The Judges Panel of the 5th annual Datacentre Awards which takes place in London 13 June have received a record number of submissions from companies across Europe. Due to demand, the official deadline has been extended to 16 April to allow further companies additional time to submit their awards.
The panel of expert Judges now includes representatives from the UK, Netherlands, France, and Germany.
Now in its 5th year, the prestigious Awards provide exceptional marketing differentiation for both winners and runners up and are recognised as the premier industry accolade across the European region.
This year’s categories are designed to reflect changes in markets and technologies, but retain their focus on recognising excellence across the datacentre and cloud sector:
• European Award for New Datacentre Facility
• European Award for Colocation
• Modular Datacentre Solution
• European Award for Cloud Infrastructure
• European Award for Cloud Services
• European Award for Managed Services
• European Award for Energy Efficiency in DataCentres
• European Award for Data Centre Entrepreneur
• European Award for DataCentre Technology Architect
• CxO of the Year
• Datacentre Change and Innovation Award
“This year’s Awards will be more sought after than ever, as the industry seeks to distinguish excellence in a highly competitive marketplace, commented Ashley Davis, chairman of the panel of Judges. “The Awards provide an invaluable benchmark for datacentre and cloud companies, and are the only to do so at European level. 2012 looks set to be another tremendous opportunity for the sector.”
The Awards ceremony and dinner will be held at Merchant Taylors Hall in the City of London on 13 June. Gold Sponsor is Digital Realty. Tables are now available for early booking at the Awards website www.datacentreawards.com.
The blog for smart businesspeople
Tuesday, 3 April 2012
With goal of £58 million turnover, Barker Ross Group creates nine industry teams
It’s new food, agriculture, waste, industrial, logistics construction, civil engineering, energy and housing teams will source and supply temporary, contract and permanent workers.
Founder and managing director of Barker Ross, Paul Ross says: “We’ve grown the business as we have been able to give clients the people they want, when they want them. We’ve got ambitious growth plan as we currently turnover £22 million and want to more than double this by 2015.”
“This restructure is really just a logical extension of what we have doing all along; it gives our consultants a clear focus in one area of business. This focus will mean, they will know exactly what is going on in their sector and be able to really contribute to our clients’ profitability.”
Established in 1988, Barker Ross quickly established a reputation as one of the UK’s leading construction and industrial specialists. The group has become one of the first ports of call for clients needing temporary and contract staff in areas such as food processing, agriculture, property and energy.
The group also includes Cardea, a recruitment business serving the health and social care sectors.
A new website has also been launched, in addition to a redesign for all the company’s offices and communications.
Ross continues: “We’ve got a new look and a new structure, this is a very exciting time for us. As well as achieving more success with our established business, we can also see opportunities in related sectors and have concrete plans to expand our office network.”
“We are constantly on the lookout for new people to join, as our growing reputation is winning us many new clients and we need the best people to join our new teams.”
Monday, 2 April 2012
Offices in the Cloud: how Virtual Offices benefit from flexible cloud services
Steve Turner
Dr Steven Turner, VP of IT optimisation consultancy Intergence, has outlined how using cloud services benefits mobile workers and those operating virtual offices that traditionally have to rely on high speed broadband links to their corporate data centres for connectivity.
Dr Turner explained: “Cloud computing enables businesses to make use of software and services as and when they need them, requiring only an Internet connection and a web browser, going some way towards solving the problems of resourcing and collaboration. One of the largest challenges of running a small business is trying to predict what services will be needed in the future if circumstances suddenly change; for example, if the company expands quickly, then more employees and resources will be required to support and enable the business to perform optimally. However, investing too much, too soon could also be potentially disastrous.”
“Secondly, regardless of location, employees can use cloud services to share files, access business services, talk to each other or collaborate on shared documents in real time. Cloud computing allows people to build a geographically diverse team that works together with all the benefits of improved productivity and better communication. A good example of a popular cloud-based service is Google Documents which allows businesses to create and manage documents online. Some users probably don’t even realise they are using the cloud when accessing services they use on a daily basis.”
Cloud based services can improve the remote worker experience in the following ways:
• Easy-to-access resources anywhere without specialist software; only requiring a standard web browser.
• Secure access to corporate resources, ensuring the user has access to only the systems and services for which they are authorised.
• Flexible computing power which can grow with the business needs, guaranteeing the infrastructure is sized for the demands of the users.
• Greater available bandwidth to users than would be feasible for an organisation to provide itself.
• Higher application performance via cloud hosting regions which are local to the user, hence reducing latency.
Dr Turner concluded: “Traditional remote access is not flexible enough to support business growth and can often suffer from congestion and latency during periods of heavy use. To help ease the burden on the business, remote employees should be able to take advantage of cloud services which provide users with virtually unlimited computing power, whilst establishing a much more flexible infrastructure that can grow with the business requirements.”
Intergence has recently announced a series of IT Optimisation health check seminars being held in Leeds, London and Edinburgh during May 2012. The health check seminars will explain how to optimise and fine tune an organisation’s infrastructure to best take advantage of cloud technology.
Click here for further information on attending the health check seminars.
FACTFILE:
About Dr Steven Turner
Steve Turner is the VP of IT Optimisation at Intergence. He specialises in Network Optimisation and has successfully completed a large number of optimisation projects for clients in both the public and private sector. Steve is Cisco CCNA and CCNA security certified and is currently studying CCNP. Steve has gained a BSc (Hons) in Computer Science from the University of Warwick, and an MSc in Network Systems from the University of Sunderland. He has also completed a PhD using genetic algorithms in conjunction with parallel processing to produce a multi-utility network optimisation tool.
About Intergence
Intergence (www.intergence.com) is a leading independent IT Optimisation Consultancy, headquartered in Cambridge, UK, with a regional office in the Middle East (Dubai, UAE) and was founded in 2003 to address the growing requirements of clients demanding high-level impartial expertise in networks and IT.
The company has recently (February 2012) been announced as one of the suppliers of the UK Government’s cloud computing procurement initiative, G-Cloud. The framework will feature services divided into four segments, with Intergence forming part of the specialist cloud services.
Our close relationship within the Cambridge academic community enables us to innovate in partnership, rapidly incorporating the latest technology advances into our products and services.
Intergence operates over two distinct lines of business; people and performance. Our expertise and knowledge within the field allows us to resource the right people in the right place, getting your IT projects completed quickly and hassle free. Utilising world first products and professional optimisation services, Intergence has a clear and common purpose- to improve performance and extract more value from your IT infrastructure.
Follow Intergence on Twitter
Barclays Business and FreeAgent partner to deliver automated bank data feeds
FreeAgent has been chosen as the first online accounting software to deliver automated data feeds direct from Barclays Business accounts - providing business customers with a simpler and more secure way of staying on top of their bookkeeping.
Under the agreement, Barclays DataServices - the new service from Barclays Business - will securely and automatically export customers’ business account transactions and send the data directly to their FreeAgent accounts; saving customers time and reducing the risk of errors.
All Barclays Business customers with a FreeAgent account will be able to use Barclays DataServices completely free of charge, including customers who have Barclays’ award-winning MyBusinessWorks package.
Ed Molyneux, CEO and founder of FreeAgent, said: “Staying on top of the finances is one of the biggest challenges that small business owners face, so we’re delighted to launch this new automated bank feed capability with Barclays Business. By providing the ability to import bank data directly into FreeAgent, we’ll be giving customers an easier and more efficient way of managing their books than ever before.
“We know this intuitive new feature will be very popular with customers and we look forward to exploring how to integrate similar automated bank feeds for other FreeAgent users in the future.”
Richard Exton, Managing director of Clearlybusiness, the innovative arm of Barclays Business, added: “This shifts the dial significantly in terms of speed, ease and clarity for business accounts”.
FreeAgent provides an award-winning online accounting system specifically designed for small businesses and freelancers. Launched in 2007, it has rapidly grown a loyal community of thousands of customers. Since 2011, FreeAgent has been part of the award-winning MyBusinessWorks applications package that Barclays Business provides to its customers.
FACTFILE:
FreeAgent provides an award-winning online accounting system designed to meet the needs of small businesses and freelancers. Since launching its system in 2007, FreeAgent has rapidly grown a loyal community of thousands of customers, who pay either monthly or annually for access to its easy-to-use software.
FreeAgent is run by founders Ed Molyneux, Olly Headey and Roan Lavery, all former freelancers who created the system after discovering that there was no available finance tool on the market to give them a clear picture of their business accounts.
FreeAgent’s investors include Robin Klein at The Accelerator Group - one of Europe’s top investors who was named No 2 in Business XL magazine’s ‘Power Top 50 2011’. FreeAgent has won accolades at the SIFT Media Software Satisfaction Awards and British Accountancy Awards, as well as being listed in the prestigious PCPro A-List and the Guardian’s Techmedia Invest 100 list.
Since 2011, FreeAgent has been part of the award-winning MyBusinessWorks applications package that Barclays provides to its business customers. FreeAgent was also selected in 2010 to power the ‘IRIS OpenBooks’ online accounting system for IRIS Software, whose customers comprise around 50% of the 28,000 accountancy practices in the UK.
Try it for free at: www.freeagent.com
Follow them on twitter: @freeagent
Barclays Business is the business banking arm of Barclays. It has over 770,000 customers with a turnover up to £5m that are a mixture of start ups, sole traders, partnerships and limited companies. We supported a record number of business start ups – over 100,000 new businesses in 2010.
Barclays services to SMEs include:
* A choice of business accounts that they can tailor to their needs and the provision of up to two years free banking to start-ups, subject to remaining in credit.
* Day-to-day business banking support through a team of Business Managers who are available over the telephone for everyday and urgent banking needs.
* Free consultations for businesses with a local accountant, marketing expert and solicitor to advise on topics such as the best legal status, how to advertise or draft supply contracts.
* A free nationwide business seminar and workshop programme. This is designed to help business owners network and gain practical help on relevant challenges such as marketing, trading online or how to generate more business profits. We expect around 12,000 delegates to attend our business seminars this year.
* Business management software that helps business customers complete their account work quickly and efficiently; support their hiring efforts; help back up their business data securely; and avoid late payment and bad debts.
Barclays Business named Business Bank of the Year at the UK’s National Association of Commercial Finance Brokers (NACFB) Industry Awards December 2011.
Thames Valley Berkshire Local Enterprise Partnership Announces Impressive Line-Up of Speakers For The Business Show 2012
• Local Enterprise Partnership to deliver series of presentations at business collaboration event
The Thames Valley Berkshire Local Enterprise Partnership (TVB LEP) today released the names of the TVB LEP speakers who will present at the ‘Collaborating for Growth Business Show 2012’, a one day event to encourage business growth and collaboration in the Thames Valley, which will take place on 18th April from 8.00 am to 6.00 pm at the Madjeski Stadium.
The TVB LEP speakers will present on the following topics:
• Steve Lamb, Chair of the TVB LEP, will offer a global perspective on Thames Valley Berkshire’s economy and the importance of inward investment in the region.
• Ruth Bagley, Chief Executive of Slough Borough Council, will deliver a talk on the Western Rail Access to Heathrow (WRAtH) campaign, a simple, low cost, technically and financially deliverable scheme which offers economic benefits and jobs growth to the region.
• David Knowles-Leak, Regional Chair of the Federation of Small Businesses, is presenting jointly with Anne Murdoch, Principal of West Berkshire College, on skills and education in Berkshire, sector skills gaps and improving the work readiness of those seeking employment.
A series of keynote speeches will also be delivered by the following speakers, focusing on leadership abilities and how to succeed and win in business and life:
• Steve Lamb, Chair of the TVB LEP and Senior Director of Oracle Corporation
• Marcelle Speller, OBE, Founder and Chief Executive of Localgiving.com
• Kevin Gaskell, Berkshire Entrepreneur, Explorer and Motivational Speaker recognised as a ‘top 40 leader under 40’ and Chairman to a number of companies
• Eamonn Dolan, Manager of the Reading FC Youth Academy
• Henry Hirsch, Coach at Reading Rowing Club
• Matt Rogan, Managing Director of Two Circles
• Jim McNeil, Polar Explorer and Leadership Expert
Steve Lamb, Chair of the TVB LEP comments: “This is an excellent group of speakers and the topics really underline what we here at the TVB LEP believe, that Berkshire is a great place to live, work and do business. We have three key areas of focus at TVB LEP: improving transport and communications infrastructure; increasing employment, skills and education; and maintaining and attracting inward investment. To achieve this we need businesses to get involved and help collaborate for growth. There are 42,000 SMEs in Berkshire alone and we hope all businesses, whether large or small, will join us at the 2012 Business Show.”
The presentations will take place from 9.00am to 11.30am, and from 2.00pm to 3.30pm. In between these sessions will be a series of Apprentice Workshops, showcasing work from some of the brightest and best apprentices in the Thames Valley Berkshire region and highlighting what funding is available. There will be five employer-run workshops where businesses will be on hand to tell their apprenticeship success stories.
• Henley based business, PJ Sparks Electrical Contractors Ltd will discuss why ‘Apprenticeships Are Good For Business’
• Compressor Products International will be talking about why they recruit apprentices, and the benefits they have brought to the business
• David McGill, HR Manager of construction company Kier presents on ‘Apprenticeships – From An Employers Perspective’
• IT training specialists QA Training from Slough will be addressing businesses on ‘Busting The Myths And Preconceptions About Apprenticeships’
• The National Apprenticeship Service’s Julie Rossington holds the final workshop where she will be talking about how apprenticeships can work for businesses and the government grants currently available’
The apprentice workshops will be essential for businesses interested in finding out more about taking on apprentices, where fellow business people and apprenticeship experts will be available to answer any questions they may have.
Businesses and individuals who come to the Business Show will be able to support the TVB LEP firstly by becoming a member of the TVB LEP, and secondly by signing up to voice their support for several of its key initiatives including the Western Rail Access to Heathrow (WRAtH) campaign and the drive to widen access to broadband across the region.
Organised jointly by the TVB LEP and Berkshire Media Group, the biggest independent newspaper publisher in the county, the Business Show 2012 has already filled all 50 exhibition spaces for local businesses and is anticipating in excess of 600 visitors. The show, which is free to visitors, is designed to accommodate every business professional and maximise business potential with high-level speakers, exhibitions, seminars, networking opportunities and workshops. The event is supported by key business membership organisations including the Institute of Directors for Berkshire, the Thames Valley Chamber of Commerce and the Federation of Small Businesses.
For more information please visit http://www.bmgevents.co.uk/
Sunday, 1 April 2012
Chancellor Launches Google Campus In East London's Tech City
Chancellor of the Exchequer the Rt. Hon. George Osborne MP recently launched Google Campus, a seven storey co-working and events space in the centre of East London's Tech City.
The Chancellor toured the building, meeting some of the UK's technology startups today making their home in Campus, and learning more about their innovations. He formally opened Campus by flicking the switch on a commemorative graffiti plaque.
Campus, a project run by Google UK - with support from partners Central Working, Tech Hub, Seedcamp and Springboard - aims to fuel the success of London's tech startup community. Its primary function will be to provide office space to startup companies, but Campus will also host daily events, offer regular speaker series with leading technology and entrepreneurship experts, hold networking events and run a constant mentoring programme, where Google staff will share their experience and expertise with residents.
Non-residential registered users will have access to the cafe and co-working space on the lower-ground floor, and will have free access to high speed wifi. Google hope that this informal, highly concentrated space will lead to chance meetings and interactions that will generate the ideas and partnerships that will drive new, innovative businesses.
In only three years, the Tech City community has grown to over 700 UK technology startups, based in London's creative centre. Google Campus will aim to build on this success and help to drive innovation, entrepreneurship, access to knowledge, valuable contacts and inspirational mentoring.
Campus is already at 90% capacity, with more than 60 permanent residents on site and an additional 4500 registered users. Furthermore, the recently-launched website, www.campuslondon.com has already recieved close to 400 requests for deskspace and more than 80 requests from organisations looking to host their events at Campus.
On opening Campus, Chancellor of the Exchequer the Rt. Hon. George Osborne MP said: "This is the result of two years of collaboration between Google and the British Government, and we salute the leadership, creativity and energy of everyone at Google for making this happen."
Google's Head of Campus Eze Vidra added: "Campus's goal is to create a central meeting point for London's booming tech startup community. East London is emerging as a world-leading entrepreneurial hub, and we're excited to be a part of it. Let's fill this town with startups!"
Commenting on the opening of Google Campus, Eric van der Kleij, CEO of Tech City Investment Organisation said: "The opening of Campus is a real milestone for Tech City, sending a clear signal to the world that the area is fast becoming global centre for entrepreneurship and innovation."
Google's commitment to create the largest co-working space in the area is testament to their desire to help facilitate and fuel the growth of the UK start-up community, and recognises that some of the best ideas come from new connections and collaboration. By creating a space that will evolve alongside the community, with the scale and connections that Google can provide, Campus helps accelerate the prominence of the area as a centre for ideas and creativity.
Google signed a ten year lease on 4-5 Bonhill Street in September 2011, and has since totally renovated the space .
FACTFILE:
Campus is situated at 4-5 Bonhill Street, London, EC2A 4BX.
Google's major Campus partners are Central Working, Seedcamp, Techhub and Springboard.
Google is a global technology leader focused on improving the ways people connect with information. Google's innovations in web search and advertising have made its website a top internet property and its brand one of the most recognised in the world. For more information, visit www.google.com/about.html.
The Chancellor toured the building, meeting some of the UK's technology startups today making their home in Campus, and learning more about their innovations. He formally opened Campus by flicking the switch on a commemorative graffiti plaque.
Campus, a project run by Google UK - with support from partners Central Working, Tech Hub, Seedcamp and Springboard - aims to fuel the success of London's tech startup community. Its primary function will be to provide office space to startup companies, but Campus will also host daily events, offer regular speaker series with leading technology and entrepreneurship experts, hold networking events and run a constant mentoring programme, where Google staff will share their experience and expertise with residents.
Non-residential registered users will have access to the cafe and co-working space on the lower-ground floor, and will have free access to high speed wifi. Google hope that this informal, highly concentrated space will lead to chance meetings and interactions that will generate the ideas and partnerships that will drive new, innovative businesses.
In only three years, the Tech City community has grown to over 700 UK technology startups, based in London's creative centre. Google Campus will aim to build on this success and help to drive innovation, entrepreneurship, access to knowledge, valuable contacts and inspirational mentoring.
Campus is already at 90% capacity, with more than 60 permanent residents on site and an additional 4500 registered users. Furthermore, the recently-launched website, www.campuslondon.com has already recieved close to 400 requests for deskspace and more than 80 requests from organisations looking to host their events at Campus.
On opening Campus, Chancellor of the Exchequer the Rt. Hon. George Osborne MP said: "This is the result of two years of collaboration between Google and the British Government, and we salute the leadership, creativity and energy of everyone at Google for making this happen."
Google's Head of Campus Eze Vidra added: "Campus's goal is to create a central meeting point for London's booming tech startup community. East London is emerging as a world-leading entrepreneurial hub, and we're excited to be a part of it. Let's fill this town with startups!"
Commenting on the opening of Google Campus, Eric van der Kleij, CEO of Tech City Investment Organisation said: "The opening of Campus is a real milestone for Tech City, sending a clear signal to the world that the area is fast becoming global centre for entrepreneurship and innovation."
Google's commitment to create the largest co-working space in the area is testament to their desire to help facilitate and fuel the growth of the UK start-up community, and recognises that some of the best ideas come from new connections and collaboration. By creating a space that will evolve alongside the community, with the scale and connections that Google can provide, Campus helps accelerate the prominence of the area as a centre for ideas and creativity.
Google signed a ten year lease on 4-5 Bonhill Street in September 2011, and has since totally renovated the space .
FACTFILE:
Campus is situated at 4-5 Bonhill Street, London, EC2A 4BX.
Google's major Campus partners are Central Working, Seedcamp, Techhub and Springboard.
Google is a global technology leader focused on improving the ways people connect with information. Google's innovations in web search and advertising have made its website a top internet property and its brand one of the most recognised in the world. For more information, visit www.google.com/about.html.
Standard Life reveals less than a third of UK adults know when the tax year ends
The tax year end falls on April 5th, but the majority of the public (69%) either doesn’t know or thinks it's a different date. Some said it was earlier in the year, with one in 12 (8% - more than 4.08 million people) thinking the end of the tax year is April Fool's day.
But more alarmingly, 7.27 million people (15%) of respondents believe their tax deadline falls after April 5th. Even those who already actively save into ISAs can still get it wrong. Only 36% of ISA investors were able to correctly identify the tax year end date and a worrying one in six (17%), thought the tax year end was later than April 5th.
People in Northern Ireland seem to be the most clued up on the tax year-end deadline, with almost two in five (38%) identifying the correct date. While people in Wales were the least aware, with only one in four (25%) people able to correctly identify April 5th as the tax year end.
Standard Life's Julie Russell commented: "Our research shows that few people know when the tax year ends. While more people believe it is before April 5th, each year than after, and that is perhaps less of a worry, it's a real concern that so many ISA investors don’t know when the annual cut off point is for their investments.
"If you are saving into tax efficient savings or investments like ISAs or pensions, then you really do need to know when the tax year ends. The 5th of April should be front of mind. Otherwise you risk not making the most of these products and their valuable allowances."
People can find out more about being financially efficient with investments like pensions and stocks and shares ISAs at www.yourfuturemoney.co.uk which also includes top tips and interactive tools.
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