New Testimonial

Anyway clicking around on You Tube I found this and hands up I admit it I was pretty astounded at the enormity of the operation. Just check out the cooling systems that are required to keep the 1000′s of servers cool. I know our guys were in complete ore of the number of servers and  I think I’m safe in saying “they’d love to spend a day in there”

Have a peek inside Facebooks Data Centre

Let us know what you think, leave your comments below and feel free to share it.

Future Technologies By Microsoft

Last week I spent a day learning the art of the “60 Second elevator pitch”

for those networkers amongst you,  you’ll know exactly what it is. For those who have not yet had the pleasure of networking it is in short “how you’d describe your business if you were in an elevator with someone for 60 seconds”.

Sounds really simple when you put it like that however trust me when I say it is far from simple. The idea is you’ve got between 40 and 60 seconds to pitch your business. Try doing it without waffling, going off on a tangent or without having palpitations, spitting your breakfast everywhere or blushing like a plump English strawberry.

So in steps the lovely Nick Hill AKA Mr Presenter. When you see this guy in action he is truly amazing, calm, specific, professional but still down to earth and so approachable. I needed to know how to be like that so I signed up for a day of training with him.

Now I knew I was going to pushed out of my comfort zone but boy oh boy I didn’t realise I would be pushed out dragged back in and kicked back out again (all done in a very positive and constructive manor may I add). The day involved lots of standing up in front of the group trying out several tested methods of pitching. Each time we used snippets of old pitches, mixed with brilliant new material, positive words and NLP techniques to try and nail our pitch.

We also learnt how to use different voice tones when presenting. It’s amazing how when a pro like Nick shows you how tone can get different messages over how conscious you suddenly become of your “tone of voice”. Using NLP techniques we did some work on retraining the mind and looked at where our fear (if we had one and I think I’m safe in saying we all did) came from. I actually had no idea where mine came from until he asked us to visualise what “presenting” meant to us……wooooshhh the image came flooding back to me from as far back as about 9 years ago!

As the day neared the end my brain was completely frazzled and I wasn’t sure if I was actually able to put any of it into practice, would I actually be able to make sense of everything I’d learnt?

Well the next morning at 7.15am driving to 4Networking Wakefield, I ran through my pitch out loud to myself in the car and BANG.. I’d got it in an instant. Even better my 40 second pitch at the networking event was seamless, professional, specific and controlled..Hoorrahhh!

I’ve now gone on to compose three more variations of my pitch and have a few more bubbling in my head. So if you’re struggling to explain to people what it is exactly that you do I’d definitely recommend a day with Mr Presenter.

Stepping Out Of The Comfort Zone…

Following recurring vehicle vandalism and theft of vehicle parts at the residential apartment block “Regents Court” in Sheffield, ITS Sheffield where called in to install a full CCTV System.

Matt Wilson MD and founder of ITS Sheffield commented “It’s important to take several factors into account when installing a CCTV system. Two of the key elements in this particular case were the positioning of the cameras and a high specification in order to achieve good night time footage.

South Yorkshire Police were able to convict based on good quality video footage that held up in a court of law.

ITS Sheffield advises companies to think about the following three things before installing a CCTV system.

Why do you want CCTV?
(To avoid future problems or to solve existing ones)

What do you want to achieve from the systems?
(Daytime, nightime footage, large area of coverage etc.)

What is its purpose?
(Evidence or deterrent)

“We would also suggest that you talk at length with your CCTV installer about your requirements” says Matt Wilson.

Contact us today for a non obligatory chat.

ITS Sheffield Ltd commended by South Yorkshire Police

Disaster recovery as a concept developed in the mid to late 1970s as computer centre managers began to recognize the dependence of their organizations on their computer systems. (Wiki)

New solutions enable not just large organisations but small and medium sized businesses to protect their critical data against unplanned business interruption for a fraction of previous costs.

In today’s world, organisations are increasingly aware of the threats to business continuity. These range from virus attacks, power outages and natural disasters, through to less evocative but equally serious challenges such as equipment failures, network interruptions, or simple human errors. Small and medium-sized organisations are particularly at threat from such risks. As a result, it is vital that SMEs formulate a business continuity plan that mitigates their exposure to risks. From an IT point of view, the plan should include protecting against the effects of data loss or corruption and should provide a practical and cost-effective path towards protecting critical information.

Top 5 Reasons you should have a disaster recovery plan:

1: Closure of the company: 50% of companies fail to prepare with a disaster recovery plan, and according to the London Chamber of Commerce 80% of these fail within 13 months and never re-open. Where data loss is not restored within 10 days that figures rises to 93%. Don’t become a statistic!

2: Requirements under the Data Protection Act: “Appropriate technical & organisational measures shall be taken against unauthorised and unlawful processing of personal data and against accidental loss or destruction of, or damage to personal data” Are you compliant?

3: Under the companies Act 2006: It is a duty if Directors to exercise reasonable care, skill & diligence & “promote the success of the company….having regard to the disirability of the company maintaining a reputation for high standard of business conduct. Are you a business owner?  you can be held liable if you fail to put the correct preventative measures in place?

4: The Companies reputation: Failure to have client’s data accessible and resume business quickly can have a significant impact on the reputation of a company. Don’t lose customers because of it!

5: Time is Money:  A common stumbling block many businesses face is to demonstrate the value of securing effective back-up systems. There is, however, a simple formula that can be applied which may help secure the buy-in of those who are sceptical. This involves estimating the potential cost of downtime and the financial impact to the business of your employees, suppliers and customers being unable to access critical information. Can you afford not to have a plan in place?

A simple calculation that will enable you to estimate the financial impact of potential downtime is:

Productivity impact + revenue impact = downtime estimate

Finally, it is important to ensure that you have an action plan outlining how you would restore your critical applications, either locally or at a different location. This plan should detail whether you have (or can quickly get) all the components you need to recover, the specific steps you would need to take to restore a failed server, and an outline for moving staff and operations to an alternate set of servers at another location.

In the past, SMEs had limited options for planning against business interruption and for data recovery, but with many new software solutions available nowadays this is no longer the case. With careful foresight, it is possible for businesses of all sizes to significantly reduce their downtime risks, while maintaining a flexible, replication solution that is cost-effective and easy to maintain and deploy.

For more information, an informal non obligatory chat contact us today:
hello@its-sheffield.com
0114 321 0280

What’s your “Disaster Recovery” plan?

So let me take you on a whistle stop tour of the happenings in ITS Sheffield last year….

January - Saw the launch of our new branding, website, facebook page, twitter and our official Linked in group (all of which have buttons throughout the website). It was a long time coming (our doing not the lovely guys and gal at Rocket Powered may we add). We’re over the moon with it all and as you’ll have noticed the website is constantly evolving, and our marketing has now increased significantly.

March - was the month we had our lovely new profile completed on the 4Networking forum. April - we took delivery of two shiny new van’s. Our fantastic design was the workings of  the genius that is James at Rocket Powered with the signage by Gary at North Star Signs….very quickly we had people tweeting us with our whereabouts and calls from companies having seen our (roof) logo from their office window.

May Our guys installed a full CCTV system at Rotherham Metal Recycling yard. The system included cash office surveillance and vehicle recognition. It’s a good job they’re not scared of heights! 

June we had the pleasure of taking James up on his offer of a 2 day a week work experience placement. Wanting to gain some commercial experience James approached us and offered his time for free. July we get an SOS tweet from Kalcrest Site Services. Two days later our guys have done a full systems audit and Kalcrest have a new IT provider. Their data is fully backed up off site, remote access made available for their accountant. An onsite, telephone and remote support  contract agreed and two very relieved Directors. Working with local businesses is what we do best!
September - James joined the ITS Sheffield team for real and so three became four.

October - we decided it was time we implemented an automated ticketing system for our customers. Our system now logs all calls and emails and will let you the customer know we are aware of your technical issue. Fear not our guys are still at the end of a phone and we have no intention of moving to a complete automated system … you can still speak to us when you need too.

December – the month of festivities…Yes this is I dressed as Santa’s little helper. Pictured here with good friend and photographer Allie from Chrysalis Photography and MD of 4Networking Brad Burton. We thought it would be fun to bring a little bit of cheer to the 4N breakfast meeting. It certainly made people smile and created a brilliant buzz. Later that morning we paid Rich and Dean from Image Sign Studio a surprise visit and Rich just couldn’t resist a photo opportunity! 

So there you have it, a flashback through 2011. Of course in between all this we’ve been installing rather alot of new servers, maintaining systems and as always having lots of fun along the way. Here’s to a brilliant 2012 for each and every one of you.

Flashback to 2011

Here at ITS HQ we’ve moved forward in leaps and bounds. Most of it behind the scenes but never the less some very important steps forward. We’ve welcomed new customers onboard, new suppliers and a new team member James. The team meeting yesterday was amazing with lots of ideas, enthusiasm and energy flowing so we have a sneaky feeling 2012 is going to be another great year (we don’t listen to the media!!).

We’d like to thank all our customers, suppliers, friends and family for all the support, encouragment and custom over the last year. Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas and A Happy New Year

From

Matt (The Boss), Karen (Wonderwoman), Phil (The Techy one) James (Baby of the team)

A very Merry Christmas from Sheffield’s top IT team

I’ve been finding it really difficult to get all four of us in one place at any one time. Constantly out and about being busy bee’s meant I had to find another way to get a picture of us all together…..

Need’s must, what do you think? head over to our facebook page and let us know.

Thanks
Karen AKA “Wonderwoman”

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