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Success! Friday 20th November will go down as the best ESP Projects Knowledge Sharing Day yet!

We had presentations from every member of the ESP Projects team and practical demonstrations throughout the day. Technology topics included Virtualisation with Hyper-V, advanced features in Symantec Endpoint Protection, a Comparison of Imaging Tools and an overview of web programming languages (and what they are all used for) for non-programmers. We also discussed some crucial new operational procedures at ESP Projects, looked at an improved method for providing Remote Support to smaller clients and had a glimpse of what ESP Projects might be doing in 2019! Phew! A long – but highly productive – day indeed!

iT4C has been sponsored by the Nominet Trust to pilot a mentoring programme. iT4C has volunteers who have an IT qualification but are not currently employed. The volunteers are supported by an experienced IT professional as their mentor to help them complete an IT project for you. Do you or an organisation you know have a project that needs them?

iT4C is looking for website work, database work, some strategy or research projects that are going to help your organisation do what it does even better with good technology to assist. Would you be happy to work with a less experienced volunteer in this supported way? There will be the chance to network with others who are joining in, get access to wider advice and support from all the programme participants and via free advice and guidance seminars. If you think you have a project that is right for a less experienced but qualified volunteer then please email the following details to iT4C at info@it4communities.org.uk :

Cloud Computing is a concept you will undoubtedly be hearing more of, so we’ve written a brief introduction covering some of the advantages & disadvantages of Cloud Computing, a rapidly growing method of working.

Essentially Cloud Computing is about saving money and time. As you will no doubt be aware, computer networks are usually owned by the people using them and all of the equipment is typically installed in the owners’ offices. Every organisation has thus invested in its own infrastructure (servers, PCs, network switches etc) and must shell out for all the costs and hassle of supporting it.

“Is it compatible with our system?” will doubtless be the question on many people’s lips when considering Windows 7. That’s not an easy one to answer directly. ‘Compatibility’ comes in many shapes & sizes, from minor glitches to out-and-out refusing to work. Moreover, any ‘system’ is little more than the sum of its parts – we’d need to know what every part ‘does’ before we can even try to advise. So, to help you (and us!), we’ve put together a handy guide to try and flesh out the foreseeable compatibility issues.

Keen to know what features are new in Windows 7? Or why many people say they like it so much? There’s plenty of information available on the web, but here are our own ‘Top Ten’ best Windows 7 features, starting from 10th place…

10. Better backup & restore.

To be fair, older versions of Windows did come with a really quite powerful backup program, but it was so nasty to use that few actually mastered it, plus it was never geared up for todays backup media. Windows 7 Backup & Restore is so simple there is almost no excuse not to use it for personal backups to a network share or external Hard Drive for example. This feature – long overdue – doesn’t get any higher up this list though for one simple reason. It’s a HUGE missed opportunity – if only it could backup mapped drives it would be the best new feature…why bother buying a tape drive and expensive server software when you can run a server backup to an encrypted partition of one of your regular laptops? Sadly, this is not possible using Windows 7 Backup and we suspect this is because it might tread on too many toes (although if you are interested, another app, Karens Replicator, from www.karenware.com will do the job instead).

Google

What is it? A huge selection of handy tools and services which you can sign into from any internet-enabled computer.
What does it do? What doesn’t it do? Make and share calendars with colleagues; check email from anywhere; create, save, store & share documents to anyone from anywhere to name but a few of the services.

Many ESP Projects clients will be interested to know that the London Advice Services Alliance has provided a FREE contact/case management database (known as AIMS).

AIMS is intended for organisations needing a system to collect information on their clients – everything from managing their case load, keeping notes, mailing and emailing and produce reporting. It can also be extended with calendars, financial reporting and monitoring of outcomes. To quote from the website:

Over the years, the popularity of the Portable Document Format (PDF) has increased hugely. This once obscure little extension is now so ubiquitous that customers have come to expect that a PC ‘comes with’ Acrobat reader – Adobe’s free PDF reader. For those who have not fully come to terms with PDF, the principle is easy to grasp: most common software – such as Microsoft Word – will save a file using a proprietary format, in this case the .doc format. This in effect means that only people with Microsoft Word can open that document – which clearly excludes some people from reading it at all.

0 – the number of clients who have cancelled their contract with us because of service issues

Number 1 – ESP aims to be the best ICT Support provider in South Yorkshire!

2 – it takes about two years of training, hard work and experience for a trainee at ESP to become a Network Engineer