7 Important Facts That Might Help You Become Paperless!

Ancar B Technologies has a history of offering document management solutions to its customers (as far back as 1999). However, in recent times we haven’t had many requests from customers looking to source such a solution.

However, I thought a recent piece of literature from one of our alliance partners  summarises nicely why organisations should consider document management.

  1. 80% of companies whose documents are damages by fire or other disasters can effectively go out of business within one year!
  2. You can end up spending thousands and thousands managing paper documents, without eliminating them. These paper documents are often duplicated on average 15 times during their life cycle!
  3. A four drawer filing cabinet costs approximately £16000 to fill and £1400pa to maintain! Is this extra cash your organisation could put to better use?
  4. The average professional spends 5%-15% of their time reading information. But UP TO 50% searching for it!
  5. The cost of office space has increased 19% in the last year and is set to increase in the current economic climate! Are you ready to embrace it?
  6. PriceWaterhouseCoopers have estimated Paper Documents are growing at a rate of 22% per year. Is your organisation growing? If so that rate could be even faster!
  7. 7.5% of documents get lost. Approximately 3% of the remainder will get misfiled.

Ancar B in conjunction with an alliance partner has sourced a document management solution that can be 1) hosted in the cloud (therefore there is no hardware investment needed) and 2) which can be paid for on a monthly basis (so its very cost effective). 3) And it is also really easy to use!

The product is ideal for IFAs, Accountants and Solicitors – in fact any business that generates a lot of paperfiles – but the beauty of it is that it can be paid for on a monthly basis to fit in with a client’s budget. So you no longer need to risk capital expenditure to feel the benefit.

For more information or the system and to arrange a demo, please contact Richard on 0845 077 8883.

 

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Don’t forget the power!

With cloud computing becoming ever more popular, server technology manufacturers are becoming ever more focused on the power usage of their servers to keep costs down and ensure compliance with ‘green’ codes of practice and legislation. In line with this Ancar B deploys extremely energy efficient servers at its data centre, which are used to facilitate the virtual platform for its customers.

But keeping costs down is obviously a key consideration for any business in the current economic climate and if the power usage of your IT infrastructure is efficient – cloud computing offers a win-win solution i.e. you pay on a monthly basis for the use of apps supplied via the cloud and the power to run them is minimised.

However, have you ever stopped to think about the actual cost of powering the IT in your business. Many businesses view the cost of electricity as a given, but imagine if you could cut the cost of your power as well as the cost of your computing solutions.

I recently met with a business associate who offers a utilities price assessment and supply service targeted specifically at business. I know we (and you probably) get hassled by utilities companies regularly saying ‘we offer the cheapest tariff’, but this service involves a full assessment of your power usage and then a professional report detailing where improvements could be made based on fact. It is well worth a look when you consider the savings made on electricity could be used to put towards the monthly fee made on cloud computing e.g. hosting your Sage Accounting Sofware.

For information on this service and to be put in touch with a professional utilities consultancy, please contact Richard on 0845 077 8883.

Posted in Cloud Computing, Electricity Costs, Hints & Tips, Power Usage, Sage Hosting, Technology | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Say goodbye to XP in 2012

In my last post I mentioned some of the likely trends for 2012. Another trend that is forecast to gather pace is the number of people deserting the Windows XP operating system in favour of Windows 7 and Windows 8.

Statistics show that Windows XP lost 2.4% percentage points of usage share to post a December average of 46.5%, a new low for the decade-old operating system. Commentators suggest that if usual trends repeat themselves, Windows XP will lose an even larger chunk of usage share this month, expected to be by as much as 3.5 points this month.

Goodbye XP

This should not be a surprise. In one of my news items on www.ancarb.com website back in January 2011 I announced that Microsoft's latest release of IE9 would not run on XP. In addition, in July 2011 Microsoft told customers to was "time to move on" from XP reminding everyone that the Operating system would exit all support in April 2014. Before this the Microsoft Internet Explorer (IE) team had dismissed XP as the "lowest common denominator" when they clarified why it wouldn't run IE9.

Projections based on research now indicate that Windows 7 will become the most widely used version in April 2012, several months earlier than previous estimates. And by the time Windows 8 debuts (October is the suggested on-sale date), Windows 7 will have captured between 50% and 52% of the operating system market.

So what does this mean for us all? Well for resellers, like Ancar B, it is now virtually impossible to get a machine that runs XP Pro and/or find drivers for XP Pro to apply to new desktop PCs that we supply. For clients, it is important to check that any third party application(s) you run are Windows 7 compatible should you purchase a PC and wish to use it to run them. Microsoft publishes details surrounding the compatibility of Windows 7 with many leading third party applications, but it is important to check with the manufacturers of the application also.

If the third party application you are using is not compatible with Windows 7 then the only logical step is to upgrade the third party application to a version that is compatible with Windows 7.

Alternative if you are looking to upgrade a third party application, but cannot afford to purchase new hardware to run it - you should considering hosting the application on our virtual platform in the cloud. The application can then be accessed over the internet using a Terminal Server connection and without having to upgrade desktop hardware (in most cases*). Call 0845 077 8882 for details.

* This assumes the hardware is of a minimum standard and the client has an internet connection.

Thanks

Richard

 

For advice on upgrading to Windows 7 or the compatibility of Windows 7 with third party applications, please call Ancar B on 0845 077 8883.

 

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5 Technology Trends for 2012

Now that we have entered the New Year I thought it would be good to mention some of the technology trends that are predicted to take hold in 2012 by commentators in the sector. I have already mentioned the iPhone 5 (that is the presumed name) forecasted for the last quarter of 2012, but the other big product trends predicted to emerge in 2012 are:-

Ultrabooks – Intel introduced the concept of Ultrabooks – laptops with slim designs, soild state drives and longer battery life in May 2011. Since then a number of Ultrabooks have come out by Lenovo, Acer and Toshiba. But there is forecast to be real growth in machines to compete with the MacBook Air following the Consumer Electronic Show in Las Vegas this month with between 30 and 50 Ultrabooks being launched.

OLED – Organic Light Emitting Diode (OLED) displays which promise more vivid colours, faster response times and smaller device footprints are set to break into the television market. LG are set to release a new 55-inch display , 0.16 depth, weighing 16.5 pounds which promises a response time of less than 0.0001 miliseconds (the average LCD response time is between 5 and 2 miliseconds).

Quad Core Phones – 2012 is forecast to witness the release of ultra fast smartphones that carry a quad core processor like Nvidia Tegra 3 and Qualcomms Snapdragon S4. The first quad core smartphones are expected to make an appearance in the first quarter of 2012.

4K Display Resolution – During 2012 it is forecast that we will see displays with a type of display resolution that has four times the pixel density of 1080p HDTVs, the current gold standard for mass market high-definition displays. Both LG and Toshiba are working on products in this area.

Ice Cream Sandwich – No I haven’t gone mad (yet). Tablets have been a big topic at trade shows in recent times  when device manufactures raced to release products to compete with the Apple iPad. Google released the Android Operating System to run on many of these competing products and during 2012 they are set to release its latest flavour (forgive the pun) Ice Cream Sandwich and to gain more penetration in the market.

Thanks

Richard

 

 

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iPhone 4S for Xmas?

What's coming next?

Okay you love gadgets and therefore you may have received the latest iPhone 4S for Xmas. But rumours are circulating on the net that Apple’s next-generation iPhone (the iPhone 5 maybe) is set to launch in the last quarter of 2012.

Information is being drip-fed about the look and feel of the device, but it is important to keep in mind that details are yet to be confirmed. However early reports suggest the latest iPhone is likely to use the same type of rubbery plastic found on their bumper cases as built-in protection on the iPhone case, adding it to the front edge of the phone. This is said to perform a two-fold use. First, it will serve as a bezel, connecting the glass face to a new aluminium back plate. Second, the purpose of the material will be to cover a renovated antenna system that the new iPhone will use, doing away with any need for a plastic insert above the antenna. In addition, reports suggest the upcoming iPhone will have an aluminium case not unlike that found on the iPad2, as well as a larger, 4-inch display.

So this time next year you may be walking around with the latest latest iPhone.

Happy New Year!

Richard

 

 

 

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