Are you an employer who has provided a UEA student with a fantastic learning experience, either through paid employment or volunteering? Or do you know of an outstanding UEA student who has undertaken work placements or volunteered? If so, we want to hear from you.
Nominations are open for awards which will be presented at CareerCentral’s UEA Talent Celebration event on 7 May 2019 at the Sainsbury Centre. The event will recognise and showcase excellence in student and business engagement and the following awards will be presented on the evening. To nominate a student or employer click on the relevant link below:
– UEA’s Most Supportive Employer Award – Awarded to an employer who has provided students a paid opportunity to learn and excel in a supportive work place and who has built links with education in order to support the next generation of employees.
– UEA Outstanding Student Volunteer Award – Awarded to a student who has shown dedication and enthusiasm through volunteering, and has gone above and beyond to make a sustained impact.
– UEA Outstanding Student Employee Award – awarded to a student who has made a significant impact to your business, going above and beyond to make a difference.
Check out the video of the Employer Celebration Event run by CareerCentral this year for a taster of next year’s event!
TMS has designed and project-managed Fred. Olsen Windcarrier & Global Wind Service’s exhibition stand at Wind Energy Hamburg for several years.
And for this year’s event, which ran from 25 to 28 September, the Great Yarmouth-based company delivered again with an impressive stand that drew plenty of visitors, including VIPs, Frank Horch, Senator for Economics, and Jens Kerstan, Senator for the Environment.
It provided a full project management service and used a team of skilled and experienced contractors to build and dismantle the stand. Features included:
· bar with space for pump dispensing draft beer
· three plasma screens
· private meeting room, with acrylic semi-transparent screen
· secondary meeting area with two sofas and a bespoke coffee table
· hospitality area with illuminated tables and eight stools
· tech bar with three iPads
· coffee station behind the counter
This is what the marketing departments at Fred. Olsen Windcarrier said: “It has been a pleasure working with TMS on our stand for Wind Energy Hamburg 2018. Knowing that TMS handles all details and liaises with both our stand builder and the venue on all practical matters makes our preparation for a large and important exhibition like this much easier and frees up time for us to focus on other parts such as receptions and events.”
TMS Media also provided Fred. Olsen Windcarrier with graphic design, advertising and tech support ahead of the event and lends marketing support across the year.
From January 2019, the Adapt Group will become part of UEA’s Research and Innovation Services, led by UEA’s Director of Research and Innovation and Chamber Board member, Helen Lewis.
Adapt operates the multi-award-winning Enterprise Centre on UEA’s campus, and the Low Carbon Innovation Fund, which so far has successfully invested over £20.5m, leveraging over £48m of private co-investment and supporting over 70 companies to grow.
Helen Lewis said: “This is an exciting opportunity to improve further the entrepreneurial culture at UEA, supporting the ambitions of staff, students and regional businesses; and to place The Enterprise Centre at the heart of our business engagement.”
While the Adapt brand will cease, existing projects with collaborators will continue, and staff will continue to be based at The Enterprise Centre – however they will now work within the University’s Research and Innovation Services.
The change (prompted in part by the December departure of Adapt CEO Prof John French) will allow The Enterprise Centre to fully integrate with the University’s other business engagement activities, expanding the support available to tenants and other stakeholders. The new approach will also provide one central place for businesses to contact to access University funding.
Helen added: “This will allow us to build our offer to The Enterprise Centre tenants and businesses in the region, and provide a truly integrated range of support from funding, access to expertise, recruitment, business incubators, and a whole host of other services.”
The shop on High Street, Banchory joins Steven’s first shop on 92 Rosemount Place in Aberdeen
After taking over the reins from his father in December 2017, Steven has moved premises in Aberdeen, taken on additional staff and opened a new shop in Banchory, which marks the next phase in Steven’s ambitious growth plans.
Chartered Accountant Steven, who runs his practices with the assistance of seven staff, said: “Building my own business and working in the small business community has always been my ambition.
“I am a passionate supporter of small business as the lifeblood of the local community and there is a real need for a network of local, approachable business services, and this is why we’ve taken the step to open a new shop.
“As demand for our services continues to grow, the new shop in Banchory gives us the opportunity to grow with it.
“Having looked at TaxAssist with my father back in 2010, I was really impressed with the business model, so when the opportunity arose to step into his shoes, I jumped at it. He built an outstanding business, which is well respected within our small business community and I’ve thoroughly enjoyed meeting existing clients and spreading the news of our services to new clients.”
TaxAssist Accountants now has over 290 shops and offices around the UK. If you would like to run your own TaxAssist Accountants practice, call us today on 0800 0188297 to find out if your preferred area is available.
This well attended annual series of events keeps franchisees abreast of the developments being driven from the Support Centre and provides a useful networking and discussion forum.
Three of TaxAssist Accountants’ Executive Directors, Sarah Robertson, James Mattam and Daren Moore, and key Support Centre personnel, recently visited nine locations around the UK to host the annual round of Regional Meetings. The events were well attended with over 180 franchisees in attendance, representing over 90% of the network.
The core content of the regional meetings concerned three areas:
New Software Estate
Sarah Robertson, Group Operations Director, presented on the new Software Estate, which includes TaxCalc, Practice Ignition and Receipt Bank and the practical issues around software migration and training.
She reiterated that the Software Estate was the foundation to enable franchisees to be more productive, gain efficiencies in their practice, be more profitable and be best positioned to capitalise on the forthcoming opportunities.
Service Development
Group Commercial Director Daren Moore FCCA, announced the launch of 2 new services that will be provided directly from the Support Centre.
These new insourced service offerings will cover all aspects of Payroll and Tax and will be delivered through new teams of specialists. Delivering services in this way will help franchisees deliver services more profitably, to generate additional fees and to win new clients.
Daren also presented a new ‘Our Services’ document, setting out the huge range of services clients can access through the TaxAssist Network. This document will prove to be a hugely valuable tool, helping franchisees to differentiate their services and deliver new fees through cross selling activities.
Increased marketing of the brand via national television campaigns and social media awareness and local marketing campaigns
James Mattam, Group Business Development Director, presented the new Brand Awareness Media campaign to increase more exposure for the business via TV, social media paid programmes and social media engagement along with localised planned marketing plan support.
All of the proposed changes were greeted with enthusiasm by the network as Sarah explained: “I am pleased to report that the network is on good form and very positive towards the changes that lie ahead.
“They understand the strategic decisions that have been made with regards to our new software estate and the benefits this technology brings in making them more efficient, productive and cutting edge with clients and they understand that technology is the foundation for how we drive this business forward.
“It was pleasing to hear that the network fully appreciates the amount of work that the Support Centre team is doing to help and support them to be more successful in their practices and I’ve enjoyed reading the positive responses from franchisees following their regional meeting.”
Concerning the new software suite, Nigel Starkey, franchisee in Leicestershire, said: “Today I have signed up with Receipt Bank seeing the virtues of what it can bring us. The pricing deal that has been secured has been the deciding factor. Keep up the good work – still love being part of the ‘TaxAssist’ network and fully appreciate all the hard work you carry out at Norwich!”
Richard Brookes franchisee from Cambridge is also a fan of Receipt Bank and says:” I really enjoyed our regional meeting – very useful as always. I have been using Receipt Bank for years and the new deal has nearly halved my cost.”
Hampshire-based Doug Clanchy commented on the new software suite: “We have implemented Receipt Bank already. It’s early days but I’m pleased with the time saved so far. We have 34 new client proposals signed up through Practice Ignition to date, and 11 awaiting acceptance. I can see that there will be considerable benefits from this when we have been able to evolve our procedures to take full advantage of the functionality. Thank you for a great meeting. The strategic thinking, energy and momentum is back in a big way.”
Andrew Thornton, a franchisee in West Yorkshire, commented: “I took a lot from the regional meeting; there seems to be a lot of good ideas and interesting developments going forward.”
This was a view mirrored by Nick Brook, a franchisee in West and South Yorkshire:” I thought yesterday’s meeting was one of the best I’ve ever attended and full of useful content.”
TaxAssist Accountants once again provided its franchisees with personalised versions of the Budget 2018 material on the day to share and communicate with clients, prospects and business referral contacts.
With the added challenge of the Chancellor Philip Hammond starting his Budget statement three hours later than usual, the Support Centre team in Norwich, wrote and published a summary highlighting the announcements that will affect small businesses and the self-employed, and an e-mail newsletter for its 70,000 clients.
The latter was personalised for franchisees’ individual websites, and produced for print and e-publications, enabling franchisees to share with their clients the changes pertinent to their businesses just hours after the Chancellor delivered his Budget.
During the day, the Support Centre team also posted live updates to the @TaxAssistUK Twitter account, as well as posts on the national Facebook and LinkedIn channels. The following content was added to the website www.taxassist.co.uk for franchisees to share on their social media profiles:
James Mattam, Group Business Development Director at TaxAssist Accountants, said: “Our Support Centre staff pride themselves on producing an informative Budget commentary for the benefit of both the accountants in our network and their clients.
“This year our team faced a tighter than usual turnaround time due to the Chancellor choosing to deliver his Budget statement at 3.30pm rather than 12.30pm. Their dedication and pure hard work ensured that our network had various content to share with their clients not long after the Budget speech ended and ahead of the competition.
“The efficiency of delivering our client newsletter is thanks to the proactive centralised mailing service we offer to our network. It lets us communicate on behalf of franchisees quickly and efficiently, leaving them free to concentrate on running their practices. This and our highly regarded content are just two of the many business development services we offer our franchisees, as well as being among of the many reasons people decide to join our network.”
East Anglia’s only world-class data centre is now an approved IT supplier on the UK government’s G-Cloud 10 framework, helping public sector organisations access their approved services.
Launched in July 2018, the latest G-Cloud 10 digital marketplace gives public sector organisations access to cloud hosting, cloud software and cloud support services from approved suppliers, now including MIGSOLV.
“We’re thrilled to be a part of the latest G-10 framework” says David Manning, Managing Director for MIGSOLV. “It’s a demonstration of the quality of our services and their importance to the public sector in providing a low-cost way to transition to a cloud strategy.”
G-Cloud 10 is the tenth iteration of the government’s framework for public sector bodies, allowing them to purchase cloud-based IT services via their Digital Marketplace. The new framework boasts several improvements over the preceding G-Cloud 9, including opening up the marketplace to new and innovative suppliers, making it easier to navigate and including cyber security services.
As an accredited supplier, MIGSOLV’s services are now easily accessible to buyers through the online database which encourages participation and competition from similar small-to-medium commercial suppliers. By becoming an approved member, MIGSOLV will have a greater opportunity to help public sector organisations achieve their digital transformation objectives.
“Small businesses are the backbone of our economy” stated Oliver Dowden, the MP who led G-Cloud 10’s launch in July. “By bringing forward the introduction of G-Cloud 10, the government will ensure public sector IT customers have access to the latest cloud-based technologies and services. The success of G-Cloud demonstrates how we are breaking down the barriers for SMEs and helping deliver the next stage of their growth.”
MIGSOLV’s purpose built world-class Gatehouse data centre offers 24/7 housing and protection of organisation’s IT. The announcement of their inclusion in the government framework coincides with MIGSOLV launching a wider range of colocation, cloud and connectivity services, allowing public sector procurement to reduce costs and find the perfect solution for their data storage, protection and cloud migration.
For more information on MIGSOLV’s services visit www.migsolv.com or call 01603 510321.
With the health, supplement and nutrition industries growing hugely in the UK, there has been a great increase in the number of businesses selling these types of products online. This has means that the industry both online and offline have become more competitive than ever. Having been approached by the team at Missfits Nutrition, we are pleased to announce that we are working with them to get them found online, building on what is already a strong brand presence.
Missfits Nutrition sell a range of health-related, protein and dietary supplements including whey and vegan protein amongst others.
Having a brand that is known online, poses a number of challenges and our search engine optimisation (SEO), design and lead generation teams are working hard on these aspects for Missfits. With a newly designed website, we have been able to start getting Missfits on the right path to success online via Google, Bing and other search engines.
What we are doing
The Missfits Nutrition website was currently only ranking for brand terms and a few other, lower volume terms. This has been in part due to the lack of various crawling factors’ implementation across the site as well as a lack of clear targeting. We have therefore been working on the following, amongst all other factors to improve how Google and other search engines can rank the site:
Meta data – one of the first criteria that search engines assess, we have been updating and optimising their meta data. This is all based on thorough keyword research and industry analysis. This data allows the site to target what is needed with relevant pages and make sure that users are presented with the most relevant search results subject to their searches online.
Website code – the source code upon which a website is built is key to the performance and the rankings of any site. With Missfits’ website being built via a strong content management system (CMS), we have been able, along with their development team to implement a number of fixes, updates and changes to ensure the code is optimised for search engines and can be crawled effectively. This has also helped to improve the website’s overall responsiveness and speed.
Content, headings and targeting – we have been carrying out keyword and industry research to determine the best terms to target in their industry based on their targets. This has led us to begin a comprehensive audit of all of the website content. Furthermore, this ongoing keyword research means that we are consistently honing what the site is ranking for, ensuring it always remains relevant.
Online PR – a key part of SEO and online marketing is the overall reputation and PR of a site. We are working with a number of relevant websites to feature Missfits Nutrition, helping increase the degree of exposure they are likely to enjoy online, acting as a powerful trust signal for Google and other search engines.
Tracking performance – Key to monitoring and building on success, we are tracking the performance of the website from both a speed and responsiveness point of view as well as in terms of which keywords and search terms it ranks for to make sure we are on top of all happenings.
A rising-star technology firm has joined forces with East Anglia’s world-class data centre to offer businesses with increasingly expensive public cloud costs a way to seamlessly migrate to a more affordable private or hybrid solution.
Data Processing firm Spicule have partnered with MIGSOLV to launch a private cloud service which not only dramatically reduces costs but ensures a safe and seamless migration of significant data out of the public cloud.
“For many businesses, public cloud compute and storage resources are a cost-effective way to operate compared to alternatives” reports Tom Barber, Managing Director of Spicule. “However, the balance can soon tip when even modest levels of virtual servers and data begin to grow. Partnering with MIGSOLV, we’re able to give businesses a way to dramatically reduce the costs whilst benefitting from even greater protection.”
Data intensive businesses, deploying in some of the world’s major cloud providers, are finding their increasing needs are resulting in spiralling costs which are difficult to resolve without impacting their business. The two tech-innovators have come together to create a highly secure cloud solution which lowers costs whilst delivering a number of additional benefits.
The new ‘private’ cloud service will allow businesses to own their own unique fully functioning private cloud, all stored and managed by MIGSOLV and Spicule. Spicule will provide the software and expertise to seamlessly migrate and manage business’s existing data and services. Exclusive use of MIGSOLV’s data centre to house the required hardware will provide greater assurances, unfettered access and UK data sovereignty. As well as these advantages, the service will provide significant cost savings for many businesses, compared to mainstream cloud services.
“Spicule are a new and exciting company with very impressive experience and expertise” says David Manning, MIGSOLV’s Managing Director. “With their data know-how and our world-class facilities, we’re very excited to work together to deliver something unique for medium-to-large sized businesses.”
Established in the University of East Anglia’s Enterprise Centre in Norwich, Spicule have recently expanded to larger offices just outside the city. Specialising in solutions to collate and analyse large quantities of data, their software already boasts use by organisations including NASA, Netflix and the US government.
MIGSOLV’s data centre, The Gatehouse, is the East of England’s only purpose-built commercial data storage facility. The heavily guarded building houses computer servers and IT equipment for its customers, protecting them from threats including theft, extreme weather and power cuts. Hardware is installed within a temperature and humidity-controlled environment, with eight days back-up power and some of the fastest connectivity in the region.
It is anticipated the new services will be popular with medium to large businesses, as well as public sector organisations. “There is a gap in the market for truly first-class and affordable public to private cloud migration solutions for fast growing companies” concludes David Manning. “We’re very excited to be working with Spicule to deliver the type of private cloud offering usually reserved for the very largest global businesses.”
The way to donate transparently this Christmas! Your Own Network.
There is so much great stuff going on, that those of us that want to reach into our pockets to make a donation are often overwhelmed. And local businesses are no different
Your Own Network offers the solution!
Your Own Network offers the unique opportunity to give direct to a vulnerable young person setting up home for the first time.
And we’re launching our campaign in partnership with Norfolk Chamber of Commerce – they too see the benefit of #transparentgiving. They will be supporting Your Own Place to reach local businesses.
Who wouldn’t want their hard earned cash to go direct to the person benefitting rather than disappear into the company accounts? And it’s no different for local businesses who also want to make a difference at this time of year and may be feeling the squeeze.
How it works:
Young people starting out on life and moving into their own place without family to help them out need furniture and household items. We all know that a house is not a house when it’s empty. Research tells us that if our homes are not furnished and looked after, we are less likely to hold onto them and could end up homeless.
We’ve teamed up with Argos so that young people create a wishlist of furniture and smaller household items. Donors – individuals or businesses can find out a bit about the young person on the website and buy them something from their wishlist. This helps to prevent youth homelessness!
This is giving with a difference #transparentgiving #yourownnetwork
What Aaliyah says about the things she has received: “Well I really appreciate the items that I received as had some money problems. I feel so grateful that random strangers want to help out. It’s given me hope”.
A bit more about Your Own Place Your Own Place CIC is based in Norwich and Ipswich and operates across Norfolk and Suffolk. We’re a social enterprise that works with over 150 young people a year to prevent them from becoming the future homeless population. We do this as a sustainable business working with all members of the community to secure a diverse income.
Your Own Place is a member of the Future 50 group.
We were also shortlisted for the FSB Small Business Award in 2018, the Homeless Link Social Enterprise Award in 2018, the EDP Skills of Tomorrow Award in 2017 and the PwC Social Impact award in 2016.
We were founded in 2013 by Rebecca White. Rebecca has recently featured in the Natwest Wise100 women social entrepreneurs in the country.
Full Mix Marketing are delighted to announce they’ve achieved Recommended Status from The Drum (formally the Recommended Agency Register) having received a number of strong endorsements from their clients.
The Recommended Agency Register is an independent online resource on which businesses can search and compare client reviews for marketing, digital and creative agencies. It is currently undergoing a rebrand to become The Drum.
The Norwich-based agency was delighted that a number of their valued clients took time to share their experiences of working with them and provide such positive feedback.
Karen Rogers of IT experts Corbel identified the full-service agency as ‘highly knowledgeable’, ‘very professional’ and ‘clearly committed’ to Corbel’s success.
Andrew Brammer of manufacturers PSS stated ‘Sarah and here team have really helped professionalise our image and marketing. They’re a pleasure to work with and the web design, social media, print and other marketing they’ve delivered for us has been excellent, and we are seeing real and tangible benefits.’
Jane Bull from Johnston Logistics UK said ‘Everything they deliver has been to the same high standard and we’ve the confidence to let them get on with our marketing. We’ve exciting times ahead and Full Mix Marketing are a vital part of our growth. We wouldn’t hesitate to recommend them.’
Led by an award-winning and CIM Chartered marketer, the team focus on the effectiveness of every element of digital, offline, creative or strategic marketing they deliver. Full Mix Marketing would like to thank all their clients who’ve identifying the skills, ease and professionalism with which we deliver the results they need.
Gasway Services Ltd, a subsidiary company of Flagship Group, has strengthened its position as East Anglia’s largest heating company following the acquisition of Colchester-based Blue Flame Services.
Gasway operates across East Anglia, London and the Home Counties providing heating and hot water solutions for home owners, businesses and social housing landlords. Blueflame, which provides gas, oil, electric and renewable services in Suffolk and Essex has become a subsidiary of Gasway. Together, the two businesses will be stronger, have greater competitive scale to take advantage of more opportunities across East Anglia.
Both companies share similar values and have the same focus; the collaboration will bring together complimentary services to offer the market. The acquisition will create a total workforce of over 300 and a combined revenue c£30m.
Managing Director of Gasway Liam Betts said: “We are delighted with the acquisition which supports our growth strategy. It also firmly establishes our aim to continue to expand and grow our brand geographically. We are very much looking forward to working together with everyone at Blueflame during this next phase of growth.”
Director at Blueflame Kevin Bull said: “Although we have successfully grown over the last few years, for the business to continue to grow and achieve its full potential, becoming part of a larger group was vital.
“We are excited by the acquisition which will safeguard the futures of our staff, bringing about opportunities for individual growth and progression as well as organisational success under new ownership. As a stronger business we will be able to provide even better services for our customers.”