that we have on the environment. We saw an opportunity with the new technologies available today and with more people now using the internet at home to move to electronic payslips, both to reduce paper usage and provide more secure payslips.”

The AA reviewed several vendors, choosing Wealden as the most suitable to meet their needs. Phase one of the move to electronic payslips covers the 5000 office staff, with rollout of phase two to the field workers.

“Wealden’s hosted electronic payslips service has been straightforward to implement. The payslip data is taken from our SAP payroll system and then the printfile is uploaded to Wealden’s website where it is stored for staff to access via a secure password,” said Lukehurst.

Staff are notified via their personal email addresses that the payslip is available. The AA chose to use home email addresses to both reduce traffic on the company network and also to provide a more personal service. Lukehurst is delighted with the success of the new process; “We spent some time in advance engaging with employees to advise them of the changes and gathering home email addresses. This has also helped to reduce the possible culture shock for staff who have been receiving paper slips throughout their working life – you can not underestimate the culture change.”

Since moving to electronic payslips the AA has made considerable savings on post and paper costs, as well as reducing the number of duplicate payslips requested, that had either been lost in the post or in some cases tampered with. In addition, with the automation of the post office systems the AA’s paper slips did not meet the set regulations and had to be handled manually, leading to a delay in delivery. For weekly payslips this was a particular problem that has now been addressed.

“We can now ensure guarantee delivery 100%,” said Lukehurst. “In the past we had requests for duplicates of up to 1200 a year, which meant increased administration for the payroll team. Now all our employees have the same secure and immediate access to their payslips.”

Kent based digital agency mso.education has teamed up with Bishop Ridley C of E Primary School, to design and build a brand new school website.

The dynamic site allows for easier communication with parents and acts as a portal to celebrate the children’s achievements.

Account Manager, Sharon Gavin, explains “Previously Bishop Ridley School had a simple site kindly created by a Parent Governor. Staff found the site difficult to update and as a result content was rarely changed. The outdated design didn’t reflect the exciting reality of the school so we worked together to deliver a website filled with relevant information, presented in engaging ways.”

Bishop Ridley C of E Primary School

Bishop Ridley C of E Primary School is based in Welling, Kent. Opened in September 2004, the school was part of the plan to increase the number of Anglican schools in the London Borough of Bexley. The most recent Ofsted inspection (January 2009) recognised that they are ‘a good school of which staff, pupils, parents and governors are justifiably very proud’. New website

The new look website, created to reflect the pride identified by Ofsted, has its rich content brought to life with high quality images and engaging videos. An interactive calendar feature provides parents with full information on school activities including start time, end time, venue details and location via Google maps. The relevant events can also be filtered and converted into a PDF format to print. The bespoke content management system allows Bishop Ridley to fully administer every aspect of the site. Latest news and photos can be updated within minutes. The website has been an immediate hit with the parents and governors of the school with 96 visits before the launch had been made official! Sharon Gavin states “Bishop Ridley has been a pleasure to work with and it’s been so rewarding to see how all members of the school have contributed to a website that engages and interests stakeholders.” Co-Head of Bishop Ridley Primary School, Alice Early, added “We are extremely proud of our new website and feel that it has given all our staff, parents and children a stronger identity as a school.”

One step further…

Bishop Ridley School will also benefit from a free mobile application publishing content to parents’ smartphones direct from their website. Developed by industry experts, the app informs all stakeholders about latest news in real time, straight to their mobile device. Paul Lawrie, Owner and Managing Director at mso-education, comments: “Our mobile app is the most convenient way to engage with parents on the move. This app is currently being offered free with any new school website build, and for no extra effort, creates a competitive advantage for your school.”
To visit Bishop Ridley’s new school website, please visit http://www.bishopridleyschool.org.uk/

NHS Grampian is running an e-rostering pilot with SMART as part of an initiative to improve existing practices, achieve efficiencies and increase productivity, whilst maintaining high quality of care for patients.

The pilot, which is one of the largest undertaken in the UK, covers 19 wards over a 10 month period. It started in September 2011, and all wards are expected to have received training on the system and to be operational by February 2012.

As part of the pilot, Grampian is working with SMART on Real Time Hospital which will interface with the e-rostering system to provide real time staff management. Together, e-rostering and Real Time Hospital will provide managers with a comprehensive planning tool and a real time management facility with dashboards to instantly highlight staff and patient situations on wards. The health board has conservatively estimated that if implemented fully the e-rostering and Real Time Hospital system will save at least one full time equivalent per ward per year.

Neil Buchanan, Efficiency and Productivity Programme Manager for NHS Grampian explained, “We believe that if we can find a way to get the right staff in the right place at the right time, we can make efficiencies whilst protecting existing levels of service provision. E-rostering will help eliminate the fluctuation in staff numbers and the skill mix of the staff on wards thereby ensuring the provision of a consistent, safe service without unnecessary wastage.”

Mr Buchanan went on to say, “In a busy hospital the process of collating information regarding ward staffing levels and patient details in order to make effective operational decisions can be extremely time consuming. Indeed the laborious nature of this process can result in the gathered data being insufficiently current to act upon effectively.

“SMART’s Real Time Hospital, which is currently being piloted at NHS Grampian, is designed to present regular information updates on the staff criteria that directly impact on the provision of safe, high quality care. It is clarity of presentation and the speed of information availability that should help our managers to assess manpower requirements and take timely and effective decisions when required.”

Nick Whiteley, Managing Director, Health Division at SMART said, “SMART is committed to providing innovative solutions to the NHS to help with every aspect of workforce management and supporting the QIPP agenda. Real Time Hospital has been designed, in conjunction with our customers, to provide a real time decision support system specific to the NHS that enables safe patient care and safe deployment of staff. By avoiding patient safety incidents trusts and health boards like NHS Grampian can potentially make huge savings.

“Today’s NHS trusts and health boards face a constant uphill struggle to reduce costs and deliver the same level of excellent patient care, automated systems for workforce management not only optimise the use of staff, they release many hours of skilled personnel back to patient care, and they can ensure that preventable harmful incidents are avoided, to the benefit of all.”

Specialist business applications are often the cornerstones of a modern company, whether it’s financial, logistics or HR software. Problems such as downtime and errors can be very damaging to a company, while moving to a new platform or system is beyond the capabilities of many IT managers. Flexsys therefore offers business application support on an ongoing or ad hoc basis that is affordable even for SMEs.

An experienced project manager can visit you on site to assist with migrating applications, problem solving, database consolidation, or providing legacy system support. For ongoing business application management, Flexsys often work remotely to reduce your costs, and offer regular performance reviews to ensure optimum productivity and efficiency. A 24/7 global support helpline is also available for emergencies or advice.

Finally, Flexsys offers bespoke software support for a range of budgets. The team of IT and software specialists has experience in designing and developing tailor-made solutions for all kinds of industries and purposes. These brand new applications are based on the needs of your business, and are tested rigorously before being installed in your system. Your in-house team can then be thoroughly trained in the proper use and maintenance of your bespoke software, again with the intention of cutting costs for you.

Flexsys has been developing, supporting and managing complex enterprise applications for over 20 years, allowing customers to react rapidly to their changing commercial, fiscal and regulatory requirements. With expertise in the areas of finance, manufacturing, logistics, travel and many more, Flexsys has a proven track record in delivering high quality comprehensive application support while keeping an eye on your bottom line. Call the team or visit the website to find out more.

Gazetteer specialists Aligned Assets are pleased to announce the appointment of Andy Hird as their new Managing Director.

Now in his tenth year with the company, Andy started as Professional Services Manager, adding the Software Development portfolio in 2009. During that time he has been recognised as driving forward the high standards that has earned Aligned Assets the reputation as the ‘go to company’ for anyone looking for gazetteer or address management software and services.

Andy gained a Degree in Geography from Middlesex University in 1997 and subsequently spent over five years working at a large Local Authority, joining Aligned Assets in 2003. He has been responsible for bringing the consultancy, support, development and testing teams together into one department, which has seen a higher level of integrated working, the result of which has been a far greater responsiveness to customer requirements.

The company, who provides gazetteer management systems into over 100 public sector organisations, including local authorities, police forces, and fire and rescue services, has seen considerable growth over the last few years and are at the forefront of developing intuitive software solutions for use with the Ordnance Survey’s AddressBase products.

Speaking of his appointment, Andy said, “I’m delighted to have been given this opportunity and am excited about the future. Aligned Assets have always taken a customer first approach to the business and this will remain a core element moving forward.”

Outgoing Managing Director, Dinesh Thanigasalam said, “Andy has extensive hands-on experience and insight into the needs of the public sector. These facets, combined with his natural leadership and intuitive organisation skills, make him the ideal candidate to take over the reins at Aligned Assets.”

Embedded Solutions Day – Thursday 22nd March 2012 An essential one-day workshop for engineers considering a new design containing either an embedded PC or RISC processor. The day will run from 10am – 4pm and Microsoft will “set the scene” with a short presentation on its vision of the future. A number of 40 minute hands-on lab sessions in small groups run by experienced APC, Advantech and MPC Data personnel will comprise the rest of the day. Subjects will include:

• Enhancing your system reliability with hardware monitoring and software API’s.
• RISC processors; a new choice of module or SBC.
• Windows Embedded Standard 7; upgrading from XPe or starting afresh.
• COM-Express modules and getting started with your base-board design.
• Wireless solutions; are you ready for Bluetooth or wireless LAN?
• MIO; a new embedded PC board format from Advantech.

Experts will be on-hand throughout the day to discuss and advise upon your application. An exhibition of the latest display, touch screen and keyboard technologies will be running alongside all-day.

All for only £40 +VAT per person, including lunch and refrshments (refundable with 1st order).

Thursday 22nd March 2012, Bletchley Park,
Milton Keynes. Engineers will be on-hand all day to discuss your application and answer questions.

There will be an optional tour to see the Collosus, the world’s first computer.

The rise of social media in today’s corporate environment has created a new set of challenges for the IT department. At the same time, with Facebook alone representing a billion plus community, social media is a huge commercial opportunity that cannot be ignored.

According to Geoff Rees, from Sunrise Software, IT professionals should embrace – and indeed own – social media as the ideal platform to increase customer engagement, protect the corporate brand and ultimately generate new revenue streams. By adopting a service management approach to social media, IT has an important part to play in creating a best-practice framework that maximises the potential of social media and elevates the role of IT at the same time.

Love it or hate it, the fact remains that today’s social media world is big business and those who consider it just for kids or consumers should think again.

Not only do social media networking sites such as Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter™ represent a vital new sales channel but the real-time, viral nature of their content, posted 24 hours a day from anywhere in the world, can wreak havoc with a company’s corporate brand. How often have you not frequented a hotel or restaurant because of a negative posting on TripAdvisor? How many times have you refrained from purchasing a new product because of a bad review on Twitter? Round-the-clock social media requires a round-the-clock response.

More and more people are using social media to praise or air their grievances about the products and services they receive in both business-to-consumer and, increasingly, business-to-business environments. And consumers are choosing to take notice of complete strangers rather than rely on the traditional word-of-mouth reputation or the opinion of a friend. As a result, companies need to know what customers are saying about them at all times.

Even the Government recognises the importance of a strong social media presence. The Foreign Office trains its staff to engage effectively through Facebook and Twitter, encouraging them to deliver foreign policy priorities and even get messages across to British nationals in consular crisis situations.

Inevitably, this brave new social media world poses today’s IT professionals with a real conundrum. Traditionally, IT decision-makers have been gripped with a high degree of nervousness when faced with their own staff using social media in the workplace, for example. Better to block these sites completely rather than risk potential issues of network security or reduced employee productivity. Or is it? By banning social media entirely, companies are denying their staff access to the immense power of social media as a significant new client engagement channel. At the same time, taking a black and white approach to social media effectively isolates companies from what their customers are saying about them and denies them the right to reply where they can protect and defend their brand.

The best way forward is to adopt an IT service management approach to social media. There are many success stories which prove how the IT department can and does take an active lead in creating a best practice technology framework that demonstrably contributes to commercial success. High profile brands such as Anglian Water and Vision Express have introduced flexible but process-driven service management infrastructures that have enabled them to become role models for the rest of their organisation. In just one year, Vision Express raised SLA performance from 87% to 96% and further enhanced its industry reputation by reaching the finals of the Retail Systems Award for IT Project of the Year in 2009.

Similarly, premier contract catering firm Elior applied its IT service management blueprint extensively to other departments including purchasing, supplier management and HR with considerable success. The company’s service desk now manages all HR queries relating to areas such as continual absence, CRB checks, disciplinary proceedings and dismissals. It also monitors holidays, sickness and maternity leave, new leavers and joiners across 1,300 sites, a real bonus when managing a 12,000-strong workforce.

Furthermore, Elior’s chefs throughout the UK rely on the same service management platform to make enquiries regarding invoicing, purchasing and delivery, giving them the confidence they need to ensure the best possible service to customers.

IT has long been the vanguard of new technologies and processes that ultimately impact the bottom line and contribute to commercial success. In the same way, the time has come for the IT department to become the corporate hub and centre of excellence for social media.

Employees need clear guidelines on how they should access and use social media in the work environment and nominating relevant personnel to post or respond to comments on the company’s products and services are just some of the practical steps one can take to manage social media in business. Most importantly, vendors should continually strive to improve their service management product offering and invest in developing innovative new technology that addresses their customers’ changing social media requirements.

Sophisticated applications that integrate seamlessly with today’s social media networking sites will enable organisations to track industry perception of their products and services so that they can proactively respond to complaints and ultimately encourage consumers to provide direct and constructive feedback online. It is clear that IT has a pivotal role to play in helping organisations to exploit social media to their best advantage, commercially and to enhance customer service.

Along with the right technology, IT should develop a best practice social media policy that supports existing corporate HR and operational risk management procedures and is communicated widely across the organisation in the usual manner. Social media is no longer the exclusive domain of marketers. By applying their already extensive expertise and proven track record in service management, IT directors are perfectly placed to help their client-facing departments increase their digital presence in the workplace and use it for competitive, commercial advantage.

Editors Contacts
Carly Nessmann
Marketing Manager
020 8391 9000
cnessmann@sunrisesoftware.co.uk

Police forces across Great Britain are set to benefit from a new source of address data from the Ordnance Survey.

AddressBase Premium will see the amalgamation of local government data with the Ordnance Survey’s existing products, plus addressing from the Royal Mail, the combination of which will see the Country’s most accurate and definitive database of addresses ever created.

Increased accuracy and the higher level of detail will be a significant improvement on existing sources, which will not only ensure a greater ability to mobilise to incidents, but can be used throughout police systems from crime and intelligence, to case and custody.

Every record in AddressBase Premium will contain a Unique Property Reference Number (UPRN), which will be key to linking up systems. Whereas an address can have multiple spellings, there will only ever be one UPRN, which means correctly linking property related data will be made a lot simpler.

Analysis and intelligence will be much improved by having this ‘golden thread’ linking all current and historic data about a property, whilst the ability to provide officers on the ground with accurate information about past incidents or intelligence such as firearm licenses has the potential to save lives.

AddressBase Premium will also enable police forces to make considerable financial savings by moving from the use of multiple sources of address data down to just one. Many of these existing sources have to be paid for, and the management and updating of the data is duplicated across departments. AddressBase Premium will be freely available to police forces under the terms of the Public Sector Mapping Agreement (PSMA) and its use as a corporate resource will enable the redeployment of these currently duplicated workloads. “We have been working with the police for almost five years in gazetteer and address management, and AddressBase Premium is the undoubtedly the most comprehensive database of addresses that’s ever been made available,” explained Dinesh Thanigasalam, Managing Director of Aligned Assets. “The combination of the UPRN, historic data, alternative names, non-postal addresses and the fact that each record has precise geographic coordinates is set to make it one the most important developments in policing for years.”