ESP Projects Ltd: IT Support - Sheffield

What Is it? Office 365 is the latest addition to the ever popular Microsoft Office environment. Whilst new PC-based versions of the familiar suite will continue to be released in future, Microsoft are now firmly entering the ‘Cloud’ market and competing with GoogleApps with this new web-based service.

What Does Office 365 Do? It’s essentially a suite of slimmed down versions of Word, Excel, Outlook, PowerPoint etc. which instead of being installed on PCs, are accessed through a web browser. This means you can access and share your files from most internet-enabled PCs. It also contains an online version of Microsoft Exchange, the email and calendar-sharing application. This means that you can do ‘out-of-office’ autoresponders, open and use other users mailboxes and calendars, and create shared calendars/mailboxes for your staff to access. There are also some other useful services thrown in including Instant Messaging, voice & video calling and a website creation tool.

How Much Is Office365? The ‘small business’ service must be bought through a Microsoft Reseller such as ESP, is paid for by credit card and costs £4 per user per month.

Over the years we’ve done as much as we can to raise awareness of the amazing discounts available to registered charities through the CTX software donations program at http://www.ctxchange.org (run by the Charity Technology Trust). Dozens of our clients have benefited from £1000’s savings in purchasing licensing in this manner.

Now there is some fantastic news we’d like to share with you specifically on the Microsoft products available on this scheme. Whereas previously there were limits on the quantity and frequency of orders, these have now been abolished! Under the new rules..

SugarSync  - free for up to 5Gb from www.sugarsync.com – is a natty little Dropbox alternative. This means is an all-in-one sharing, backup and remote working tool. You simply install on a number of computers whether inside or outside your network (e.g. at home) and then designate folder as ‘shared’. These shared folders – including security permissions you want to allocate to them  - are then automatically synchronised between all of the PCs as well as being backed up to secure, encrypted online account. In this way, you can share files with colleagues and home users as well as being sure there is always a copy you can restore from in a disaster situation!

Logmein Hamachi2 – from https://secure.logmein.com/products/hamachi2/ - is a neat VPN client that lets you link in to your office-based folders when working outside the office or from home. PCs and laptops have always had the capability to dial a VPN – a type of secure private link – if required, but the configuration and use of these has historically been a bit tricky. With Hamachi2 you simply install the software on the computers at both ‘ends’ of the link. Set the computer where the files are to be the ‘server’ end and when  you are out of the office, you can open Hamachi2 and connect to this server. The shared files at the other end are then available to you to open and use. Naturally it won’t be as quick as actually being in the office but it could just be the ticket for some people!

Simply Personnel – from http://www.simplypersonnel.co.uk/ is a cracking, inexpensive and fully featured HR (Human Resources) system and is ideal for the small to medium sized organisation. ESP has been testing this for some time now and is pleased to report that we now have significant experience of installing and configuring the software. Simply Personnel keeps all of your staff records and allows you to manage key areas like absences, annual leave, salary grades, training courses and qualifications. It includes a useful ‘Tasks’ section which allows you to create manual or automatic reminders for pretty much every aspect of HR work. It works well in a multi-user environment and integrates with Sage Payroll too!

ESP is delighted to welcome new member of staff Tom Aplin-Ward, who joined the company on 1^st August. Tom will be working with Morgan in the sales team and replaces Andrew, who has returned to Sheffield Hallam University to complete the final year of his Business & IT Course.

Tom is set to become a permanent feature of ESP, having had a substantial background in IT Services for small organisations. Tom previously spent 3 years running the Sheffield-based ‘Livetech’ project, which provided recycled PCs and technical support, as well as apprenticeships for NVQ ICT trainees. Over the coming months, he will be fielding more of your sales enquiries and is looking forward to meeting customers new and old.

We’ve fielded the odd question or five on ‘social media’ of late, and – as you have hopefully already spotted – starting using it ourselves. Indeed, barely a day seems to go past without the major news channels name-checking social media services like facebook and twitter. We are aware though that there’s an awful lot people out there for whom it’s still a bit of a mystery and so this month we thought we’d bring this ultra-quick lowdown on ‘what you need to know’ about this hot topic.

What is Social Media? Basically, it’s a bunch of software that can be used for ‘social’ communication. I.e. talking to each other.

Why All The Fuss? There’s a mini-revolution going on here – Social Media is different from traditional Media. Instead of users (that’s us!) ‘consuming’ information provided by a large public or private institutions, we now have the tools to select and disseminate our own preferred information directly to our chosen audiences.

Come Again? Basically, you too can become a mass media outlet!!

If it’s About Promoting Ourselves, Then What’s New There? Previously it you wanted to promote an event, survey your members, communicate with customers or let people know what you are up to generally, you had to rely on paid advertising, printed letters and brochures or email. Social Media adds another channel to these, but crucially its free, easy-to-use, takes minutes not hours, and allows all kinds of people you aren’t currently targeting to find you, and (hopefully) listen to what you have to say!

Where Do We Start? Well Facebook has over 30 million members in the UK – that’s nearly half the population! It also has a range of easy to use tools designed to help organisations and businesses promote their activities and events and reach a much bigger audience. You can start right here!  Twitter is a close second in our eyes. Twitter allows you to send messages to your ‘followers’. You can also ‘follow’ what others are saying to stay on top of news and other issues. ESP produced a Mini Guide to Twitter in 3 Steps, you can see links to these here.

Where Can We Go For More Info? There are some useful articles on LASA’s excellent ICT Knowledgebase, and you can always ask ESP for help! As well as that there are scores of Social Media ‘surgeries’ up and down the country and you can keep up with the location of these here: http://socialmediasurgery.com/surgeries.  Good luck!