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It’s no secret that many of ESP Projects clients are charities and we’ll try to help them out wherever possible and however we can.   Support Dogs is an excellent cause, and we were delighted to hear that one of their dogs, Azerley, is in a shortlist of four for the Crufts Friends for Life award.

Azerley and Support Dogs will be featured on Channel 4 throughout Crufts (March 10-13) and the winner will be decided by public vote.   There is a lovely video about the difference Azerley is making to the life of one little boy, Cohen, here

Last week ESP Projects were at SheffEx, Sheffield’s annual business exhibition held at Pond’s Forge. We have visited before, but this was our first time to exhibit. It was definitely a positive experience but perhaps not for the obvious reasons. What was interesting speaking with other stall-holders at SheffEx is that, for many of them, the main benefit of attending these events is not to make sales to visitors, but to swap notes and ideas (and possibly do business) with the other companies and organisations in attendance. It was really interesting to meet people from other businesses in the region and it is striking how much potential there is for these local companies to support one another.

Microsoft Edge is the new browser coming bundled with Windows 10, being very similar to internet explorer but with new and improved features. Microsoft Edge now uses an extension system, much like rival Internet browsers Firefox and Chrome. It is now streamlined to be much faster than internet explorer.

Because this new browser has been completely rebuilt in a new engine, this browser no longer supports plug-ins such as active x. Internet Explorer is not being gotten rid of entirely. It will still exist as there will be a need for compatibility with older technology.

Cortana is your clever new personal assistant. Cortana will help you find things on your PC, manage your calendar, track packages, find files, chat with you and tell jokes. The more you use it, the more personalised your experience will be. To get started, type a question in the search box on the taskbar. Or select the microphone icon and talk. (Typing works for all types of PCs, but you need a mic to talk.)

Why use hosted backup?

Backup is one of the most important elements of any IT network and ensuring that this procedure is completed regularly, reliably and securely is constantly under review.

In many situations, swapping hard drives or simply remembering to complete this process on a daily basis is not feasible, i.e. access to the comms room is not readily accessible, staff are not in on certain days etc.

We all know that feeling of opening your favourite most used program only to be presented with the dreaded spinning circle advising us to ‘please wait’. Even trying to open just a couple of your most needed applications only for your computer to be brought to its knees doing so. It’s infuriating, especially when there’s no indication of anything actually happening other than said circle mocking you as it whizzes around happily.

Here at ESP Projects, we are often asked about responsive web design; what it is, how it works, and why it’s something that we think is crucial to the success of a new website amongst its visitors.

Traditionally websites have been viewed on a PC (or Laptop) with the aid of a mouse for navigation. But nowadays more and more people are using a variety of devices such as smartphones and tablets, and using their fingers or perhaps a stylus to navigate instead. This change means that the way the website displays its content has to be thought about from a multi-device perspective. There are two approaches to displaying websites on ‘non-standard’ screens, having a mobile site or a responsive web design.

We have been looking to offer a fully-fledged Phone System to our clients for quite some time now, and after testing many of the different systems out there we’ve finally settled on one which we believe offers the best feature set and provides good value for money.

Based on the common “Asterisk” Phone System, “Kerio Operator” is very flexible; it can be used in conjunction with regular ISDN telephone lines, or can also facilitate calls over the internet (VOIP). An outline of some of the features of this phone system is included below: 

In an unexpected but welcome development, Microsoft has recently announced that they are allowing Charities of all sizes to benefit from their Premier Office 365 cloud offering for FREE! The additional features offered as part of this service include:

• Hosted Exchange – Allow Microsoft to host your emails, and take advantage of unlimited shared contacts, calendars and mailboxes
• Skydrive Pro – A central place to access and edit documents and business information from virtually anywhere
• Office Web Apps – Access Word, PowerPoint and Excel with an internet browser to allow you to work across multiple devices (including smartphones).
• Lync – Save travel costs by using Microsoft Lync Online to conduct online meetings, including audio, HD video, and web conferencing

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