Broadband - home or business?

malcolm@riverbank.co.uk — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 17:28:20 +0100

Many businesses are seriously under-powered when it comes to home broadband. Our experience in the small business market is that many firms expect their staff to work from home and just assume that any cheap broadband connection is fine. Staff then have a poor experience working remotely on their office network and everyone is unhappy.

What these businesses forget is that working from home often means that a lot of data is going upstream from home to office. Staff are quite naturally expectedRead More...

Browser choice? Stick with Internet Explorer!

malcolm@riverbank.co.uk — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 15:37:33 +0100

Last week Microsoft slipped their 'browser choice' into Windows updates. It was forced upon Microsoft by the EU as part of the settlement of a long-running legal dispute. It has created very little excitement in the business community but here for the sake of completeness is the Riverbank line on the matter.

Riverbank's recommendation is to stick with Internet Explorer for the following reasons:

Internet Explorer is not a bad product. It works ok.Internet Explorer inteRead More...

Free upgrade to Office 2010

malcolm@riverbank.co.uk — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 14:39:22 +0100

Microsoft announced its Office 2010 Technology Guarantee last Friday, 5 March. If you buy Microsoft Office 2007, with or without a computer, at any time up to 30 September you are now entitled to a free upgrade to Office 2010. The upgrade period starts when Office 2010 is launched in June and will run until 31 October.

The offer applies to fully-packaged products and to Office pre-installed on new computers. It does not apply to volume licence purchases.&Read More...

Clean tech is a philosophy not a market sector

malcolm@riverbank.co.uk — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 13:57:25 +0100

I spent Tuesday and Wednesday at a brilliant clean tech symposium hosted by VenCap. Lots of very interesting people there, from venture capital people from around the globe to CEOs of spin-out companies and 'about to be spun out' companies from Oxford University.

One clear message was that there is investment money out there and clean tech is seen as a great place to invest.

A second message was that clean tech is a way of thinking, not a market sector. One speaker Read More...

Promote your business with every e-mail you send

malcolm@riverbank.co.uk — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 10:25:40 +0100

Thirty two Riverbank clients use inexpensive software called Exclaimer to make sure they add an e-mail disclaimer to every e-mail and ensure they comply with the requirements of the Companies Act. They also have the opportunity to add a marketing message to every outbound e-mail.

If your company uses Exclaimer you need to be sure that you are taking advantage of this ability to promote your business. It could be anything from “Winner of the south-east technology award 2010” Read More...

Be a BlackBerry power user

malcolm@riverbank.co.uk — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 09:21:13 +0100

It’s the BlackBerry software that makes the BlackBerry such a delight to use. It’s just easy to get the job done. If you use a BlackBerry here are some little features that make it even nicer to use.

Upper case? Hold down the key and it automatically switches to upper case.Full stop. Press the space bar twice.Typing a URL into the browser? Use the spRead More...

Going for growth - get ahead of your competitors

malcolm@riverbank.co.uk — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 09:17:55 +0100

If your business is going to grow in a flat market (let’s be optimistic about the wider economy) you have to do so by winning market share. That means taking business from your competitors. To do that you have to be better than them. You also have to communicate your message to your potential customers.

What underpins your success at attracting that new business is your systems – the way you run your business. Here are seven ways that IT can contribute to your success.

Cloud computing - what's in it for me?

malcolm@riverbank.co.uk — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 00:00:00 +0100

The hype around cloud computing could be reaching a peak, but are companies actually doing it? Many large firms are apparently holding back from making a drastic change to their IT systems, preferring to wait until others have gone before them and made their mistakes. Many smaller businesses are hesitant about committing their entire business to a single Internet cRead More...

Email encryption is the next security loophole to plug

malcolm@riverbank.co.uk — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 16:01:14 +0100

I attended a PGP event this morning to hear the latest news around IT security and encryption (by the way 'PGP' stands for 'Pretty Good Privacy' and it's also a world leader in encryption technnology).

The news is that spending on IT security is increasing even during a recession, because companies recognise the importance of staying secure and the damage any security breach can cause (prison, for example). Many firms have now got all their laptops enRead More...

0% finance from Dell

malcolm@riverbank.co.uk — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 12:51:08 +0100

Dell have a 0% finance deal on offer for server purchases. The finance deal can include software and Riverbank services, but must have a total price of at least £10,000 to qualify. The offer runs until the end of April.

Contact Chris Jones for more information.

Sophos security predictions

malcolm@riverbank.co.uk — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 12:13:07 +0100

The Sophos Security Report for 2010 has some thought-provoking predictions for 2010. One is the impact of cloud computing. As more data is stored on the web so the security threats will migrate to those sites and the individual desktop computer will become less important. Before you commit your data to a web-based system you might want to know how good your supplier's security protection is. If a major data store did suffer a security breach the impact could be eRead More...

Become an Excel power user

malcolm@riverbank.co.uk — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 14:17:41 +0100

Don’t get stuck in the 10% trap, where you use just 10% of the power of your software. Work better, faster and more effectively by continuing to learn more about the software you use. Use that extra time you liberate to drive growth in your business.

Here are ten tips to help you accelerate your work with Excel.

1. Entering text
If you want to enter multiple lines of text, or create paragraphs within a cell, use Alt Enter to move to a new line.

Ten tips for better business continuity

malcolm@riverbank.co.uk — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 14:12:45 +0100

The January snow meant that many people were working from home. Some fared better than others, and the calls to our help desk revealed where employers and employees were struggling. Here are Riverbank’s top tips for keeping your business running when the unexpected happens.

1. Top of the list by far is preparation. Have a plan and rehearse it. Then you know how you will do it. Waiting until you are cut off by a foot of snow is not a good way to discover Read More...

A good time to move to O2

malcolm@riverbank.co.uk — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 14:18:53 +0100

One lesson from the recent snow was the importance of being able to work away from the office. A really useful tool for working anywhere is a mobile data link - a small USB device that connects your laptop to the Internet via the mobile network.

The Riverbank partner for mobile communications is O2. They are running a January incentive of 3 months' free subscription for voice calls if you change to O2 for your mobile voice and data communications. If you would like mRead More...

Commuting in the snow and ice or working comfortably from home?

malcolm@riverbank.co.uk — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 11:04:09 +0100

In this prolonged period of icy weather are you still slipping and sliding to work? Many Riverbank clients are working comfortably at home. Thanks to good remote access to their office networks they can remain productive and safe.

If you are thinking that maybe you should do better in enabling your people to work anywhere make a new year's resolution to speak to Riverbank about it. We can tell you more about the cost-effective options available and how other firms are getting the benefRead More...

Your private cloud?

malcolm@riverbank.co.uk — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 16:15:00 +0100

Cloud computing is the topic of the moment, with servers and their applications metamorphosing into web-based services. But will all businesses want to join this rush to the cloud?

The evidence so far is that for individual professionals and micro-businesses cloud computing has irresistible attractions - you don't need to buy any expensive hardware or software, and someone else manages everything for you.

Larger companies feel the same attraction, but for many it is diminished by other Read More...

The answer could be SharePoint

malcolm@riverbank.co.uk — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 15:40:54 +0100

Take a look at this list and ask yourself if your business would run better if you had:

A dynamic fully-searchable internal web site with company news and announcements, ideas and discussion area, and much more.A client area on your network to bring your best clients closer to you.A company knowledge base.All your business procedures in one place.An online staff handbook.

Riverbank clients are disRead More...

Get there faster with My Places

malcolm@riverbank.co.uk — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 15:08:57 +0100

My Places is a feature of Word and Excel that can get you to places fast. If you aren’t using it you are still plodding through folders when you could be jumping straight to the location you want. Dedicate five minutes to setting up My Places and see how much easier life can become.

My Places is the list of locations down the left-hRead More...

Riverbank at Genesis 2009

malcolm@riverbank.co.uk — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 11:25:42 +0100

Thank you to everyone who visited our exhibition stand and entered our prize draw at Genesis 2009, the London biotech showcase event. We hope the event was as useful and successful for you as it was for us.

The winner of the Riverbank iPod will be announced on 21 December.

We look forward to seeing you again at Genesis 2010.

IT with zero capital expenditure

malcolm@riverbank.co.uk — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 11:17:14 +0100

The idea of IT as a service is starting to catch on. Like leasing a car with all the maintenance and servicing included, people like the idea of "no hassle" IT. Someone else has the responsibility for providing the equipment and keeping it running. As the customer you just pay a fixed monthly fee and that's it - no surprises and no additional maintenance costs.

The other advantage of this way of delivering IT is that you have zero capital expenditure, particularly useful in currenRead More...

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