A good IT company is worth its weight in gold

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Businesses need IT systems to function. A reliable and secure IT system allows a company to improve productivity and concentrate on doing what they do best – generate revenue. However a bad system that is unreliable causes more headaches than it’s worth and can lead to both frustration and lost income.

Typically all of our data is held on either on-premise or cloud based servers, it’s when this data is unobtainable that a good IT company comes into their own. Put simply, what would you do if your data was not available temporarily or even indefinitely? The answer doesn’t bare thinking about.

Even a day without your IT infrastructure is costly. If you run a company with 10 employees, then that is 80 hours worth of lost productivity and money down the drain. Based on a conservative hourly rate of £15, that’s a wasted £1200 for a single day of downtime.

Finding a pro-active IT support company to manage your network infrastructure is a task that should be as considered as the staff you employ or even your office location. When ‘recruiting’ a company then references should be asked for, background checks made and searches for reviews made on the web. A good provider should be on top of all things IT, especially new trends and the latest security information.There are many IT companies that fit the bill, one that stands out in particular is support and cloud company Ashgoal, who are London based.

One way of making sure this is achieved is by utilising the offering that cloud computing provides. Typically a modern and established support company may have their own cloud infrastructure, however many are using the Microsoft Azure cloud. Something that has mixed reports on the internet.

Some businesses are reluctant to put all of their eggs in one basket, but typically doing this with a good company can reap rewards across the board. For example a company that provides your Hardware, Software, Infrastructure and telecoms cannot pass the buck on support issues. They simply have to resolve the issue as there is nowhere else to turn. The same applies if the company manages your domain, hosting and email.
As a generalisation, companies that provide all of these services tend to be slightly larger, have better trained staff and greater resources. Those that do not offer this range of services often lose customers as they are not able to fulfill the needs of customers.

Low Back Pain & Other Musculoskeletal Injuries

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Today, more people work in offices, have longer work hours, use better technology and automation and required to move less on a daily basis.  This new environment produces more inactive and non-functional people and leads to dysfunction and increased incidents of injury including low back pain, knee injuries, shoulder impingements and other musculoskeletal injuries.

Low back pain is one of the major forms of musculoskeletal degeneration seen in the adult population, affecting nearly 80% of all adults.  Research has shown low back pain to be predominant among workers in enclosed workspaces (such as offices), as well as in people engaged in manual labour (farming), in people who sit for long periods of time (greater than 3 hours) and in people who have altered lumbar lordosis.  More than one third of all work-related injuries involve the trunk, and of these, 60% involve the low back.

Nearly 5 million working days were lost as a result of back pain in 2003-2004.  This means that on any one day 1% of the working population are on sickness leave due to a back problem.

Back pain is the number 2 reason for long term sickness in much of the UK.  In manual labour jobs, back pain is the number one reason.

Given these facts it is essential we do more to help prevent these musculoskeletal injuries in ourselves but also within our workplace.   If you employ people surely you want them to be having zero sick days with maximum efficiency every time they are in working.  If you are self-employed, surely you can’t afford to take days off due to your back playing up or even struggle along through the day being less efficient as your back is uncomfortable?

Investing a little bit of time and money in seeing a professional such as Richard Green the Personal trainer and Fitness coach, could save or even make you a whole lot more time and money.

It is important to work through an exercise continuum when addressing these issues.   Firstly identify the problem, then design a program to solve this problem and then ensure that our exercise technique is perfect throughout the session.

For example, you may be an office worker suffering from low back pain.  This means that you probably sit down for the majority of the day – maybe 8-10 hours of the day.  In this seated position, the hip flexor complex are in a shortened position.  Over time, the hip flexors may stay in a shortened position, leading to a pull on the pelvis, tilting the pelvis forwards and out of position.  This creates a pull on your lower back musculature due to the attachments of the muscles, possibly creating discomfort.  Further, now that the hip flexors are tight, this reduces neural drive to your Glutes (buttock muscles), which are a prime mover for hip extension.  If there is a lack of activation of your Glutes, then other muscles above and below start doing the work for them.  Therefore, your lower back and your hamstrings start overworking in any hip extension movement (walking, standing etc).  If muscles are overworked again they will tire and you will feel discomfort.

The major problem is within the hip flexor complex.  Releasing and stretching the hip flexors will help sit the pelvis into a better position so that it doesn’t create the issues mentioned above.

With a little bit of knowledge you can help treat and then prevent further problems occurring and increase your workforce by reducing sick day and increasing efficiency.

The History of LaserJet Printers

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com-prodAs technology evolves, so do the machines we work with everyday.  Prior to the invention of the personal computer, office workers wrote their documents with a typewriter.  With a printer attached to a PC, we can print out the documents we create on our computers.

Printers have evolved over the years along with computer technology.  Some of the first printers were dot matrix printers that used a ribbon and a printer head that typed out a series of dots to form the letters.  The next printers used typing wheels or printer heads that resemble those from typewriters and printed on a page using a ribbon to imprint the letter or character.  Next to come along were laser printers, which dry ink toner onto a page with heat to print a document. Today we utilise powerful printing machines such as those developed by Riso

The LaserJet printer is another version of a laser print, but the name is trademarked by Hewlett Packard and used by them exclusively.  They first introduced in 1984, when very few people had computers in their home.  The first LaserJet sold for $3495.00 and it was compatible with the IBM computer.  The first LaserJets did not print graphics, only text.

While the first LaserJet models were awkward, heavy and very expensive, they began to be manufacturer for home use as PCs went from strictly office use to being used at home.  As they were being made for the home market, the prices came down, the printers began to have more features and they were more user-friendly.

There are several versions of the LaserJet, starting with the LaserJet I and moving to the LaserJet 6 series.  They went from being reproducing black and white documents only, to a Color LaserJet, producing documents in any color you needed.  The current HP LaserJet is the Pro Series.

The LaserJet uses dry ink toner to imprinted graphics or text on paper.  The toner comes in cartridges with black ink or you can get ink in different colors.  To print in color, you have to buy cartridges for each separate color.  As the toner is put on the paper in the form of the text or graphics, heat is applied to the paper so the ink adheres to the pages.

HP LaserJet printers now are compatible with every computer operating system on the market, whether it is Windows, Linux or Mac computers.  There are wireless versions and they come with many optional accessories to make printing easier at home.

Savile Row – The best place in the world to buy a suit?

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img-06Some places are both historic and iconic. Savile Row is one of those places. What could be just any old road in London is a truly exceptional place for those who like the finer things in life, such as a bespoke tailored suit.

The road itself is located in Mayfair, one of the most exclusive and desirable areas of the capital. And true to life, there’s a reason why it’s the most expensive property on the Monopoly board!

The row or ‘street’ as it was initially known, is stepped in history and has served many of our countries greats since its construction in the 1700′s. People such as Winston Churchill and Lord Nelson have been measured up and suited and booted. Plus it was the location of Paul, George, John and Ringo’s last live performance, which subsequently featured in their film Let it be.

Savile Row is quiet simply the default choice for a truly bespoke suit that is cut by hand and fits like a glove. The tailors that work their are both skilled and passionate about their industry, which comes through through their use of elegant fabrics and skillful stitching. One of the most famous ‘Gentlemens outfitters’ on the row is Gieves and Hawkes, a company steeped in history and situated at Number 1 on the road, although there are countless other competitors who can do an equally good job of making a ‘Whistle and Flute’. One of these is Souster and Hicks, a bespoke tailors with a base in both Savile Row and the more sedate surroundings of Woburn, Bedfordshire. Perhaps one for the weekend retreat!

Recently the suit industry has had a touch of a falling out, many due to cheap so called ‘made to measure’ suits being machine made and marketed as ‘bespoke suits’. The term was thought to have referred to hand made suits, but has more recently been used for other methods. Other phrases have appeared such as ‘fully bespoke suit’ and ‘semi-bespoke suits’, with the former typically indicating it’s been completely hand-made.

 

 

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con1London offers a huge amount to businesses, including excellent transport links, good communications infrastructure and variety of existing companies. Many London based companies are also prepared to pay a premium for services that would cost less if sourced from elsewhere in the UK, or even globally.

What sets London apart from the rest of the UK and even other countries, has to be it’s financial district, which operates as a global hub for investment and transactions. Investors from every continent have an interest in London due to it’s solid history, sensible regulation and reliability. It is also seen as an independent way to invest, that isn’t restrained by regulation from the EU or US.

Just look at some of the thriving markets that the capitals’ commerce supports, such as the world famous Savile Row which is a suit buyers dream, thousands of high quality places to stay such as Hotels, Hostels and rented houses. Even subsidiary services such as IT Support and transport.

Due to the city’s popularity, much of the infrastructure in London has been purchased by foreign investors, who see it as a safe and secure way of investing. This is especially relevant in today’s difficult global markets.

On ground level London has a buzzing atmosphere and encourages a hard working ethos. Staff typically work long hours and produce results, which has given the City the reputation it has for being one of the best places in the world to do business.