Scoring an impressive 91% overall (where 80% = good) the eSOURCE team delivered a successful migration for one of the major Banks the programme was delivered on time and to budget.

The overall ROI of the programme will equate to savings of circa $2 million to the bank, an impressive result all round!

Home Offices must be fit for purpose

Home working is becoming very commonplace in most organisations, whether you are a small business or a major corporate organisation.

There are some very compelling reasons for companies to deploy home working including:

• Flexible working practices
• Hot desking in office buildings meaning that you can take on smaller buildings and reduce costs
• Reduced travelling expenses and costs
• Increased productivity (in general employers do get more out of the staff)
• Reduced Parking fees
• Disease spreading prevention (the current Swine flu pandemic has highlighted this)Enhance your business continuity planning
• Increased staff morale
• Attracts potential employees
• Enhances the organisations Green Policy

Before embarking on a home working strategy, there are quite a few things to consider, which need to be clear in everybody’s mind, this is a few of them:

• A home working policy is vital. All staff eligible for home working must understand and conform to your policy. This needs to be very straight forward, without being ambiguous and open to abuse.
• Then there is the technology to consider. Is your current infrastructure up to the challenge? This will include your voice as well as data connectivity, both in the hub and at the spurs.
• Security and confidentiality must be extremely robust and each connection made must be secure and accountable to what information the users are accessing. 
• Your applications must stand up to the test as well. Are they secure and web based? If not they will need to be, or you will need to deploy terminal access software which allows this to happen (not ideal, but possible)
• Support must be fast and competent – the last thing you want is your staff not able to work due to technical or connectivity issues.
• Health and safety policy must be clear, all equipment in the home office must conform to your policy for home working.
• The home office must be fit for purpose – it is impossible to work if the kids are running around the living room  etc – a separate office environment must be the base of your policies
   

It all sounds a little daunting and if you get it wrong, the costs to put it right can easily exceed the original budgets for the set up costs. 

This is why you need to use experts like eSource to deliver the right solution to fit your business now and into the future as you grow. We provide an end to end solution including the connectivity, support and implementation all across the UK and have provided many different solutions to fit all requirements and budgets.

So why not contact us now for a consultation with one of our experts to find out how a home working solution can change your business. Call Newbury (01635 508800) now.

Outsourced Virtual IT will reduce your costs

Have you ever wished that you had the right resources to look after your IT infrastructure?

At eSource we have found this to be a very common problem for small businesses. Obtaining the right resources with the knowledge, information, and skills necessary to select, implement and maintain the technology necessary to address these and other priorities is often beyond the reach of most businesses.

However, some small and medium sized businesses have found a cost effective way to address this daunting problem by engaging with Managed IT Services provider such as eSource who will cost effectively obtain, deploy and support the right technologies for their businesses.

eSource Support Services is more just than an IT services company you call on when the network is down, or you need a new PC for instance. A Managed Services provider provides technology-planning assistance, and works with you on a regular basis to help ensure your technology-investments support your business needs and plans for growth.

The eSource Group proactively supports your IT infrastructure by ensuring performance, availability and reliability of your network with appropriate and reliable data backup, and information security.

eSource has partnered with best of breed manufacturers to bring you the best products available, thus saving you time and effort in locating and testing products, as well as using our buying power and relationships to drive down the cost of acquisition.

When you engage with us you will receive value added consulting and advice regarding new technology options for your business. And, best of all, you will have a predictable budget for maintaining your IT infrastructure with no surprises.

A leading outsourcing advisory firm published that a net saving of 15% can be made using such IT facilities. Typically the services provided include computer support, IT consultancy services and hardware and installation to both home and business users.

So what are the true benefits to having an IT managed service?

In real terms it is all about saving costs and spreading risk. By using our Virtual IT Department, you can put experts on the case whenever they need them. No training overheads, no holidays, no supervision and no losing key IT staff, seeking career improvement or a pay rise.

Outsourcing means quantifiable costs, easier budgeting and access to the highest quality technicians, all supported with all the latest remote support tools. Our outstanding customer support is provided by highly experienced engineers nationwide, who are always willing to go the extra mile to get the job done right first time every time, this is why we are proud to brand our selves as Big enough to count and Small enough to care

So why not Contact us now for a consultation on how we can improve your IT infrastructure and reduce your costs with our Flexible Managed Service Offering.  Call Newbury (01635 508800)

Digital Signage - A new era of advertising

Digital Signage refers to the use of modern display panels, digital content and Internet technology to deploy a network of rich-media signs to replace traditional print signs. Basically, it’s a new generation of screen-based media and communication networks created to deliver dynamic advertising and communications at various locations.

Advertising using digital signage is a form of Digital Out-Of-Home advertising (DOOH)  in which content and messages are displayed on high quality digital signs with a common goal of delivering targeted messages to specific locations at specific times and where ever possible to specific targeted audiences.

The benefits of digital signage over traditional static signs are many, especially that the content can be changed more easily, animations can be shown, and the signs can adapt to the context and audience, even interactively. Production costs are also greatly reduced as well as the impact on the environment in comparison to printed media.

2009 promises to be a break out year for digital signage. Even in a tough economy, the industry is predicting moderate growth.

Savvy advertisers see digital signage and digital out-of-home advertising as part of their marketing mix. This new media is taking on traditional media and setting new standards for the flourishing industry.

Digital signage offers superior return on investment compared to traditional printed signs:-

• Improve communication
• Improve staff focus
• Enhance your image
• Improve customer retention
• Gets your message noticed
• Easy to Use
• Low Cost per view
• Single or Multiple Locations
• Enhance Marketing

The use of digital signage content is still evolving. Even though DOOH technology has been used in various industries for years, operators have yet to fully grasp the potential of this media. New developments are coming down the line, with more interactivity with potential customers a key feature. This will take traditional 2 dimensional advertising into a different dimension of interactivity.

It’s no surprise that China currently leads the world in the number of digital signage displays deployed, with one leading organisation alone operating more than 120,000 screens!

eSource have been involved in developing and deploying DOOH solutions for some of their clients and are happy to discuss how you can reach your target audience more effectively. Again, it’s not just about the media, it’s also making sure the network is capable of distributing the data and the viewing devices are properly installed and supported.

Call now for more advice on Newbury (01635) 508800 or contact us to by email to get ahead of your competitors.

WiFi Hotspots create opportunities for businesses

Businesses must continue to offer more services to their clients as the mobile world becomes more demanding. This poses some interesting opportunities, but also some challenges to business owners in terms of compliance as well.

So what about offering a WiFi connection to visitors to your premises? Wether your business is a bank or a bar, your customers will need connectivity at some point, so why not capitalise on the ever-growing demand for connections.

Why and how would this apparently simple idea make you money?

Here are some thoughts:

• Give your current clients a reason to visit your premises (for example a bar or hotel)
• Attract new prospects who will use you above a competitor due to the connectivity available (visitors will also use the other facilities as well = increased revenue)
• Build a relationship with your prospect or client (they become familiar with you and your offerings and will use you above others)
• Advertising revenues can be realised to cover costs of deployment (or make a margin)
• Create your branding awareness both online and offline (advertising in local papers as well as on your website the WiFi services you have)

A real life example of WiFi being used to generate revenue is Coffee Republic, where the WiFi connectivity is sponsored by Lufthansa. All deployment costs and ongoing support services are covered in this arrangement, benefiting the client, the sponsor and the end users. Lufthansa get many thousands of subliminal advertising views every day – so win – win.

So why not just get a WiFi router and create a free Hotspot?

Surely you can just put the general WiFi Access Key on the bar for anybody to use? Well you can, but you open yourself and your organisation up to a host of issues including a legal responsibility for who is connecting onto your network and what they are doing!

One of the major concerns with hosting a Wi-Fi hotspot is illegal activity on that network. You must be assured that all activity can be traced to its source. Failure to do this will end up with damaging consequences to you and your business, both in terms of reputation and monetary consequences.

From a legal prospective, a new EU Directive Mandate called Lawful Intercept came into force in March 2009 and requires that all communication traffic data must be collected for a period between 6 and 24 months. You therefore need to ensure you take precautions on who can have access to your network and audit their activity whilst using your connection.

This is where experts like eSource are required to provide the complete service for you. eSource has deployed many such solutions in bars, clubs, hotels and retail businesses, making them the partner of choice for WiFi solutions.

Furthermore, having made the decision to provide an accessible WiFi connection, sold the advertising and increased footfall to your premises, you need to make sure the connectivity is reliable, installed correctly and supported to make sure it is very reliable. Nobody will come back or recommend you or your services unless it is 100% reliable and available.

So why not contact us now to find out the opportunities that exist and the solutions available for you in providing a WiFi hotspot for your organisation – Call Newbury (01635 508800)

It is this ethos that has meant that we have earned the Investor in People award for the 3rd time running, which is no mean feat considering the amount of major change management initiatives and diversity of operations in the Newbury based office and within the field force.

We are extremely proud of this accreditation, proving that our customer driven ethos really does stem from home, ‘big enough to count, small enough to care’

For more information on our Investor in People accreditation please read our press release

Most of us have used MSN/Yahoo messenger etc so no big deal! And why are customers talking about Unified Communications so much? – well it does improve productivity quite dramatically, I’ll try and demonstrate how…

Let’s start by saying UC helps business communicate more effectively both internally/externally and securely. It brings together in a highly productive manor e-mail, calendaring, voice mail, IM and presence, VoIP, audio, video, and Web conferencing making it easy!

UC is the Glue between all your communications and you could say it brings it all together at the click of a mouse.

“Why” you ask? Well let’s take a simple scenario.

Peter is on line looking for some information regarding XY&Z he needs this ASAP. Today he would have to send emails and hope for a response or even make several calls. How long would that take? And he may miss his deadline! Letting the customer down!

Now let’s add UC.

By looking in his communicator client he can see who’s on line if they are available and ask the question simply via
Instant message (IM). He gets a response from Brian but it didn’t answer the question. So by a simple click he is now on the phone with him. Brian explains that there is a document with the information in on SharePoint and again a simple click they are now both looking at the live document together, But that’s not all, they can both see from the presence
information that Mike who wrote the document has finished his meeting is now back online Again, just a click and he has now joined in the conference. Now let’s just tell you one final thing Peter is in the office, Brian is at home and Mike is in the car park at a customer’s site and this is just the tip of the ice berg.

Do you want a demo of this amazing technology? then let us know and we’ll arrange it for you.

• Our thoughts on new technologies
• General events that happen in our every day working lives
• Business news, what the company is up to
• ramblings from our engineers (well we might let those in!)

If you would like us to comment on anything or write about any particular topics you’ve only got to let us know and we’ll do our best to oblige.

To learn more about eSOURCE and our ethos to helping you in your business, the best place to start is to take a look at our website www.esourcegroup.co.uk, or you can always pick up the phone and speak to us on 01635 508800