Managed Networks News

Return on investment is the number one reason to outsource your IT support

Tue, 03 Aug 2010 15:11:09 +0100

Managed Networks has recently completed a survey on what small companies look for when outsourcing their IT support and why they would, or wouldn't employ an internal IT Manager.

The No.1 answer given was return on investment (17.5%) with technical knowledge and skills being the No.2 answer (11.1%)

Both are answers we would expect but there were answers that surprised us a little:

price was only raised by 2 people
Proximity was a response in less than 2% of cases
just one person said relevant industry experience was required

More details from the survey will be published on our blog over the coming days so keep coming back to see what oour survey revealed about what is important when buying IT support

Public preview of Windows Small Business Server 7 is announced

Mon, 26 Jul 2010 14:27:47 +0100

Microsoft has announced that the public preview of Windows Small Business Server 7 will be released at the end of the Summer.

As a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner and a Small Business Specialist, we are ideally placed to review and report back to you on what we think

Watch this space.

Microsoft Office 2010 is now available to everyone

Tue, 15 Jun 2010 13:51:32 +0100

If you want to know more about Office 2010 or want to among the first companies to use what we believe is the best version of Microsoft Office, give us a call on 0800 783 6170 or click here and we will call you back

intellect publishes their State of the UK Technology Sector report

Tue, 15 Jun 2010 08:47:45 +0100

Managed Networks has been an active member of Intellect since in was known as the CSSA (Computer & Software Services Association). Ben Rapp, our CEO, is actively involved in their SME group, the Outsourcing & Offshoring Group and their Membership Committee. Nigel Davey, our Business Development Manager, is currently chair of the Sales & Marketing Group.

Managed Networks will, over the next few days, provide comments and our own personal opinions on this report in both this news section and on our blog

Stage One's Start Up Fund announces first recipient

Wed, 09 Jun 2010 10:45:36 +0100

Managed Networks is an active sponsor of Stage One and as part of our work within the London theatre industry we contribute to their Start-Up Fund.

It is great to see that the first recipient of that funding has been announced. Becky Barber's production of Sebastian Faulk's Birdsong will open at the Comedy Theatre is September and it is her debut as a West End producer.

Managed Networks wishes Becky the best of luck and we look forward to hearing more about what Stage One is doing to promote new producers and directors

Managed Networks is awarded Microsoft Medium Business Solution Provider competency

Wed, 26 May 2010 09:23:13 +0100

Managed Networks is delighted to announce that Microsoft has awarded The Medium Business Solution Provider competency.

Microsoft use competencies as a way of getting their partners to demonstrate their skill set. To gain a competency we must have a minimum numbers of engineers with the knowledge and skillset to pass specific technical exams and then submit a number of customer references that demonstrate how we have implemented a business solution that helped a customer.

Managed Networks is committed to our relationship with Microsoft because it helps us deliver the IT support that our customers need

Microsoft Office 2010 - know your Beta

Mon, 19 Apr 2010 11:31:13 +0100

This is the Microsoft Office 2010 Beta video. If you want to talk more about what it can do for your business, give us a call on 0800 783 6170

If you cannot see the embedded video, follow this link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7z9ro7EJBuA

Microsoft Office 2010 is Released to Manufacturing

Mon, 19 Apr 2010 10:45:27 +0100

Release to Manufacturing is the final step before Microsoft release the full version for public consumption.

Business users will be able to buy Microsoft Office 2010 from May 12th, with the full public release expected in June.

The benefits of Microsoft Office 2010 are many and include:

Office Mobile - a fully functioing version available on Windows compatible phones
True team working - the ability to edit documents live whilst others are working on it as well
Word App - allows you to edit documents over a web browser
improved draft versioning and the ability to recover a document even if you haven't yet saved it

As a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner we have been able to use the Beta version and have a number of our staff doing so; they love it!

Regional Business Manager needed

Tue, 13 Apr 2010 09:34:57 +0100

Managed Networks is looking to add a business-focussed and analytically-minded Regional Business Manager to the Sales & Marketing team.

Based in our London Head Office you will be responsible for new business development and account management within London & the South East.

The ideal candidate will have a good understanding of the complexity of selling to SMEs, ideally with a technical background but this is not essential; the ability to listen and understand the clients' need will be.

Excellent oral and written communications skills are essential to ensure our clients, both current and prospective, are getting the information they need and to ensure that our Operations team understands exactly what the client if expecting when they go on-site.

A combination of basic salary and un-capped commission gives a first year OTE of £45-50,000 and an expected 2nd year OTE of £55-60,000.

Please send a covering email and current CV to recruitment@managednetworks.co.uk if you are interested.

NO AGENCIES

Financing options from Managed Networks

Fri, 12 Mar 2010 15:36:38 +0000

In today's economy it is not always simple to pay for IT projects that your business needs. At Managed Networks we can provide you with a number of options to help with this.

Managed Networks works with a number of partner companies to provide a wide range of finance options that will enable you to have the IT infrastructure and applications you need to take your business forward.

These range from unsecured business loans to HP agreements and Operating Leases. Some even have 0% finance for a limited period of time and dependent upon the equipment being purchased.

If you have an IT project you need to do, but are delaying matters due to finance issues, give Managed Networks a call on 0800 783 6170 and we can discuss the options available to you.

This is not an offer of finance and Managed Networks is not a provider of financial services

Shoreditch fire - Managed Networks continues as normal

Thu, 11 Mar 2010 12:59:31 +0000

The fire started at 4.00am and a number of streets that were closed very soon after that.

Managed Networks' helpdesk started at 7.00am and was available to take calls from 7.00am onwards. Our MCSE-qualified IT support engineers were working remotely, from home or from client sites, and simply delivered our service as normal.

Through the use of Microsoft Terminal Services and Microsoft Exchange we were able to get all the information we needed to continue working to support our customers and ensure they continued to experience stress-free IT

Managed Networks' CEO is elected to a Chartered Fellow of the British Computer Society

Mon, 25 Jan 2010 10:43:50 +0000

Ben Rapp, CEO of Managed Networks, has been elected a Chartered Fellow of the British Computer Society

Fellowships of the BCS, the highest level of recognition within the IT profession in the UK, are awarded to those who have an established position of eminence or authoritative reputation in this field. Chartered Fellowships are reserved for Fellows who also satisfy requirements for the award of the Chartered IT Professional designation.

Happy New Year

Mon, 04 Jan 2010 11:36:19 +0000

2009 wasn't the year most people hoped for and we look forward to 2010 being a much better year.

For Managed Networks it wasn't as good as we hoped it would be but in 2009:

we grew our client base, both for our traditional IT support service and for DesktopLive
we recruited additional engineering staff

In 2010 we fully expect to dramatically increase our client acquisition rate and add a significant number of engineers to the team.

Our plans include adding offices to further improve our national coverage with offices in Leeds, Newcastle, Scotland and the M4 corridor being discussed.

We will keep you updated as we go.

Check your software is legal

Thu, 03 Dec 2009 14:43:04 +0000

Clarion Computers in Swansea, Surf-IT Computers Limited in Farnborough, Little Laptop Shop in Huddersfield and Custom PC Shop in Telford have all settled with Microsoft after being found to "not fully understand the licensing rules".

For the full story please follow this link: http://www.channelweb.co.uk/crn/news/2254395/microsoft-clobbers-four-illegal

Managed Networks is a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner and a Small Business Specialist. If you want to ensure your software is correctly licensed give us a call

Nigel Davey accepts Chair at Intellect

Tue, 01 Dec 2009 19:31:02 +0000

Nigel Davey, our Business Development Manager, was recently asked to become Chair of Intellect's Sales & Marketing Group.

We are delighted to announce that he has accepted the role and will actively work with the new vice-chair, Phil Shipperlee to continue to work towards the goals of the group, which are:

improved effectiveness from joining up marketing and sales
greater efficiency through summarising and presenting the latest thinking in marketing and sales
reduced risk by avoiding pitfalls through shared experience in implementing marketing and sales approaches

Managed Networks celebrates ten years providing IT support

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 12:25:04 +0000

On Thursday 18th November 1999 Emerthames Limited starting trading as Managed Networks and the fun began.

Our very first IT support client was a philanthropy based in London’s West End and they are still a client today. We still have 80% of the contracted clients we have ever had, so there must be something about our proactive IT support service that is right for the SME market.

Ben Rapp, our CEO, started the company in order to provide small and medium-businesses with corporate-grade IT. His experience of working with enterprise clients such as BT and Diageo meant he saw how larger companies provide reliable and resilient IT to their staff. Small companies need their IT to be just as reliable and our proactive IT support model was devised to do just that.

In the past ten years we have grown from just one engineer to 20+ Microsoft Certified Systems Engineers, from one office to three and plans for full national coverage in the next four years and from that first client to now having 1000’s of users under our support umbrella.

Managed Networks only works in the SME sector. We only provide IT support to companies up to 250 users because our service model provides the most value to companies in this category. We are not, however vertically-focussed and this means we can bring best practices from a range of different industries to bear on your IT network.

It has been a great first ten years and we look forward to the next ten!

Tom Cobbold joins Managed Networks as Financial Controller

Fri, 16 Oct 2009 16:48:40 +0100

Managed Networks is very happy to announce the latest addition to our management team.

Tom Cobbold brings with him many years' experience working with technology companies, including Multimap, Tadpole and Oilspace.

DesktopLive is truly international

Fri, 28 Aug 2009 15:02:02 +0100

ENS Ltd, a PR firm that uses DesktopLive, has opened an office in Sydney, Australia.

Although the antipode (opposite side of the planet) is actually a small group of islands just off New Zealand, it's pretty close.

As we say in our marketing, "DesktopLive can be used from anywhere in the world with a broadband connection". Hardly remote - but a very long way away

Microsoft Exchange, Office and Sharepoint 2010 - when will they arrive?

Thu, 30 Jul 2009 20:17:25 +0100

Microsoft is currently saying that Exchange 2010, Office 2010 and Sharepoint 2010 will be released in the first quarter of 2010.

Microsoft Exchange 2010 is at Public Beta stage

Microsoft Office 2010 has reached Technical Review and Sharepoint isn't far behind.

Managed Networks expects to have a review version of Office 2010 soon and we will provide our comments on it soon after that.

If you want to discuss your upgrade options, even at this early stage, cal us free on 0800 783 6170 or click here and we will call you back.

Don't let Swine Flu impact your business operations

Mon, 20 Jul 2009 17:34:19 +0100

Government figures now estimate that a third of the workforce could be absent because of swine flu. Add to that people staying at home to look after sick family or those who are in quarantine and suddenly alarming figures look a lot worse.

People have probably forgotten that we have already seen mass absenteeism earlier this year when millions of employees were away from work because of heavy snow. At times like this, customers are initially sympathetic about unfulfilled orders or unanswered emails – after all we are all in the same situation. However, sympathy has a very short shelf life so businesses should plan now for how they will cope when fewer staff will be in the office.

The snow and tube strikes were great prompts for businesses to review remote access; we found that the more entrepreneurial of our clients were the fastest to embrace the technology. By setting up home or out-of-office access for their employees, one PR company, ENS, was able to operate as usual during the snow and won some new business as a result.

Rebecca Hopkins, ENS’ MD added ‘I urge other small business owners to look at how their staff can work remotely before any significant levels of sickness occur. With the right system – we happen to use DesktopLive – just because people aren’t in the office there is no reason why they cannot make phone calls, respond and send emails or access documents. We won huge kudos with clients when we operated as normal and bigger suppliers didn’t. I am convinced that any small business which has taken the trouble to ensure key employees can work remotely will see this foresight repaid.'

Managed Networks provides a number of solutions that can help:

If you have a server network, talk to us about adding Microsoft Remote Desktop Services (formerly known as Terminal Services)
If you have servers that are approaching end of life, talk to us about whether a hosted desktop solution would be better for you. We call our service DesktopLive.
If you don't have servers and would like a centralised IT network that enables your people to work from anywhere they wish to, whether that is the office, at home or even in Starbucks, DesktopLive will certainly work for you

Call us free on 0800 783 6170 or click here and we will call you back

Intellect's final response to the Draft Order to Implement the CRC

Fri, 05 Jun 2009 12:23:56 +0100

Consultation on the Draft Order to Implement the CRC

Intellect Final Response

June 2009

Intellect is the UK trade association for the IT, telecoms and electronics industries including the consumer electronics industry and the fixed, mobile and satellite telecommunications industries. Its members account for over 80 per cent of these markets and include blue-chip multinationals as well as early stage technology companies. These industries together generate around 10 per cent of UK GDP and 15 per cent of UK trade.

Intellect welcomes the opportunity to respond to DECC’s consultation on the draft order to implement the Carbon Reduction Commitment (CRC). Intellect welcomes the purpose of the CRC scheme, which is to reduce absolute carbon dioxide emissions from large non-energy intensive organisations in both the public and the private sector. The ultimate goal of the scheme is not questioned in this document. Rather, this response examines the current design of the scheme and its ability to deliver these goals.

We have been working closely with the CBI and fully endorse their response to the consultation. The main recommendations from the CBI response are attached as Annex 1. In our response we have highlighted the areas of particular concern to our membership.

In summary, Intellect believes that:

The current design of the scheme will encourage transfers of carbon liability, rather than a net overall reduction in emissions across the UK.

The current design of the scheme will only encourage energy efficiency in a context of stunted growth. At the heart of this problem lies the proposed design of the league table, and the suggested metric to be used for ranking and recycling purposes.

The importance of technology in tackling climate change

The technology industry’s role in enabling the move to a lower carbon economy has been well espoused, not least by The European Commission in its March 2009 Communication to the Parliament[1]. The technology industry enables many other industries to operate efficiently in today’s economy, including:

financial services
creative industries
retail
transport and logistics
manufacturing
defence and aerospace
pharmaceuticals

Climate change presents a mixture of challenges and opportunities to the technology sector, which is in a unique position. On the one hand our products and services have an energy requirement, and are therefore responsible for a proportion of global emissions (around 2% according to Gartner), which we must do our best to minimise. On the other hand, our offerings help other sectors work more efficiently and reduce their emissions – for example, IT infrastructure and services are often the most energy-hungry part of organisations; yet they are also the most significant sources of energy savings in other parts of the economy. Logistics software optimises fleet movements, electronic communications reduce paper use and travel.

In the short term this means cutting emissions associated with everyday processes and providing virtualised substitutes for high impact activities. In the longer term, technology will be a critical enabler of the transition to a genuine low-carbon economy. Smart buildings, intelligent transport and a distributed, smart grid are all ICT-enabled – and therefore ICT dependent. This view is supported by a number of independent bodies. A report from the WWF identifies ten uses of ICT that could together save at least a billion tonnes of carbon dioxide by 2020. Analysts McKinsey estimate that 7.8 billion tonnes could be saved by the use of ICT in buildings, power, transport, manufacturing and teleworking, and GeSI, the Global eSustainability Initiative, estimate that the intelligent use of ICT could reduce overall emissions by 15%, dwarfing the 2% emissions directly attributable to ICT. There is no other sector that offers anything like this capability.

Any carbon-related measures need to take great care not to offset this positive development.

Please note: this response should be read alongside High Tech: Low Carbon – The role of technology in tackling climate change and Data Centres: The Backbone of the UK Economy (to be published in June 2009), which provide a more detailed description of the vital role of the technology industry in reducing emissions and enhancing the economy.

Transferring rather than reducing emissions

The purpose of the CRC scheme is to reduce absolute emission levels; the most effective way to achieve this goal is to encourage energy users responsible for emissions to reduce their energy consumption on the one hand, and adopt efficiency measures on the other. Yet the current proposals allocate the entire carbon liability to the utility bill payer, irrespective of whether the bill payer is in fact using the energy, or a key player in the decision to use this energy. In some instances, the utility bill payer is not using or creating the demand for the products and services responsible for those emissions. As a result, the onus to reduce emissions is placed at the wrong level.

IT infrastructure and services including data centres, as one of the most important sources of energy use, are therefore likely to be one of the first processes to be outsourced, in order to transfer out the bill paying function, and therefore the carbon liability. This could result in the following:

1. Large companies will be rewarded by outsourcing their data centres to third parties in order not to incur the CRC costs associated with the data centres’ energy usage. This method would be a quick fix to the reputational damage a poor standing in the league table could cause. If done on a large enough scale, organisations and service providers would in turn outsource their data centres to a small number of operators.

2. The proposals could encourage organisations to consider outsourcing, as a means of reducing an organisation’s carbon footprint—i.e. transfer of carbon, instead of genuine carbon-saving initiatives, such as virtualisation. While clear ‘carbon dumping’ could otherwise lead to reputational damage, data centre outsourcing is a common practice; there would be no way of determining whether the outsourcing that might take place post CRC implementation was driven by genuine business reasons, or a desire to shift the carbon liability.

3. As energy costs in the UK are currently less competitive than in continental Europe, the additional carbon costs could encourage businesses to offshore. Data centres are by nature geographically flexible. Offshoring to the continent is a realistic possibility, and the cost of running a data centre in the UK may tip the scales in its favour. This in turn will have wider implications for jobs in the UK, and data and application security.

Data centre operators do have the ability to reduce the carbon footprint in newer more modern data centres, and could contract out the liability of the utility bill back to the customer, who then would be incentivised to alter its behaviour and chose more energy-efficient criteria in the data centre. However, for pre-existing legacy data centres, the opportunities for energy efficiency are less widespread, as is the possibility of transferring the carbon liability back to the customer. Furthermore, the high price of energy is already an incentive for operators to encourage their customers to embrace more environmentally-friendly solutions.

The CRC’s impact on growth

If organisations outsource the bulk of their energy-consuming activities to more efficient third parties, the overall net emissions for the UK will reduce, and the CRC will have proved fit for purpose. However, the current design of the performance league table inhibits this from being the case.

Indeed, the current proposals suggest that rankings in the table will be determined by two metrics: absolute growth in emissions, and relative growth in emissions. After the initial phase of the scheme, the former metric is expected to be weighted at 75%, and the latter at 25% (though it is unclear how DECC reached these figures). As a result, any business growth, even if accompanied by increased overall energy efficiency, could result in an organisation dropping down the league table, and contending with the resulting financial and reputational effects. This is an unwelcome barrier to business growth, particularly given the current economic climate.

For example, if work moves from company A to more energy efficient company B, the league table will show company A as having improved its efficiency (an inaccuracy, given that the liability would only have been transferred, leaving the same carbon inefficient practices in company A), while company B will be penalised, despite enabling an overall decrease in emissions, as the footprint of the transferred activity has been reduced. While company B may be gaining business, the effect of its decline in the league table may cause it to lose business it might have won elsewhere, alongside the added financial penalty of having to buy an increasing amount of allowances at an increasing cost once the cap is in place. Please see Annex 2 where a more detailed illustrative example is provided

While we understand the importance of creating a reputational incentive for organisations to adopt energy efficient measures, and a form of reputational (as well as financial) punishment for those who pursue energy efficiency with less vigour, we feel that the incentive mechanism is neither targeted nor powerful enough to ensure the desired end result is reached.

We recommend that in order to achieve the desired outcome – a decrease in absolute emissions – an incentive should be created for an inefficient company to outsource to a more efficient one – but also for an efficient company to accept business from an inefficient one (without the penalty of lower ranking). In order to achieve this, the relative emissions metric should have a more significant impact on rankings in the league table. Indeed, promoting relative emissions decline will lead to absolute emissions decline, as it would enable efficient businesses to rate highly in the table, thus attracting the business of those less efficient organisations, and reducing the absolute level of emissions as a result.

The alternative scenario is precarious. The current design would leave the IT sector at the bottom of the league table; as the industry is hit by financial and reputational damage, other sectors’ uptake of IT services would decrease. As the cost of purchasing allowances increases for IT providers, these costs will be passed onto customers. The small number of players left in the market (due to the consolidation in the market as described above) could have damaging effects on competition, and may result in escalating IT services costs for UK plc and the public sector. This could prove a deterrent to investment in IT, damaging UK competitiveness on the one hand, and the energy savings from IT use on the other. The CRC scheme could therefore lead to a decrease in the uptake of IT, and an increase (certainly relative and possibly absolute) in carbon emissions as a result.

Conclusions

In order to deal with both the carbon transfer issue and the penalising of growth Intellect recommends that the relative growth metric be attributed more significant weight in determining organisations’ ranking in the performance league table. This will allow those truly energy efficient companies to rise in the table, boosting their financial and reputational positions, and encouraging other companies to either outsource their most energy-intensive processes (such as data centres) to those companies most able to reduce the emissions resulting from these processes. This will also deal with the issue of carbon dumping, which could otherwise result in the simple transfer, rather than reduction, of emissions. This would also encourage growing organisations to maintain investment in energy efficiency, rather than be deterred by the prospect of an inevitable slide down the league table as a result of their growth.

Contacts

Laurence Harrison Scarlett Graham

020 7331 2043 020 7331 2173

laurence.harrison@intellectuk.org scarlett.graham@intellectuk.org

Annex 1 – CBI recommendations

Intellect fully endorses the CBI response to the CRC consultation. The following summarises the CBI’s recommendations:

This is a challenging time for UK businesses, and therefore it is imperative that this regulation is as simple as possible, achieving its environmental objectives with minimal administrative costs. For this regulation to prove successful, Government must:

• Address companies’ concern about the impact on cash-flow

• Explore the option of using sector specific metrics and bench-marks to measure good performance in the capped phase

• Incentivise companies to invest in renewable energy generation within the CRC

• Allow businesses flexibility in determining CRC administration most relevant to their operations, and therefore allow large subsidiaries to operate in the CRC in their own right

• Expand the Early Action metric to include other accredited carbon management

• Recognise the burden that the CRC will place on landlords, and provide sufficient guidance and support

• Ensure consistency between the CRC and carbon reporting requirements to make it easier for companies to administer

• Minimise the regulatory burden of multiple climate change policies.

Annex 2 – The CRC’s impact on growth

A company is consistently energy efficient during the CRC initial phase. It is then very successful and its revenue goes up by 50% and its emissions by 10% compared to the preceding five year average. A basic increase of carbon efficiency = plus 36.4% of revenue/emissions efficiency (ie 1.5/1.1*100).

So:

'Absolute metric'

pp106 Consultation on the Draft Order to Implement the Carbon Reduction Commitment

March 2009

A participant's score in this metric will be based on the percentage of absolute emissions reductions relative to the organisation's average annual emissions over the preceding five years.

We have a 10% increase in emissions over the average so score is minus 10%.

'Growth metric'

pp113 Consultation on the Draft Order to Implement the Carbon Reduction Commitment

March 2009

The change in emissions per unit turnover (or revenue expenditure for organisations that do not have a turnover figure) relative to the annual average emissions per unit turnover over the preceding five years.

We have (average - (emissions/turnover)) or ( 1-(1.1/1.5) )*100 = plus 26.7%

The calculation of the combined metric is actually impossible to illustrate according to the consultation document as it is a weighted aggregate of tables based on the growth and absolute metric. It is achieved by combining league table outcomes in a 75:25 proportion. Therefore you'd need the result of every participant to accurately calculate a final score.

However it is basically that the -10% is taken as three times more important than the +26.7% so for the purposes of this illustration:

A 36.4% increase in carbon efficiency is turned into a 0.8% reduction in your final score for the CRC metrics.

A 10% increase in emissions versus a revenue growth of 60% works out at:

· 45% increase in carbon efficiency

· -10% absolute metric

· +31% growth metric

· net weighted metric 0.25%

In other words, in this example, you need to earn about 6 times more than any emissions increase to just stay still. The actual method of aggregation proposed means the higher the growth ranking the lower relative effect it has on ones aggregate score and therefore as emissions grow the levels of revenue growth needed to offset them climb ever steeper.

Therefore taking on high carbon activity from either a client or competitor is strongly discouraged even though that may the best solution to realise energy efficiency improvements over time.

[1] Communication from the European Commission to the European Parliament on mobilizing Information and Communication technologies to facilitate the transition to an energy-efficient low-carbon economy http://ec.europa.eu/information_society/activities/sustainable_growth/docs/com_2009_111/com2009-111-en.pdf

Concentrate on what you do well

Wed, 20 May 2009 15:12:10 +0100

Who are we to disagree?

The total cost of an IT Manager, for a business of up to 100 users, will be at least 40% more expensive than our proactive IT support services.

In today's economy every penny counts and according to Robert Allison, MD at Expense Reduction Analysts, a saving of £10,000 adds the same amount to the bottom line as an increase in sales of £125,000.

If you would like to discuss the benefits of outsourcing your support call us free on 0800 783 6170 or click here and we will call you back

Managed Networks appoints new Chairman

Tue, 07 Apr 2009 13:59:23 +0100

Logica’s former Group Chief Marketing Officer, Nick Caplan, has been appointed as our new Chairman.

Caplan joins to support us in achieving full national coverage in the next three years. Having enjoyed significant annual growth (43% compound growth over the past five years), this target is attainable even with the current challenging economic times.

Caplan, a Group Executive Board Director, joined Logica in 2003 and has a track record which includes terms as Chief Executive of two software houses, service as Head of CSC’s European Financial Services Consultancy and Operations Director of JIB, an organisation providing international insurance and risk advisory services.

Managed Networks Chief Executive Officer, Ben Rapp, said ‘I am delighted that Nick has agreed to join Managed Networks as Chairman. He brings a wealth of experience in IT service management at the very highest level, as well as the corporate governance knowledge that will help us manage our growing business effectively.’

Rapp added, ‘Nick's appointment completes the recruitment of a talented management team covering all aspects of the business. We could not be better positioned to take advantage of the many opportunities offered by the present business climate. I, and the rest of the team, look forward to working with Nick to deliver our ambitious plans for the future.’

Nick Caplan said ‘In today’s environment the need for stress free, proactive IT support in the SME sector is increasingly important. Ben and the team have built a company that provides strong technical consultancy that removes the pain of IT and enables their customers to focus on developing their business. I am delighted to be joining Managed Networks to guide the company towards becoming the national IT services provider of choice to SME businesses.’

Microsoft Jargon - unravelled

Wed, 01 Apr 2009 08:47:02 +0100

With the kind assistance of ResourceiT Ltd here are a few of the weirder ones:

GOLP: not the nooise you make swallowing your coffee but a Government Open Licensing Program
MERT: Microsoft End-user Reporting Tool
SPOC: not the legendary character from Star Trek but a Single Point of Contact, and finally for today,
SNAFU: Situation normal, All Fouled Up

For more Microsoft jargon, come back soon. In the meantime TTFN (Ta-Ta For Now)

Microsoft today announced a partnership with technology industry leaders and academia to implement a coordinated, global response to the Conficker (aka Downadup) worm

Thu, 12 Feb 2009 21:00:09 +0000

Today, Microsoft Corp. announced a partnership with technology industry leaders and academia to implement a coordinated, global response to the Conficker (aka Downadup) worm. Together with security researchers, Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) and operators within the Domain Name System, Microsoft coordinated a response designed to disable domains targeted by Conficker. Microsoft also announced a $250,000 reward for information that results in the arrest and conviction of those responsible for illegally launching the Conficker malicious code on the Internet.

“As part of Microsoft’s ongoing security efforts, we constantly look for ways to use a diverse set of tools and develop methodologies to protect our customers,” said George Stathakopoulos, general manager of the Trustworthy Computing Group at Microsoft. “By combining our expertise with that of the broader community we can expand the boundaries of defense to better protect people worldwide.”

As cyberthreats have rapidly evolved, a greater level of industry coordination and new tactics for communication and threat mitigation are required. To optimize the multiple initiatives being employed across the security industry and within academia, Microsoft helped unify these broad efforts to implement a community-based defense to disrupt the spread of Conficker.

Along with Microsoft, organizations involved in this collaborative effort include ICANN, NeuStar, VeriSign, CNNIC, Afilias, Public Internet Registry, Global Domains International Inc., M1D Global, AOL, Symantec, F-Secure, ISC, researchers from Georgia Tech, the Shadowserver Foundation, Arbor Networks and Support Intelligence.

“The best way to defeat potential botnets like Conficker/Downadup is by the security and Domain Name System communities working together,” said Greg Rattray, chief Internet security advisor at ICANN. “ICANN represents a community that’s all about coordinating those kinds of efforts to keep the Internet globally secure and stable.”

“Microsoft’s approach combines technology innovation and effective cross-sector partnerships to help protect people from cybercriminals,” Stathakopoulos said. “We hope these efforts help to contain the threat posed by Conficker, as well as hold those who illegally launch malware accountable.”

More information about how to protect yourself from Conficker can be found at http://www.microsoft.com/conficker. Customers interested in learning more about staying safe online can visit http://www.microsoft.com/protect.

Microsoft’s reward offer stems from the company’s recognition that the Conficker worm is a criminal attack. Microsoft wants to help the authorities catch the criminals responsible for it. Residents of any country are eligible for the reward, according to the laws of that country, because Internet viruses affect the Internet community worldwide. Individuals with information about the Conficker worm should contact their international law enforcement agencies.