Latest News

Whilst there is some concern nationally at the high cost of Childcare in the UK, we at ESP Projects know from several childcare providers we support that this is not because they are making huge profits! Indeed the margins in this vital area of the economy are often extremely tight and many are only just able to stay afloat.

All the more important then that these organisations can make use of IT to allow staff to focus on their jobs rather than on paperwork. To this end, ESP Projects has recently uncovered some interesting software solutions that can help manage early years childcare facilities. This is software designed and built purely for this purpose and helps in key areas such as:

A couple of our Charity clients have mentioned recently that setting up an Amazon Wish List is an excellent way of obtaining products they would otherwise have to raise cash for. The way it works is that you do some hypothetical shopping, and then create and share a link to your Wish List via your website, twitter, email or facebook page. Potential donors can now easily buy you these products – or indeed suggest an alternative source – rather than giving you money.

Here at ESP Projects, there is nearly always someone who just can’t resist tinkering with the latest kit, and this month it seems to be Morgan’s turn, with the arrival of his new Nokia Lumia 820 Windows Phone. It’s only been a matter of days, but as we’ve posted before, so much rests on the new generation of Microsoft’s operating system we thought you’d enjoy a sneak peak of his first reflections on the device:

‘Views’ is the latest online project management and impact reporting tool designed for statutory and voluntary organisations. Developed with backing from NESTA and the Government’s Cabinet Office it helps frontline deliverers of public/social services to assess and improve what they do.

‘Views’ enables organisations to record and report against different outcome frameworks and to publish comprehensive reports in a variety of online and hardcopy formats from a single dataset. ‘Views’ helps users build detailed case histories, whilst also enabling organisations to aggregate, map and measure complex data. Whether that data is hard facts or in multimedia formats, ‘Views’ can provide a single solution for a range of different reporting requirements. Because ‘Views’ is a flexible data platform, it can be easily configured by system users according to national programme templates, or bespoke local requirements.

Windows 8 is nearly here. Yes! It’s really true!

For those buying a Windows 7 PC today, you can already buy a Windows 8 upgrade for £14.99. But if you wait just 6 weeks, new PCs will begin shipping with Windows 8 pre-installed. Incidentally, that day – October 26th – will also be the day that Microsoft release their own ‘Tablet’ device called ‘Surface’, which will of course feature Windows 8.

The EU Cookie Law is a new piece of privacy legislation that requires visitors to give consent before allowing a website to store or retrieve any information from any device through the use of cookies. By educating visitors on how information about them is collected through the use of cookies, and allowing them to decide for themselves if they wish to allow it to take place, the aim is to protect online privacy for everyone.

Over the years we’ve done as much as we can to raise awareness of the amazing discounts available to registered charities through the CTX software donations program at http://www.ctxchange.org (run by the Charity Technology Trust). Dozens of our clients have benefited from £1000’s savings in purchasing licensing in this manner.

ESP Projects has teamed up with a leading Digital Region ISP to bring you an amazing offer on ‘superfast’ broadband! South Yorkshire based Not-for-Profit organisations can now enjoy huge discounts on this ‘next generation’ broadband service, which is NOW LIVE IN MANY AREAS and running at speeds of up to 40Mb/s down and 10Mb/s up (subject to availability). By purchasing through ESP, one of the fastest internet services in the country is now on offer to small and medium sized third sector organisations for roughly the same price as standard business ADSL. That’s less than £40 per month!!

The Cabinet Office has launched a new £100million Transition Fund to help the charities, voluntary groups and social enterprises that are affected by public spending cuts to make necessary adjustments so that they can continue to play an important part in public service reform and the Big Society Agenda.

The Office for Civil Society has appointed BIG Fund (non-Lottery funding operation of the Big Lottery Fund) to administer the fund. There will be a briefing event in Leeds in December. The briefing event is open to charities, voluntary groups and social enterprises which meet the following criteria: