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<title>P2 Technologies News Feed</title>
<description>Latest News From P2 Technologies.</description>
<link>http://www.p2tech.co.uk/</link>
<copyright>Copyright 2008 P2 Technologies</copyright>
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<title>When is a search engine not a search engine?</title>
<description><![CDATA[The economic downturn is accelerating business change, particularly for the legal profession according to respected Legal IT specialist Professor Richard Susskind.

In a recent keynote speech at the worlds premier legal technology conference he said, 'When the storm lifts the terrain is going to look wildly different. What we're seeing courtesy of this dreadful economy is an acceleration of what many of us have anticipated in legal services. And that is the introduction of all manner of efficiencies, largely due to the impact of information technology.'

The changes for the legal profession are being driven by specific changes to the business model relating to legal services reform / commoditisation and also by the growth in technologies such as social networking which are already affecting the way we interact with individuals and organisations.

Maybe there is still an argument for a traditional approach to business but how long will this last as the next generation begin to work already immersed in the likes of Twitter, Facebook and YouTube.  Susskind says, “Technology is coming to the heart of our society, the heart of our lives, the heart of the way we work. And I see no reason to think the legal world should be exempt from these changes”.

The same could apply to other businesses as well as the legal profession as for any business social networking could be a fantastic way to reach customers but the same marketing principles will still apply as to any media.  Forgetting about hype and the fantastical technology for a moment it is still important to make sure that you are communicating with your target audience.  There are some surprises out there, for example, men aged 45 to 54 are now the top demographic on Twitter according to a recent report in May but not so long since the service usage was dominated by 18-24 year olds.

Are you thinking about wether or not your company needs to do Social Networking?  I’d say yes, in some form but don’t forget about the foundations of online communication which may be much easier and perhaps more relevant.  Look at Twitter and Facebook if the target audience is right for you, perhaps use YouTube to broadcast a new viral product video but remember that research has told us that the most trusted online information is emails from known senders, closely followed by online reviews and search results from the likes of Google.

Remembering the fantastical technology again, when is a search engine not a search engine?  The answer is ... when it is a DECISION ENGINE or even a COMPUTATIONAL KNOWLEDGE ENGINE.  Almost in Tandem Microsoft have revealed the title of their new “decision engine” as “Bing” which will replace Windows Live Search later this year and Wolfram Research have also launched “Wolfram Alpha” – a “Computational Knowledge Engine” with a decidedly scientific approach.  Both are clearly aimed in different directions but it will be interesting to see how search and knowledge management develops as the route most people take to information on the internet.
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<pubDate>2009-06-22 09:38:30</pubDate>
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<link>http://www.p2tech.co.uk/news_techtalk_full.php?id=55</link>
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<title>Data Data everywhere and nowhere near enough time to use it?</title>
<description><![CDATA[Whether affected by recession or not firms continue to accumulate data at an alarming rate presenting IT challenges relating to storage, availability, backup and security.  But, look beyond these technical challenges and we often find that accumulated data is an under-utilised asset, held back by the sheer volume of data that needs processing, reporting tools and skills not suited to the task and difficulty identifying the magical “nuggets” of data which can be used in the decision making process of the business.

In many firms data is held in a number of different systems and pulling that information together into a useful, presentable and reliable format that can be used to influence business direction and decisions requires significant manual effort by key staff and management whose time is at a premium.  Surely this time spent moving, analysing and formatting data would be better spent actually making those decisions given the data in hand.

In some cases, built in dashboards that can provide key performance indicators (KPIs) and management information / business intelligence are the start of a solution but these being vendor specific may not be flexible enough or take account of the data stored in different systems and how these data items interact together.  If this is the case then a Data Warehousing solution may be appropriate.

Data Warehousing, although the name suggests it is primarily concerned with simple storage, is more typically associated with the facilitation of data transformation and analysis enabling a more flexible approach to reporting and performance dashboards.  Data Warehousing provides a central repository for all company data and should be packaged with Business Intelligence tools to work with and compare data items from all areas of a business delivering a true, all-round vision of your firms performance.

Why not just run reports directly from the company database?  This is technically possible but often causes issues relating to performance, security and availability.  Operational live databases are generally optimized for speed of data entry and data integrity whilst receiving small amounts of data on a regular but random basis.  This is at odds with the demands on a reporting system which is optimized for data retrieval, perhaps on a number of levels to enable drill down.  Data Warehousing enables data to be synchronised periodically and bulk transformation and retrieval to be carried out “offline” from the live system.

To get the right information at your fingertips, some consultancy is essential to distil requirements and available data into your reporting “schema”.  Backend database connections can then be made to retrieve appropriate data sets from your databases.  Finally, presentation tools can be fine tuned to deliver user friendly end results in graphical or tabular form.

As data mountains continue to rise in all aspects of business, Data Warehousing and similar technologies which help us see the wood from the trees are likely to be more prevalent.  
]]></description>
<pubDate>2009-05-20 09:27:55</pubDate>
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<link>http://www.p2tech.co.uk/news_techtalk_full.php?id=54</link>
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<title>Technology for Teamwork</title>
<description><![CDATA[For legal, professional and other firms seeking new business in a turbulent economy and also facing increased competition from the commoditisation of services ensuring your entire team is pulling in the same direction could be the key to fighting your way out of the recession but are your staff really working together?

According to a recent BT Business / YouGov survey of over 3700 employees only 19 per cent prefer to work with colleagues and over 10% admitting becoming more insular.  This is, BT say, the consequence of a natural instinct for workers to protect their own positions when times are tough.  But, perversely for those individuals, this could have the opposite effect as in many organisations their efficiency and productivity rely on teamwork to lubricate and drive the business process forwards.

Sounds like a HR problem but the personnel condition can be a symptom of a business process issue and solving that process issue may not only be an essential part of surviving the downturn but will also put you in pole position for growth as the green shoots of recovery break ground.

Technology is a key enabler of team collaboration and of efficient, scalable business processes (perhaps “doing more with less”) particularly under the present economic pressure.

The need for sharing data and resources is at the heart of every computer network.  We know from many development projects that bringing employees closer to the flow of business and eliminating “islands” of information from the process can have a massive impact on efficiency and performance.  

Extracting the key data items that employees need and employing workflow techniques to automate important and repetitive processes makes it easier and more intuitive for staff to work as part of a team.  At the same time it becomes almost impossible for the protectionism reported in the survey to occur as all resources become part of a tightly focussed organisation.

Another pressure facing professional services particularly legal firms in the not too distant future (if it is not already) is the commoditisation of services.  If this is on your doorstep then looking at a new delivery model such as eCommerce enabled by an an efficient, automated business process such as above may not be a choice but a necessity.

This close coupling of business process, management reporting and staff productivity improves agility and enables swift, informed business decision for all but particularly in fast moving volume worktypes.
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<pubDate>2009-04-20 09:26:13</pubDate>
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<link>http://www.p2tech.co.uk/news_techtalk_full.php?id=53</link>
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<title>Castle in the Clouds?</title>
<description><![CDATA[Are you thinking about Cloud Computing?  Is it right for my business?  Does it work?

Thinking about it is probably the right place to be just now as one of the major cloud computing vendors Google has suffered a significant failure this morning with users unable to access email, calendars and contact information.  For the average home user this is not going to spoil the day but how would your business cope if your CRM, Accounts or line of business application was unavailable.

Even more worrying perhaps that this can happen to the likes of Google who you would expect to have the ultimate in resilient failsafe systems.

Cloud computing is, as the name perhaps suggests, a slightly hazy concept.  A Cloud service is typically an application run on servers and infrastructure owned, located and operated by a service provider outside of your organisation.  Applications are typically delivered to you via an internet connection and usually paid for on an ongoing monthly / annual basis.

The attraction, marketing and also the risk of Cloud Computing is in handing over responsibility for key business applications to a third party.  Because your business depends on these applications, if you are considering taking the plunge then it is extremely important to do due diligence.  Whilst there may be benefits of moving to hosted/cloud system there is some suggestion that the cloud is inherently good and this is not always the case.  As with many things, you are likely to get what you pay for.

Security and availability are two of the key concerns.

Alex Hamer, partner at City law firm Reynolds Porter Chamberlain points out that the use of cloud computing could lead to breaches of the Data Protection Act.  The important point here is to be aware of your regulatory requirements and ensure that a potential provider provides an appropriately secure service to match.

The Google problem above is an example of the availability issue and when your applications and data could be located in a data centre on the other side of the country (or the world) you need to know who to call in the event of a problem and how your data will be safeguarded.

With Cloud Computing, the performance of your business also becomes acutely dependent on the speed and quality of the internet connection between your office and the data centre.  With typical “non-cloud” usage this can appear not to be an issue as you are sending emails and web browsing on a regular basis but in fact this usage is very different to the constant, rapid connection needed to run Cloud Computing.

Here are some benefits to Cloud Computing but it is not all plain sailing and not necessarily a cheap option.  Do your due diligence and particularly make sure you consider the ongoing costs.
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<pubDate>2009-03-20 17:41:39</pubDate>
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<link>http://www.p2tech.co.uk/news_press_full.php?id=52</link>
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<title>P2 Technologies Ltd has been shortlisted for the 'Best IT Consultancy Award' for 2009</title>
<description><![CDATA[Presented by Yorkshire Business Insider this unique award will look to honour a company that can show how it has helped Yorkshire's businesses to grow and demonstrate how their advice and support has added value to their clients’ businesses as a whole.

Martin Page Director said, "We now have almost 90 clients and every existing and potential customer has been subject to our enthusiasm for solving business problems using technology. We have delivered some very innovative processes to reduce cost and increase efficiency and this is testament to our approach."
]]></description>
<pubDate>2009-03-09 09:34:12</pubDate>
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<link>http://www.p2tech.co.uk/news_techtalk_full.php?id=51</link>
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<title>Five Rules For Business</title>
<description><![CDATA[Finding good business, keeping good business and delivering the best possible service at the right price.  Sounds like a reasonable set of principles for a business but what has this got to do with IT.  Well, as we are now officially in recession it is essential that every part of your business, wether that be IT, Sales, Finance, Customer Service or any department – it has never been more important that all are aligned as closely as possible with the principles and strategy of your business.

So, here are my 5 top tips to making IT work for you through tough times...

1.	Finding good business doesn’t always mean new sales and keeping good business is at least as important.  Use your contact management systems wether that is simply Outlook, Act or something more sophisticated.  These systems are there to make sure you keep all your good clients and never miss a call or a review date.

2.	Profitability is keenly important when perhaps turnover is lower and this means knowing exactly where your revenue is coming from.  Use your accounts system or management system reports to make sure you know who are your profitable customers, products and services.  Now is the time to make sure your time and effort is focussed on those areas which have the most value to your firm.

3.	Delivering the best possible customer service really can make the difference between good firms and great firms.  If you do this simply out of a natural concern for your customer that is great but also consider the importance of repeat business and referrals.

For most companies that customer contact starts with the telephone system so make sure yours is up to scratch.  First things first, your customers appreciate being dealt with efficiently so the system must be reliable and easy to use so that calls can be answered and directed in a professional fashion.

For a really professional customer service experience check if your have a good system may also have enhancements such as contact integration, auto attendants or call recording.

4.	Keeping an important customer or starting a new relationship can hinge on a critical communication but you never know when that call or e-mail may arrive.  Using the remote access features of your email, telephone and application systems makes it easier to deal with customers from wherever you are and being able to work flexibly is a good incentive to encourage the best from key workers.

5.	Continuing success may depend on competitive edge and being as fit and lean as possible.  Enabling a smooth flow of business through the firm from order receipt to delivery and billing is often where IT can deliver the most efficiency.  Investigate if your systems can be integrated together.  This can be as simple as integrating sales with accounts to reduce re-typing information and ensure accurate information passes from one to the other and for some firms it is possible to automate large portions of the workflow, eliminating bottlenecks and making it much easier to scale a business model.
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<pubDate>2009-02-18 13:20:09</pubDate>
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<link>http://www.p2tech.co.uk/news_techtalk_full.php?id=50</link>
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<title>IT Predictions 2009</title>
<description><![CDATA[From many businesses the past year has been a challenging one and it is not easy to say what 2009 will bring.  However, there may be some useful guidance in the annual round of last year reviews and next year predictions.  So, as the final champagne cork of the New Year celebrations goes POP and we all head back to the office here is a roundup of the IT predictions for 2009.

At this time last year the outlook was fairly good and this has carried through with less than 20% of SME companies responding to The Registers 2008 survey reporting that the credit crunch has had a significant effect on IT projects.  This is stunningly close to the surveyed percentage last year so gold stars there.  A larger percentage (28%) expect there to be an impact during 2009 although over half (58%) are still not expecting a significant problem.

The important point here is being informed and proactive.  Knowing how your top line is supported by your technology is absolutely critical.  This enables you to seek out optimization and efficiency within the IT function, which may be possible without impacting upon service delivery to your clients.  IT departments can help with this by being proactive about maintaining a lean and efficient IT system.

Looking at specific technologies, many of the predictions for 2009 are continuations from the past year.

Convergence was predicted to be important in 2008 and it has been so, although for our businesses perhaps not to the extent expected.  In many cases, this refers to convergence of IT and Telephone systems and this has perhaps been held back by the slow roll-out of BTs new “21st Century Network” or 21CN which is expected to be an enabler for many converged systems.

For our businesses convergence must be related to specific business requirements and this is hinted at in some of the predictions for convergence in 2009.  Before deciding on a system find out how it will improve your business.  For example, look for how a system will promote your company and its products and services to new clients and/or how the system will provide a better service to your existing clients.

Online applications are again tipped for 2009 with the likes of Microsoft and Google continuing to invest in development.  However, how this will become mainstream, business supporting technology is yet to be seen.  Pricing is not always clear and for firms looking to integrate more closely with clients and business partners, moving to a proprietary on-line system may not be the answer.  On the face, there are benefits to consider but look carefully at how this will affect your business process.

Ending on a happy New Year message, commodity technology costs such as straight forward PCs, broadband connections and hard disks also continue on a downward trend.  There have been some price fluctuations relating to the dollar rate changes but the overall trend on these items is expected to be in the right direction.
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<pubDate>2009-01-19 18:20:26</pubDate>
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<link>http://www.p2tech.co.uk/news_press_full.php?id=49</link>
<guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.p2tech.co.uk/news_press_full.php?id=49</guid>
<title>Productivity Gains Using IT for Crosland Moor Business</title>
<description><![CDATA[Faster operation and superior reliability of their computer system were the main requirements for Housing Diversity Network when they turned to Huddersfield’s P2 Technologies for IT Support.

Providing advice, practical assistance and support, Housing Diversity Network based in Crosland Moor, Huddersfield is the leading organisation in the country offering specialist consultancy and training on equality and diversity issues for the housing sector. 

Their existing system was slow and IT support for the business was not meeting their expectations. P2 Technologies were called in and after consulting regarding their IT issues, P2 provided a new platform from which to operate emails, store documents and be able to access their system remotely. 

Without any additional cost on server hardware the upgrade of their system was carried out without any loss of working time for the business. The new simplified platform operates faster, day to day operations such as email and saving documents are more efficient and all information is kept safe on a single consolidated backup.

Hannah Mason, Events and Publicity Co-ordinator of Housing Diversity Network said "After considering several companies for help with our IT problems P2’s locality, professionalism and high standard of support matched our business needs. The upgrade was carried out smoothly and we now have the confidence that our new system will support the business in delivering our services to our clients.”

Martin Page of P2 Technologies added, “Cost, function and maintainability were the main considerations for P2 while delivering this project. Housing Diversity Network now has a system which delivers real benefit to the business and ultimately saves them time and money. Housing Diversity Network will continue to benefit from P2’s responsive support services ensuring that on-going costs are controlled."

About Housing Diversity Network

The Housing Diversity Network work in partnership with housing providers to help them develop products and services to meet the needs and aspirations of the diverse communities they serve. Our staff have in depth knowledge of both the housing sector equality and diversity issues, offering high levels of professional involvement to help deliver the results our clients need.

For further information contact The Housing Diversity Network on 0870 143 2732 or <a href="&#x6d;&#97;&#x69;&#000108;&#x74;&#000111;&#58;&#x77;&#x65;&#00098;&#x6d;&#x61;&#000115;&#x74;&#x65;&#x72;&#x40;&#000104;&#x6f;&#x75;&#x73;&#105;&#x6e;&#103;&#x64;&#000105;&#x76;&#101;&#x72;&#000115;&#x69;&#x74;&#121;&#x6e;&#000101;&#116;&#x77;&#000111;&#000114;&#x6b;&#00046;&#99;&#111;&#46;&#x75;&#107;">&#118;&#x69;&#97;&#x20;&#000101;&#x6d;&#x61;&#105;&#x6c;</a>.

About P2 Technologies Ltd

P2 Technologies are a specialist supplier of IT, Telephone and Software solutions to smart-thinking businesses in the north of England. Based in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire the P2 team specialises in high quality, business focused support services.

For further information contact P2 Technologies on 01484 779020 or <a href="&#x6d;&#x61;&#105;&#000108;&#000116;&#111;&#x3a;&#x69;&#110;&#000102;&#x6f;&#64;&#000112;&#00050;&#x74;&#x65;&#99;&#x68;&#46;&#x63;&#000111;&#x2e;&#000117;&#x6b;">&#118;&#105;&#97;&#00032;&#101;&#000109;&#00097;&#105;&#x6c;</a>.
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<pubDate>2009-01-05 10:34:24</pubDate>
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<link>http://www.p2tech.co.uk/news_techtalk_full.php?id=48</link>
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<title>Christmas is Coming</title>
<description><![CDATA[Here’s an early Christmas treat – some valuable analysis for Kirklees businesses working hard in the run up to Christmas.  Can you believe it’s that time of year already?  Well, they’ve already slashed the odds on a white Christmas so I hear and in timely fashion it’s been white over in Lockwood this morning so it could just be worth a punt.

But first, do you know what your clients want for Christmas...

In difficult times knowing and keeping your most profitable customers, services, products and staff is as important as ever and according to a recent article is one of the key IT priorities of these hard times.  Whilst focus is on costs and cost cutting it is also important that your company is maintaining and growing its turnover in the most efficient way possible.  Michael Khan of Specsavers, one of the UKs most trusted opticians, says "it's easier to keep those customers now, even at a cost, than to try and win them back later."

Finding these key insights into your business is one of the applications of the IT system but the value for you here is sometimes hidden in the data which you already possess – information on key customers, services and products (the proverbial wood within the trees) which could make the difference between success and failure.

Your existing business management systems may already have reports to extract this information although these are often under used.  This is sometimes because standard reports are standard reports – designed to meet the requirements of all users and not the specific requirements of every individual.  However, they are a quick and easy way to business analysis and can often be amended or exported to Excel to help you find that specific gem of data which will really drive your business.

For firms where the standard reports will not suffice or where you need to provide key performance indicators to specific areas of the business then some technical assistance may be required to access the underlying database, extract the required information and make is visible where it is needed – either to staff, management or other stakeholders in the firm.  “Dashboards” are often the delivery medium, presenting everyone with the up-to-date information on screen that they need to guide their daily workload.

For businesses looking for that competitive edge this can still be on the re-active side and as data stores continue to grow driven by regulation and compliance specific analytics will be required to bring new life to existing data.  Using more advanced analysis we can identify trends and alert in advance when key indicators are likely to exceed thresholds, highlighting when key customers and suppliers need attention.  By doing so we can act to maintain those important relationships before problems arise ensuring that the flow of business is not interrupted.  At the same time the burden of continuous reporting and analysis on management can be reduced or eliminated freeing up your most valuable resources to build those important relationships.
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<pubDate>2008-11-18 18:18:35</pubDate>
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<link>http://www.p2tech.co.uk/news_techtalk_full.php?id=47</link>
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<title>Corn Flakes</title>
<description><![CDATA[Does this sound familiar... this morning, just after corn flakes, I made the dash from the back door to the car in the rain, drove the 20 mins to Lockwood, sat in the queue at the bottom of Lockwood Scar and arrived at P2 in good time to open the helpdesk at 8am. 

For anyone who commutes to work regularly perhaps you have a similar routine but for many the daily commute is changing as remote working becomes technical reality and businesses and workers seek the advantages of a more flexible working pattern. 

There are some fairly compelling reasons for our firms to consider remote working – cost of office space, rising utility prices, increasing traffic congestion and employee motivation.  On top of that, since the Employment Act 2002 businesses have been required to seriously consider requests for flexible and remote working from employees. Where staff retention is important offering key workers the opportunity to work from home can also be a real incentive to anyone perhaps considering their employment options.  No surprise then that according to a recent BT report 83% think that flexible working has competitive advantages for business. 

What are the business and technology considerations? 

Perhaps we are concerned that working from home is unproductive and that a day working from home may actually be spent watching Neighbours.  A perfectly valid concern, however, staff are often more productive and focussed at home when they would otherwise be distracted in the office.   

Technology is often required to enable remote working and has an associated cost but remember to consider this versus the cost of office space and perhaps replacing staff who would otherwise leave.  Perhaps a few years ago finding and implementing the appropriate technology could have been quite challenging but this really should not be a hindrance today. 

A popular technology setup for remote working is a broadband connection and an application delivery technology such as Terminal Services or Citrix. 

Broadband is faster and cheaper than ever and although some providers have not had the best reputation for service it is not too difficult to find a good recommendation.  Even better, with the roll out of super fast “HSDPA” services on the latest mobile devices you can now get broadband internet access speeds on your mobile phone.  Of course, this is subject to signal strength. 

Terminal Services is included to varying degrees on Windows PCs and Servers.  Briefly, it provides secure remote control of office applications from remote/home desktops.  After logging on the screen view is transmitted to the remote PC and keyboard and mouse clicks are sent back to the office machine real time enabling a full “in the office” working experience.  Security is important and  configuration can be adjusted to permit or deny access to applications and devices such as printers and USB drives protecting company data. 

If necessary, combine this with a VoIP telephone system and todays technology can give you a very rich working environment which can be accessed from almost any remote location. ]]></description>
<pubDate>2008-10-18 18:15:33</pubDate>
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