When the weather turns to temperatures like we are currently experiencing, it will drive rodents into buildings such as sheds, factories, schools, workshops, houses and garages. You name it and they will find a way in. This week is ‘Pest Awareness Week’ and it was reported by the British Pest Control Authority (BPCA) that the insurance sector has estimated rodent damage to wiring is responsible for 25% of all electrical fires in buildings. If this is not a big enough concern on its own, think about the opportunity you will give them to share your food stocks, probably without you even noticing it. Make sure you check for all entry points, broken drain covers, poorly maintained brickwork and get the maintenance completed. When the thaw arrives over the next few days we will be inundated with a surge of calls and the Abate team will be ready with all hands-on deck. For Health & Safety reasons for all Abate staff, they have been told to stay at home for the third day running, but will be ready when needed? Abate Pest Management from Morley near Wymondham, delivers rodent control, insect control, bird proofing projects, woodworm treatment and specialist hygiene services to commercial and domestic customers throughout Norfolk, Suffolk, Cambridgeshire, Essex, Herts and Beds. They offer free surveys and can be contacted at www.abateltd.co.uk or by calling 0800 980 9767.
Great Yarmouth based company Gapton Computers is set to join with Netmatters Ltd to create one of the region’s largest, full-service technology companies; offering ever improving levels of service to all businesses throughout East Anglia and the rest of the UK.
As of the 1st March 2018, Gapton Computers will join forces with Netmatters Ltd in a move that will establish Netmatters Ltd as the region’s largest, full-service technology agency. Trading as solely Netmatters Ltd from this date, we will operate from two locations within East Anglia, including our existing office in Wymondham, as well as our newly established offices in Great Yarmouth.
Gapton Computers has been trading since December 2008 and has focused on supporting the IT infrastructure for many businesses within the Great Yarmouth area. Under the management of Mark Johnson, Gapton Computers has achieved considerable success and has developed close relationships with many local businesses.
Over the past 10 years, we have continued to grow in terms of our offerings and dedicated team of experts who are at the forefront of the Netmatters business; supporting our customers and helping continue their success. This development will be further enhanced with the merger with Gapton Computers.
“Both companies have a similar approach in terms of how they support their clients… both take ownership and work with their business clients to ensure they have the technical support required to help them be successful” – Mark Johnson, formerly Managing Director of Gapton Computers.
Mark, formerly Managing Director of Gapton computers will continue to be a valued member of the team, taking a more technical position as we move forward.
Following the combination, Netmatters Ltd will welcome a larger team of expert personnel and will continue to maintain the office in Great Yarmouth – benefiting local customers by providing rapid local support.
“All former Gapton Personnel have taken new positions with Netmatters so we can maintain the good relationships we have with all our clients. We aim to maintain the personal service by aligning teams of technicians with accounts to gain the benefits of familiarity alongside a large resource pool if the need arises.” – James Gulliver, Managing Director at Netmatters.
Netmatters is passionate about technology and only employs people with the same mindset, as we believe the old adage that; if you love what you do, you will care about it.
If you have any questions, please get in touch with the Netmatters team who will be more than happy to provide more information.
There’s no doubt, that having a secure, fast and reliable internet connection will be towards the top of any businesses “must haves’ list. However, this can widely be the area that causes the most frustration in the workplace.
Never fear, there is a light at the end of the page loading wheel; leased lines.
First on the scene in the 1970’s, leased lines have continued to rise in popularity and have become an integral part for companies who want to protect their data and increase efficiency. Not only does this option provide a fast, reliable and secure connection, but leased lines also benefit companies that handle client data in any sector – vital with GDPR coming into play from 25th May 2018.
With our growing network of UK businesses, you’re one step closer to introducing cost-effective and reliable connectivity.
Benefits of Netmatters Leased Lines;
Dedicated bandwidth
Solely for your business use only, there’s no need to share your connection with other companies leaving scope for your business to optimise workload efficiency further.
No lag during peak times
Gone are the days of a slow internet connection, with dedicated bandwidth your business can function much more efficiently with internet ‘lag’ being a thing of the past.
Reliable
Leased lines use fibre-optic cables, which means it doesn’t suffer from electrical interference – resulting in being much more reliable in the long term, with minimal maintenance needed to be carried out.
Secure
Offering better security than alternative broadband options, a leased line data connection is controlled solely by your business, meaning your don’t share information on a public network – essential ahead of GDPR with all EU businesses having to enhance their data handling processes.
Flexible
Used to carry countless forms of communication, you have complete control to allocate bandwidth where most important to you and your business – this can be changed as your business continues to grow.
Ongoing Support
At Netmatters, as the direct provider we’re able to offer direct, one-to-one support straight away, helping solve any problems quickly.
Streamline your business activities and say goodbye to lag internet connection by getting in touch with our team of IT experts today.
What connectivity and integration options does your 4G hardware offer?
You may already have one or more existing connections, 4G hardware that works seamlessly with those connections will save your business time and money. It also reduces the risk of employees incorrectly changing cabling and settings.
Will it work with satellite or an existing ADSL connection?
If one connection fails will traffic be automatically rerouted via another connection or do you have to manually make the change?
Can it be load balanced to share data from a slower ADSL connection?
Can it be used just as an emergency failover without any manual intervention from you or your employees?
Can you plug another connection into the 4G hardware to be used as a backup for business continuity in the event of a disaster?
What features does your 4G hardware have to help keep my business network secure?
As well as preventing physical theft of your data, you need to ensure your business data is secure from hackers and cyber-attacks by ensuring your networking equipment is fit for purpose.
How is the hardware secured?
Does it have WPA2 Security enabled WiFi and WPS disabled?
Does it have a stateful inspection firewall?
Can you easily create multiple networks for example to provide a separate guest WiFi network to prevent visitors accessing your private network and data?
Can you separate different networks (VLANs) all together, for example keeping tills and card terminals isolated?
Will it work with VoIP handsets? or WiFi calling on mobiles?
Is it easy to manage the features of the hardware to meet my specific business needs?
Your 4G router is not just about bringing connectivity to your premises, it should also be able to adapt for you to manage your LAN & WiFi to suit your changing business needs.
What “self-service” hardware management options are available?
Can you add a Guest WiFi portal to give users self-serve access and collect marketing data?
What about content filtering? Can you block malicious or inappropriate content to protect your clients and employees?
How scalable and flexible is your 4G hardware?
Many businesses have more complex requirements than a single router. You may have a physically large premises or multiple users. Finding a supplier that’s competent to take a holistic view of your connectivity enables you to ensure you are making a purchase that can be scaled as your business grows so you don’t have unexpected costs later.
Does it work out of the box with my existing network or will I have to replace it?
Can I easily add more access points at my premises to extend the WiFi coverage?
Is it possible to use multiple sims to increase the monthly data allowance?
How many users can be online on the WiFi at any one time?
Can remote and home workers connect to the same core network?
Do you have 24/7 automated monitoring and surveillance tools?
A key differentiator between providers is how proactive they are in detecting and resolving faults and how much they invest in tools for automated detection, management and reporting of incidents. Business providers should be checking and detecting incidents 24/7, so check what they do to ensure you don’t have to do anything!
Do they provide monitoring alerts by email or SMS if the hardware goes offline?
Does it the hardware the ability to self-heal when it finds a fault?
Do they comprehensive reports of all monitoring activity?
What level of after sales support do you offer?
Determine the after sales support your supplier offers s key to ensuring your business can always remain online and run efficiently. Ensure you know what after sales support is and isn’t covered.
What support is included in the hardware price?
Do they offer an onsite service for call outs?
Can your supplier remotely assist you with configuration advise and changes?
How do I raise a support request? by phone, web or email?
What are the hours of support available? Is it 24/7 from an operations centre manned round the clock by experienced support engineers or is it only available from someone on standby at home or in an overseas call centre?
Is there a warranty on the hardware and what is the replacement policy?
Which 4G data providers can I use with your hardware and what are the costs?
You should look at the coverage maps of the providers in your area, the better the coverage the faster the speed.
Will the provider come to your premises and give you a demonstration of the speeds you can achieve with their hardware?
Is the data allowance capped or do you run the risk of accidental overage charges?
Can you buy add on data and how much does it cost?
Do you get commission cashback on your sims from the supplier?
Do they have short term 30-day contract sims available?
Can you scale up your usage allowance in contract term?
This year marks Norwich Sunblinds’ 40th year in business, and what a fantastic journey it’s been! From our inception in 1978, by our founder John Reddington and our first store in St Benedict’s Street in Norwich, all the way through to our second larger premises in Attleborough, we have enjoyed being an integral part of the fabric of Norfolk for the past four decades. In our early days, we began manufacturing made-to-measure vertical and roller blinds above our St Benedict’s shop. This proved to be a challenging time, as the five-metre rail heads came in a lorry which meant that the street had to be shut. The headrails were then lifted into the upstairs window, as they wouldn’t fit through the shop! Fortunately, we no longer have these issues at our current manufacturing premises in Attleborough, but it certainly brings back interesting memories! Fabric designs have changed over the years, but Orla Kiely’s fabulous designs, which hark back to the 70s, are currently very popular. To celebrate four decades in business, we are pulling back the curtains and taking a look at how Norwich and the UK have changed during this period. We hope you enjoy this whistle-stop walk down memory lane with us. The year of our inception was a culturally rich one. We had the Beegees, Rod Stewart, Kate Bush, Boney M and Queen providing us with unforgettable soundtracks. Not to mention the release of Gerry Rafferty‘s iconic song Baker Street, with the unmistakable sax solo that still makes the hair stand up on the back of our necks. The Sex Pistols played their last gig in 1978 (up until their reunion in 1996), while Sony released their first prototype of the Walkman. The cinemas saw Christopher Reeve bring Superman into our lives, while it still wasn’t safe to go back into the water as Jaws returned for a second movie. For those seeking comedy, they had the pleasure of seeing the unforgettable Inspector Clouseau, in Revenge of the Pink Panther. However, the defining film of the year was one that starred a young John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John, in Grease, a movie that has stood the test of time and is still a favourite amongst audiences today. Meanwhile, on TV, we welcomed Grange Hill and Dallas, but said farewell to The Good Life and The Sweeney. Roald Dahl continued to inspire a generation of young readers with his new book, The Enormous Crocodile. Former UEA Student, Ian McEwan published one of his first novels The Cement Garden in 1978, and the timeless Garfield comic strips came into print. Closer to home, 1978 marked 700 years since Norwich Cathedral was consecrated. Norwich City were in the Football League First Division and the Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts, the first-ever public building designed by Norman Foster, officially opened its doors to the public. A twinning agreement was officially signed between Norfolk and the Rhineland Palatinate in Germany, as an indicator of growing development links between the regions. Since then, we’ve witnessed widespread change across the city. Further developments were completed in housing estates, such as the Clover Hill and Chapel Break villages in Bowthorpe. In the city centre, we have seen the closure of Woolworths on St Stephens Street, along with a Big W store at the Riverside. On a positive note, we have seen the opening of Castle Mall in 1993 and intu Chapelfield in 2005, with their wide selection of big brand shops and restaurants. The Bonds store, which had traded under that name for over 120 years, finally rebranded as John Lewis in 2001, despite having being bought by them 19 years earlier. The Cannon Cinema (formerly ABC Norwich and The Regent) shut their doors for good in the 90s, and is now home to the Mercy XS nightclub. Another significant change was the closure of St Augustine’s pool in 1996, where many locals donned their swimming costumes and learnt to swim. Across the UK, 1978 was the ground-breaking year when Louise Brown became the first baby to be born through IVF treatment. This was a time when the VHS and Betamax format battle was in full swing, phones with rotary dials were commonplace and avocado bathrooms were in vogue. It’s hard to believe, but back then it was possible to buy a new home for a mere £9,100. BBC Radio 4 remind us that the cost of a pint of milk was 11p, and a loaf of bread only set you back 28p. How times have changed! Since then, we’ve had six new Prime Ministers, including Margaret Thatcher and viewed 10 Olympic Games, counting those which took place in London in 2012. We hosted one of the Live Aid concerts at Wembley in 1985, which along with its sister concert in Philadelphia, was viewed by over 1.5 billion people in over 160 countries. Sky began broadcasting in 1989, and the following decade saw the increased use of the World Wide Web and the rise of international pop superstars, the Spice Girls. In 2003, England lifted the Rugby World Cup for the very first time, as Jonny Wilkinson helped lead the team to victory. We’ve also witnessed the closure of some nationwide chains such as BHS, JJB Sports, Comet and Phones 4u in recent years. If anything, this is testament to Norwich Sunblinds’s ability to weather tough economic times as a family-owned business that continues to provide a quality service to our customers. Our team has grown over the years, and we continue to make our blinds in-house, with our highly experienced and fully trained craftspeople. We are proud to be a company that invests in the local community. Over the course of the last 40 years in business, we have expanded our product range to include new types of blinds, such as perfect fit, roman, vision/visage blinds, shaped blinds for unusual sized windows, as well as shutters, curtains, fly screens, conservatory sails and our own range of fabrics. We look forward to continuing to develop our product range, to make sure we offer products of the highest quality in years to come. But most importantly, we wouldn’t be here today without you. We’d therefore like to send a heartfelt thank you to all our customers, past and present, for supporting us over the past 40 years. We look forward to delivering the same high standard of service to you for the next 40! Sainsbury Centre photo courtesy of the Sainsbury Centre and Pete Huggin
Last night, I was sitting with my daughter whilst she ate the meal I had prepared for her when she turned to me suddenly and said, with great sincerity: ‘Thank you.’
Two tiny words, delivered in the faltering language of a toddler, but forceful enough to stop me in my tracks. The delightful praise entirely unexpected; after all, as her mother, I had just been doing my job.
It was a potent and personal reminder to me of the power of recognition and how vital it is to making us feel valued. And this is especially true in the workplace where it is essential for engagement, for building motivation and for delivering satisfaction.
When it comes to recognising our people, it needs to be consistent. It needs to not be just a ‘one off.’ It needs to be appropriate. It needs to be authentic. And it needs to be amplified; as humans, we notice the negative far more than the positive.
There are two routes for recognition – formal and informal. The formal routes are the schemes which an organisation operates, such as an annual employee excellence award, or a team member of the month reward. These schemes have real value as they allow an organisation to publicly recognise achievement, and to identify and share ‘best practice’ which can set a standard for others. They contribute to continuous improvement and development, offering, as they do, a bar to aim for (and as such, clear ‘rules’ around the schemes must be communicated). They can also be aligned with an organisation’s strategic aims or values, a good way for a company to embed key principles within the culture. And they engage people in a positive and proactive way, allowing for company-wide celebration of successes.
And then there is the informal. The thank you, the appreciation, the gratitude, above all, from management. Leaders have a crucial role in recognising what their employees are doing, when they’re going above and beyond, when they’re exemplifying an organisation’s values, or when they are simply doing their job. This is the personal recognition which needs to happen in the moment – it shouldn’t wait until the next meeting. It needs to have integrity; it shouldn’t be done just for the sake of it otherwise the manager and the recognition will lose credibility. The manager should be as clear as possible about the reason for the recognition as this underlines to the individual the behaviours which are desired (in the same way that negative feedback reveals actions which are not desired). It should be personal, owned by the manager – often the impact of a leader showing gratitude cannot be underestimated. And it needs to be appropriate – it could be a personally signed card and a box of chocolates, or it could simply be the words: ‘thank you.’ Sometimes the biggest impact can come in the smallest ways.
But however it is delivered, recognition should be an integral part of an organisation’s culture. Because a company which recognises and celebrates achievement will benefit from engagement, motivation and ultimately, satisfaction amongst its people.
There is an addendum to this story. Buoyed by my daughter’s obvious gratitude, I happily got the ice-cream out as a treat for dessert, much to her glee. Which also goes to show that someone who is recognised, who feels appreciated, will deliver more.
We are delighted to be working with All The Lenders, a leading price comparison site in the UK. Founded in 2012, the company acknowledge the need for comparisons in short-term and high cost lending. With other online brokers offering forms, many users were suffering the effects of receiving unsolicited text messages, phone calls and emails. But All The Lenders seeked to do things differently, creating a simple list of lenders so that applicants could compare each lender effectively and find the most affordable and suitable product for them.
As SEO specialists, we are helping All The Lenders compete in the big bad world of the competitive loans industry. Notoriously known as the toughest SEO industry to crack, we have enjoyed working in the industry for several years, consulting for other companies that feature on All The Lenders, including Cashfloat.
We begain by performing a full health check of the website, making sure there was full optimisation of every meta-title, description, heading, alt-text and no broken links, crawl errors or response codes.
We looked at where we could get some quick wins, such as ranking better for individual lenders such as Sunny Loans and Wizzcash Loans. Long term, we are looking at the big prizes of keywords such as payday loans and direct lenders which combined have over 200,000 searches on Google UK per month.
To achieve this, we need to look at a dedicated link building strategy, whilst helping them maintain a clean link profile free of spam. These are achieved by strong outreach from potential partner websites, specifically in the loans and finance industry. To maintain a clean backlink profile, we have already started reaching out to spammy or low quality websites that have featured their links and asked for these to be removed, whilst also performing regular link disavows through Google’s tool.
We have already see progress, jumping 8 positions for payday loans within the first month and whilst we are currently on page 3, we aim to be on page 1 by the 3 to 6 month mark.
Norwich based company Liquid11 continues investing heavily in the region with the ground work commencing on six new starter units in Oulton Broad, near Lowestoft. The new units are aimed at start-ups and small businesses and will offer a modern and safe place to work or store materials. Sally Harding, Liquid11’s Business Development officer said: ‘despite Brexit fears, we feel the UK is a nation of small businesses that constantly innovate, our units will appeal to new companies and existing small business. With good access to North Lowestoft and the train station, we think it’s an excellent location and are excited to see what new buiness we will meet over the coming months’.
Liquid11 also entered into a partnership with local construction company, Mattoms Builders to build 6 new executive homes in Gt Yarmouth which will represent around 2% of the new homes needed to support plans for the town. Pat Cullumbine the director for Mattoms builders said ‘our region is crying out for new homes and whilst there is a buoyant market in mass build homes by existing large scale developers, there is a gap in the market for traditionally built, high spec homes for management and executives moving to our region, our homes will help to fill this gap.
Local councils and planning authorities are supportive of smaller builders and have been helpful in making this and other smaller developments possible in the town.
The Liquid11 group employs around 50 people in the region and typically a further 15 contractors are employed at any given time. Their total investment over the last 12 months in new projects has been circa £3,000,000. The technology focused company continues to grow despite the economic uncertainty.
With three new products launched in the last 12 months the outlook for 2018 is positive for the company.
You’ve taken the first steps to becoming GDPR compliant by clicking onto this article. But with the 25th May firmly etched in many business owners minds, what is GDPR and how can you become GDPR compliant?
Coming into effect from 25th May 2018, GDPR is set to strengthen how businesses and organisations collect, handle and store an individual’s data. As a GDPR compliant business, Netmatters are certified to provide the relevant services, training, and support to ensure you get onto the GDPR compliant path, and stay on it from May 2018.
With data breaches happening on a weekly basis, make sure your business doesn’t fall short.
We provide a comprehensive and tailored range of services to help guide you through the various stages of the GDPR compliance process;
Initial Audit
We will review your current privacy management and data protection practices through an on-site review, and identify areas that may need fining under GDPR.
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Data Protection Impact Assessments
Identifying the most effective way to comply with the GDPR, we will create a bespoke plan of action to ensure your business meets, and maintains individuals expectations when it comes to privacy.
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Implement
We will seamlessly introduce a pragmatic and tailored GDPR compliant framework into your business, including; how data is collected, processed, handled and stored.
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GDPR Training & Awareness
As a GDPR compliant business, we are qualified to provide the relevant training and resources both onsite and virtually to ensure your team understand how to handle personal data under GDPR.
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GDPR Management
We understand there are a lot of things to consider when running a business. That’s why we are able to manage and maintain your GDPR compliance moving forward, ensuring no breaches slip through the cracks – leaving you time to think about the important things.
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Data Protection Audit Support
If you ever do get called to supply evidence on how your collect, handle and store data by the Data Protection Commissioner, we can help you prepare through bespoke training, process audits and provide the relevant information and reports.
Where is the first place you’ll go to if you want to reaffirm your decision to buy a product or a service? Most likely Google, or any search engine for that matter. And what are you likely to see when you type in the company name? The company’s profile and the reviews people have left for it. Among the top results will most likely be a couple of review sites where comments have been posted about the given business or product.
Consumers take online reviews seriously
But let’s first ask ourselves what motivates consumers to check product reviews in the first place? It doesn’t take much to figure that people need reassurance before they decide to part with their hard-earned money. It’s those who have already experienced the positives and the negatives of the product that are trusted to provide more information about their first-hand experience.
Various studies have been performed and although all of them present slightly different figures, they all unite around the undeniable fact that online reviews affect consumers’ purchasing behaviour to a considerable degree. Most of the research conducted, calculated that around 80 to 90% of people have been influenced by online reviews they have read about a certain product. What is more, Forbes revealed that 88% of consumers find online reviews trustworthy. Those figures are not surprising at all but they reiterate the significance of the feedback you get on the Internet.
Online reviews are cherished by potential users because they are supposed to involve a succinct summary of the pros and cons of a product. The customer is interested in feeding their expectations about something they want to buy, and want to learn the details from those who have already passed the stage of getting to know the product in question. But that’s not everything. Consumers tend to acquire their knowledge by visiting multiple sites. It’s not just Google – they could go to platforms like Yelp, Trustpilot or specialised industry-websites to do their exhaustive research. This comes to tell us that people invest quite a lot of time to learn more about their prospective purchase, and take the feedback they see seriously.
Seek reviews from your customers
What is key to understand is that companies should encourage their users to review them. It would be a positive step for them to invite their current users to leave a rating on their website or on some other platform. People are more than willing to assess anything numerically – be it a book, a movie, a plumber, or a lawnmower, they will happily express their opinion by giving 1 to 5 stars, or whatever scale different sites provide. By generating a good number of reviews, you offer your potential clients a bigger and clearer picture of your services, as they will normally trust you if they find out that many people have already commented on what you are doing, and how well you are doing it.
If you have been wondering whether you should worry about your overall score, the answer is no. People generally give positive marks and it is unlikely that you will get a destructively-low rating. The more reviews you receive, the higher your result will be, as occasional negative comments will be drowned in the sea of approvals.
A large number of reviews can help you get some easy traffic to your website, too. A study from 2015 showed that consumer reviews contributed 8.4% to what Google and other search engines use when ranking search results. This is not a figure to ignore as it gives you a respectable amount of extra visitors for the little effort you need to make to promote product reviewing.
Conclusion
All in all, any business’ reputation is built on customer satisfaction. If your product is usable and of high quality, you are certain to gain recognition. Nevertheless, it does not require much to help yourself further by asking your clients to review your business.