New Apprenticeship will offer sweet reward says London IT firm

A recognised shortage of IT workers in the UK has prompted a North London IT business to ‘grow its own’ workforce for future expansion rather than recruit staff from overseas, thanks to a new Apprenticeship and a partnership with its local college.

Edgware based IT company, COBRA, who are an IT support and solutions specialist for local SMEs in and around North London, havetaken advantage of funding support from the National Apprenticeship Service to employ nineteen year old Dean Beckett as the company’s first recruit on the Advanced Apprenticeship in IT.

Developed by the National IT Partnership, part of the Microsoft Academy, in association with the computing trade association, CompTIA, the seven month training programme is being delivered in partnership with the College of Haringey, Enfield and North London.

Leading to a Level 3 national qualification with a pathway to significant continuing professional development opportunities, Apprentices are trained to strip down and repair computers, change faulty parts, troubleshoot and diagnose software and hardware faults on a PC and understand the basics of a server network.

According to e-skills, the Sector Skills Council for the IT and Telecoms industries, the demand for employees with specialist computing skills has outstripped supply for the first time in two years. Vacancies for ICT staff rose to 101,000 positions in the third quarter of 2010, while the number of ‘ready candidates’ declined to just over 100,000. The increased demand reflected the fact that ICT staff are less likely to be unemployed than workers in other sectors. Unemployed ICT workers fell to 3.1% compared with 8.3% for the workforce as a whole.

Responding to the challenges faced by businesses, COBRA has developed a ‘Pick n’ Mix’ approach to IT. This provides clients with a completely bespoke and organic approach, as opposed to more traditional ‘boxed in’ IT support packages.

Commenting on the new Apprenticeship, David Share, Managing Director, COBRA, said:

“Succession planning is crucial for any business and we see Apprenticeships as a foundation of the UK’s future economy. We want to develop home grown talent and skills over a sustained period, so we can recoup the rewards that skills investment will bring. It’s our intention to offer more opportunities to young people.”

Research has shown that companies investing in training are 2.5 times more likely to survive during an economic downturn or recession. In a nation-wide poll carried out by Populus in 2009, the overwhelming majority of employers (92%) felt that apprentices made a valuable contribution to the business within six months of them completing their apprenticeship or earlier. The survey also found that businesses believed that investing in apprenticeships made them more competitive (80%), provided higher overall productivity (76%) and contributed to lower staff turnover (80%).

PHOTO CAPTION:
David Share, Managing Director, COBRA (left), intends to expand the firm’s ‘Pick n’ Mix’ IT support and solution proposition with the help of new IT Apprentice, Dean Beckett.

Business owners reluctant to sign up to IT Support Contracts

We have had an interesting month here at Cobra....

New customers have come on board who are now paying for user, workstation, server and network support on a monthly basis. Good news for us and good news for our customers as they felt that they had no choice but to outsource their IT to a qualified IT Support Company and quite rightly so. In order to maximise on internal efficiency, system uptime and cost, outsourcing all of their IT to us just made sense.

However, by contrast we have also seen a few potential customers decide not to sign up with us. Although I do not take these circumstances personally as in these instances they were not even looking at a competitor! However, it is worrying, especially for those who are reliant on their server network, that they do not see IT as a beneficial or important enough overhead to work into their budget.

It is extremely important that your IT is monitored, managed and supported by a professional IT Services company. If servers are not installed at a site then you can get by from using an ad-hoc service from an IT Company. However, in this instance, the majority of files are being saved on user workstations. Should these systems go down, what then? Who do you call? Do you get out the yellow pages?

What about companies who do use a server to manage their customer information and emails. Should this technical device crash or for a serious problem to occur, who do you call? What do you do when your business is down because of lack of IT Support. You will be losing money minute-by-minute from the business not being able to operate and all to save a few hundred pounds a month.

These circumstances are factual and the answer to this is, pre-empt these situations. Sign up even for just basic network monitoring and user support on a monthly contract. It is not expensive and when a situation does occur, those business owners will be thankful to be able to benefit from the levels of service an IT Support Contract buys you. Plus with the knowledge that a service is being paid for, businesses will actually use their new resources for a number of different reasons; IT advice, IT project management, IT consultancy, IT strategy, even IT budgets and they will feel that at last, not only do they have an external IT Department at their fingertips, but their company is supported, managed and recoverable from a business continuity standpoint.

Don’t wait until something breaks and don’t let your company fall into a potential operational pitfall, speak to your preferred IT Company and get yourself supported.

The changing methods and impact of communication in our IT-integrated world

Before the existence of the internet there were not too many methods of communicating in a fast and efficient way.

If you were not face to face with a person, you would make a telephone call or perhaps write a letter and although we still use the telephone, or more favourably in the last 10 years, our mobile phones, letters are becoming much more of a legacy way to formally communicate.

With emails, it is an almost instant receipt, much unlike the use of paper letters, hence the reason for many businesses to migrate to a “paperless” office, which of course has its own advantages and disadvantages. With voice communication, if the intended contact was not available at that specific moment, a voicemail or answer-phone message was left. A significant improvement to this is the use of email messages that can be sent through to a user notifying them of their missed call. This is a major step forward from the previous voicemail approach and now there are even text-transcription-emails whereby the voice message you leave is actually transcribed into text and emailed to the intended recipient. Continuing with the importance of email communication, when a user logs in to their PC, a categorical list of messages are available (rather than sifting through paper mail-in trays) which can also be stored and filed for as long as is required. This can be achieved via simple web-hosted email, or more advanced Exchange Email using Business Servers.

Email communication is in essence, a much easier and more manageable way to communicate with the world and undoubtedly the most important and fastest way for businesses to communicate.

With the increasing development of mobile integration over the last 5 years, emails can now be sent and received from mobile devices, which is extremely necessary when away from the office. For businesses, having a way to communicate with staff, customers and contacts whilst using the ability to synchronise with their PC email client is also a useful and practical tool to stay connected in an organised way.

Moving forward with technology and the internet, documents and emails can be shared and accessed using local server networking, Virtual Private Network (VPN) connections and remote working. With more savvy businesses realising the need to move to a server infrastructure enables all company information to be stored and accessed without infringing on confidentiality or security.

Of course, the growing concern about the internet is security and people often wonder if their data will be safe from unauthorised access to it. However, security on the internet is forever growing with bigger and more sophisticated ways to protect you and your information by such technologies as firewalls, proxy servers and again VPN. Other worries are that data may be lost or significant industry-specific retention and archiving periods are not maintained, however enterprise-level backups can be implemented at a local or network level for any size budget and can be set to meet both a user, company or regulative-body need.

The use of social networking is also an effective and fast-growing-respected method of communication, especially due to that fact that companies and individuals can socialise online for free and more importantly to businesses, companies can advertise to a vast audience extremely quickly. Of course, social networking opens up its own world of privacy and security issues which is becoming ever more evident in recent twitter-related news stories.

Ultimately, the way people communicate today is within the digital framework and although it is important not to forget the days when postal strikes and mail delays brought businesses to standstill, it is important to understand that the requirements to sustain our increasing dependency on electronic communication will mean more advanced levels of security, faster and higher rates of infrastructure implementation and more pressure on IT companies to ensure data and communication is safeguarded without impacting on future scalability and performance.

For more information on our IT Planning and how we can scale your digital company, visit http://www.cobrasupport.net/smb

Organic IT - what is it?

You're probably thinking, great more "organic" nonsense and now it's coming from an IT Company! Well, it's actually not nonsense as ultimately you save money by investing in IT solutions naturally over a period of time.

Setting up a new business or even growing an existing one is extremely difficult and being able to rely on your IT for productivity and resiliency is important. The sad thing is that many businesses treat IT as a second priority because they believe it's the most expensive component of a business. Consequently they find it difficult spending money or even justifying spending money on more modern technology and are forced to use old systems with little or no support.

However, this doesn't mean you have to spend tens of thousands of pounds on an upgrade and that is what we try to ensure. We work with you to advise, plan and implement your IT naturally (organically), both suitable for today and for future growth. Then when it's time and you are ready for an additional IT layer, we then work with you again to implement this solution, but only at the required time.

Organic IT is therefore a perfect way to gradually scale your IT, whether solution-based or infrastructure, naturally, over time and only when needed. It enables you to reduce your costs initially by using a phasing structure, but enables you to still get to where you need to at the end, over time, just not immediately. That's what saves you money initially and also in the long run, which is what Organic IT is all about.

Visit www.cobrasupport.net/organic for more information

IT Consultants and When To Use Them

Every business owner understands how difficult it is finding that perfect candidate who can pretty much do every task you throw them for a salary that won't empty your pocket.

However, with increasing unemployment and candidates willing to take any job for perhaps lower than their previous salary, a business owner needs to think "Am I making the right decision with employment".

PAYE is extremely expensive and I am positive all business owners feel the burn at the end of the month when they see their cash flowing to the HMRC for their employee contributions. The question is, can you hire a consultant to not only do the job better, but in the long run, more cost effectively?

Hiring a consultant is a perfect way to meet initial costs for specific jobs but ensuring the work can be done by a seasoned professional. One issue with an employee is that they are able to perform the roles for the job they were employed to do, but the time to train them to undertake work that a consultant has a skill set in doing is something that is too time costly. Not to mention potential issues with existing customers not being supported if those employees are detracted from their daily tasks to learn immediately required new skills.

I am not suggesting internal continual professional development and training should not be actioned as it should, but when a specific piece of work for a customer needs to happen, it makes sense hiring a consultant who is able to tackle the role without too much management from the business owner and, more importantly, their chargeable rate although sometimes quite expensive, is only an initial cost which can for the majority of times be claimed back from the customer.

IT consultancy is an ideal way for companies to hire very experienced professionals to tackle specific, technical tasks that they have the requisite knowledge in. It is also a good way of forming long-standing relationships or even Venture Partners that you can rely on for future work, plus your customer will be happy knowing that the task at hand is being handled by a professional.

At the end of the day, a business owner simply needs to know the following: The work can be done, the work can be done well, the work can be done without costing too much money and that their customer will be happy.

The answer to the above is find a consultant who is able to undertake the specific task that you need, whether that be through an existing contact, online outsourcing website or consultancy firm. Then hire them, brief them on the work, ensure that they follow the job sheet and then act as the intermediary management between them and your customer.

You will find a lot of success with this method and in the long run, using a consultant at those required times does keep the costs down, especially if you can bill your customer for their time. Plus, if you retain the consultant on your books for future work, you would have already formed a good working relationship to work together effectively and efficiently next time.

For more information on our IT consultancy and what we can offer, visit www.cobrasupport.net/consultancy

Small Business IT Planning - The Importance of Being Earnest

Small Business IT Planning is a very serious topic for small businesses but many small or growing companies do not fully prioritise their IT growth.

It is fair to say that without IT a business could not function, so there is no excuse thinking IT as a second priority. From a sole-trading plumber who emails his customers daily, all the way up to a larger company who relies on internet orders from their website as a main profit margin. Without IT, every business would suffer and therefore any small business should factor in IT planning into their business model as a primary responsibility.
 
It is very easy for small businesses to setup an IT infrastructure and most startups follow this course of action:

They purchase a standalone PC to act as their "file server", a couple of laptops and printers, POP3 email from a cheap email host and use the wireless router supplied by the Internet Service Provider in their Small Office or Home Office. Although this in itself enables the small business owner to set off which I am not denying is a good start, at some stage this basic and fairly cheap IT setup will begin to show holes in security, productivity and scalability. Consequently, many small businesses end up investing in large and sometimes unnecessary architecture as they believe that this is their "next step" under the advisement of an IT Company, who may really just want their money.

I firmly believe that IT Planning can not only save a company money, but can become a far more organic strategy to accompany the natural growth of a company. Of course, this does usually mean investing in a server which is more than a few hundred pounds compared to a PC File Server. However, a good IT Company who has experience with IT Planning will prepare a small business with their insight into their growth, phases showing how the IT infrastructure will begin, its stepping-stone upgradability, what the end result would entail and the cost implications across the board.

This method provides flexibility with cost and natural scalability which is extremely important for any growing business. No business should run before they can walk and therefore the IT of a company follows in concurrence with this notion.
 
In short, if you are starting business, speak to an experienced IT Company who understands a small business' needs as they will provide you with a really good starting point to get your IT off the ground and the infrastructure itself will be far more secure than a DIY approach. Secondly, if you are a growing business and have begun to realise that it's time to upgrade and step out of the initial IT implementation, speak to a Small Business IT Planner as they will be able to advise you on the correct, organic next steps, as well as provide you with phasing and implementation costs, together with full support as you grow.

Which Browser Should I Use?

Assuming you are using Microsoft's Windows operating system there are a plethora of browsers that you could use.  Now that Microsoft has been forced to offer alternatives, rather than insist its usually native Internet Explorer (current version 8) upon you, there are at least a dozen others. Each of them has its own positive and negative features as can be seen on my 4 preferred choices below.

1) Google Chrome

This new browser comes into its element as a speedy, compact & minimalistic unit.  It doesnt have tonnes of standard extra (mostly unused by the domestic user) features and allows a lot of space to become free on screen.  It is very fast to download and install and loads webpages very quickly. It deals with most websites, including flash based ones and secure sites such as online banking pages. It very rarely crashes by comparison, it now features extensions to enhance its capabilities and it even combines the seach function with the URL bar at the top.

2) Mozilla Firefox

This open source, highly customisable web browsing experience is slowly capturing more and more of the market (both domestic and business).  It is also fairly quick to install initially and runs relatively quickly however it is not as fast as Chrome.

Over the last few years of its existance, users have literally written thousands of addons, in the way of utilities, games and general extended capabilities. This browser is probably ideal for you as a user if you are looking to integrate all of your web needs, software needs and gaming needs securely in 1 place. Be wary though, if you overload it with a lot of addons it can slow down considerably.

3) Internet Explorer

Internet Explorer 8 has been the peoples choice, until the 2 recent contenders above. It still benefits from the majority vote although it is bulky, unneccessarily slow and comes with a host of extra often not really needed by many users.  It is a very secure browser which is good for identifying problem website containing bugs or viruses. It also has some very nifty features (Also featured on the above 2) these include tabbed browsing and private browsing.

4) Safari

Apple's native browser recently spilled onto Microsofts system and retains its good looks and minimal yet effective features. It looks great, however with heavy use it slows down and becomes sluggish. You are also not able to customise it very much, you get what you are given basically.
 
Conclusions:

For security: use Internet Explorer 
For design and style: use Safari 
For expandable features: use Mozilla Firefox 
For speed and a much faster internet experience: use Google Chrome.

Watch this space....Google are also releasing an operating system hoped to rival Windows in the near future. That should be interesting!