JamesCash.co.uk is pleased to announce FREE Club Membership for small businesses. Membership includes:
Club membership is open to genuine small businesses (2 to 100 employees), with at least two computers, located in the area shown on the map below:
Terms and conditions apply. Click here for more information.
Like most businesses we’re looking to grow and one way we can achieve this is by finding new clients. With this in mind I’ve recently been looking at our overall sales and marketing strategy and, as part of that of part of that process, reviewing how we acquired each of our current clients. Imagine my horror when I see that we no longer carry out a large part of the activity which helped us get where we are today!
When I launched JamesCash.co.uk five years ago I had a single client – and that was my accountant! At the time a friend of mine, who also ran his own business, told me about a group he was involved with called BNI and suggested I give it a try. To cut a long story short, I went along, liked what I saw, joined the group and it massively helped me to grow JamesCash.co.uk to the organisation it is today. When I look back I see that BNI has been by far the largest source of new business accounting for around half of our current client base.
So why aren’t I still doing it? Good question… well, the group I was a member of folded after almost four years. I guess we had a few members that drained the energy of the group and it didn’t take too long for the negativity to spread.
A year on I’ve decided that BNI offers too much to be ignored, and we need to be involved, so I’m helping to launch a new group in Dudley. We’ll be holding an informational/networking event on:
Weds 15 July 2009 - 5pm – The Quality Hotel, Birmingham Road, Dudley, DY1 4RN
If your dynamic, positive, think you can add value, and would like to find out more, drop me a line at james@jamescash.co.uk or call me on 01384 880660.
Back in October 2008, JamesCash.co.uk joined HTG11, the first HTG Peer Group in the UK. HTG groups consist of up to twelve IT companies who meet for two days every quarter to share ideas and best practices, plan and set goals, report financial data, and hold each other accountable.
Since we joined, HTG has been of massive benefit to JamesCash.co.uk and we’ve been able to benefit from the experience of our peers in a variety of ways. For example, we were able to quickly select Connectwise as the platform on which to run our business, and we have worked closely with other members to get up to speed and obtain a faster initial return on our investment.
A typical meeting goes like this:
08:00 – 10 Minute Update: Each company presents a ten minute update on the last quarter including a review of the goals that were set at the last meeting. Failure is not an option.
10:30 – Business Plan: Each company presents a one page business plan that was developed in advance of the meeting.
12:00 – Lunch & Learn: This is sponsored by a vendor who will have around an hour to make a presentation to the group. Vendors play a key role in the funding of HTG and cover the majority of costs. Vendor sponsors include Connectwise, Zenith Infotech, HP, Sonicwall, Microsoft, Level Platforms and Emerson Power at the Platinum level.
14:00 – Sales Mastery: Each company shares their processes and answers to discussion questions around the area of sales.
15:00 – Employee Benefits: Each company shares a list of their employee benefits and answers to discussion questions.
16:00 – Challenges of a Difficult Economy: An open discussion around the challenges of a difficult economy. Each company shares information about how they are changing their approach.
17:00 – Meeting closes for the day.
19:00 – Dinner: Sponsored by a vendor who attends and participates in discussion.
21:00 – Work continues in the bar!
08:00 – Best Practice Idea Exchange: Each company presents a written best practice idea that has made/saved money involving a new technology, product, vendor or practice.
10:30 – Comparative Bidding: Each company presents a proposal completed before the meeting, based on a given scenario and specification.
12:00 – Lunch & Learn.
13:30 – Managed Services: Each company shares their best practices.
15:15 – Goal setting: Each company sets three goals to be completed by the next meeting.
17:00 – Meeting closes.
It’s easy to see from the agenda how this benefits JamesCash.co.uk. We’re seeing rapid improvement in the way we operate and that’s in large part down to our involvement in HTG11.
As HTG11 is a new group there are a couple of spaces still open for new members. If you are another IT company reading this, and you have five or more employees, and you’re interested in participating, please call me on 01384 880660 or email james@jamescash.co.uk.
This week saw the release of Windows 7 Release Candidate by Microsoft. This is the latest version of Microsoft’s desktop operating system, scheduled for full release later this year and the replacement of the much maligned Vista operating system.
I downloaded Windows 7 RC as soon as it became available and I’m currently running it on my main laptop which I use all of the time. So far, I have to say that I’m very impressed and my system is running significantly quicker than with Vista. I’ve also installed 7 on an older low-spec netbook computer and performance is perfectly acceptable – I would have to say that it seems quicker than XP too!
A couple of our clients have enquired about the new OS and we’ll be installing 7 for a couple of them to try out the RC. If you would like to try it out, see the Microsoft Windows 7 site for more information.
Aside from the speed improvements, application compatibility will be far better than Vista when it was released. Microsoft say that almost all applications that run on Vista will work on Windows 7. There is also an “XP Compatibility” mode that will run older XP applications in a virtual machine, transparent to the user.
The lower hardware requirements of Windows 7 should mean than many users will be able to upgrade without having to fork out for new hardware. Clients with Open Value Subscription Licensing or Software Assurance won’t even have additional licensing costs.
Windows 7 brings a whole load of improvements over previous versions in the areas of search, the taskbar/start menu and UAC whilst delivering useful new features such as encryption of removable drives, aero-shake, stacking and gamma-curve. We’ll be bringing you more information about these in future blog articles.
This week I’d like to help put right Office compatibility issues. With there being so many versions of Microsoft Office still in use, and new versions on the way, it’s not uncommon for users to have different versions of Office on their PCs. Older versions of Office can have problems opening documents created in later versions leading to frustration for users.
This is where the Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack comes in extremely useful. Developed by Microsoft to fix this problem, it’s totally free and can be downloaded from the Microsoft website. It’s a small program that installs in seconds and allows you to open files created using newer versions of Office. If you are already using the latest version of Office (2007), there is no need to install this.
If you have a topic or problem that you’d like me to blog about let me know by dropping me an email.
Until next time…
James Brown
Service pack 2, which will affect the Office 2007 suite and 2007 Office Server products is due out today, 28th April 2009.
The main update is the ability to save in the Open Document Format. SP2 will also add support for upcoming operating systems including Windows 7.
Full detail of the service pack can be found on the Microsoft Technet site.
JamesCash.co.uk will deploy the update to clients as part of our IT security support patch management service when it is made available via Microsoft Update.
JamesCash.co.uk recently played an active role throughout the first annual Heartland Tech Group (HTG) Summit in Dallas, Texas. HTG attracts industry thought leaders, experts and peers from across the globe. HTG members recently converged to participate and share knowledge, build on proven best practices and leverage the talents of all members. Built on its mandate of execution and accountability, HTG provides positive interaction throughout the entire technology industry by holding each other accountable to all members’ commitments.
JamesCash.co.uk participates in HTG11, the first group outside of North America, alongside other group members who serve as a peer board of directors. Individual peer groups drill down and focus on overall effectiveness across operations, marketing, sales, finances and overall health of each member. By focusing on industry standards including business planning, process development, financial benchmarking and education, HTG members strive to maintain a competitive advantage over those other service firms that do not participate in peer activities.
“Participation in the HTG Summit benefits our company and our clients by exposing us to leading ideas, technologies and industry peers,“ said James Cash, Managing Director of JamesCash.co.uk Ltd. “We bring back proven ideas we can use immediately and a longer-term plan for greater success in the future. Plus, our peers hold us accountable for achieving our goals.”
Focused on only the best small and midsize technology firms, HTG spans the entire technology ecosystem. By leveraging leading technology manufacturers and vendors who provide sponsorship and interaction with HTG members, members are now equipped with the tools and knowledge to provide an increased level of service in their communities. HTG members are better prepared and understand the importance of positive interaction across all levels of the industry. This includes how disruptive and breakthrough IT solutions will influence their clients with laser-focused training from their peers and leading industry experts.
“HTG member companies benefit from having JamesCash.co.uk join us at our event and participate in our peer groups,” said Scott Scrogin, President of HTG. “Our members have a passionate commitment to change and improve their businesses and their lives. Great technology matters, but we know that relationships and execution matter more.”
One of the more common issues I have been dealing with recently has been clients calling me regarding the size of their mailbox. It’s not unusual to be receiving upwards of one hundred emails a day, some with attachments, so it’s not very long before people exceed their default allocated space and are asked to do something about it, the most obvious being to delete some email.
But not all emails take up the same amount of space; emails with attachments such as a video, pictures or Word documents take up a lot more space than normal text only emails. In Outlook, to find out what is taking up all your allocated space, you can organise your emails in size order by clicking view, arrange by, and then size. Any emails showing as “enormous” or “huge” will probably have large attachments in them. You can save any attachments needed to your My Documents folder then delete the email.
Another thing you can do to reduce mailbox size is to use the built in archive functionality in Outlook. This takes all emails older than a given date, removes them from your mailbox and saves them to a PST file on your computer, to free up space. If you have a very large mailbox, this can dramatically increase the speed of Outlook and the emails can still be called upon later if needed.
To archive, open Outlook, then click file, and then select archive in the drop down list. Select “Mailbox - *Your Name*” from the list of folders. Enter a date in the “Archive items older than” option (We normally recommend around 6 months or older), and set the location of the archive folder to somewhere easily accessible, like your My Documents folder, by clicking browse and navigating to your My Documents. After clicking ok the archive will begin, taking anywhere up to an hour to complete. You can still use your machine in the meantime. Once the process is complete you should see the “Archive Folders” in your Outlook folder list.
Clients of our IT support services that need help with the above can contact me, James Brown, on 01384 880660 or by emailing support@jamescash.co.uk
Until next time…
James Brown
Microsoft is set to release eight security patches, of which five are rated as critical and fix vulnerabilities that could allow an attacker to execute remote code on unprotect computers. These updates will be released as part of the monthly “Patch Tuesday” release cycle.
Our IT support clients will have these updates taken care of automatically as part of our IT security support service. Non-clients should ensure they run Windows Update on all computers.
Researchers at Trend Micro have discovered a variant of Conficker which has downloaded an unknown payload from servers connected to a botnet. The encrypted payload is downloaded via built-in P2P connectivity.
Computer users have been warned not to be alarmed, and to continue to exercise caution and implement security best practices including keeping machines updated with the latest patches and ensuring antivirus definitions are up to date. Small businesses should check with their IT support providers to ensure they are protected. Clients of our Managed IT Support Service do not need to contact us; we update machines regularly and monitor to ensure antivirus definitions are current.