-
-
-
0
-
-
-
ESP Projects
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:
-
-
-
-
-
-
0
-
-
-
ESP Projects
BPOS? It’s not exactly a catchy acronym, but this is one service that may well catch on. Microsoft have recently launched themselves firmly into the cloud with the Business Productivity Online Suite, a collection of familiar services – SharePoint, Exchange, Communicator etc. – which they will host for you, backed with an impressive SLA which includes rebates for any downtime.
-
-
-
-
-
-
26
-
-
-
ESP Projects
So, we did it! And we are all alive and well and here to tell the story, so here goes..!
It all started with a 2-hour trek across the Peak District straight after work on Friday, then unpacking and setting up the tents by the light of the headlamps. By 9 pm it was raining again and so it was off to the welcoming fires of the Anchor Inn to warm up and get some Dutch courage for the day ahead.
-
-
-
-
-
-
0
-
-
-
ESP Projects
As you might have seen from our recent tweets, Microsoft announced back in the spring that they would be launching a tailored version of their Dynamics CRM software for UK charities later this year. This follows hot on the heels of its release in the US.
CRM systems (CRM meaning Customer or Constituent Relationship Management) are much in demand in the sector and we have a steady flow of requests for recommendations in this area. In the past, we have always made people aware of some of the existing software in this field, ranging from commercial products like SalesForce, to open source solutions like CiviCRM. There are also several sector-specific programs like VC-Connect, ContactLink, ThirdBase and AIMS. It will be very interesting to keep an eye out for the Microsoft offering later in the year.
-
-
-
-
-
-
0
-
-
-
ESP Projects
People regularly ask us about Twitter, and we are finding out for ourselves just how phenomenally useful it is to find and share information relevant to our business, so here is Part 1 of an ongoing series of mini-articles on the subject…
First, sign-up for a free Twitter account by navigating to http://www.twitter.com and creating an account. You can tweet, follow and read people’s Tweets right there in your browser. The next step is to get a desktop-application to read and control your incoming tweets. A very popular and free one that works on all computers is http://www.tweetdeck.com. Download and install this on your computer and you can then start to add people. You can follow people, organisations and groups you hope will be interesting. You could start with http://twitter.com/espprojects. In Twitter everyone’s address is preceded by an @-sign so we are @espprojects. Good luck!! -
-
-
-
-
-
0
-
-
-
ESP Projects
It was, at first, hard to think of a reason to write about a new version of the global workhorse and workplace essential that is Microsoft Office but with Office2010 it must be said that the giant-on-the-block is truly developing into the go-everywhere suite of applications. Using the application and its other web-supported features at ESP, it has been interesting to see how much this new version develops and extends previous versions while also assisting some new ways of working.
-
-
-
-
-
-
0
-
-
-
ESP Projects
ESP Projects are implementing a recognised environmental management system (equivalent to phase 3 of BS 8555), with the support of Groundwork. Groundwork has secured funding from CO2 Sense Yorkshire (formerly Resource Efficiency Yorkshire) and is working in partnership with Envirowise and the Manufacturing Advisory Service to provide businesses with a comprehensive package of support to improve their environmental performance and credentials.
The programme is providing ESP Projects with: -
-
-
-
-
-
0
-
-
-
ESP Projects
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!
-
-
-
-
-
-
0
-
-
-
ESP Projects
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 :
-
-
-
-
-
-
0
-
-
-
ESP Projects
A few years ago ‘blogging’ became the greatest thing since sliced bread. For those afraid to ask, what happened was that countless thousands of otherwise unconnected amateur journalists discovered that they could post their comments and opinion about anything and everything on the internet with ease. The interesting thing here is that these web logs (i.e. ‘blogs) could – and now frequently do – carry equal validity, respect and even be as popular as mainstream media. It is not uncommon now for professional journalists to monitor the ‘blogosphere’ as a primary source of newsworthy material.
-
-
-
-
-
-
26
-
-
-
ESP Projects
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.
-
-
-
-
-
-
0
-
-
-
ESP Projects
A ‘shared Outlook system’ is one of the top requests put to our IT consultants when they visit new or existing customers. Few need persuading that Outlook is a pretty handy way of storing and organising email, contacts and calendars. Indeed it can also synchronise with a wide range of mobile phones. The drawback is that – until recently – sharing this information with other people, or setting up ‘group’ calendars and contact lists has necessitated the purchase of a Microsoft Exchange Server, with all its attendant costs.
-
-
-
-
-
-
26
-
-
-
ESP Projects
“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.
-
-
-
-
-
-
0
-
-
-
ESP Projects
Licensing has never been a particularly easy or indeed interesting topic and one of the few disappointments with Windows 7 is that Microsoft has done nothing to simplify their arcane licensing arrangements. We’ll try our best to explain, but this is a fundamentally complex area. Remember, this is about Windows, not Office (Microsoft Office – Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook etc.. is a separate product and always has been)!
-
-
-
-
-
-
0
-
-
-
ESP Projects
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).
-
-
-
-
-
-
0
-
-
-
ESP Projects
Just as you have finally started getting to grips with the ill-fated Windows Vista, which is now – believe it or not – over 2 years old, Microsoft has been busy developing the next generation operating system, Windows 7. The system has been released for testing for some time now and may well be officially launched later this year. Here at ESP, we have had an early copy of it running on a test rig and thought you might be interested to know what (allegedly) is in store, so here are some of the more contentious highlights & our thoughts on them:
-
-
-
-
-
-
0
-
-
-
ESP Projects
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. -
-
-
-
-
-
0
-
-
-
ESP Projects
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:
-
-
-
-
-
-
0
-
-
-
ESP Projects
The next version of Internet Explorer has features to make browsing and searching easier and more secure.The next version of Internet Explorer has features to make browsing and searching easier and more secure.
Read more at: http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/1/hi/technology/7585741.stm. -
-
-
-
-
-
0
-
-
-
ESP Projects
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.
-
-
