Archive for April, 2009
Nationwide demolition company chooses theitguys.co.uk to develop their Tender and CRM database solution
Posted by Tim A Hall-Woodcock in theitguys.co.uk Blog on April 27th, 2009
Today, theitguys.co.uk won the contract to design and deliver a bespoke tender and mini-CRM solution to assist Armoury Demolition, a successful Birmingham based demolition and recycling company. Armoury Demolition have been using a mixture of systems to manage their customer sales and contracts.
Tony McLean (CEO) quotes: Now is the time to streamline the service we supply to our customers, in this day and age we need to be smart to stay one step ahead of our competition! Traditionally we have found it difficult to manage and maintain our tender process - in these difficult times having the competitive edge will help us win more business.
The solution that we will deliver is based on FileMaker Pro. FileMaker provides a wealth of functionality including Instant Web Publishing, Remote Database Hosting and Rapid Application Development (RAD) for building powerful database applications for business. Using this framework allows us to keep the costs to a minimum but deliver a powerful business tool and application, empowering small business owners without breaking the bank. Our FileMaker solutions also scale well, one database can be used by 99 simultaneous users in any location on this planet (assuming there is an Internet connection).
If you need a database solution to tidy those spreadsheets that are gluing your business processes together then get in touch, we will help you streamline your business….
What is Proactive IT Support and do I need it? [Podcast]
Posted by Tim A Hall-Woodcock in theitguys.co.uk Podcasts on April 9th, 2009
Tim Hall-Woodcock of theitguys.co.uk asks the question in this Podcast what does proactive IT support actually mean? Click the play button to listen.
Length of podcast: 4 minutes 37 seconds
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** Note: If you are using an iPhone or a web browser without Flash Player click the link below to listen.
MP3 - What is Proactive IT Support?
Happy Easter - have a good break!
P.S. Don’t forget to send us your comments on our Podcasts, sign in below….
Web Site Online Shop - www.thebatteryguys.co.uk
Posted by Tim A Hall-Woodcock in theitguys.co.uk Blog on April 8th, 2009
….another success story from Pointnet Solutions and theitguys.co.uk.
Built by Pointnet and theitguys.co.uk
Did you know Pointnet Solutions and theitguys.co.uk build e-commerce online web shops?
A few months ago we were tasked by our customer thebatteryguys.co.uk to build an e-commerce solution to sell batteries online for cars, vans, scooters … you name it ….
Simon our client said: We had a concept in mind that needed assistance, firstly in background marketing and research to confirm our belief that the business model was sound. This output convinced us to launch the development and we agreed an outline schedule of works and stages of development. This gave everyone clarity of what was being done, when and at what cost. The site development and associated marketing and advertising around the site has been superb and the site is a commercial success achieving instant results and above the predicted sales forecasts. We will use Pointnet Solutions and theitguys.co.uk again for our next online project.
Please feel free to visit the site at: www.thebatteryguys.co.uk
We [Pointnet Solutions] got to work using our agile approach to software application development and produced a solution that had limited AJAX controls and integrated with Protex the payment gateway to get the cash.
Our primary focus when developing e-commerce applications is on the marketing and functionality - the design, although important is designed to be as simple as possible (from a users perspective) - customers are king - whizz bang looks cool but doesn’t sell stuff!
Launch day saw 20 orders fly through the store, targets were met and our customer very happy. Since that day the store has exceeded expectations and has continued to grow from strength to strength (if fact you wouldn’t believe how good even if we boasted about it here) - a true success story. Our customer has now asked us to setup a different kind of online shop selling another off-the-shelf product - more details coming soon…..
Do you need an e-commerce shop to retail your products to the UK or world? Click here or call 0845 004 6789 to get in touch and we can discuss how we can build a success story for you.
Cloud Computing - What is it and should I be bothered?
Posted by Tim A Hall-Woodcock in theitguys.co.uk Blog on April 5th, 2009
what is cloud computing?
For a few years now theitguys.co.uk have been supplying remote software services where you pay a low monthly fee, we provide you with a service and you take advantage of our data centre facilities with technical support and backup. Services such as email, calendar and contacts collaboration, email scanning and cleaning, remote backup are a few that can be defined as cloud computing.
Additionally theitguys.co.uk manufacture/ develop software that runs as a service in the cloud - commonly known as “software as a service” (SaaS). In days gone by companies would have an Access database developed that handled processes within their business, these days software is often required externally as people work remotely, on the road or from home. The safest and easiest way to deliver that is by cloud computing or over the Internet using Rich Internet Applications (RIA) - click here to see our software page for more information on RIA, Flex and AIR technologies.
should you embrace cloud computing?
Things are definitely moving in the direction of cloud computing and the biggest reason is cost and power. Why bother running your own servers and services that need to be constantly updated with new features at great expense when for a fixed low fee you can benefit from the latest in technology from your cloud supplier?
Lets look at the pros and cons:
Pros:
- reduced hardware, software, network, support, accommodation and environmental costs
- greater flexibility, mobility, utility, operational stability, process control and activity monitoring
- faster updates, procedural changes, training and debugging
- better security, scalability, use of resources, control of data access and recovery from catastrophic failures
Cons:
- dependence on centralised server and services that are in-sourced or outsourced, plus the need for fixed and mobile bandwidth everywhere
- instantaneous propagation of service-affecting errors, software problems, mistakes and other snafus
- catastrophic and instantaneous failure mode at a terminal level and no one can work until the problem is fixed. This is leading many people to opt for a ‘thinish’ client model with a limited offline capability such as Google Desktop.
With cloud computing the idea is to try and afford new degrees of freedom and flexibility in order to up productivity while maintaining the integrity operations and security of access and data.
Overall this is about efficiency and cost saving but these should not be at the risk of operational fidelity.
If you need more information please do not hesitate to contact us. Please comment below if you have an opinion.
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