Sussex Business Systems

Monitoring Offer

2009-05-11T08:34:00.002+01:00

From today, May11th we will be reducing our prices on server monitoring. Use this service to ensure that you really know what your machines are doing. We can check your servers up to every 2 minutes and alert you when there is a problem. contact us today or visit our spring offers page.
If you have any questions, just send us an email.

Spring Savers

2009-05-10T23:36:00.003+01:00

From Tuesday 12th May Sussex Business Systems are having a silly sale week. Check back here or visit our network support site for details on Monday.

Spring cleaning for your network

2009-05-07T11:13:00.002+01:00

Spring is finally here folks so it's a good time to evaluate your working methods. At Sussex Business Systems we see all sorts of companies, large and small. Few have networks that are designed to assist employees in their day to day tasks. Yes, sure they started out ok but over time they have become messy and lost focus. Different employees have their own ways of working, staff leaving, and "quick fix" solutions all contribute to this.
The remedy for this is to get organised, really organised. Look at each persons job role and work out exactly what information they need to do their work and what documents need to be shared. Perhaps you might start by department if that model suits. Create a simple company shared folder structure. We have found that over time that shared folders get messy, difficult to navigate and frequently have the wrong permissions set.
Educate users to stop sending copies of emails to all of their work colleagues, only those that really need to be copied in. If possible, use an internal messaging program to aid inter department collaboration.
We hope some of these tips will unclutter your work and result in happier, more productive staff.

Windows 7

2009-05-05T09:15:00.002+01:00

Well it's finally here. Microsoft have made available the release candidate version of their new operating system, Windows 7.
It can be downloaded from their website by anyone who is interested in trialing new software. Please remember though. You really need to read the documentation before installing and you will have next to no support. This, as with the previous beta, is a time limited version but will give the industry and public a preview of what's in store in the future. We suggest as always, back up your data before installing and do not use it on production machines. The first glimpse seems to offer hope for those who have had bad experiences with vista and software compatibility. There will be an XP compatibility feature to enable you to run applications in a virtual machine. We are still in the process of testing the new software and will report back once we have given it a thorough working over. Our initial feeling is good however. It "seems" to perform better than vista on the same hardware. Certainly, we love the look of it especially the new task bar. Interesting enough, our die hard mac fans were impressed.
Watch this space for updates.

100 Meg broadband

2009-05-01T09:38:00.002+01:00

There has been much talk about this over the last year or so and finally it seems things are starting to move. Don't expect it next week however, it'll take quite some time to deploy and not everyone will be able to access it.
What does it mean for us? This will profoundly change the way we work and play. It will allow media streaming like never before possibly making traditional television redundant. Great for home uses but for business the benefits are truly staggering. Companies will be able to allow their employees more time working from home. Saving office space, electricity and travel. All of these points will not only save money, important in a recession but also improve companies "green credentials".
Benefits to employees are also substantial, no stress caused by travelling and increased flexibility that working from home brings. This is particularly good for working parents who find balancing work and home lives difficult.
If this superfast broadband is rolled out properly it will improve life for everyone.

Daily computer tips

2009-04-28T07:27:00.001+01:00

visit http://compunuts.blogspot.com/

Big Brother is watching...thank goodness

2009-04-27T13:46:00.002+01:00

We at Sussex Business Systems believe in a proactive approach to network support. All too often, companies wait until something fails before dealing with IT problems. By that time it's just too late, resulting in lost productivity and frayed tempers.
Wouldn't it be nice if your computers notified you of problems before they occurred. Well in truth, they do but can you be bothered to look through endless log files and performance reports all of the time? Haven't you got a business to run?
We can take care of that for you, monitoring your machines 24 hours per day, every two minutes. Do you have a website hosted somewhere? How do you know its running all the time?
Call us for a quote and let us help you to keep your business running.

Money Saver

2009-04-27T08:34:00.002+01:00

If you use voip in your office, sign up free to E164 at http://www.e164.biz/ and you can make free calls to other subscribers anywhere in the world. Remember to configure your outbound trunks correctly.

Take another look at your website

2009-04-26T23:39:00.002+01:00

From time to time we encounter customers having problems getting response from their websites. The common complaint is that they've spent a great deal on having it designed yet it doesn't produce results. At first, the site looks fantastic but you really need to look under the bonnet to see what is really happening. It is not enough to have great graphics and custom fonts. Some of the most successful sites have almost no pictures and very little colour.
We have to take a scientific look and really analyse what is happening when people visit.
There are many tools out there to help you. Thankfully, they don't come much easier to use that Google Analytics. After placing a small script in your main page, you'll soon see a complete breakdown of traffic behaviour on the Analytics Site. It will take a while if you're a novice to understand what the figures however Google have some useful help tips to guide you through. Armed with information such as where your visitors come from, how long they stayed and how they navigate your site, you'll soon be able to optimise your content to really engage with your customers.
The two features we really like are the website optimizer, allowing you to compare different versions if the same page and the site overlay, showing you where people clicked.
We like it and hope you do too

Punch above your weight

2009-04-22T18:08:00.004+01:00

Many of you reading this blog will be small companies or businesses starting up for the first time. In today's competitive environment, how can you compare to large corporations without spending vast sums of money? They have the budget to act big and sound big. This is why people have confidence in them. How about you? Can you be as efficient? Can you appear bigger than you are? Can you do it without spending as much on technology as them?
The simple answer is, yes. We have, at Sussex Business Systems, found ways for small companies to act big. The answer is look at your IT infrastructure as a whole and get it working for you. By integrating all of the parts together you will increase your efficiency, cut your admin workload and most of all, get on with what you're best at; running your business.
If you're not big enough to use Windows Small Business Server, you can still manage your customers, leads and accounts all from a desktop machine. Business Contact Manager for Outlook is an ideal tool for this and it just happens to work very well with Microsoft Office Accounting. You can easily integrate your invoicing and accounts with your business contacts.
How about the phones? Aren't the part of the scene? Up to recent times, telephones and computer networks we considered two completely different domains. Not now, telephones should be part of the company machinery, integrated as tightly as your software is. Even for a one or two person company it is quite possible to have a state of the art pbx system with all of the bell and whistles(pardon the pun). It's very easy to set up dialling direct from your Outlook contacts have your calls redirected to your mobile or your voicemails emailed to you. Even an IVR (press one for sales, two for....) is easily affordable if you approach the right suppliers.
These days, you don't need an office unless you have to impress customers. All of this can simply be done from home and nobody, especially your customers will know any different.

Keeping in touch

2009-04-20T11:01:00.000+01:00

It's the start of a new week and we should look at how we keep in contact with our customers. Most companies have a website, email their customers and perhaps send out flyers all in addition to paid advertising.
These are all very good but it should be part of a greater marketing strategy. All tied in together and monitored not only for sales results but for useful feedback, yes even negative. There has been a growth in the use of blogs and micro blogging as well as increased activity in business to business online forums. Using the Internet and mobile technologies you can reach your customers instantly, keeping them up-to-date with your latest products and services. Do you have something you want your customers to know about? Well use every means at your disposal to facilitate that. Especially with micro blogging you can keep your name in front of your customers constantly... Just make sure you have something worthwhile to tell them. Time your announcements carefully, during business hours when you know they'll be read. Use online forums to network with business associates and advertise yourself at the same time.
Most of these services are free but will take time and effort. It's all about getting your name out there and keeping it high profile

It's Friday

2009-04-17T10:39:00.001+01:00

The week is drawing to a close and we would like to wish everyone a great weekend. It's been a great week for us with the launch of our new website, this blog and our twitter updates. The response has been very positive. On the first day the page views went up by a staggering 530% as compared to the previous site.
We also introduced a new product aimed at sussex estate agents and will be rolling it out to a wider area.
For those of you that don't already use it, we suggest you look at making contacts on ecademy. it's free and is a great way to enlarge your circle of business contacts. Just click on the link.
Over the coming weeks and months we will be publishing articles about technology and general interest. Why not subscribe to this blog to keep up-to-date.

Voice over IP (VOIP)

2009-04-16T14:52:00.000+01:00

You've heard of it, it's been around for a few years now but what is VOIP? Simply put, it's the transmission of voice data (phone calls) over the internet as opposed using dedicated telephone lines.
OK, so we have a definition but is it any use? What can it do? Can it save you money?
To answer the first, yes it works. As broadband speed are increasing we are seeing oportunities to really take advantage of the power and flexibility that the internet offers. Gone are the days of being tied to just one telephone service provider. You can pick and chose your voip service depending on many factors like free minutes or free calls to certain destinations. Why not use more than one ITSP (internet telephony service provider) to take advantage of least cost routing.
It's a sad fact with most telcos that you are not masters of your own destiny, they control the routing, they control the call costs, they control the "addons". At least with voip you're back in the driving seat. If you run your own PBX, you chose which features you wish to use, eg: voicemail to email, call diversion to cell phones, IVR systems etc. The real, beauty of it is the fact that it's an Internet based protocol and will integrate with more or less anything else on the Internet. You can connect many different services such as you voip trunks, skype, most messenger programs and even add video if you like.
Saving money, well that's the clincher really. Generally voip calls tend to be cheaper and even free under the right circumstances. The fact thet it can interact with your existing network and applications makes for smoother working saving time.
All in all, a very powerfull addition to your business providing you with endless ways to communicate with your customers

It's all about cutting costs

2009-04-16T09:12:00.000+01:00

Well we hear endless stories about the credit crunch. News of companies closing or shedding staff to save money, appear daily. I wonder though, how many of these jobs could be saved simply by reviewing working methods and tools. Sure, staff is a major cost to any organisation, I won't deny that but should shedding staff be seen as a quick fix? Why were these businesses running "over-staffed"? I thing the answer is to be found in management taking their eye off the ball while times were good. It makes me smile when I hear "..well, nobody saw it coming". Having lived through three recessions I can tell you that this was on the cards. If people failed to see that then I wonder whether they should be in business in the first place. Granted, nobody can predict exact dates and times but there is a cycle.
So, what to do? There's no simple answer. History is here to help us though. There were, in times past, companies that have actually benefited from an economic downturn. Why were they different? In a word, attitude. Being negative never produced fruit and these companies, instead of whining, took a very forward looking approach, investing for when the economy recovers, training staff and most importantly, thinking outside the box.
A good friend of mine, talking about the difference between the way the Japanese and British companies run, suggested this...in Japan, they have a factory and say "what can we make in our factory" in Britain, they have a product and say "we need a factory to build our product". The second is very limiting. We need to say to ourselves, "what can we do with the resources we have". There may be opportunities, previously unseen that could provide additional revenue streams. Which brings me back to staff. They should be a company's greatest resource, get them thinking, get them trained, get them motivated and invest in technology that makes their working day more productive.
This could be a good time for any business. There will always be badly run companies who will go to the wall but sad as that maybe, it's less competition for you.
At Sussex Business Systems, we see the future as bright.

Welcome

2009-04-15T19:30:00.000+01:00

A big Hi From Sussex Business Systems. This is the first post. Many more to come