Talk About IT #6

SUMMER 2018

IT’S OUR BIRTHDAY! Providing IT support since 1988

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2 | Talk About IT

do not have a process to

do not have a

obtain people’s consent

do not alwa

report and recover from

personal data

to use their personal

people wha

data security breaches

retention policy

information

done with t

information

Contents

71% have no written contracts

04 05 06 08 10 10 11 12 13 14 18 19 20 22 24 25 26

Quiss People Latest News Improving workplace productivity How we measure our productivity GDPR compliant Results of our GDPR gap analysis questionnaire Profile: Matt Rhodes Char and a chat with Chattertons We go the extra mile to provide a unique prize Training continues to improve productivity Why training remains so important Why outsource your IT support?

Making the case for what we do Shortcuts for Outlook 2016 A little help to improve your productivity 30 years old and still growing A celebration of our growth since 1988 Beyond business as usual A look at the work of our technical consultants Arrivals: Jason Whitaker Teams gets serious one year on The latest updates to Microsoft Teams A future without servers?

How the structure of technology is changing Making sense of unified communications Simplifying some of the jargon Client in the spotlight: Worldwide Fruit Case Study: Arriva Trains Wales

with outsourced service providers processing data

17.2% had reviewed their DPP in preparation for GDPR

24.1

Independent GDPR survey proves illuminatin

%

had ‘borrowed’ a DPP

08

Answers provided by more than 250 organisations

81.1

that undertook the questionnaire at the time of

%

writing, showed most have come a long way in changing their attitudes to personal data, but there were surprises:

did not have a Data Protection training programme for all staff

10

67.6% do not have a process to report and recover from data security breaches

14

73

%

56.3

25

%

8.1% 13%

7

have not established

do not know if they

do maintain a log of

have identified a

hav

controls to manage the

operate CCTV in line

all decisions to share

legal basis for their

con

use of removable media

with the ICO CCTV Code

personal data

processing activities and

in p

documented it

GDP

of Practice

26

Cert No. 1330 ISO 9001:2008 ISO 27001:2013

Results in %

Quiss Technology plc.

Claymore Tame Valley Industrial Estate Tamworth, B77 5DQ

Quiss Technology has been delivering IT support services since we were founded in 1988; the early years of the information technology revolution.

To discuss content or to be part of our next edition, please contact the editor, Tracy Armstrong.

QuissTechPLC Quiss Technology plc

Talk About IT | 3

THREE DECADES IN AND STILL LOVING EVERY MINUTE Whilst we celebrate the 30th anniversary of our founding in this magazine, with a few important milestones on our journey, we also cover a wide range of topics, hopefully with something for everyone.

Naturally, the new clients we have welcomed aboard is news for us, but we are also keen to highlight the effort we expend recruiting and promoting talented individuals to improve the service we deliver to our clients and better reflect the fastchanging technical environment.

We understand our growth means nothing to existing clients if they see no improvement in the service we deliver and the range of services on offer – it’s why we’re still successful and independent after all this time.

The survey results from the GDPR portal throw up a few interesting and surprising figures, which will undoubtedly calm some of you who will realise you were not alone in struggling to reach compliance by May 25.

The article on reasons to outsource your IT support is a blatant sales pitch I admit, but offers some advice and information for

people This regular feature highlights appointments, promotions and qualifications across the teams here at Quiss, as we work hard to recruit, train and nurture the best talent in the industry.

those making a business case to their management boards – we are always happy to help, if anyone needs more.

It’s not all about break-fix, missing files and lost passwords; our technical consultants are supporting the projects of many clients and hopefully we offer some insight into the valuable work they are doing, guided by recent arrival Jason Whitaker.

For the technophile’s, the team at our subsidiary Circyl, look at the latest incarnation of Microsoft Teams and then we serve up more useful Office app shortcuts, before explaining a few of the baffling terms our telephony team use.

Then we go deep with Azure Logic Apps, with a look at what the future has in store for us all and the advantage of automating a lot of simple processes.

Finally, we show our softer side, with Matt Rhodes and his tea trolley visiting Lincoln, before looking at the work of one of our clients, Worldwide Fruit and ending with a case study to showcase our work with Arriva Trains.

I hope you enjoy reading through this latest edition as much as we enjoyed creating it, but if there’s a specific topic you would like us to look at in detail in a future magazine, let us know.

Andy Michael Managing Director

Promotions / movers Andrew Halford - Applications Infrastructure Specialist Matthew Jones - Technical Consultant Simon Smith - Site Support Analyst

Qualifications New Starters Adam Birtles - Resources Co-ordinator Kendal Broadfield - Helpdesk Analyst Dean Evans - Associate Technical Consultant Nick Hayne - Head of Professional Services Michael Marson - Technical Project Manager Darren Newbold - Site Support Analyst Tineka Pinnock-Benjamin - Helpdesk Analyst David Setterfield - Technical Project Manager Matt Sutton - Helpdesk Analyst

4 | Talk About IT

Alex Catana - MCSA Office 365 (70-346) exam Dave Dickson - Mimecast Gateway Technical Specialist Dean Evans - Mimecast Gateway Technical Specialist Jade Holland - Prince 2 Foundation Kirsty Harvey - MCSA Windows Server 2012 Jayne Holloway - MOS Outlook 2016 Sabrina Huish - Microsoft Office Specialist Master (MOSM) Alex Lawton - Windows Server 2012 (70-410) exam Charmaine O’Callaghan - Chartered status [CIPS] Simon Smith - Mimecast Gateway Technical Specialist Jon Stables - MCSA Windows Server 2016 Mark Stephenson - Mimecast Gateway Technical Specialist James Wattis - Mimecast Gateway Technical Specialist Tom Wood - Level 4 IT professional apprenticeship (Distinction in all areas)

Talk About IT | 4

TIMING SOLUTIONS IN RACE TO SWITCH TO QUISS SUPPORT Following a sustained period of growth, Timing Solutions Limited (TSL), based in Tamworth, Staffordshire, has contracted Quiss Technology to provide managed IT services.

staff often working in different time zones, and weekends when most race events that need accurate timing occur.

TSL are one of the world’s leading providers of motorsport timing services, including F1 Team Timing, British Touring Cars and British Superbikes. Technology is central to its service offering, and more reliable and capable IT support was needed to help it continue to deliver the high-quality world-class service, for which it is renowned.

Switching support to Quiss will instil confidence in TSL’s users, now cover extends to servers, desktops, laptops, printers and active networking equipment, with telephone, remote access or engineer visits utilised as appropriate to resolve issues quickly and efficiently

Our Qworks Support Plus solution offers the capability needed, with our large helpdesk team available to resolve issues whenever they occur, including evenings thereby helping TSL

TSL had made the switch to Microsoft Office 365 and with our support will now be able to exploit the complete range of applications more fully.

IT’S A CATCH OF THE DAY WITH FISHERS Our reputation within the legal sector proved vital in securing a new Managed IT Services contract with Fishers Solicitors, as we support the firm with its efforts to optimise existing IT systems and infrastructure.

Fishers operates from offices in Ashby de la Zouch and Tamworth, boasting one of the UK’s most experienced team of lawyers, committed to providing a range of legal services to both individuals and businesses across the Midlands.

Amanda Payne, Director and Head of Property at Fishers said:

“After meeting with Quiss and discussing the current challenges we were facing with our existing IT infrastructure, we were impressed not just with their ability to offer an effective solution, but to deliver it in a timely fashion.”

“The managed services solution provided by Quiss delivers everything we need from an operational and strategic perspective, with their large helpdesk team readily available to offer additional support to our users when required.”

Supporting another law firm further demonstrates our ability to address the issues faced within the legal sector, and our success in delivering effective IT solutions for businesses.

5 | Talk About IT

Talk About IT | 5

Improving workplace productivity starts with technology...

T

he debate around workplace productivity and how to measure your organisation’s effectiveness has been argued for many years, with plenty of contrasting ideas about how productivity should be defined.

It’s difficult to give an accurate estimation for how long each piece of writing should take, especially when considering variables such as the experience of the writer or the complexity of the subject matter.

In the past month, there has been a lot of discussion in the popular press suggesting that UK productivity has improved to levels not seen since the financial crisis, however the same reports also show that we’re still lagging behind other G7 nations.

A piece of work that takes your most experienced writer a couple of hours could take a junior copywriter twice the amount of time, so finding a way of measuring productivity fairly is an ongoing struggle for some businesses.

With all this considered it poses the question; Is there a way to measure people’s productivity accurately?

With low productivity an ongoing issue for the UK economy and the financial stability of many organisations, there has been an increased focus on improving business effectiveness and measuring output accurately.

One of the biggest issues when defining productivity is finding a description that works across all industries and sectors, taking into account the different types of work and the requirements of staff.

Manufacturers will tend to measure productivity by the number of components produced or amount of stock delivered, but it can be a little less clear when looking to measure the productivity of those working in officebased roles.

For example, if it’s the responsibility of your in-house marketing team to write press releases, articles and develop ongoing strategy, then how can you accurately judge whether work is being completed productively?

6 | Talk About IT

Of course, while it’s important to identify areas for improvement and potential procedural flaws within your organisation, it’s also counter-productive to watch your team’s every move and overwhelm them with the pressure of being under the magnifying glass.

However, there is a need for successful businesses to justify the cost of its work to clients and improve the customer’s value for money, while ensuring it is charging enough to remain profitable within a highly competitive industry.

Engaging our subsidiary to improve productivity It is this commitment to improving

workplace productivity that motivated us to engage our subsidiary, Circyl, who are technology specialists with a focus on enhancing customer results and overall project effectiveness.

What Quiss Technology required was a state-of-the-art system that could accurately record the time and resources invested in different projects, allowing our business to better illustrate the commercial justification when discussing future contracts with clients.

One of the biggest issues for established and successful businesses is overservicing, and without the detailed analysis and data to support the additional work you are providing, it is hard to show clients just how much extra time you are spending on their projects.

If you’re unable to demonstrate how your business is investing client spend, then it becomes extremely difficult for the customer to appreciate your services and acknowledge when you have gone that extra mile for them.

Having expressed our desire to become a more productive Managed IT Service Provider, Circyl were able to design a highly efficient system that allowed our business to carefully manage ongoing projects, ensuring all tasks were delivered within the agreed timescale and were cost-effective for all parties.

Instead of encouraging a culture of unlimited hours, we are showing our team the importance of ownership and

accountability when delivering projects, illustrating the benefits of correctly quoting jobs, and hitting the targets set during the initial client forecast.

The new system allows project managers and directors to get better visibility and encourage accountability through an extremely detailed time-recording system, which gives individuals the ability to track the amount of time being spent on a certain project, with access only given to those people that are assigned to the task.

This means we are approaching future work with an improved targetdriven focus – recording time spent in 15-minute intervals to provide a more precise reading that we can use to improve productivity and demonstrate the value of our time to clients.

If we’re going to become more productive as a business, then we must realise the importance of setting targets through measurement, accountability and utilisation.

How is the time being utilised? Are we extremely busy because we have assigned the wrong people to the task or do we need to revise the original contract and establish a fairer time estimation? These are some of the key questions that our new system will help answer.

Creating the tool to enhance efficiency Through a careful combination of Microsoft Dynamics 365, a completely new CRM system and a suite of intuitive BI Dashboards, complete with precise reporting, Circyl has developed a solution which will allow us to improve internal time expenditure and enhance business productivity.

Not only does the new system allow our business to keep track of individual projects, but it also gives us the capabilities to identify emerging trends in our work, and spot potential issues or over-servicing before it occurs.

The CRM solution we have installed allows for real-time reporting, giving us the ability to run in-depth analysis and harvest the data to deliver calculated

reports and assessments that will ultimately leave us in a better position when it comes to negotiating with clients.

Not only will the new solution allow us to track our time better, but it will streamline internal processes such as manually and repeatedly chasing individuals, with personalised alerts sent out to remind project managers and directors of impending deadlines.

The entire solution is designed to promote proactive alerting – allowing us to foresee potential issues before they occur and cause us greater problems than necessary.

Promoting a positive cultural shift Workplace productivity can only be improved once your business has successfully instilled a positive mentality of planning, target setting and accurate measuring – without this cultural shift, technology will only take your business so far.

While our time-management and focus on productivity has always been good, the entire philosophy of our business is about pro-actively improving and exceeding the expectations of our clients.

With the help of Circyl, we believe this new solution will help us deliver better results to our clients, while allowing our business to become more efficient through the utilisation of time, resources and talent.

Business productivity is not something that can be addressed overnight, but we’re making significant steps to improving the overall culture and effectiveness of our organisation.

Clive Taylor Operations Director

... and ends with a positive cultural shift Talk About IT | 7

critical issues need to be addressed immediately (Red), the urgent issues that require swift action (Amber) and areas of less immediate concern (Green).

These figures were for the period Sept ’17 to Feb ’18 and if the results were reviewed again on 26 May, they might look better, but still there would be areas for concern.

There is no point worrying that you may not be GDPR compliant and doing nothing about it. You can still mitigate the risk of non-compliance by showing you are continuing on your journey to compliance; that you are taking the issue seriously and doing something.

The figures opposite should disturb and comfort in equal measure as you realise you are not alone in thinking your compliance is not complete and requires further fettling. And always will.

Changed attitudes and behaviours

By the time you read this, the deadline will have passed and the GDPR is real, live and affecting how you do business.

Perhaps surprisingly there were no fanfares or an inspector knocking on your door to see evidence of your compliance.

signal the end.

The picture is sketchy If you still have nagging doubts about completeness of your compliance (it’s not an entirely black and white issue) don’t worry, you are not alone.

As part of our service offering in the run up to 25 May, we have encouraged organisations to undertake a GDPR gap analysis questionnaire to see what further steps are needed.

The GDPR will have changed your approach to how your organisation collects, manages, shares and uses personal data. If you have not changed, the chances are you could face repercussions in the future.

Our simple to use portal features probing questions, designed to discover attitudes to personal data management and how each organisation is approaching GDPR compliance for the future.

If you do not maintain compliance and suffer a data breach, or fail to comply with data access requests in the given time frame, or guide your staff on how to handle personal data appropriately, a heavy fine might be the least of your worries - damage to your brand could

The answers, all of which are reviewed by a UK-based data protection solicitor, experienced in every aspect of the new GDPR regulations, generate a detailed report.

8 | Talk About IT

This RAG report highlights what

The GDPR must change the way everyone in your organisation thinks about privacy and data security. Ongoing compliance must become second-nature for everyone and they must understand the future of the business may depend on it.

Quiss Technology has been helping clients toughen up their IT systems and infrastructure security for 30 years and the GDPR gap analysis is just the latest tool to help our clients take the right steps.

We can proactively phish your people to find the weak points and ensure everyone remains aware of the risks posed by hackers trying to access your network by any means they can. We will even undertake penetration testing to highlight any weaknesses before the hackers find them.

But even if you just want to review the results of the questionnaire highlighted earlier, or talk through the ways Quiss can help, please get in touch on 0333 222 4334.

Nick Hayne Head of Professional Services

67.6%

78.4%

37.8%

67.6%

do not have a process to

do not have a

obtain people’s consent

do not always inform

report and recover from

personal data

to use their personal

people what will be

data security breaches

retention policy

information

done with their personal

78.4%

information

71

had registered with the Information

%

Commissioner’s Office

have no written contracts with outsourced service

67.6%

providers processing data

17.2%

have a Data Protection Policy (DPP)

had reviewed their DPP in preparation for GDPR

24.1

Independent GDPR survey proves illuminating

%

had ‘borrowed’ a DPP

36.4% do ask staff for consent to use their personal information

Answers provided by more than 250 organisations that undertook the questionnaire at the time of

81.1%

86.5%

writing, showed most have come a long way in changing their attitudes to personal data, but there were surprises:

did not have a Data

have boundary firewalls

Protection training

to protect computers

programme for all staff

67.6

from external attack

83.8%

%

had designated

do not have a process to

responsibility for data

report and recover from

protection compliance

data security breaches

to someone senior

73%

56.3% 8.1% 13%

76%

37.8%

have not established

do not know if they

do maintain a log of

have identified a

have not reviewed how

did not have a Privacy

controls to manage the

operate CCTV in line

all decisions to share

legal basis for their

consent is obtained

Policy

use of removable media

with the ICO CCTV Code

personal data

processing activities and

in preparation for the

documented it

GDPR

of Practice

Results in %

Talk About IT | 9

Profile: Matt Rhodes Commercial Services Manager Before joining Quiss Technology in 2011 Matt’s career had followed an unusual path, beginning with a modern apprenticeship as a ‘systems engineer’ for one of the region’s largest housing associations.

Over the intervening years, Matt has worked towards his Microsoft Certified Solutions Expert (MCSE) certification and undertaken a number of technical roles, working with systems and networks.

Matt’s first sales role was telesales for an IT service provider and within only two years he had worked his way up to be an account manager, before switching roles to sell the benefits of managed services.

Matt is also responsible for managing our critical relationship with Microsoft, which has seen us in recent times achieve 1-Tier CSP status.

This technical background ensures Matt keeps abreast of technological advances; not because it makes selling easier, but because he enjoys exercising his inner geek. Matt believes in selling customers what is right for their business, not what is easiest for us to deliver.

If you hope for a quick meeting, don’t get Matt started on the subject of home-brew or back garden pubs – you have been warned.

Char and a chat with Chattertons Now we’re always looking to add new services to make the lives of our clients easier, but this time we may have gone too far – it’s not every day your Commercial Services Manager dons his apron and pushes the tea trolley around a law firm’s offices.

East Midlands.

Unfortunately, Matt had only enough tea and cakes for one office. So, earlier this year, he arrived with his trolley at the firm’s Lincoln offices, with our Marketing Manager Tracy Armstrong offering support and encouragement, which was needed the with Co Sincegiven working number of stairs Matt had toEnquiries contend with.increased

The story started well before Christmas, when Conscious Solutions, specialists by in web design and Everyone was presented with a Quiss marketing for law firms, was seeking Technology mug, just to make sure they unusual gifts for its annual advent remember the firm that went the extra It’s not just calendar. mile to be memorable. about having a due to Never a business to shy away from a As the photo shows, it was an enjoyable good looking challenge and renowned for innovation, for a 15 p morning and a prize that offered we definitely thought outside the box website...

Family Law something for everyone in the office; PPC Campa and came up with the morning cuppa much better than the traditional and cakes, delivered to desks concept. one gift for one winner, according to Edward.

The winner of this remarkable gift was Organic traffic UP Edward Conway, CEO of Chattertons, a As memorable as Matt in his apron leading firm of solicitors and provider ...it’s about was, we hope Quiss Technology will be of wealth management services, with what you do for all the right reasons remembered in an 17 month period offices across Lincolnshire and the withand it once not just the mugs. following a local search of fe

48%

SEO

you’ve got it!

34 retu 73% £3 marketing campaign for a 7 partner law firm

10 | Talk About IT Find out how

63

PPC and SE

TRAINING CONTINUES TO HELP IMPROVE PRODUCTIVITY Much of the talk in our magazine is about technological advances, new apps and upgraded versions of familiar favourites, like Microsoft Office.

But as is the case with most tools, unless you are trained how to use them effectively, you will never use all the features, or be as productive as you can be.

A

t a recent presentation, our Training Manager, James Smith delivered a short overview of the work he and his team had undertaken with a number of our law firm clients across just two months at the start of the year: •

41 training sessions including 8 * MOS Excel certification exams & a charity training day delivered over 15 days

•

Training delivery for a rollout of Intapp Time recording & implementation of a Bitesize training plan delivered over 12 days

•

38 MS Office Bitesize training sessions delivered over 5 days

•

Roll out of a MS Word internal certification programme & MOS certification training delivered over 10 days

In the same period, the team was also available to help users get to grips with newly installed systems at new law firms joining our roster.

Many of the sessions delivered in-house at our clients’ offices involved content from our Bitesize range, which last 30 - 45 minutes and cover all the popular

apps and are designed to improve productivity and effectivity of every user, whatever their competence.

One of the most popular has been ‘Outlook Working Smarter’, which demonstrates how individuals can use rules, flags, categories and conditional formatting in Outlook to save time and effort when organising e-mail messages and calendar appointments.

The sessions typically involve a trainer and at most 6-8 individuals from across the firms, who can be spared for a short session more easily than an afternoon off-site – it’s not all about productivity, profitability comes in too.

Growth at Quiss The popularity of our training services, both as an integral part of those Qworks contracts that include unlimited training and as services purchased separately has required the expansion of our training team.

We are working towards having 5 Microsoft Office Specialist (MOS) Master certified trainers in the team, following the certification path we began in November last year - 4 have already achieved the required certification.

MOS Master 2016 is globally recognised as the premier certification in Microsoft Office, so certification demonstrates our team are right up to date with the latest version of MS Office and highly skilled in its use.

More customers are expressing an interest in working with us to help their people achieve the same certification, choosing one application in which to excel, like Word, which remains the most popular.

The growth in our training team and the number of days spent at our clients’ offices clearly shows there is an appreciation of the benefits delivered by focussed training undertaken in bitesize sessions, when it is most convenient.

If it’s time you got more out of your Microsoft Office 365 subscription and believe your people would benefit from more training shaped for your organisation, please get in touch and we’ll come and discuss your needs in detail.

James Smith Training Manager

Talk About IT | 11

Why

Outsource your IT support? (part two)

Last time we looked at perhaps the three most popular reasons why organisations choose to pursue the managed IT services route and outsource some or all of their IT support.

Here are more good reasons to consider outsourcing, whilst recognising a hybrid solution might be the best answer, especially if you have an in-house team feeling the pressure that comes with the growth of a business.

1

P

Many businesses delay making large investments in their IT systems, surviving with existing and often old technology. If the delays extend, limiting access to new technologies will begin to have a negative impact on effectivity and efficiency of the individuals within the business.

A comprehensive managed IT services contract like ours, typically includes a full hardware re-fresh, with the capital

3

Hours

I

f you have a global operation, with offices across the world, it makes sense to have 24/7/365 support for your people.

But the same is true with the more mobile, flexible workforce of smaller organisations, who may have individuals working late into the night on important documents, pitches or customer resolutions – all of which could be hindered by a system or network problem.

It’s important to remember that criminals tend to ‘work’ 24/7/365 too, often because cyber-crime is a global operation with no boundaries or timezone limits.

Ownership

reviously we considered the cost of employing an in-house IT team, or starting one from scratch, but this time we’re looking at the cost of the hardware and the infrastructure.

2

expenditure spread over the term of the contract and delivered in simple cost per user, per month terms – little or no upfront cost required.

The same applies to the applications used to run most businesses, like Microsoft Office 365.

As your employee numbers fluctuate and you grow in some areas while retracting in others, the licences can be switched off and on as you need them.

No more unused software already paid for gathering dust on the shelf.

Remember, a new security vulnerability is discovered every 90 minutes, which means around 10 are identified in the hours your business is closed for the night.

Alongside the 24hr network monitoring we offer, you can benefit from a fullymanaged cyber security information and event management solution. It combines current intrusion detection technologies and threat intelligence, backed by a 24/7/365 Security Operations Centre (SOC).

Training

M

anaged service providers will usually have a training team on hand to support the install and ongoing activities of their clients. It’s perfectly possible to engage training companies to deliver this kind of support, but it will be an additional cost, with little flexibility in its delivery.

A training team that not only knows your business, but the system, infrastructure and applications you are using will create sessions tailored to your business, your culture and your data, for a more engaging and productive experience.

If your business relies on third-party applications, you can request your managed service provider to have their training

12 | Talk About IT

team undertake the training too, so they can build it into their future work with you and your people.

These train-the-trainer sessions ensure your people not only get the support they need with all the usual Office 365 applications, but also dictation software, finance applications and even bespoke ERP solutions, for example.

And of course, the training element of your contract will usually offer unlimited support (within reason), which helps all your people become better trained and more productive. It would make no sense to not take advantage.

4

Solutions

O

utsourcing your IT support to an experienced service provider, with an extensive knowledge of the needs of businesses just like yours, provides access to valuable additional services, beyond the day-to-day IT operations of your organisation.

Instead of contracting with a range of different suppliers for business continuity or disaster recovery solutions, make use of the services on offer from one provider.

They will help meet the needs of your mobile workforce, develop a unified communications plan, help you minimise the risk of cyber-crime and all delivered from a perspective shaped by a complete understanding of your business and best practice within your sector.

All of the various solutions you might need can be specified from scratch, using inhouse resources or specialist service providers, but is it worth re-inventing the wheel each time, when appropriate solutions are so readily available?

You or your in-house IT team can concentrate on what’s really important, ensuring your people work effectively and efficiently to keep your customers happy, with new and better services.

You can leave the rest of your IT issues and technical advice to the likes of Quiss Technology; it’s what we do best.

Convinced?

W

e believe the flexibility and scalability built into our managed service contracts makes choosing to outsource your IT support, a simple one.

And remember, comprehensive reporting across all our clients not only helps identify issues and problems quickly, but ensures when we resolve one issue, we can check all clients to prevent a problem arising before they become aware of it – think herd immunity.

If you are not yet convinced or having read our arguments, you have decided now is the time to take advantage of our unrivalled experience and knowledge, please get in touch, so we can talk through the benefits to you and your business of outsourcing your IT support.

Clive Taylor Operations Director

Shortcuts for Outlook 2016 Continuing our theme of bringing you useful tips and shortcuts to help you be a little more productive every day using the familiar Microsoft Office 365 apps, here are a few for Outlook.

There’s so much more to it than just creating a new message, typing and hitting send. It will help you manage a major project, ensure you complete tasks by deadlines and help you make all your meetings in plenty of time.

But we know nothing will compare to that rare moment when your inbox is empty, so read on and achieve more.

Ctrl + N Ctrl + O F9 Ctrl + D Ctrl + Q Ctrl + U Ctrl + R Ctrl + F Alt + S Ctrl + S Ctrl + K F7 Shift + F7 Esc Ctrl + 1 Ctrl + 2 Ctrl + 3 Ctrl + 4 Ctrl + 6 Ctrl + P Ctrl + E Ctrl + G Alt+1 Alt+2 Alt+3 Alt+4 Alt+5 Alt+6

Create a new item Open a received message Send and receive all Delete item Mark selected message as read Mark selected message as unread Reply to the selected message Forward the selected message Send the current new message Save message as a draft Display the check names box Run spellcheck Use thesaurus Close current open message Switch to mail Switch to calendar Switch to contacts Switch to tasks To view folders Print the current message Search for a message Go to a specific date in calendar Show 1 day in the calendar Show 2 days in the calendar Show 3 days in the calendar Show 4 days in the calendar Show 5 days in the calendar Show 6 days in the calendar

Alt+7 Alt + = Alt + -

Show 7 days in the calendar Switch calendar to month view Switch calendar to week view

In the next issue we’ll produce another useful ‘cutout-and-keep’ list, but don’t forget to follow us on Twitter to pick up more of our useful shortcuts for all your favourite apps.

Our training team is always available for a chat about building bespoke training solutions for you and your business, just get in touch to see what a difference they can make. Call us up or James Smith email the team at training@quiss.co.uk Training Manager

Talk About IT | 13

30 YEARS OLD (AND STILL GROWING) Quiss Technology has been providing IT support since it was founded in June 1988, the same month Microsoft OnLine was launched - a two-way electronic support service, offering a complete package of technical support and service solutions. A bit like we do now.

Our first office, in Castle Mews North Finchley, was occupied only by our founders Andy Michael and Steve Bull. In the intervening years we have come a long way, from appointing our first Field Engineer in ’89 to reaching a headcount of more than 100 talented individuals in 2017.

There have been highs and lows, triumphs and

1988

14 | Talk About IT

1998

tragedies, but we are still here, getting bigger, stronger and better at what we do. Here are a few milestones along our journey, with a few memories to make you think.

And if you’ve always wondered, the Quiss brand started life as an acronym for Quality Infrastructure Systems and Service – pronounced KISS. Now you know.

2006

2014

Our first year ends with a turnover of £88k, not bad for a start-up.

Quiss Technology founded by Andy Michael and Steve Bull and operates from offices in Castle Mews, North Finchley.

New office and warehouse facility opened in Tamworth, big enough to offer Disaster Recovery suites for clients and importantly, about halfway between Finchley and Blackpool.

Having started life as a Limited Company, we switched to a Plc in preparation for our predicted growth.

1989

1988

1990

Ian Harrison, our Customer Services Director, was appointed as our first Field Service Engineer, somewhat surprisingly based in Blackpool.

A young, fresh-faced YTS lad called Neil Smith joined us and you’ve guessed it, he’s still here managing our warehouse.

Network Specialist Greg Foale joined our business and he’s still here, 28 years on – our longest serving employee.

1992

We appointed our first PC support engineer Jeff Hale and although he’s now one of our Technical Project Managers, he is still here and putting a good shift in.

invents the World 1990 - Tim Berners-Leetunate for IT service for is ich Wide Web, wh providers like us

Ian Harrison makes it from Field Service Engineer to Customer Service Director, a role in which we can make more of his vast practical experience.

1997

Quiss achieves ISO 9001 certification, the internationally recognised standard that specifies requirements for a quality management system (QMS) – a standard we maintain to this day.

1994

1995 1996

Seven years on and we posted our first seven-figure turnover as we passed the £1M mark.

Growth of the PC market requires Quiss to launch its own helpdesk, with two people ready to resolve issues with amongst others, Office ’97 or Internet Explorer 4.0 both of which launched this year.

1998

Google is founded by Larry Page and Sergey Brin to help people find out stuff – probably won’t catch on.

Microsoft releases Windows 3.11, which required at least an 80386 or higher processor, 3 MB+ of RAM and Dos 3.3 or higher – all of which will mean nothing to anyone under 35!

Our first managed IT services client signs a contract with us. Perhaps unsurprisingly it was a law firm, which set us on the path to our current pre-eminence in the legal sector.

1999

The Quiss Technology training team is launched to help clients get the most from software they are using, like Office 2000 which debuts this year.

Talk About IT | 15

Thankfully, after investing in our Data Centre, we secure our first hosting client, Background2, a leading supplier of software solutions for the Petrol Retail Industry.

Quiss Technology appoints Dave Payne as Purchasing Manager and he quickly develops our dedicated purchasing team to fulfil hardware requirements of our managed IT service.

2011

2010

We open our own secure Data Centre at our headquarters in Tamworth, as far from the sea as possible, not on any known geological fault-line and not under an airport flight-path. Safe.

2008

Not a lot happened other than new clients welcomed aboard and our business establishing foundations for growth.

Clive Taylor became Operations Director.

Facebook launched and immediately requires more broadband bandwidth for businesses.

2007 2005

The Large Hadron Collider begins firing protons at each other at nearly the speed of light, to help answer questions like why mass exists and does the universe possess extra dimensions?

2004

A keen and eager-to-impress Project Manager called Clive Taylor joins Quiss Technology, with a determination to make a difference – as most of you will know, he’s still with us today.

2003

2000

Steady growth ensures we appoint our 50th team member in this year.

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2001

Law firm Freeth Cartwright (now Freeths) signs 3-year managed IT services agreement – still a client.

Quiss Technology joins the Microsoft Partner Network which sets us on route to all the competencies that demonstrate our consistent capability, expertise and commitment.

We launch our unified communications division with the appointment of Manager Terry Faria; yes, still here – longevity of service is a Quiss thing.

2012

Better reflecting the needs of our clients, we decide to departmentalise our business, launching four sub-brands; Qworks for Managed IT Services, Qcloud for Cloud Solutions, Qvoice for unified communications and Qshare for business productivity improvements.

2013

The year we hit £5M turnover as growth strategy really starts to deliver results.

ture over the years Cake bakes a regular fea

2014

People like to work here for a long time, but we have steadily grown our teams and in this year we reached 100 employees; a proud moment for our founder Andy Michael.

2017

2018

Quiss Technology subsidiary Circyl launched to help clients make more of their business data

We achieve Microsoft’s revered CSP 1-tier status, which recognises our ability as a Cloud Solutions Provider – it’s an exclusive club!

All our hard work pays off as we surpass the £10M turnover milestone and achieve £11.6M turnover; keep watching there’s plenty more to come.

Andy prepares the barbecue as par t of our 30th birthday celebrations.

DRESSING UP FOR DRESS-DOWN FRIDAY

In keeping with our birthday celebrations, we have themed our dress-down Fridays to spread a little cheer around the office and raise some much needed funds for Alzheimer’s Society and Mind.

Talk About IT | 17

Quiss Technology aims high and hits the mark We strive to be better at what we do and it’s gratifying when our efforts are so readily recognised by the leading technology partners we work with like Microsoft and Cisco.

We recently achieved the Microsoft Cloud Platform Gold standard, which is quite something for a business our size, as we need to demonstrate we have the necessary resources and the technical abilities to deliver and support cloud-based solutions lots of exams had to be passed!

We’ve also put in a lot of hard work behind the scenes, to achieve all the requirements to become a Cisco Premier Certified Partner, which again requires exam passes by our people, along with evidence of the support and specialisation we provide.

The reason we put so much effort into these programmes is to instil confidence in our clients of our ability to deliver first-rate solutions of the highest quality.

We always recommend and use the best products and systems to deliver the robust and reliable IT infrastructure your organisation can rely on 24/7/365 - with support to match.

18 | Talk About IT

Arrivals:

JASON WHITAKER Hi, I’m Jason Whitaker and I’m Head of Technical Services here at Quiss Technology.

I’ve had a varied career, but almost all my 20 years’ experience has been in the IT industry, with Microsoft datacentre technology stacks at the heart of everything I’ve done.

I believe I’m a highly motivated technical manager and view my role as akin to that of an air-traffic controller, needing to balance projects, people and client expectations without anything crashing to the ground.

Managing large and diverse technical teams to deliver enterprise scale projects, on time, to scope and within budget, has been an enjoyable, if challenging part of my life for longer than I care to remember.

Described by many as something of a geek, I enjoy sharing a busy office with a team of highly technical individuals, who always want to deliver what is right for each client; typically, not the easiest solution but always the most effective.

It is essential I communicate effectively, influence, inspire and develop the colleagues I manage, especially as the team is growing and we continue to add new skills.

We have developed a detailed and accurate skills matrix to ensure we not only employ those with the skills and

attitude we need, but our existing team members continue to add new skills to their already impressive catalogue.

The culture here at Quiss Technology encourages all individuals to progress their career and be all they can be. It is inspiring for me to help members of our large helpdesk team, realise their ambition to become network, systems or applications engineers.

Although the word geek may be thrown in my direction on occasion, I prefer to think of myself as just a big fan of technology in all its guises, not just IT. But I am always impressed and take great interest in the ingenious uses to which the technology we work with every day can be put and the competitive advantage it can deliver for any organisation, regardless of size or sector.

I was born in Tamworth and with previous roles taking in Northampton and Leeds, it is good to return to my roots. Away from the office, I spend as much time as possible with my family, with only my love of all forms of motorsport, two wheels or four, interrupting this valuable down time.

BEYOND BUSINESS AS USUAL

As a provider of managed IT services, much of our focus is on keeping our clients’ businesses running as they should; robust, well organised systems enabling people to do what they do best. But like icebergs, there is much more below the surface.

O

ur technical consultants, currently a team of 21 led by our Head of Technical Services, Jason Whitaker, deliver the consultancy services included in our Qworks fully managed solution.

Clients are all at different stages of development, run different versions of Microsoft Office, on different operating systems with a mix of on-premise, Cloud and hybrid solutions, to say nothing of the third-party apps they rely on for their daily activities.

But all clients share the desire to be more efficient and more productive, whilst enabling their people to collaborate more easily, work remotely and communicate better with their clients.

The team we deploy usually includes network, application and system engineers, with projects typically running over 3-5 months. Our work involves a huge amount of advance preparation, which limits disruption to our client’s operations when we implement changes.

Users will benefit from better connectivity and an improved experience on mobile devices and tablets as well as access to apps.

But a big difference for the business is that their servers are now backed up to Azure, using Online Backups and Site Recovery.

On hand for Big Hand One of our many legal sector clients has just upgraded its case management system and upgraded the digital dictation software to Big Hand 5, which offers compatibility advantages when using Windows 10, a better mini-player and improved support.

Third-party management is an optional module of our full Qworks contracts, which means clients only have to deal with one point of contact, for all the updates and implementation of disparate apps and software.

Here is a flavour of the projects our experienced technical consultancy team is currently delivering.

Big Hand undertook the upgrade, but our training team was on site to better understand the system and ensure they could deliver future training on the system for the firm’s new starters.

On-premise but upgrading

Citrix upgrade benefits

A client with almost 250 users has decided to upgrade to Exchange 2013 from their current 2010 version.

Unfortunately, a number of third-party apps make the jump straight to 2016 tricky and we’re working with these providers to develop an appropriate solution.

We advised a law firm client considering a switch to Microsoft Office 2016 and a new case management system that an upgrade from Citrix 6.5 to 7.6 would be needed, offering the firm’s users a more flexible approach to working from anywhere, with any device.

By keeping Exchange on-premise, the business is able to sweat the hardware assets a little more, using the existing licences and making the switch with minimal disruption.

This management of third-party apps and their providers is a key aspect of our fully managed solution – one point of contact offers our clients real peace of mind.

The upgrade offers a lot of benefits, with some old features from 6.5 re-appearing in 7.6, like Session Pre-launch, which starts sessions before being requested to help users access applications more quickly and Session Linger, which keeps application sessions active after a user closes all applications to again help users access applications more quickly.

Our engineers and the constant support of our helpdesk team when making the move, ensures this will be another successful project when completed.

Azure frees up space We are also helping a client remove the need for a large number of servers in their offices, transitioning their mail from on-premise Exchange to Microsoft Office 365.

We are also building a new Windows 10 image to address issues identified in the audit undertaken when we were appointed to support the firm’s growth and productivity ambitions.

Azure Site Recovery will take care of the back-ups and moving their mail to Exchange Online will free up lots of office space that can be occupied by new employees, without the need to move premises – one of the less obvious benefits of a Cloud strategy.

More to follow Many of you will recognise the issues we are addressing, but remember that organisations running a mongrel mix of hardware, software, operating systems, third-party applications, cloud, onpremise and hybrid solutions, remain productive, profitable and ultimately successful, with the right support.

We will revisit this theme of current projects in future issues, but if any of the issues raised in this article are familiar and on your to-do list, or should be added to your project list, please get in touch and we can discuss the right next steps.

Talk About IT | 19

Teams gets serious one year on We covered the introduction of Microsoft Teams in a previous magazine, but now more than a year on from its initial launch in March 2017, it’s worth another look.

adopt for organisations of every size, particularly those that already utilise everything Office 365 has to offer.

Like most Microsoft offerings, it continues to change and add new features, all aimed at helping your people do more in less time, work closer together and move projects along more quickly.

When introduced, much was made of the fact that when team members chat, all the strands of the conversation are saved, so other team members can follow discussions held between colleagues.

As more and more people are used to chat-based tools, like iMessage, Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, working in a persistent chat-mode is no issue.

Members of any team can reply only to a specific individual during a group conversation, a bit like a scribbled comment shared in a face to face meeting. Conversations can be seen by the whole team, but any discussion can become private when required.

With Teams, they can share files, create meetings and collaborate on documents in Word, spreadsheets in Excel and converse in Skype, all in real time, while chatting with colleagues, rather than waiting for documents to be reviewed and returned.

In addition, Microsoft Teams combines the full range of Office 365 apps to deliver a true teamwork hub.

PowerPoint, SharePoint, OneNote, Planner, Power BI and Delve are all built in, so people have all the information and tools they need at their fingertips.

A successful year More than 200,000 organizations around the globe, have already created 3 million Teams in just the first year.

Although aimed at the large enterprise market, Teams is relatively easy to

20 | Talk About IT

Additional features

And it’s not just about typing. Skype is fully integrated to allow collaboration in voice and video conferences, with new features now included to make more of Skype.

Microsoft has announced it will be partnering with Lenovo and HP to develop new Skype Room Systems, all of which will support Teams.

Microsoft has also said it will be certifying new solutions from partners to improve how Teams works with other hardware offerings, like desktop and conference room phones.

Continuous updates It seems new features are being added every few months and in recent months, significant changes have been made

to Teams to improve collaboration and increase productivity.

Information from a huge range of apps can now be imported directly into messages. You can search for a task in Trello, a project in Wrike, or result in Survey Monkey and include an interactive card detailing that information into a message.

The addition of a new personal apps space offers each individual a quick overview of the apps they are using, items assigned across apps and items recently accessed. This personal app space also includes ‘Who’, which Microsoft claims will allow people to quickly search for others in their organisation.

Teams now comes with a new Store to help users find the apps they need more quickly, searching by name or category, as well as by the type of integration.

Once the app is found, the user can tell Teams to surface the app in a specific channel or in their personal app view.

Along with new language options Teams also now allows ‘Out of office’ messages to be set while an individual is out of the office or on holiday.

Intelligent Communications with Calling in Teams Teams now features the full range of dialling capabilities, complete with call history, hold/resume, speed dial, transfer, forwarding, caller ID masking, extension dialling, multi-call handling,

simultaneous ringing, voicemail, and text telephone (TTY) support for the hearing impaired.

To add calling in Teams, simply subscribe to a Calling Plan for any number of users in your organization, who each get a primary phone number to allow them to make and receive calls to and from outside of your organization.

Adding calling to Teams further drives a modern collaborative experience for your people, with a single place for content, contacts and communications, including chat, meetings and calling.

On the record Microsoft is adding cloud recording to Teams, which is intended to allow oneclick recordings to be made of meetings.

Automatic transcription and time coding of these meetings will come as standard, allowing team members to search the transcript for the terms they want, to

playback specific segments of any given meeting. Or all of it can be replayed by those that missed it and want to review its content.

Accuracy will be critical. The technology might tick boxes for security, privacy and compliance, but if it chooses voicerecognition instead of sending out for third-party transcription by experienced humans, it has to be good.

Microsoft has promised to add facial recognition in the future, so the transcription will show who said what, but again, accuracy of transcription will be crucial.

Teams translates in real-time Interesting for organisations with overseas interests, offices on other continents or freelance support in foreign countries, Microsoft is also introducing in-line message translation.

The idea is to streamline communication between people who speak different languages, using Cortana voice interaction. It will allow users within Teams to make calls, join meetings, etc., using spoken language, to help make Teams even more user-friendly and convenient.

Next time more to follow In the next edition, we’ll be looking at another couple of the less well-known Office 365 apps, along with the changes Microsoft will have made to all your new favourite apps, including Teams.

In the meantime, if you need more advice on getting the best from your Office 365 subscription, please get in touch with the team here at Circyl, or drop by the website for more info, hints and tips.

Michael Owen Head of Business Productivity (Circyl)

Talk About IT | 21

A FUTURE WITHOUT SERVERS? W

hilst the world is still coming to terms with all the immediate benefits of Cloud computing, technology is already moving on to the next best thing. The pace of change is not just relentless but seems to be accelerating; no pausing for breath whilst those at the back catch up.

The next big step for our futures, appears to involve fewer servers, as businesses look to build and run applications or services without them.

This ‘Serverless Architecture’ or ‘Serverless Computing’ as it is known, allows organisations to undertake their operations with high availability applications without a thought for server provision; all that is left to the cloud service provider.

A technical definition Microsoft describes ‘serverless computing’ as the abstraction of servers, infrastructure and operating systems. In other words, making it all simpler and leaving businesses to concentrate on innovation and developing apps faster.

Serverless computing is defined by reactions to events and triggers

22 | Talk About IT

that happen in almost real time in the cloud. Developers are charged according to the resources they consume, or the time taken to run their code – no server management or capacity planning.

In fact, as the functions only occur when requested in serverless computing, many describe the new approach as Functions as a Service (FaaS) and the next logical step from Platform as a Service (PaaS).

You will not even be paying for space on a server, but just the small amount of space or time allocated to the function you choose to run, for the length of time it takes to run – then it’s removed, permanently.

Critically, serverless computing scales flexibly and quickly. From nothing, it allows tens of thousands of functions to be handled within seconds, all running at once, without a thought given to server configuration.

Think apps not infrastructure Initially, the concept of serverless computing has been welcomed by developers and the possibilities it offers them. Previously cloud developers had to use machines,

which were labour intensive and time consuming. Serverless allows developers to run tests and productions within minutes.

Now you can focus on building great apps to analyse data, Azure Functions provides a fully managed computer platform with high reliability and security. With scale on demand, you get the resources you need, when you need them.

The really interesting aspect to this new direction is that while developers can build great apps, there is already a great range of functions available that you can tailor to your needs simply and easily.

Respond to comments For example, you can create a functional application that monitors the Twittersphere for specific words or combinations of words, like your company name, or a product or service you supply.

Now as we all know, the various Social Media channels are the chosen route for many consumers to comment on your business, products and services – some good, some not so good. In the past your customer

service line may have received a complaint call, but you controlled the relationship.

Things have changed and now consumers know they have the power. It is crucial you are aware of all comments related to your business, so you can react appropriately, or at the very least be seen to be reacting to adverse comments or genuine complaints.

Using Azure Logic Apps, you use a workflow to select the function you want, like monitoring Twitter (almost all the other popular Social Media channels are also available) and using drop down menus, set the trigger event.

Set Azure to scour the Twittersphere for tweets containing your business name or brand, e.g., ABC Insurance, with the words customer and service.

You can set this as a one-time search, perhaps following some good or bad publicity or a continuous search, if you really want to learn what consumers think of you and your products or services.

The search will be completed in near real-time and you can have various things happen once messages are found with the appropriate text you were looking for. You might want a notification by email, so you can respond personally to anything bad or just to keep an eye on the number of messages.

The messages found containing the terms you were looking for can be graded according to the nature and tone of the message, on a scale from 0.0 to 1.0. In simple terms, 0.0 to 0.4 are degrees of negativity, 0.5 is neutral and 0.6 to 1.0 is degrees of positivity.

If the tweet for example said; “never using ABC Insurance again, cover terrible, customer service worse…” then it would be in the 0.0 to 0.4 range, probably down around 0.1.

But if it said; “good job ABC Insurance, cover within 30 mins when desperately needed…” it would be graded in the positive range.

Perhaps in response to a British outlook on life, Azure is using machine learning to better understand sarcasm, so a tweet saying; “well done ABC Insurance, good job, who needs cover straight away anyway…” would be graded as a negative comment, despite the outward signs of positivity.

Whilst all this is clever, the real benefits only become apparent, when these events trigger automatic responses that intervene in bad situations or accept the praise when offered.

Respond automatically to up your game

When negative tweets are identified, you or a customer service representative can be notified by email, but a tweet can be sent direct to the original tweeter in response to their message – you can have a different response for every grade from 0.0 to 1.0 if that works best for you and your business.

The really clever bit is that you can set any number of responses to be triggered automatically, without you having to get involved at all; well on the way to real artificial intelligence.

If you the app finds a really negative tweet, you can respond in kind saying how shocked you are that the individual is upset with the service they received and that you will look

into it personally, whilst reassuring them of the solid service 99% of consumers receive.

This swift response, gives you the opportunity to take the conversation offline and mitigate any further brand damage. Remember the old adage, every complaint is a second chance to impress.

Likewise, if you receive numerous positive tweets, you can react automatically, thanking those concerned for their kind words and possibly offering a gift to help build brand awareness and positivity.

These captured tweets can also be shared around your business to boost morale.

Do it yourself That example is one small snapshot of what is possible. Whilst developers will make the most of this new consumption-based approach, where only the function is paid for, with no need to be concerned with server provision, you too can benefit.

There are a host of functions that can be tailored to your business and not just in the Social Media space. All designed to help you be more productive and use data more effectively to help you make betterinformed decisions.

This is not the future. It is the here and now and with a little help you could unlock an exciting world of apps, functions and triggers. If you want to know more, please get in touch and we’ll talk you through the world of Logic Apps, large and small and how it can benefit your business.

Paul Tozer Head Of Cloud Services

Talk About IT | 23

Making sense of

Technology is a subject that loves an abbreviation and more than its fair share of acronyms; unified communications is no different with a lot of jargon too.

And when we work with these terms every day, it’s easy for us to forget how readily our conversations become hard to understand – let alone remain interesting!

So here is the first in a series of articles to help explain some of the most common terms you are likely to come across when researching the benefits of VoIP, or a hybrid communications solution.

B

is for…

Business Phone – as you might expect, a phone designed with features that meet the needs of business users, like video screens for Skype, etc., typically operating in conjunction with a Unified Communications solution.

Bring-your-own-device (BYOD) – this is when employees bring their own mobile devices (laptops, tablets, and smart phones) to their workplace, expect to connect to the secure corporate network and use them to access information and applications.

C

A

is for…

Analytics – you collect a lot of interesting data from your calls to create analytics reports, including number of calls, transfers, the average time of a call, the number of hang ups, etc.

Analogue Telephone Adaptor (ATA) - is a device for connecting traditional analogue telephones, fax machines and other similar devices to a digital telephone system or a VoIP telephony network.

Anywhere Worker – a mobile worker who can do their job anywhere, on any device and typically participates in virtual teams.

Application Programming Interface (API) - at the heart of Cloud-based Unified Communications you will find an API which enables data to be seamlessly distributed to different applications on different devices in different locations. The data can then be used and updated in real time.

Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) – this is a high-speed networking standard for voice and data, typically used for private networks. It utilizes fixed-sized cells rather than the variable-length packets Ethernet utilizes, which makes it more expensive, but easier to manage bandwidth requirements.

Auto Attendant (AA) - allows callers to be automatically transferred to an extension without the intervention of an operator. They typically have a simple menu system and are customizable to act as a virtual receptionist.

Audio conference provider (ACP) - a third-party provider that supports audio conferencing on a standard public switched telephone network (PSTN) line.

Authenticated caller (AC) – someone joining a conference call over VoIP, who has been authenticated via Active Directory Domain Services.

Availability – as might be expected this refers to the time a system is available for use and is determined by dividing the time taken for something to break, by the time it takes to fix it – the higher the number, recorded as a percentage, the better.

is for…

Call Admission Control (CAC) – this allows you to control the audio quality and video quality of calls over a wide-area (IP WAN) link by limiting the number of calls allowed on that link at any one time. It can prevent calls from taking place if they would have poor media quality, in Skype for Business Server Enterprise Voice.

Call Delegation – this feature allows phone calls to be delegated to someone else instead of the individual receiving the call. When a delegate answers the call, the original receiver is immediately notified the call has been answered and by which delegate.

Call Forwarding – calls are automatically sent to a user-designated number, which can be a VoIP device, a public telephone network number, or even simple voicemail.

Caller ID – allows the individual being called to see the caller’s telephone number and possibly name, before answering the phone.

Call Recording – allows you to record and store voice conversations over either public telephone networks or VoIP networks in a digital audio file format. Typically used for quality and training purposes, or for legal and compliance purposes.

Chatbot – stretching the limits of our look at unified communication, but the influence of chatbots is growing and these automated programmes can engage your customers and prospects in a conversation using natural language.

They can be the first point of call for website visitors, takeover from humans when it’s busy or extend your office hours. Chatbots can deal with many of the standard enquiries customers make and simplify the user experience.

Conference Calling – allows multiple people to join a call and contribute to the conversation or just listen if it is a presentation.

Popular for conducting virtual meetings or connecting with distant contacts or colleagues. Now losing ground to the increasing popularity of video-conferencing and Skype for Business calls.

We had to pick and choose the terms we included as there are a huge number of obscure terms you will never need to know – that’s what experienced unified communications professionals like Qvoice are for.

If you want to know more before the next edition, please get in touch and we’ll talk you through the benefits of our telephony solutions.

24 | Talk About IT

Terry Faria Telecommunications Manager

clients in the spotlight In this feature, we take a look at one of our clients and the work they do, thanks in part to the support of our IT services.

We deliver high-quality managed IT support for organisations across a broad range of sectors. We are well known for our specialisms in the legal and pharmaceutical sectors, but these are not the only sectors to thrive with confidence in robust IT networks and infrastructure.

As far as Worldwide Fruit is concerned, there is no such thing as just an apple.

They currently offer 55 different apple varieties, with traditional favourites like Braeburn, Bramley, Egremont Russet and Pink Lady, competing with Jazz, one of the nation’s top choices, for shelf space.

Here we get to the core (excuse the pun) of one such client – Worldwide Fruit

The Jazz variety is instantly recognisable with its flashes of green, red and yellow on the skin, complementing the dense, crisp flesh. It is renowned for being very juicy, sweet and aromatic with pear-drop undertones.

From the world to your table As the name implies Worldwide Fruit (WF) is an international fruit marketing and distribution company.

It operates from a state-of-the-art site in Spalding, Lincolnshire that includes 52,000 square feet of grading, packing and distribution facilities, along with 8,500sqft of office space. The company also has offices in Whitstable in Kent, the garden of England.

The business was established in January 2000, as consumer demand grew for fresh fruit all year round. This increasing demand required a global supply network, as the sun is always shining somewhere, sometime.

Worldwide Fruit now supplies the UK’s leading supermarkets with top quality fruit sourced from over 1000 growers worldwide, including the UK, New Zealand, South America, South Africa, USA and Europe.

The business, which employs around 250 people, specialises in apples, pears and avocados to deliver an annual turnover around £150M.

The Jazz apple, marketed exclusively in the UK by Worldwide Fruit, has enjoyed the largest sales growth of any variety, increasing from £33.3M to £46.5M over just the last three years.

This success for a single variety has been mirrored by the overall growth of the business, which has doubled its output since 2011, up from 36 million packs to a predicted 72 million packs in 2018.

But pears are also an important product, with Worldwide Fruit currently listing 32 varieties, including the famous Comice, Concorde and Velvetine varieties – who knew there were so many! There are even two varieties of Avocado, which is a fruit not a vegetable, for those with a more discerning palate.

Technology helping growth

we all enjoy delicious, fresh, high quality fruit, but that there is little wasted, including the packaging.

Worldwide Fruit has implemented a Continuous Improvement programme that is helping drive increased productivity and efficiency in all aspects of the company’s activities, from sourcing new products to speeding up deliveries.

Working closely with the large retailers amongst the growing customer base, the company is committed to reducing waste and developing a sustainable, lean business and tracks products through the entire journey from orchard to supermarket shelf.

It is this attention to detail that discovered 43.6% of waste was created in the last 100 yards of the products journey, allowing efforts to be concentrated on these final few stages to deliver significant savings.

The business uses RFID technology, mobile barcode scanners and a sector specific ERP solution to help capture and analyse relevant data to share with growers and customers alike, creating a mutually beneficial environment that ensures only the highest quality fruits reach our tables.

If you’d like to know a little more and satisfy yourself that they really do offer 55 apple, 32 pear and 7 avocado varieties, then visit www.worldwidefruit. co.uk and have a look around.

To the surprise of many, there is a lot of technology required to not only ensure

Talk About IT | 25

Case Study: Arriva Trains Wales on the right tracks with network revamp Arriva Trains Wales is part of the Arriva Group – one of the largest providers of passenger transport in Europe, employing over 55,000 people and delivering more than 2.2 billion passenger journeys across 14 European countries each year.

The Arriva Trains Wales section of the company operates 247 stations across 1,009 route miles and has built a reputation as one of the UK’s best right-time operators, ensuring all journeys arrive and depart within a minute of their scheduled times.

The network extends throughout Wales and the border countries of England, providing local and longdistance services to destinations including major cities such as Swansea, Cardiff, Newport, Birmingham and Manchester.

In recent times, Arriva Trains Wales has invested £31 million against a franchise requirement of only £400,000, which includes improvements to its existing IT infrastructure.

Securing an effective network As part of its ongoing commitment to improving the efficiency of important business functions, Arriva Trains

26 | Talk About IT

Wales recently enlisted the support of managed IT service provider, Quiss Technology, after meeting the firm at one of its networking events at Uttoxeter Racecourse.

Learning more about Quiss Technology’s sector experience, Arriva Trains Wales engaged the business to help support improvement to its wireless network.

Not for public use, the WiFi network in question is essential to the efficient running of services, facilitating the exchange of information between the various major stations on the network and the company’s head office in Cardiff.

Modern equipment used by the firm’s highly mobile workforce to monitor train functions and rail infrastructure, requires a robust, resilient and highly available wireless network.

Allowing users to access applications used to run the rail services safely and efficiently, support for the network had previously been provided by an inhouse resource and was limited to office hours.

However, recognising the growing

importance of the network to the day-to-day running of the business, Arriva decided the network required proactive monitoring. Cover has been extended to 24/7 to ensure an immediate response is possible, in the event of a technical failure or fault.

Arriva Trains Wales were clear that they required around-the-clock technical support and needed us to act as the first line of contact for proactive support.

Having previously supported other high-profile clients in similar monitoring capacities, Quiss Technology was well-equipped to provide the ongoing network support the client required, while keeping the client’s unique business requirements in mind.

Proactive support from a dedicated team Arriva Trains Wales also wanted the support of experienced technical engineers and specialists to optimise ongoing operational efficiency.

Whilst securing 24/7 monitoring was an important aspect of the contract, the business also wanted to ensure that they had the most efficient

technology available to improve the overall performance of the network.

Arriva now has the support of our 59-strong team of helpdesk engineers, field service engineers and network specialists – all available with one call or email.

This immediate access to a dedicated team of technical support specialists allows the business to continue daily operations safe in the knowledge that someone is available to resolve any issue, should one occur.

Eliminating the likelihood of malfunction The idea behind 24-hour, proactive monitoring is that our dedicated team can spot the issues before they occur, reducing the likelihood of any potential malfunctions.

Arriva Trains Wales were honest that they needed a managed IT solution that understood the nature of their business, and the need for efficiency to ensure a high-quality service was delivered to the business users reliant on the Wi-Fi network.

Therefore, our dedicated team of technical experts and engineers will

be monitoring wireless controls, more than 40 vital access points, and the connectivity between them.

This will allow us to monitor the status of the network and ensure connectivity and communications are operating as they should be, eliminating the possibility of prolonged or unexpected downtime if an issue does occur.

This was in line with Arriva Trains Wales vision for a network that was efficient and fully operational throughout the working day – even outside of standard office hours.

Improving operational efficiency with expertise The installation and round-the-clock proactive monitoring of the network will allow Arriva Trains Wales to continue operating efficiently, streamlining important business functions for the benefit of its customers.

The network has proved so reliable and of growing strategic importance, Arriva Trains Wales is adding more difficult buildings to the network, including Arriva TrainCare in Crewe, a leading independent train maintenance company.

Our helpdesk team has plenty of experience assisting a range of clients from a number of sectors, and they understand the need for a quick and easy response, maintaining the high standards expected by the client.

Arriva Trains Wales can now spend additional time focussing on the detailed workings of their operation without having to worry or dedicate resources to monitoring the network.

The business can continue providing a quality service to its customers knowing that should any issues occur, Quiss Technology are on standby to deal with the problems quickly and without any additional disturbance.

Our service for Arriva Trains Wales has already attracted new clients seeking a similar level of support, with Cross Country Trains the latest to appoint Quiss Technology to provide the same services for their wireless network – a decision that perhaps says more about the quality of our service than we ever could.

Talk About IT | 27

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