Time to celebrate!!!!!!

Believe it or not, it has been 12 months since Chris and I completed our management buyout of AKM. 12 months of blood, sweat, tears and tantrums have whizzed by and we are so happy that we are still strong and still providing a great service to our loyal customers.

To celebrate our achievement and to thank you for all your support, we would like to invite you to a party at our place on Tuesday 31 October from 2pm onwards. Nothing grand, just a glass of something bubbly and a few nibbles to help us celebrate our 1st year anniversary. A nice relaxed afternoon with some friends!

Anyone is welcome and even if you can only pop in for half an hour, it would be great to see you.

As promised in last months newsletter, I have some more details about Sage’s newest product to their portfolio; Sage HR.

Sage HR will be launched at the end of November 2006 and will in effect replace the Sage Personnel product.  A pricing structure has not yet been released but details of some of the key features listed are below;

• Employee compliance management
• Employee development requirements
• Absence management
• Skill & training management
• Work patterns
• Security & access rights
• Reporting
• Ease and efficiency of use
• User assistance
• Replacement of existing base

If you would like to know a little more about these features or key areas, please contact Tammy on 0870 0429076 or tammy@akm-it.co.uk.

This Months Offer

Instant Accounts to Line 50 – you can benefit from a 50% discount when upgrading from Instant Accounts or Instant Accounts Plus program to Line 50.

Receive a 15% discount off any boxed Sage stationery ordered during October 2006*

Want to find out if your IT infrastructure is doing all what it should and could? Want to get a general health check for your businesses’ PC’s? AKM can help you, for a special rate of £43.13 + vat per hour**, one of our technicians will come to your premises and complete a thorough review for you.

*a £5 + vat carriage charge would apply
**This represents a discount of just under 65% for non ‘assist’ customers based on our hourly rate and a discount saving of 25% for assist customers

The Techie Bit - Computer Security

Computer Security
Just this week computer security has hit the headlines in a big way. Featuring on the BBCs breakfast program and the BBC website running a number of special articles all week from honeypot PCs to phishing.

The AKM newsletter has over recent months covered a range of items including the following: Antispyware, Windows updates and firewalls.

With Internet crime ever on the increase it seems an ideal opportunity to recap on these ever important issues.

Good practise
The simplest way to ensure you are not a victim of internet or high tech crime is to be sensible.

You can see from the picture above that by hovering your mouse over a hyperlink displays the true destination! Most definitely not a Halifax website. I don’t even have a Halifax account for that matter!

Adopting these sorts of practises will ensure you do not fall foul of any scams. Unfortunately this does not mean that you are totally protected.

Antivirus
Make sure you have some. For businesses we recommend SOPHOS. This updates hourly via the web and doesn’t slow your PC down. For those of you with e-mail servers it can also include Antispam.
AVG is another great product that is available for free to home users. This updates regularly and automatically. This is the key part to antivirus. If you have it, it must be capable of defending against the latest threats.
At AKM we are fans of products that don’t cry wolf. By this we mean a product that pops up so many warnings that you automatically click the allow button each time they appear. These are more dangerous as you will inadvertently let something slip through regardless of whether the product could defend you against it!

Antispyware
Antispyware protects against a massive range of threats that aren’t viruses. That remote control package you downloaded, or the peer to peer file-sharing program your teenage daughter installed because she didn’t want to buy a single from Itunes. Worst of all: the silly toolbar you accidentally downloaded into Internet Explorer that now sends you off to random websites. All of these programs constitute malicious software which has to be downloaded by you. It will not do it automatically! You will have clicked on something that brought it down your telephone line. Many of these programs will render your web browser useless, slow your computer to a grinding halt and display so many pop up windows you get RSI trying to close them.
The best product we have found to protect against these is Windows Defender. A free program Microsoft released. It is available for download from the Microsoft downloads page. Not only does it protect against spyware threats, it also includes a suite of tools to help remove old and unwanted programs from your PC. The beauty of Windows Defender is that it is produced without agenda. Many third party spyware programs can actually cause more harm than good as they in turn display adverts and pop ups from their sponsors.

Firewalls
No PC and network should be without one. ADSL routers with NAT are the most effective. They sit on your network silently protecting you 24/7 Windows firewall works well with this to further reduce risks internally on your network. If you still use an ADSL modem throw it away and get a router now!

Norton and McAffee offer integrated products that cater for a wide range of security threats. Please remember these are intended primarily for standalone PCs. If you want to use them on a network fine, but be prepared for some hard work!

Updates
Lastly but very importantly in your arsenal against internet crime are updates. Not just for your antivirus but for your operating system, Apple and Microsoft. Visit the respective websites and follow the links for updates. These are available for your benefit.
Always ensure your antivirus and spyware is upto date, even update the firmware on your ADSL router. All of these methods ensure you are protected against the ever changing face of the internet criminal.

Sage Payroll 2007

On 2 October Sage launched its latest version of Payroll. Sage Payroll 2007 and here are just some of the new features within the software that could benefit your business:

• Overtime, bonus and commission calculations at the touch of a button

• Take a break from complex holiday calculations

• Make a connection with improved links

• Say goodbye to complex final pay calculations

• Update salary and payment frequency with limited data entry.

• Use employee information in Sage Payroll to send letters or emails from Microsoft® Office.

• Save time entering timesheet information.
  

If you would like to find out more about Sage Payroll 2007 or arrange a product tour, please call Tammy on 0870 0429076.

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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