Whilst many would have been taking some time to top up their tans or remodel their homes we were working with London City Bond (LCB) to deliver workshops for users of their customer information website.

Even though it’s the middle of summer we were busy showing not just Vision Commerce to wines & spirits traders but also Vision Warehousing to and independent third party warehouse and Vision Distribution to a chilled logistics provider.  

We’ve even been speaking to clients about their websites and one in particular has decided to move to deploy their site within Facebook (we’ll let you know who so you can have a look once we are all done).

It’s not that we are complaining or anything but now it’s September and our 2011 seems to be getting busier and busier...

September is well under way; my local Sainsburys is already getting it’s Christmas stock out (much to the amusement of my 8 year old son) and before we know it we’ll all be caught in the seasonal rush. This month has already seen a reasonable about of action from us, but that’s for next month... not now!

We use software to control our email signatures so that they are all formatted the same way AND so that we can add randome images into them.

Thinking about the Images what we have is a series of banners, that look like website banners, that are attached to our outgoing emails... we don't control them, the system simply atteches them.

Anyway, they are a great way of letting our users know about things so at the end of August, to help promote the new CRM functionality withing Vision Commerce the following banners were put together and added to the pot!

Some of the immediate benefits to Blavod will include;

• Easy to use sales and purchase order processing
• Great customer support and management functionality
• Crystal clear stock visibility
• Seamless integration with their bonded warehouse
• Industry leading accounts package
• Comprehensive reporting for all stakeholders

In the New Year, Vision Commerce will also deliver a powerful and integrated email marketing platform and even more supportive CRM functionality allowing Blavod to communicate with their clients and prospects even easier – as well as set tasks and reminders from within Vision Commerce.

To find out more about Blavod Drink visit their website; www.blavodwinesandspirits.com or if you are a wines & spirits trader and would like to find out how Vision Commerce could work for you contact David Stump on 0871 221 2671 or email sales or dstump@ontechsolutions.net.

A business is made up from a number of key areas and processes: we think you’ll be marketing your product or service, then selling it to those that are interested, producing accounts so you know how profitable you are, controlling your stock and then repeating!

Recently we observed Vision Commerce was great for sales, stock control and accountancy but may have been lacking convenience in the marketing support department. So we decided to change that.

Fully Integrated CRM

Vision Commerce v2 will benefit from new and greatly enhanced customer relationship management functions that are fully integrated and designed to make life easier and more profitable. 

Keeping it Simple

CRM systems can be incredibly difficult to understand, so we wanted to keep it simple. For example when you login to Vision Commerce you will be presented with a list of tasks; these tasks can be for you, for others or even private tasks.

You will be able to quickly and easily see previous communications with companies and then contacts at those companies.

It may sound clinical but the system will give you a complete audit trail for your interactions with your client – turbo charging your memory for every client, allowing you to better support and sell to them when they call or when you have a great offer.

A Single, Integrated System

Combined with Vision Connect, the email marketing link within Vision Commerce, you will be able to keep track of all interactions with customers and share this invaluable information with all team members.

So the next time your phone rings and a customer asks a question you will be able to see everything that has already been said and sold to them as well as see everything that is planned for their account.

Want more information?

Contact David Stump on 0871 221 2671, email dstump@ontechsolution.net or email our sales team using sales@ontechsolutions.net. Or you can download this news article by clicking here (opens in a new window as a pdf).

It’s an opportunity to get as many clients, users and prospects in a single room as possible and look at what’s on the horizon for the Vision Suite.

This time we also had guest speakers from Liv-Ex and a Social Media Mentor, Peter Kay (clearly not the one from Bolton).

CRM, Customer Contacts and Marketing

Following introductions we looked at CRM Customer Contacts and Marketing. New fields and the revised email marketing functionality that we are planning to implement.

Much of the changes are aimed at giving more information to the business owner about how the business is running, the sales people at the point they are making a sale or indeed for the marketing team in terms of broadcast communications.

Peter Kay, Social Media Mentor

After meeting and hearing Peter speak a few times I thought I would be really interesting to get him along to show how he was able to assist Bath Ales to gain a 56% increase in online sales using social media tools.

As Peter pointed out broadcast marketing or interruption marketing will work but really getting to know your customers, showing that you hear and understand their needs can be so much more powerful.

In the afternoon we looked at changes to Vision Warehousing and the benefits to Vision Commerce clients as well as looking at VCR (Vision Commerce Reporting) the replacement for VIC (Vision Information Centre).

Liv|Ex

Konstantin Baum from Liv-Ex spoke about the L-WIN.

He explained that it is a code designed to act in much the same was as an ISBN number does for a book. The idea being that a wine will have a unique code so that no matter the description given it can easily be identified.

To find out more about the L-WIN see this blog post from Liv-Ex or this press release.

Thinking of 2012

Now that the 2011 event has passed we need to think about next year... taking account of the Olympics next year we’ll have to make sure that we don’t clash – we don’t want the Olympic Committee to have to move the Men’s 100m Final because it clashes!

Mr Takashi Murakami

Mr Takashi Murakami is a prolific contemporary Japanese artist that works in both traditional media as well as digital media.

Here is his work for Google:

I think it's bright, fun and fit for purpose!

Doodles for Google

The Google logo is iconic... love it or loath it you know it when you see it.

The Doodles for Google are representations of the Google logo to match an event or cause. They are not applied globally, rather on a country by country basis so that browsers in China see a Doodle that relates to them rather than something for the UK/US that is meaningless.

The Competition

There is also a competition held on a country by country basis, with different age categories where school children get a chance to design a logo on a subject of Google's choice - the winner of each age group gets to see their logo on Google for a day + some nice bits and bobs!

If you'd like to see more of the different logos or find out about the competition just visit http://www.google.com/logos/index.html

Over a month ago now we moved from our lovely little offices to our much larger building.

Previously we had offices in multiple locations and this worked for us, our staff and most importantly our clients but now we all have the same ‘home’ – and the benefits are obvious :)

The majority of us were already based in our Ongar offices but now we all here! We went from a single open plan office to a beautiful refurbished barn that allows us dedicated offices for support, administration, development, training and sales.

There are many things that are liked about our new offices; but top of the list is probably the Xbox 360 Connect... As many will probably know we are a fairly relaxed bunch so when Nick in support said we should have a games consul for ‘chilling’ Alan jumped on the idea!

As such we now have an Xbox 360 Connect in the kitchen area so we can mess about during breaks... I’ll be honest and say I didn’t realise it took pictures during the games!

Anyway, all are welcome to stop in and see our new offices, have a little fun on the Xbox or just have a coffee.

Here is our new home:

There has been loads going on and yet we’ve not kept the news section of our site up to date! So in an attempt to address this I have put time in my diary to add a small bit of news on a weekly basis... starting with the new Vision Wiki!

We have used the tools from Wikipidea (MediaWiki) to produce our own Wiki. It’s not perfect yet but we think it is a great tool that will benefit all.

What can you get on the Wiki?

At the moment there are 3 main areas;

• User Manuals
• Release Notes
• Enhancements

Within the user manuals section you will be able to access up to date manuals for all the Vision Software applications.

We think these have a real benefit over the older pdf versions as these will always be current and are much easier to search.

Release Notes contains just that; the notes on each version release so that you can track what has changed from version to version of the application/suite.

And finally Enhancements will be where we put planned developments and new features.

Our ‘no-nonsense’ approach to business applications means that the Vision Software suite perfectly meets the needs of warehousing and transport companies both large and small.

Keeping our applications simple and to the point and giving businesses the ability to run them locally or on our dedicated hosting means they are easy to understand and scale as needed.

From Warehouse Management to 3rd Party Billing to Electronic Proof of Delivery, the Vision Software Suite’s features can deliver bottom line savings from day 1; as well as enhancing customer satisfaction.

Forgetting the buzz words we simply deliver what our clients need by listening to them; our clients being our greatest collaborators.

But in terms of things I don’t regularly see, things that I haven’t seen before or things that made me smile then Mr Box, 101 Website Design and Loksys were three such people.

Mr Box

Again, I know it’s infantile but Mr Box just made me smile. Mr Box supply secure steel storage and shipping containers, site offices, canteen units, and chemical storage containers.

I’d been walking around the show saying hello and showing people my little red R/C truck when I stopped at Mr Box. I’m not sure why but I was relaxed and confidence was flowing from speaking to so many people and for some reason I couldn’t get a tune out of my head – it was basically a version of Spiderman but instead of Spiderman the words were Mr Box (exactly like Spider Pig from the Simpsons…).

The young lady on the stand (Sarah Jones) took my thoughts about Spider Pig (sorry Mr Box) in her stride – clearly if a marketing video comes out of this then I want credits but it just goes to show how a name can make a big impact!

101 website Design

I’ve mentioned 101 Web Design as it seemed kind of out there in terms of the shows typical exhibitors.

After speaking with them for a short time I understood that they were interested in doing more work within the sector so it made perfect sense to attend the show.

I spoke with Holly Stibbon (Sales Director) and one of their technical guys. Having a web technical background it was interesting to geek-up and listening to Holly I got the feeling that they really care about their work and ultimately their clients.

Loksys

Loksys were the ones I’ve never seen before – and that’s how they made this post!

Simply put Loksys have designed and manufactured a device that fits to containers to dramatically improve their security.

The device makes it a great deal harder to interfere with the container and if it is then it automatically sends an alert to you by GPS.

Their software seemed easy to use and allows you to create rules based on where the container is and what has happened.

I don’t really want to show any favouritism, there were loads and loads of exhibitors at the show last week – all I am sure worth a mention, but as I said, these three made me smile, think and told me something I didn’t know.

However, clearly Spier Pig (sorry Mr Box) is going to stay with me :)

Last week we attended the Multimodal show at the Birmingham NEC. As this was our first time at Multimodal we thought it would be a good idea to take a stand on the UKWA pavilion - I'm glad we did as we felt it made us part of a community at the show!

I've not had confirmed numbers yet from the show organisers but I am told it was the best attended yet. With a peak in visitors on Wednesday there was a real relaxed atmosphere in the afternoon as stands broke out into drinks and networking from about 3/4pm.

In truth we didn't really know what to expect from the event; at times it was quiet but we met some really interesting people and took more than one or two enquiries - I promise you'll get the info requested as soon as I've finished this post!

We are just sorting out the times from our R/C Forklift Challenge and will confirm who the talented driver was shortly!

For now, thanks to the guys and girls at the UKWA for putting together the pavilion and making us feel so welcome, to Clarion Events for putting on such a good show and a bit of a funny one but also Video Vision for supplying the 42" LED without any problems (clearly happy to recommend them to anybody).

I know, I know - how can I possibly say that Twitter is the way but I simply don't get it.

As far as I can see I'd have to be on 24/7 or I may miss something... at least with LinkedIn if there is a comment in a group then I get told about it in a daily summary.

This being said I am told that tweeting is important, and so I do it but I have to say that my heart isn't in it and I may well fall foul of some of the mistakes the Guardian are pointing out that George Michael has made recently!

Either way, take a quick look at their article on how to Tweet, it kind of helped me :)

How To Tweet

See what's new for The Guardian on Twitter!

It’s between, Microsoft, Mozilla, Google & Safari (there are others but they are the big hitters).

The war is for the browser you use to access and browse the internet.

And the point of this war?

Control. Sound's like it's straight out of the Matrix but the system does have you… it controls you… it knows what you want and to it’s own best end, it gives it to you…

But seriously, people using one browser over another is a big thing to the developers as it gives them huge amounts of statistical information about web usage that in my cynical opinion is simply used to drive revenue streams of one form or another.

Some thoughts on the contenders:

1St  Place: Google Chrome

Google's Chrome is probably my favourite browser. I find it the most stable now and the fastest.

When I am using Google Apps or the Gmail platform it gives me the best all round service – but then I would expect it to!

2nd Place: Mozilla  Firefox

Firefox is the second place browser for me. I really like the tools and ad-ons that I can have but I do find it slower and the constant upgrades to ad-ons means it’s not always a case of click and go!

3rd Place (but a close 3rd): Apple Safari

Safari is a very close third, I simply find it is slower than Firefox otherwise it would be in the number 2 slot. I feel it’s popularity has grown as the iPhone, iTouch and iPad have grown and more people have exposure to it.

Lastly: Microsoft Explorer

It’s hard to admit it but I’ve not really used Explorer since IE 7, and then I only used it for a short time. I find it buggy, seemingly full of things designed to trip me up and make my life harder.

If I had written this article 2 or 3 years ago I would have been Explorer through and through. I’d have dismissed Firefox as a developers, laughed at the idea of using Safari as I’m not a floppy collared designer and not thought twice about Chrome as it was far to new and unstable.

If we look at my two or three year example, three years ago you would have seen my thoughts in terms of user stats: 57% of users we using Internet Explorer, 36% for Firefox, Safari had just 2% and Chrome wasn’t even available.

Turn the clock and it’s a very different picture… 26% of people use Internet Explorer, 42% use Firefox, 4% use Safari and a whopping 24% use Chrome!

For me this just shows how out of touch Microsoft are with current browsers and then that suggests to me a larger problem… are Microsoft out of touch with users IT needs in general?

So we have come up with ‘The Multimodal, RC Forklift Challenge’.

We’ve decided to run a simple competition: all you have to do is pickup a small pallet & barrel, move it from one side of our stand to the other and safely stack it away.

Now we’ll be honest and say that we’ve tried this a few times and on more than one occasion the barrel seems to spring from the pallet with a life of it’s own – so speed isn’t everything!

Here is the beast in action...

The fasted person to stack the barrel away wins a prize – and what could be more appropriate than a free systems review from Ontech Solutions? OK, ok – it’s an iPod Touch (not as sexy as a systems review but I suppose it has form…).

For those that’s haven’t see one yet, here is an iPod Touch:

Now lets be honest, we all want one and we all have an idea of what they do - but, for those that do want to find out more you can click here to visit the iPod Touch section of the Apple Website.

Remember:

The event will be held at the UKWA (UK Warehousing Accociation) facilities on the Strand, London.

We kick off around 10am with networking and coffee. The first presentation will be on Vision CRM, then we have a guest speaker, Mr Peter Key (A Social Media Mentor). After lunch we will be looking at Vision Reporting and developments with Vision Warehousing.

We hope to be able to call time around 2:30pm when we will be available for 1-2-1 meetings.

If you would like to attend to find out more about Vision Commerce please contact David Stump on 0871 221 2671 or dstump@ontechsolutions.net - places are limited so get in quick!

Without wanting to send anybody to sleep Excise duty is a country specific tax that relates to certain products - the majority of us know what Vat is so I won’t bore people on that one!

A Wet Bond

A Wet Bond is normally one that holds cigarettes or drink – though in the UK there are few cigarette only bonds as they are very high risk – a smallish 25,000 sq ft warehouse can hold many millions of pounds worth of stock.

In a Wet Bond stock can be either duty paid or not – the stock doesn’t have to be held separately but does need to be clearly labelled.

A Wet Bond can contain imports, exports and product for local sale – many Wet Bonds will be 3rd Party Warehouses that receive stock on behalf of traders that will be for export or delivery to their clients within the UK.

A Dry Bond

A dry bond is far simpler to understand – it’s basically everything else other than cigarettes & drinks.

Warehouse Management Systems from Ontech Solutions

At Ontech Solutions we have an application called Vision Warehousing. It is what is referred to as a WMS (Warehouse Management System) and frankly it does what is says on the tin.

Operating a Wet or Dry Bond

To operate a Wet or Dry Bond you need approval from HMRC. Part of this approval will be the systems and processes you use.

It’s important to understand that a WMS isn’t automatically approved by HMRC as an accounts program can be approved for VAT – what is important to know is that Vision Warehousing has multiple approvals from HMRC to be installed and used at Bonded Warehouses across the UK.

So if you ever come across somebody that is talking about Wet or Dry Bonded Warehousing, hopefully you will know just a little bit more – and if they moan about their WMS perhaps you’ll remember Vision Warehousing and that it is a specialist WMS for Bonded Warehouses!

Email is clearly one of the quickest, easiest and most cost effective ways of doing this.

The problem is that email marketing has a dark side… it’s seen by many as unwanted, it’s seen by many as SPAM!

On a side note it’s funny to think that even those that send their newsletters and offers out by email think others doing the same are spamming! Kind of the pot calling the kettle black!

Anyway, for me (us) email marketing is about keeping existing customers up to date with either what’s going on or what’s on offer, it’s about letting prospects know about what’s going on or what’s on offer or it’s about communicating internally.

I can see how this could be construed as spam but in my heart and my head it’s not.

The Doing Bit

In my travels, just like many people I have seen Constant Contact, MailChimp and DotMailer (as well as many other service providers). What was interesting to me was when I met Philip Bryan from Sentori Email Marketing – an independent service provider; a service provider with a face and a pulse!

Arguably Constant Contact, MailChimp and DotMailer all offer the same services – in fact so does Sentori. The difference is that Sentori are based in the UK and most importantly to me there is a human face on the company.

After speaking with Philip for a time and feeling his passion for the email marketing I can only suggest people contact him, find out about his services and think about the service they are currently getting.

Email marketing can be a annoying so the better you make your efforts to reduce the ‘pain’ factor, the more productive it’s likely to be for you.

Sentori Email Marketing
www.sentori.co.uk

It was an event organised by 4 Networking and chaired by the group leader, Michael Breeze from Kaslers Solicetors LLP.

The group was lively and there were more than one or two interesting people and businesses there.

One chap in particular caught my attention – Peter Kay (but not the one from Bolton…).

Peter describes himself as a Social Media Mentor and had some very interesting thoughts on social media.

Where most social media consultants will simply sell you a service much like a PR agency will Peter delivers training and strategy: empowering the business to take the action and drive the results.

I’ll admit that I don’t know Peter well but I liked his approach to business and his frankness.

If you look on his website now you will be able to see a facts and figure case study on a client ‘Bath Ales’ that is both interesting and thought provoking in equal measure.

I love it as it bring everything that I want to my finger tips.. I don’t need to bomb around the shops looking for what I want at the price I want to pay; I can let my fingers do the work.

I loath it as it hasn’t really delivered what it could or should in terms of the sharing of knowledge and experiences...

I know that people will also agree and disagree in equal measure with my reasons for loving and hating the internet but debate is fun!

The Future of Ecommerce?

I hear and read that Google will die out, it will go super nova sooner rather than later and in truth I don’t buy in. But recent conversations with industry friends and thinking about it have lead me to see the scenario where just that happens: and in truth I’m not too keen on the idea.

I first started to believe  this could happen when a web developer friend of mine told me that he had just been commissioned to build an ecommerce app for Facebook for one of his existing clients. At first I didn’t really think much more than ‘that’s another app I’ll have to block…’, but as I began to think about it, it struck me that it could be the death nail in conventional ecommerce.

The more I thought of it the more I could see how Google would or could die out… I use Google for two things; shopping and research.

If my shopping can now be carried out on my social networking site (Facebook) then surely I have lost 50% of the reason I need to go to Google.

I then started to think about my own lifestyle and experience. If a friend of mine tells me to try a new Rum (I’m a bit of a fan…) then I am likely to. If they say ‘here, try this Rum and you can buy it here’ then the likelihood is I’m going to.

And that’s just my simple view of it, without the marketing girls and boys getting hold of the concept and really powering it up!

Recently ASOS (Clothing retailer) launched their Facebook App. It allows Facebook users to search and buy from within the Facebook framework – this store will be one to watch!

Back to the Future of Ecommerce!

Rum and ASOS aside just think about a product going viral. Think about being able to setup a campaign to sell a single low-cost item, with very little margin. How successful would it have to be to earn real money from the 500,000,000 active users in the 70 languages currently available on Facebook.

Think about how the high street brands could use a combination of their brand power and Facebook member profiling.

Think about how you could use Facebook.

I recently read the book by Jeff Jarvis WWGD (What Would Google Do). There were many messages in it but the one that seems to be most relervant here for me personally is the idea that you earn as little as you can out of each transaction - you just need to have lots of transactions!

With that thought in mind I'm going to be spending my 'me' time thinking about how I can earn 50p per month from 0.005% of the current facebook community so that I can retire and move to Florida!

ASOS On Facebook

Ontech Remote backup (ORB)

ORB protects data residing on desktops, laptops and servers according to retention policies and schedules set by the user.

Data is compressed and sent to our secure server assuring your data is safely offsite for disaster recovery and backup purposes.

When a user needs to recover data the can simply and easily select the data to restore.

The service is ideal for all business from start-ups to large organisations and is fully scalable.

Reduce Operational Costs

There are many ways to backup important data. You can save it to a memory key, floppy disk (?), CD, DVD, or External Hard Drive.

Many of these options come at a substantial cost and have a short lifespan that seems predetermined to stop working just as you need them.

With the Ontech Remote Backup service there is no capital cost. You do not need to buy any hardware as we already have. All you have to do is install the application that manages the backup and select the files you would like to protect.

Delegate Responsibility

Once setup ORB will simply do what it needs to do to protect you. Unlike backing up to a memory key, Cd, DVD or External Hard Drive you don’t have to remember to do anything.

Our system will make a copy in the background as you are working. The ORB client allows you to store up to 99 different versions of the same file with time stamps for easy restores. This means you don't have to settle for the last version of the file you were working on, but can go back a couple of weeks or even months.

Getting Started

We've made it simple and easy. Simply contact us today and we'll get you started!

For example during the Beijing's Olympics almost every day brought a new Google logo celebrating the event!

We today’s doodle is celebrating Jules Verne's birthday. If he were alive  today he would be 183 years young!

This doodle is kind of cool as well because if you have an iPad or iPhone when you tilt it the liquid in the design sloshes to either side!

Arguably Mr Verne is most known for his novels such as Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea (1870), A Journey to the Center of the Earth (1864), and Around the World in Eighty Days (1873).

You Can Get Involved

We you can if you have kids and a good relationship with your local school…

Every year Google run a competition in schools around the world (but we’ll only really look at the UK). The competition is broken up into age groups and is to design a topical Doodle for Google!

Every year scores of schools take part with the winners design being featured for a day as the Google Logo!

To find out more about Doodles for Google and the competition simply Google ‘Doodles 4 Google’ or follow this link.

We (well me) are members of 4Networking. I do what I know works in terms of building links to our website by posting articles and posting feedback in the forums.

Today at around 10:15 I posted an article showing a new website we had recently finished for a client (Clayhall Financial Services).

I then started to add it to our website. In the time it took me to do this (around answering the phone and emailing people) I noticed that for the clients name ‘Clayhall Financial Services’ was showing the 4N post I made in the Google search results…

So that’s a little over an hour to be indexed and shown on Google… 

Now the search phrase is obscure but we are told to look for long tail keywords so what else could it do? I’ll be keeping this thought in the back of my mind!

If you’ve never seen it before take a look at 4Networking today!

This is an unusual post as we don’t do a great deal of website development work.

Recently we were asked to put together a small website for a financial advisor based in Ilford, Essex.

Clayhall Financial Services are mortgage brokers and insurance advisors and typically cover their immediate area.

They asked us to put design and develop something that would be simple and easy to understand and show that they focus on Mortgages and Insurance.

The site has been live for a few weeks and is already being found for their company name (Something that had never happened before).

With some of the most expensive keywords on the internet the organic search engine optimisation may take a time but they are going to look at pay per click but right now it seems to be doing exactly what it needed to do.

To take a look at the site click on the image below!

In truth we are not web developers so have decided to invest in what we really know… our data and the drinks industry.

So what do we do?

We provide data from Vision Commerce. In a simple format that a good knowledgeable web developer would be able to use.

So why tell us now?

Simple really… we just formalised what we offer and added a new page to our website giving a little more information on what is available.

To find out more about our ecommerce options simply click here.

HTML5 is going to be the next major revision to the HTML standard. W3C set the standard that then knocks onto standards for accessibility and how browsers interpret code.

Why? Sorry, What?

To many HTML is gobbledegook... so in the words of W3C "Imagination, meet implementation. HTML5 is the cornerstone of the W3C's open web platform; a framework designed to support innovation and foster the full potential the web has to offer. Heralding this revolutionary collection of tools and standards, the HTML5 identity system provides the visual vocabulary to clearly classify and communicate our collective efforts."

The Silent Revolution!

Currently the main 'tags' would be h1 (title tag), h2 (subtitle), p (body text) and a (for links). HTML5 will bring the web into the 21st century! It will allow developers (good ones anyway) to describe elements on the page much better. You can properly define video, menus, articles and much much more.

We don't do great amounts of web work... none the less HTML5 is exciting stuff and will bring great chnages to how websites are built, what they can do and how they are used!

Users said e-mails were missing from their inbox and other folders within their Hotmail accounts.

A spokeswoman for Microsoft said that the issue of missing e-mails was not a widespread problem and that it would be rectified shortly.

The Problem

The thing that many people don't realise is that the FREE email accounts from suppliers such as Hotmail, Yahoo & Google are normally supplied without support of any kind.

If there is a problem and content is lost or accidently deleted the likelyhood is that it will be lost forever.

The Solution?

This is technology remember so there are many ways of protecting yourself... we recomend that if you are using a free email service that you make sure you know where you stand with respect to your data and if are in anyway concerned then simply contact us.

The UKWA recently published the Warehousing Services Guide for 2011.

It was publised just before Christmas (December 10th) and can be read in full by clicking here.

Our advert is on page 6 after Roger Williams introduction. Any an all feedback appreciated!

Multimodal

Multimodal was first launched in 2008 and has grown at a phenomenal rate. Since the first show the visitor numbers have increased 130% and the show has grown 110% in size and content.

Registration and entry to the event is FREE so if you are part of the UK logistics industry you have no reason not to attend!

We are on the UKWA pavilion (stand number 322) between AV Dawson and Redirack.

Vision Warehousing

Couldn’t really post an entry about going to the show and where we are without mentioning our product..!

Vision Warehousing is an easy to use, fully scalable warehouse management system. Typically it is used by 3rd party warehousing providers as it is particularly strong in the areas of client invoicing and end user reporting.

Our Show Competition…

We wanted to do something a little different, but we soon found that there is very little that hasn’t been done before!

Whilst we believe our software is the best the reality is that we have not promoted ourselves too much in the past so are a relatively new entrant. So rather than going through the pain of trying to lure people onto our stand to show them Vision Warehousing we thought we’d try to have some fun!

I’m not going to say what we are doing but it should entertain and there will, of course, be prizes!

My Car - Poor Cold Thing!

The Serious Point?

I'd love to say that I wanted to show how cold it is at our office and how much ice has formed on my car during the 90 min (12 mile journey to work) but that would not be true...

Today was the first time this week that I've been in the office; and in truth there was no need to come in at all...

In our offcie we all have the ability to work from home (or, and especially important in weather like this) from the beach!

Our office programes are delivered via a portal from our server so we have access to all our applications and data - just as if we were in the office.

We all have VOIP phones that can simply plug into any broadband and connect us, again, as if we are in the office...

But Be Careful!

Whilst speaking with a company about Vision Commerce (Our stock control and accountancy application for the drinks industry) I was asked what my journey to work was like? We are an open office so I said that I was actually at home; I explained that we can all work remotely as well as if we were in the office so I had decided that the roads were not worth the risk and that I would do just that.

I think envy is the wrong word but I think the prospect of being able to work from home with everythig you would have access to in the office sounded like a good idea; espcially when thinking about walking through London in the snow, then on the trains that break down and finally the trip from the station to home at the other end. 

The View from Our Office!

Want to find out More?

We'd love to tell you! You can contact me (David Stump) on 0871 221 2671 or email me using dstump@ontechsolutions.net.

Sir Maurice was the designer and creator of Edsac, a computer that ran its first program in May 1949.

Practical Adaptions

The success of Edsac caught the attention of catering firm J Lyons which funded further development of the machine and led to the creation of the Leo - one of the first machines put to dedicated business use.

Legacy

It has been said that Sir Maurice Wilkes set the standard for modern computing, more can be read about Sir Maurice by clicking here.

We would like to pass our condolences to his family and friends and thank him for the technological gifts he and academics like him have given to us.

For more on this storey visit the BBC - Father of British computing Sir Maurice Wilkes dies.

So here it is, Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!

Based on figures from an earlier report the infected PCs could send out in the region of two thousand million (2,000,000,000) emails every day!

Recently Successes

Recently there has been several ‘wins’ in the battle against spammers in that several organised rings have been closed down; reducing the spam volume by nearly 50%.

This being said the reduction still only brings spam levels down to that of early 2009!

Microsoft Say…

It was a 240 page report from Microsoft that suggests there are two million US PCs controlled by botnets; it also went on to say that protecting yourself was ‘easy’.

Cliff Evans, head of security and identity at Microsoft UK, says that people should ‘sign up for automatic updates, make sure the applications they use are regularly patched, use anti-virus software and run a firewall’.

Take Action Now!

We say get proactive. We all receive junk email – we believe one of the key ways of reducing problems and attacks is to simply remove the initial problem… the junk or spam email.

We use and recommend Barracuda Spam & Virus Firewall. It is an integrated hardware/software solution that is there to simply stop malware getting to users – like living in a bubble so you don’t get a cold (except it’s not anything like as intrusive or silly looking…).

In Europe between 5 and 10% of PCs connected to the internet are infected… to stop becoming part of that statistic contact us today on 0871 221 2671.

Belvedere Warehousing & Distribution became the first Bonded Warehouse in the UK to use the ATWD XML Service from HMRC.

Belvedere Warehousing & Distribution operate a bonded warehouse and distribution service from their 250,000 sq ft purpose built facilities in Kent. Based in Belvedere, just a few miles from the M25 and 30 mins from central London they support clients in the wines & spirits and commodities industries.

Since early 2009 Belvedere Warehousing & Distribution have been using Vision Software Suite, a recent upgrade to the system now allows them to submit their W1, W5, W5D, W6 and W6D direct to HMRC. The new feature for Vision Bond will save around 5 hours per week as well as substantially reducing the amount of paper used and storage space needed for copy returns.

“The new feature from the Vision Suite will save time, paper and money. Whilst it is a small part of our day the automation means it’s not the responsibility of an individual and will become just another ‘thing’ that happens.” Dan Child, Operations Manager Belvedere Warehousing & Distribution.

At Ontech Solutions our development team based in our Essex head office, are continually developing and enhancing the Vision Suite. By listening to what clients say and what changes take place within the logistics industry we are able to make swift changes that benefit our clients.

“It’s interesting to think that Belvedere are the first to benefit from this upgrade to the Vision Suite and even more so that they are the first to use the new HMRC system. The standard web based ATWD Service from HMRC can be a pain and is time consuming; when we spoke to HMRC we were a little surprised to hear that more business aren’t using the ATWD XML service.” Alan Gilchrist, MD Ontech Solutions Ltd.

“As of tday (9th November 2010) I’m pleased to confirm that Belvedere Warehousing are the first company to use the new ATWD XML service.” Senior Customs Source.

Within our company we utilise many ways of ‘working’, our corporate IT strategy allows for users to work locally or remotely – or a combination of the two!

Google Apps vs Office 365

Google is possibly one of the better known service providers; its Gmail platform is used by many private users and tagged onto this is Google Docs, Contacts and Calendar.

The standard Google Account gives you these benefits but it’s not so easy to share data… Google Apps Standard or Pro gives you the ability to ‘share’ documents, contacts and calendars with team members or groups.

Now Microsoft is fully in the ring with Office 365.

Office 365 is now in beta; I tried to get a beta account, but demand was extremely high and beta places were taken up in very quick time.

As I couldn’t get an Office 365 Beta account I can only really say what ‘they’ say it does and has.

Office 365 will allow user’s access to MS Office Professional Plus, MS Exchange Online, MS SharePoint Online and Lync Online.

So what does it offer? Well on first glance it seems they are offering what we have on our desktop and server… that is to say that those using MS Exchange could migrate to Exchange Online and all those users with MS Office on their desktop can simply start using the online service.

As I say I can’t see exactly how it works but I can imagine that the idea of upgrading a large user base to a new version of MS Office would be much more cost effective if you simply paid for Office 365 – it would allow you to grow or contract teams quickly and cost effectively and give people what they are expecting to see and used to using… the Microsoft Experience!

Time for Google Apps to Step Up?

In the office we use Office 2010, at home I use Google Apps Professional. I have to be honest and say that if Office 365 works as Microsoft say it will then I would be tempted to move… for me Google Apps would need to become much slicker.

Another Option?

The other option, for businesses, is to deploy applications via a remote connection. In truth this will be the preferred option for many businesses. In this scenario there is much more control over data – additionally all applications (including operational software and accounting software) can be deployed.

‘Hosted Desktops’ are a real alternative for businesses both large and small. Those with large desperate workforces can ensure that their staff have access to applications and data they need in a secure environment and smaller companies can benefit from having the tools they need now and know it’s all backed up and safe.

Anyway, Google Apps, Office 365 or a Hosted Desktop - always make sure you start with the question; 'Why are we doing this' and most importantly make sure it meets all you or the business needs.

I recently read an article on cnet that was talking about ‘Windows Embedded Automotive 7’ and how it is used by car manufacturers ‘Ford’.

A Thought…

I have owned one or two cars in my driving time, with more than one experiencing intermittent electrical faults… first the stereo won’t work, then the warning lights are permanently on the dash.

I can honestly say I’ve never experienced the blue screen of death as I’m driving along but knowing that Microsoft could be why my iPhone won’t sync it’s contacts to my car when the Blackberry did makes a load of sense…

Want More?

Here is a link to the full article: Microsoft updates its Windows for cars.

What is the biggest problem with email other than spam? We think (and many clients agree) that it is security.

The Problem

Time after time after time we are asked if there is anything we can do to recover lost emails… and in the majority of cases we can’t.

As many people use email for all communications losing historic emails can be a real problem.

The Solution

There are many solutions to this; some easy and very cheap and some complicated and costly…

We use a relatively cost effective solution that is extremely easy to use; we use MailStore.

MailStore

MailStore Server backs up all email files associated with an email account – all sent, received and deleted emails will be there.

Within seconds we can search for an email and recover it (even if deleted).

We have Outlook, Webmail, iPhones, Blackberry’s, Windows Mobiles and Android devices all connected to our Exchange Server and yet everything is secure and backed up.

Why Bother?

As we said above the problem with something like Outlook is corrupted PST files or files that get too big. It’s happed to me in the past; a file has got too big and corrupted – I lose all my history and that is worth a great deal to me.

Additionally there are companies out there that are required to ensure a copy of each and every email is stored.

MailStore simply keeps a copy of all emails both sent and received. It’s extremely quick and easy to search for a specific email or emails on a subject; once you have what you are looking for you can restore it to your Inbox or print if you prefer a hard copy.

If you would like to find out more about the benefits of MailStore please contact us on 0871 221 2671 or email me, David Stump on dstump@ontechsolutions.net.

HMRC made life a little easier with ATWD and now Vision Warehousing is about to be among the first to use ATWD XML!

What?

OK so you may not be a bonded warehouse keeper, but they have to keep strict records of what they have received and what is sent out and for whom. HMRC then want to know exactly what movements have been made so that the correct amount of money can be collected.

The W1, W5, W5D, W6 and W6D forms are what bonded warehouse keepers use to pass this information on.

The Advent of Technology

The forms are printed in triplicate, duplicate or even quintuplicate (I did have to look this up; honest it means 5 or 5 part!).

A copy goes here, and another there, HMRC want a few... you get the idea.

ATWD allowed warehouse keepers to file online and not send HMRC copies... but you still need them and it takes a reasonable amount of time to fill the HMRC online forms in!

ATWD XML... The Next Step

ATWD XML - the sexy upgrade from HMRC allows you post data directly from your warehouse management system to HMRC! No paper warrants, no sending copies, no storing copies and no double keying entries.

Vision Warehouseing

Shortly Vision Warehousing will be among the first systems to incorporate the link to HMRC for registered warehouses; allowing our clients to take advantage of the new system sooner rather than later.

Why Bother?

There are many reasons to ensure your warehouse management software will link with HMRC as Vision Warehousing does.

Over the next few weeks we will outline some of these as clients benefit from them in a little more detail; until then simply trust us that ATWD will make life simpler, quicker and more cost effective.

There were presentation from Paul Brooks, Roger Williams, Richard Davies as well as representatives from JCB.

The event was extremely well attended and we were made welcome in the JCB VIP centre. Presentations we delivered at their plush auditorium and then lunch was served in their restaurant.

During lunch I was seated with guys from Luxonic Lighting, Ben Wilson from Briggs Equipment and Neil Storey from Onward Holdings. Conversation was good; we spoke about lighting options and how Onward Holdings were experimenting with several options, we also spoke about a website idea for the warehousing industry (but conversations are still on-going on that so can’t really say more!).

The Best for Last…

Whilst the presentations were informative, lunch was delightful and the company great the ‘coup d'état’ was the factory tour.

I’d love to have been able to take some pictures but unfortunately cameras were not allowed… the basic tour involved a walkabout seeing how a JCB Backhoe loader was built (from the sheet metal up).

The JCB Backhoe Loader

Logistics on the factory floor was extremely good with all parts being recorded against the vehicle they would eventually be part of.

As I’m based in an office describing the factory floor environment is hard; extremely heavy parts, very loud machines and flashes of welding tools all came together on the final line to compile a bright yellow JCB Backhoe loader… very cool.

Thanks again to the UKWA, CILT and JCB for delivering a great event and the guys at my table for lunch for a lively conversation.

It’s not as mysterious as it sounds; they were looking at names of films, music and computer games to see if there was a way to understand what we are searching for and the likelihood of that film, song or game to be a success.

Data

What I find interesting to think about is the gargantuan amount of data that a study like this must have sifted through; then I move on to think about what this kind of data could be used for…

Worrying

I’ve not seen the study and wouldn’t compare in any way the 5 mins I’ve been thinking about this with the preparation that must have gone into the study – but what I’m left thinking about is what if ‘they’ could use this kind of information to show me what they think I want to see?

I may have searched for ‘Resident Evil: Afterlife’ but that doesn’t make me a holocaustic fantasising, ultra violent person… I really don’t want that to affect future searches for plumbers, accountants or what to do this weekend…

Trending

It annoys me that I can search for one thing and get presented info on anything but; so I’m all for cleverer computers (or search engines).

But I think there should be a realistic look at the internet, I’m conflicted in that it should widen my intellectual horizons and influences but the reality is that I’m not likely to get genuinely new thoughts as the data presented to me is already filtered by where I am in the world – it’s already the case that what I read or have access to is already filtered.

This research is interesting and definitely thought provoking but I’d be happy if it found little or no commercial ‘home’.

Here is the article on the BBC.

The work that Ontech Solutions have undertaken to ensure Windows 7 Compliance means companies and users retain the flexibility of being able to invest in their technology secure in the knowledge that their software won’t let them down.

“For many of our clients their IT programmes form a substantial part of their budget. Hardware replacement programmes are an on-going process so ensuring Vision Warehousing simply ‘works’ is crucial.” Alan Gilchrist, MD Ontech Solutions Ltd.

I read the alert for the first time on a BBC News Technology feed, it said that the virus was being delivered by a fake pdf that when opened actually connects to a website and downloads it.

Once downloaded it removes antivirus software so that it cannot be removed.

Firms have been deluged with hundreds of email to inboxes with the malicious link: Nasa, AIG, Disney, Procter & Gamble and Wells Fargo were all reported as struggling to contain an outbreak of the worm.

Protecting Yourself

There are many ways that digital nasties can get onto and into your computer; email being amongst the most common.

The problem with email is that we all typically get so many that we open them sometimes without even thinking.

At Ontech Solutions we protect ourselves and a large number of clients with an email security service.

Effectively email is filtered through a device that sits outside of our network so contaminated mail never even get in.

It can be a bit of a mission to set it up so that it works at the right levels for you but once it is up and running the vast majority of spam and (more importantly) viruses are stopped from ever even getting close to us.

The Reality

The fact of the matter is that nothing is 100% secure; but there are some very easy, cost effective solutions available to keep what has become one of the most important tools for business working as it should!

Want More Info?

If you would like to find out more about the system we use and can provide you simply click here or call 0871 221 2671.

Most people know that the Advertising Standards Agency control adverts in the press and on the TV but not many realise that they have no control over website adverts…

The ASA Say

"Consumers don't differentiate between adverts on TV or online and this ensures that claims online will be subject to the same strict scrutiny of those in traditional media,"

Time Scales

It’s interesting to read that websites will be given until 1 March 2011 to comply with the new rules. That’s six month from today; in truth I’d be surprised if most website owners know about it in six months, let alone make any changes or review content!

The new rules will apply to adverts and any statement on a website that is intended to sell products or services.

They also covers adverts shown on social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter as well as paid advertising such as pay per click and banners.

Is it Realistic?

In my heart I don’t think this will really make a difference to the majority of websites. The simple fact of the matter is that there are too many sites to police; then you have to think about sites that are hosted offshore or adverts that are shown in the UK by foreign based companies.

I believe it will make the major retailers think a little more and will stop annoying adverts on Google but that’s simply because those organisations must play by the rules (or at least be seen to…).

More

This will effect everybody, and if everybody was to play by the rules the internet would become a 'nicer' place... If you would like to find out more about this you could visit the Advertising Standards Agency by going to http://asa.org.uk/.

Genesis Wines are committed to selling wines that are excellent of their type and represent and reflect where they come from.

You can find out more about Genesis Wines by clicking here or take a look at our case study by clicking here.

2 Pound Street (www.2poundstreet.com)

We have a great client about to open that is going through the last minuet stress of opening their 1st shop.

The guys at 2 Pound Street are planning to open on Friday night but have had last min issues (that I am confident is sorted now) and when I spoke with them today I could still hear the noise of drills and hammers in the background – either way good luck guys!

Wholesaler Enquiry

We visited a wholesaler yesterday that seems like an ideal candidate for Vision Commerce and Vision EPOS – after sitting with them for 3 hours we learned a great deal about their business and vice versa.

There are one or two things that Vision Commerce doesn’t do off the bat that they wanted but as it’s our application and development is done by our guys and girls in the UK it’s not too much of a problem to incorporate new ideas (in fact we positively encourage them).

Vision Commerce

It’s been interesting for us to look and see and remember that Vision Commerce is a wonderfully flexible application that has many more features than we have listed or possibly remember from time to time – after speaking so much recently about it my task it to BETTER document it!

On the table with us was Spencer & Stephen Whittaker, Joel Martin, Helle Lindsay, Darren Rose-Neale, Sue Connolly, Ashley Coulson, Andy Johnson and Marcus Elliott.

For those that are interested I am the devilishly good looking one with no hair and a pink tie.

Congratulations again to the winners, thanks to the UKWA for putting on such a great event and just another positive word for our guest speaker Jim Tavare – very, very funny man!

*Stats from Facebook

The first was for Imbibros; Independant Wine Merchants in Godalming and Farnham, Surrey.

Imbibros have been using Vision Commerce and Vision EPOS for some years now after starting their business in 2004.

Here is a link; take a look: Imbibros Case Study

Right so we have been using Office 2010 for some time now and to be honest I can’t really see much difference other than in Outlook.

When Office 2007 was released it was a major change from Office 2003. I can remember people not being able to open the new docx files in 2003 and then the rush to go out and get 2007 so you could!

Now most people that have Office 2003 will know they need to download a compatability pack from Microsoft to open an Office 2007 file  or people simply save the file in Office 2007 in a compatible format.

Outllook 2010

Now I’ll admit to not being a hard-core Office user but one of the things I do like is ‘Show as Conversations’.

This allows you to view conversation strings in one place – it’s not ground breaking, but it is a cool feature that Google Mail use as a standard and I think allows you to keep track of conversations easier.

How to get Office 2010?

We are Microsoft Partners and have had it for some time (to be fair as many have). But our own licencing is done using the SPLA (Service Providers Licence Agreement).

The SPLA is a small monthly cost per user. It allows us to use the Office products without a lump sum cost – it also means we always have access to the current versions.

If you would like to find out more about Microsoft Office 2010 then click here; if you would like to find out more about SPLA then contact us on 0845 189 8900 or sales@ontechsolutions.net.

Staff, their partners and children enjoyed food, drink and each others company. This year (as with most years) we were joined by ex team members and their respective better halves and children.

I think we would all like to thank the guys at Bretts for hosting a great event and everybody that helped to make the it a success.

It’s analysis suggests that 97% of UK consumers do not get the advertised speed; it also suggests that the gap between what we are being told we will get and what we actually get is getting bigger!

Ofcom is revamping the code of conduct to how broadband is sold but in truth this probably means more confusion for the general public.

The problem is that there are bigger and bigger claims being made and with more and more people and devices being able to surf the web it’s becoming a big factor in what service people buy.

My Broadband

My own experience (at home) has been with Tiscali (running off my BT landline) and recently Virgin Fibre.

The service from Tiscali was extremely poor; my download speed was very low and the upload speed was even worse – when I confronted them on it they seemed unable to help.

In the end I decided to give the new service from Virgin a try; they promised a download speed of up to 20GB and an upload speed of around 750kbs.

I have to say that the service from Virgin is excellent; I do get exactly what they promised – it’s so good that in truth I can’t use the complete download speed and adding photos to Facebook and this like are now effortless.

What can you do?

What I suggest you do is test your download speed. There are many places to do this but I like http://www.speedtest.net/. Simply visit the site and click ‘begin test’. Realistically don’t settle for less than 2gb download and the minimum upload I would suggest be 500kbs – but that’s just me!

Kapil Sibal, the country's Minister for Human Resource Development, showed off the super-cheap touch-screen device in New Delhi as part of a push to provide high-quality education to students across the country. The tablet also comes with a solar-power option that could make it more feasible for rural areas.

Tech Spec...

The tablet is a Linux based device that has everything you would expect to see on a mobile device. It has 2GB of RAM (but no hard disk, instead using a memory card) and USB ports.

The Big Picture...

The tablet is part of a larger initiative that is designed to help India’s educational system. Nearly 8,500 colleges now have broadband connectivity with 500 or so web-based video courses.

The tablet has been developed alongside several branches of the Indian Institute of Technology and whilst the price is expected to be $35 now they hope it will be more like $10 once development has finished.

The competition looks like it will be around a treasure hunt on a dummy website where competitors are looking for flaws. The next stages will see them working in teams to defend attacks by industry professionals.

You can find out more or register for the ‘Cyber Security Challenge’ by visiting http://www.cybersecuritychallenge.org.uk/.

For the majority of us internet security affects us in the form of ‘spam’ emails. Sometimes they are selling something or offering a ‘to good to be true’ price or simply trying to sell us cheap Rolex Watches…

There are many different ways that internet security affects us every day and the effects can be slight or substantial. There are various different applications and hardware options that business and individuals can consider – the important thing to understand is that digital security is going to become more and more important as more and more of us ‘get connected’ in some way.

If you would like some internet security options you could visit here for more information from Ontech Solutions.

It's not that there is anything overly wrong with this but each time that I speak to somebody I am surprised at how interested they are in a stock control and accounting system that works specifically for them - THAT DOES'T COST THE EARTH.

Vision Commerce

Vision Commerce is a software application that makes life easier for Wines & Spirits traders.

• Understand your stock position
• Improve account sales by knowing what your customers have purchased in the past
• Most Importantly - Simplify things

Working with Sage Accounts we have a system that every small, medium and large Wines & Spirits trader can really use.

If you would like to find out more about Vision Commerce or indeed the Vision Software Suite contact David Stump on 0871 221 2671 or email dstump@ontechsolutions.net - remember you won't know if you don't ask and I promise we/I don't bite!

A short time ago we started speaking with the chaps about their website; we simply said that there wasn’t much there and that it might be an idea to have a look at it in general.

Once we actually started speaking about it became that there was a desire to refresh the branding and the website – there was a real feeling that perhaps what they had wasn’t presenting them as the professional warehouse and logistics company that they are.

Ultimately we redesigned their logo, business stationery and website – a complete new look.

Among other things the new website shows their services, some testimonials and most importantly news.

We believe they have great branding to match their great services.

 The New Design

BWA Logistics Ltd (t/a Belvedere Warehousing & Distribution) offer warehousing, bonded warehousing and logistics for London, Essex, Kent and the South East.

The event was a great success; the food was great and the entertainment (supplied by comic Jim Tavaré) went down a treat.

There were several industry awards; we would like to congratulate all finalists and those that won!

• Best New UKWA Member Award went to White Arrow Logistics Ltd
• Environment Award went to NYK Logistics UK Ltd
• Technology and Innovation went to Briggs Equipment UK
• Training Award went to Systems Training
• Team of the Year went to Wincanton Group Ltd
• Customer Service Award went to Bibby Distribution Ltd & MDA Ltd (jointly)
• Employee of the Year was named as Bob Steward, EDF Energy
• Warehouse Manager of the Year was awarded to Stephen Steenson, The Malcolm Group
• Chairman’s Award went to David Williams, Great Bear Distribution

With over 450 UKWA members and guests in attendance the 2011 lunch is already being planned!

Image Supplied by the UKWA ©2011

The challenging cycling event is in aid of the Royal British Legion Poppy appeal.

We are happy to support the event organised by Roger Davis (CEO of the UKWA) and wish them a safe, successful trip.

Our designers developed a dozen or more designs that were then filtered internally so that we could show a selection to C&C; from those they the played with one idea that left us with what they decided to go for!

The Winning Design

We think it is simple, clean and a classic look;

Kevin comes from a call centre background where he progressed to a Customer Services Manager position.  We are sure Kevin will be a great asset to the team and will do his upmost to ensure that we provide customers with a high standard of service at all times.

The Different Stages

FS0 took effect in April this year (April 2010) and was the first of three planned stages. It stipulated that ‘as a minimum, all Member States are required to handle the destination site of electronic movements, enabling the electronic discharge of the movement by report of receipt’ (taken from the HMRC Website).

FS1 is planned to take effect from 31st December 2010 and moves the system on to handle both electronic submissions and discharges.

FS2 is planned for July 2011 and is when the rest of the FESS requirements are due to be met.

Do you need to Worry about it?

If you receive goods under bond or transfer goods from one location to another you need to be aware of the requirements. In truth you should already know about it as there would have been a change after April this year.

We have been speaking to more and more warehouses (both 3PL and Own Warehouse) operators that have real concerns about their current systems being able to cope with the change.

What’s the Worry?

It is probably fair to say that if you are buying a shiny new warehouse management system then it will (or should) have EMCS cover... however if you don’t then you may have a system that works perfectly for you right now but that doesn’t cut the mustard with respect to EMCS.

Ah, the Solution

At Ontech Solutions we have a WMS system that we have built; its a great system and one of the reasons it is so good is that it is modular. When we set out on the development path we wanted to be as flexible as we could be.

As such you could take our warehouse tool but use another distribution tool or, and this is the fun bit, have your own warehouse tool but take Vision Bond and let it work with your current systems to allow you to comply and work efficiently.

If you have any thoughts about your systems and meeting the EMCS requirements give us a call, we are happy to chat and may be able to offer a solution that simply works.

A new wines & spirits trader that we are speaking to asked if we linked with them - we don’t currently so we looked at it...

Initially we assumed the trader in question would want to be able to take their products in Vision Commerce and export/sync them with Liv-ex. In principle this is a very easy thing to do - we knew that Liv-ex didn’t have the facility to allow this but we assumed it could be done...

The Main Issue - Double Selling

We soon came to the understanding that whilst this is an easy thing to do Liv-ex didn’t really allow it or like the idea as once a product is made available on the exchange it is assumed to be available; if this product was then sold via another channel there would be the chance that it would be on Liv-ex when it was not actually available.

Clarification

So now we think we have an answer - not an ideal answer as it is basically ‘no’ but we go back to the prospect none the less.

Now it becomes clear that whilst we assumed the prospect meant they wanted to sell on Liv-ex what they actually meant was they wanted to be able to pull Liv-ex data and show it against their client reserves.

The idea being that they wanted their private clients to be able to login to a customer information system (probably online) and see their purchases and the current Liv-ex valuation for each.

The Penny Drops

Right, so now we know exactly what they want to do; again very simple - we have customer information systems for Vision Warehousing and have looked at the idea of them for Vision Commerce in the past.

In truth we thought this was a great idea and could work well for many existing clients as well.

So again we speak with Liv-ex and are unfortunately disappointed.

The way that Liv-ex works is to allow the trader or buyer to search for a product that they are looking for, as they search the options are filtered and filtered until they are left with either the wine they are looking for or a simple list that they can choose from... here is where the problem is for us.

As there is no actual Liv-ex product code there is virtually no way to synchronise a clients product codes against those from Liv-ex.

The Future

Liv-ex know that there are people wanting to integrate with them and make better use of their data and we hope to have meetings with them to see how we could move forward.

The Liv-ex platform and system is a great tool and an essential offering used by many traders. We look forward to the time when we can say ‘yes’ Vision Commerce does link with Liv-ex.

I’m going to stop and say hello to clients as well as one or two exhibitors that I’d like to have a chat with but I think you’ll find me in the Top 100 tastings area...

Being as my favourite is probably a nice Riesling I’m disappointed that I won’t be able to make the Riesling Masterclass on Monday; instead I will have to be a little less indulgent and am probably going to opt for the ‘just-drinks' State of the Nation debate.

If you are exhibiting I hope it is a good show for you, if you are visiting I hope that you get what you need and enjoy the 30th London International Wine and Spirits fair.

They still have the 12 months for the price of 10 on Sage Cover but now have also an offer where you get 12 for the price of 9 when paying by direct debt.

They have a great deal for Instants customers to upgrade to Sage 50. Currently you can get 30% off the cost of upgrading – if you are using Sage Instants this is a great opportunity to get additional functionality and a reduced rate.

Finally cut the cost of keeping in contact with your customers and tracking your opportunities with ACT! Sage 50 customers can get up to 25% until May 31st.

This month the offers for the Instants Upgrade and ACT! are really good. A 30% and 25% discount respectively demonstrates real savings, as ever all offers have terms and conditions applied; for specific details simply contact us.

The show attracted exhibitors from across the 3PL industry; trade associations, warehousing and transport companies, logistics consultants and many innovative solutions providers.

As honorary IT advisors to the UKWA we were asked to attend their pavilion so that members could put questions to us with regards technology needs. We were surprised by the questions that we were asked and the concerns that were raised; many being more to do with general IT issues rather than industry specific.

I met with Roger Williams and Michael Davison to look at how we might be able to better assist the members by taking a look at general technology issues rather than warehouse management software or logistics software.

So over the next few weeks we will look at some topics and put together some presentations that can be delivered at regional UKWA meetings.

Whilst my son was disappointed not to have a promotional football or similar from my trip I found it a productive and enjoyable event and look forward to Multimodal 2011.

Within a year of starting out Imbibros had moved to their first warehouse/outlet where they served both trade and retail customers.

The Rickyard (a converted barn) allowed Imbibros to manage all aspects of storage and despatch as well as establish regular tasting events in the warehouse setting.

Imbibros and Vision Commerce

Imbibros were introduced to Ontech halfway through their first year of trading. At the time they had an excellent system that was manually managed; the downside to it was that it was very time consuming and required a reasonable degree of understanding to use it.

Initial meetings established that Vision Commerce fitted their growing needs; integration with their bonded warehouse, the ability to hold stock in more than one warehouse or location, the addition of Vision EPOS and the integration of financial accounting meant that Imbibros soon decided to make the move.

The Result

We think it is fair to say that Imbibros are still hungry to grow so this is not the end of the story by far. At the time of preparing this they have two outlets that each have access to Vision Commerce and that each use Vision EPOS for retails sales.

The system is delivered by remote deployment; meaning they can access the systems from any location with an internet connection. This means the capitol hardware costs are great reduced and they have access to the trade systems from work, home or the beach (if needed).

If you would like to find out more about Imbibros contact either Paul or James on 01483 861164 or you can visit their website: www.imbibros.co.uk.

Vision Distribution

Due to the fact that London City Bond were using a dispersed system it meant that each transport system, for each site was totally independent. London City Bond wanted to have a single, fully integrated solution which would allow route planning for all sites and all depots.

Vision Distribution Benefits

Vision Distribution is a multi platform, multi-site, radial distribution system which copes with multiple deliveries, from multiple sites and with multiple source depots.

• It allows for the planning of delivery vehicles from multiple depots
• It controls the transit of goods between the delivery depots
• It charges customers, therefore is designed for 3rd party use as well
• It can be easily used within a single environment
• It also comes with a mobile hand held solution to help make the delivery process effortless

The Result for London City Bond

By having Vision Distribution installed, it has enabled London City Bond to have all of their transport and delivery information for their various sites and depots in one central location.

Deliveries, collections and returns can all be arranged via the system and reports can also be easily generated for areas such as order information and details of deliveries for each customer.

Since the introduction of the mobile hand held system, it also means that drivers no longer need to return to the depot with signed paperwork.  All that’s required is a signature on the screen and all the delivery information is on the servers at the office within minutes.

To take a more in depth look at London City Bond, visit their website www.lcb.co.uk.

Details of the release can be found within the Development tracker system, which can be access by customers on the internet, the address is tracker.ontechsupport.net

You will need your user name and password to access the site.

If you are experiencing any issues which may be fixed by this version please contact the support team for an upgrade.
Bug releases are non chargeable releases to Vision Commerce.

As part of the Sage marketing machine we are sent offers to promote at the beginning of each month and each quarter. Sage would like us to send out individual updates and campaigns for each offer; our preference is to simply let you know what is available and contact us if something is of interest.

Current offers:

12 for 10 on 50 Accounts Sage Cover Extra
Basically 10% discount on 50 Accounts Cover Extra.

Terms and conditions apply and this is available until 16th April. For full details contact us now.

25% Off 50 Accounts Upgrades
If you are running Sage 50 Accounts v12 or v2007 you can get a 25% discount on the RRP cost of the Sage upgrade.

Terms and conditions apply and this is available until 16th April. For full details contact us now.

VAT Free 50 Accounts Upgrade
Get a 17.5% discount if you have an active v11 Sage 50 Accounts registration without a support contract as of 1st February 2010 or a v11 Sage 50 Accounts contract that is due to renew in March 2010.

Terms and conditions apply and this is available until 16th April. For full details contact us now.

£100 Off a 10 Day Sage Training Passport
For a limited time only you can get £100 off a 10-Day Training Passport, which offer huge savings on the full range of classroom and self-study training courses.

Terms and conditions apply and this is available until 16th April. For full details contact us now.

Sage offers change all the time so we’ll keep you updated as new offers become available. If you have any specific thoughts or requirements don’t hesitate to contact us on 0871 221 2671 or email me by clicking ‘reply’.

Regards,

David Stump and the Ontech team

We are working through offers that come in at the start of the month from Sage, Microsoft and other strategic suppliers and will be forwarding those shortly.

We have  Multimodal 2010 at the end of the month, there are clients going live and existing clients that are looking at expanding and how we can help, Gordon Brown is about to announce the date for the UK General Election and it’s barely 20 past nine!

Our month is going to be busy; we hope yours will too and look forward to speaking to you and finding out how we can help with your plans for April and the rest of the year.

Regards,

David Stump and the Ontech team.

Alan Gilchrist and David Stump will be available to answer questions and show how the Vision Suite of is helping companies is the warehousing and logistics industry.

If you would like to arrange a time to meet please email David Stump at dstump@ontechsolutions.net, or just stop by the stand on the day.

The new version is packed full of new and additional features to enhance the Warehouse Management Functionality

• Enhanced Warehouse Receipting Module and Booking Diary
• New Charging mechanisms and integration with VInvoicing for 3rd party invoicing
• Updated Sales Order Screens making it simpler to process orders
• Frozen Stock and Location Change options have been simplified and made easier to use
• More Enquiry Screens and additional searching has been added
• Lots of New Reports including a Warehouse Management overview
• Workflow has been added to the system for the order processing / picking and despatch
• New Picking types, not just FIFO any more but designed to suit any customer picking needs

Customers will be able to have the new release from 20th March 2010 onwards.

If you wish any further details then please contact us on 08451 89 89 00 or email us at info@ontechsolutions.net

Note that only receipts from some "initial member states", the identity of which HMRC have yet to confirm, will be covered by electronic AADs. Despatches from member states not involved with EMCS from 1st April 2010 will continue to be accompanied by paper AADs and these must be dealt with as now in the member state of receipt.

Over 150 handheld devices are in service and confirmed in excess of 250,000 delivery lines during its first quarter alone.

Visio ePOD is an essential asset to any distribution and logistics operation, providing real time data between drivers and central offices, giving customers a more accurate delivery window.

The 21CN is a more robust platform, so you will experience an even smoother and more reliable broadband service. It will also enable Eclipse to give you the newest communications services - from higher speeds to a wide range of bandwidth-hungry information services including Voice over IP (VoIP) and video over the internet.

The government are extremely keen that the UK can be as competitive as possible, openly saying that faster fibre broadband is one of the key elements to being competitive.

Eclipse is consistently recognised in independent reviews as one of the best performing ISPs in terms of speed, reliability and customer service and won Best Business Email and Best Business ISP at the 2008 ISPA awards.

Click here to find out more about Vision ePod.