It's Party Time

Thank you to all of you that came to our birthday party on 31 October and for those of you who sent such kind words. It was great to see you all.

We were really chuffed by the words of encouragement and support we have received and look forward to a great 2nd year providing you with a our excellent services.

Thanks

In Sage Report Designer 2007 you now have the option to move objects and change some of their properties from within the report design preview. This means that it is now easier to add and line up columns on reports or layouts.

In previous versions of Sage Report Designer, to add a column for stock code to invoice layout often meant running the layout to preview several times to make sure the information was positioned correctly, now it is possible to add the variable in the design mode, then preview the layout and adjust the size and position of the columns within the preview. To access the amendable preview please follow the steps below:

1. Open the report layout in the edit mode.

2. Add any new objects that you require to the report or layout ensuring that they are in the correct section of the design. (note – the objects must be added to the correct section in the design view, for example the details section).

3. Open the view menu and choose preview.

4. From the preview window you can now select any object and resize or move them within the current section. You can also change some of the properties of the objects by making amendments in the properties pane.

5. To return to design mode open the view menu and choose designer. You can now save the changes to your report or layout.

Xmas Offer

We all like bargains near Xmas time and we all like to make sure that the ‘great deal’ is really what it says it is. AKM would like to offer you great deals just in time for Xmas that will benefit your business. Consider it a gift, a Xmas present, a thank you for all your support over the last 12 months, a bargain!

• Sage Stationery – 15% off any Sage stationery ordered between 01/12/06 – 31/12/06



• Sage Upgrades – 15% off any Sage software upgrade ordered between 01/12/06 – 31/12/06



• For non AKM ‘assist’ customers a FREE onsite IT health check for your business.

The Techie Bit - Spam, egg, sausage, bacon and spam please!

But what if I don’t want any spam? Well, if you’re unlucky enough not to be able to share your spam with a table full of Vikings then there are a few things you can do.

• Firstly and most importantly keep your e-mail address as private as possible. If you can, have a separate e-mail address that you use to enter details on websites, I have a hotmail account especially for this. This way all of the newsletters and special offers go into that and do not clog up my regular e-mail account. Remember if your e-mail address is listed on a website then expect the flood gates to open, e-mails also get bounced around the internet fast, it only takes your address to land on someone’s virus infected computer for the fun and games to start.



• Secondly, ensure that you have the latest possible e-mail software on your computer or better yet, use webmail. The most recent versions of outlook express and outlook do not download web content when you open an e-mail (another way of validating an e-mail address actually exists and asking for more spam)



• Thirdly, use a spam or junk mail filter. These can come in a variety of forms:



• Your Internet Service Provider more often than not will offer a spam filter in some shape or description, you may have to contact them or log into their website to activate it. There can also be small extra monthly charges for this. These systems can generally be quite inflexible but will prevent the messages from ever reaching your network or computers.



• Gateway protection, this as it’s name suggests is at the gateway to your network, be it on a special network appliance or on your server. We recommend a product called Puremessage from Sophos Antivirus. Once it has been configured it can remove over 90% of your junk e-mail. The filtering is done once the messages are on your network but before they reach your mailbox.



• Desktop junk e-mail filters generally are a last resort, they move the junk messages once they’ve arrived on your computer, meaning you have to download them before they can be dealt with. Outlook 2003 has a built in junk mail filter which requires regular updating to be effective.

Xmas Opening Hours

Like it or not, Xmas is fast approaching and if you are anything like me, Xmas shopping is the last thing on your mind!

However, there will still be businesses that open up over the Xmas period and whilst the rest of us are at home with our feet up, they will be working hard to ensure that their customers remain served.

AKM is opening over the Xmas period and we would appreciate it if you could let us know as soon as possible what your business will be doing, so we can organise appropriate cover to assist you.

Customer Referrals

It is widely recognised that the way a business grows and develops is dependant upon how that business delivers its service to its customers.

We have been working very hard at AKM to improve our level of service to you by introducing new initiatives and internal processes. It is our mission to ensure that we do all that we can to guarantee that your experiences with AKM and its team is of the highest quality and standards.

There are many of you that already recognise the services we provide and how much of a positive impact we have on your business and its operations. So why not share our services with your colleagues and business associates?

Every time you recommend a business to AKM for any of the services that we can provide, we will offer you a gift of our technician’s time as a thank you.

It’s as simple as that, what have you got to loose?

Please see our Customer Referral Scheme for full details.

if you would like to provide us with feedback about any of our products or services please email feedback@akm-it.co.uk or complete our anonymous feedback form

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