Cambridgeshire Chambers

The network event evenings for Ely Chamber are proving to be very successful with a number of business owners wanting to come along and meet other like minded people.

The free events held at the Spice City restaurant in Ely provide a relaxed and pleasant atmosphere for you to meet people, enjoy a drink, a meal and swap stories. There is no pressure and you will find that those who attend the events are more interested in making friends than giving you a ‘hard sell’.

So if you are in or around Ely on 11 September why not drop in.  What have you got to loose?

Ely Chamber – Informal FREE network Evening
11 September & 9 October @ Spice City Restaurant, Ely from 5pm – 7pm

Cambridge Chamber - Informal FREE network Evening
21 September @ The Holiday Inn, Histon from 5pm – 7pm

Huntingdon Chamber - Informal FREE network Evening
19 September @ The Old Bridge Hotel, Huntingdon from 5pm – 7pm

Sage Payroll 2007

Following from the launch of Sage Line50 2007 earlier this month, Sage Payroll 2007 will be released in September.

The new Sage Payroll 2007 introduces faster ways to:

• Pay staff overtime, commissions and bonuses
• Manage holiday schemes
• Update accounts with payroll payment information
• Calculate ‘final pay’ for leavers
• Set up and amend payment records
• Communicate with employees

To find out more how Sage Payroll 2007 could benefit your business and learn more about the new features, please contact Tammy on 0870 0429076.

Remember, we are YOUR local Sage Business Partner and we are here to serve YOU

Email Mailboxes and Hosted Exchange

We mentioned in a previous newsletter about our new product offering of Hosted Exchange.  A number of questions have been raised relating to the benefits that this service can provide a business, so we thought we’d use this month’s newsletter to explain the service a little more and show you what it could do for your business.

There are 2 types of product offerings: Hosted Exchange and Advanced Mailboxes. Depending on your business one of the two mailbox types will fulfil your requirements.

Advanced mailboxes

Advanced mailboxes are for those businesses that do not share calendars or need to see other user’s calendars.  They have leading virus and spam scanning software to protect your email - essential for a secure, reliable email service.

• virus scanning
• spam filtering
• 100 MB mailbox space - ideal for business attachments
• uses the common POP3 standard
• roaming SMTP

• Free Microsoft Outlook 2003 licence, with each mailbox.
• Public folders - create as many as you need.
• HTTP and HTTP over VPN access - you don't need Windows XP to get the full benefits.
• Virus and spam protection.
• Shared calendaring - make and check appointments with colleagues.
• Shared address books - includes automatically populated global address list and offline address books.
• Outlook Web Access - full benefits of Outlook 2003, using a web browser.
• Outlook Mobile Access - access using compatible mobile devices.
• ActiveSync - synchronise with compatible mobile devices.
• Mix POP3 and Microsoft Exchange 2003 mailboxes on same domain.
• Flexible mailbox space - add more when you need it.
• Hosted in a dedicated UK data centre - premium UK bandwidth, expert network engineers.

This option costs as little as £12 + vat per user mailbox per month.

The Techie Bit - Windows Updates

Had you ever wondered about that little yellow shield icon that keeps popping up near the clock on your computer screen?

This is part of the Windows security centre notifying you that there are updates available for your computer.

What for? Why do I need them? Well, Microsoft have found many gaps in the security of their software and in a bid to keep pace with the number of threats on the internet, have a full time job trying to fix them. These fixes are available as free downloads from Microsoft.

I would strongly recommend that you install all of these updates as and when they come out. They could potentially save your computer and network from attack from the internet and in some cases can enhance the functionality of windows: Pop up blocking in Internet Explorer, enhanced firewall controls.

To ensure your computer checks for updates

please perform the following:

Right Click “My Computer”

Click “Properties” from the menu.

In the “System Properties” screen click “Automatic Updates”

I would recommend that you choose the “Download updates for me but let me choose when to install them”

This way you don’t have to wait for updates to download. They are downloaded in the background while you are using your PC.

If you also have other Microsoft software installed as well as Windows, please try out the latest offering from Microsoft: the Microsoft Updates Website. To access this please visit: www.microsoft.com and from the “resources” menu click “Microsoft Updates” and follow the onscreen instructions.

Please remember these updates repair gaps in the Microsoft operating system, they are not a substitute for up to date Anti-Virus and good computing practise. If in doubt about warnings and alerts on your computer please contact the team at AKM.

Sage Offers

With Sage Line 50 2007 being launched this month, AKM are offering a 15% discount off the cost of the software to all our customers. 

As an example, if you have Financial Controller, single user, single company this would be a saving of £74.62 + vat on the RRP. 

Receive a 50% discount when upgrading your Instant Accounts or Instant Accounts Plus program to Line 50.  In addition to this, you could have Sage Cover fixed for 12 months when you upgrade. This offer is valid until 30 September 2006. 

Get 20% discount when ordering any Sage stationery by 30 September 2006 through AKM.

Call Tammy on 0870 042076 for more details on the new features of the software or to arrange a formal quotation.

*a carriage charge of £5.00 + vat is applicable.

Meet the Team... Jonathan

Jonathan is our IT Support Engineer. He joined the team at AKM in December 2003 after working for the MRC (Medical Research Council) in Cambridge.  Jonathan is a practical person and rather than study IT and computer sciences he chose to gain experience hands on and learn through real world experience (which many would argue is the best way!)

In the 2.5 years that Jonathan has been with us he has amassed a wealth of practical experience and personal knowledge through the variety of issues and questions you have put to him. There are still some questions that can throw him on occasions but Jonathan is the type of person that thrives on the challenge of finding a solution to what may seem impossible at first glance.

Jonathan is the first point of contact for our customers when IT or Sage L50 issues arise. 

The personal bit

• He has been married for 2.5 years.
• He is the youngest team member at AKM
• His first passion, apart from his wife! is archery. He often competes in events around the UK in a field in the middle of no-where with the wind blowing and the rain coming down. He must really enjoy it!
• He is a great photographer; specialising in photographing Dogs at various shows.
• He has a nickname given to him by some of our customers – can you guess what it is?

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