Member News

Specialised Management Services (SMS)will be exhibiting at the 40th SPE Offshore Europe Conference and Exhibition, Aberdeen at the beginning of September 2013, as part of the Alderley Group.

Alderley has won over £57 million worth of orders over the last 10 months and will be delivering a range of projects that include brownfield refurbishments of metering and control systems in the North Sea, produced water treatment and bespoke hydraulic solutions. As an independent system integrator, Alderley has supplied more than 250 systems in the North Sea alone and at Offshore Europe will be demonstrating how they provide clients with technology that best fits the application, is best in class and best for their clients’ business.

Eric Maddock, Group Business Development Director says, “Alderley have been providing a range of applications to the North Sea fields ever since 1975 when we became the first to measure oil from this region. We have used our experience in technology and local standards to delivery technical excellence throughout our projects.”

Eric continues by saying, “We look forward to returning to Offshore Europe 2013 to further establish our relationships with our local clients and highlight our range of capabilities and new offerings in the oil and gas industry.”

Over the past 18 months, Alderley have delivered to the Jette Field a Hydraulic Power Unit and Topside Umbilical Termination Unit to NORSOK standards, a Produced Water Treatment skid package designed to to treat produced water from upstream production and test separators to the Luno field and are in the process of shipping a gas metering system and an oil metering system along with their associated controls systems to Korea for the BP Quad 204 project.

For more information on Specialised Management Services and the projects they have delivered you can visit them at stand C60 at the Offshore Europe 2013, Aberdeen from the 3rd – 6th September 2013.

Norse Commercial Services has expanded and upgraded its call centre, creating six new jobs at its Norwich head office.

The new facilities have been created to handle increased volumes of facilities management operations, brought about by the company’s consistent growth over the last 12 months.

“We’ve seen over £30 million of new and renewed business over the last year,” said Sales Director Geoff Tucker, “with a number of new multimillion pound joint ventures with local authorities around the country, and substantial new contracts with private sector and educational establishments. All this has created increased demand for the support services that are controlled via our call centre hub.”

The helpdesk is the communication hub for Norse’s Facilities Management Division which operates at approaching 300 sites across the UK.

“The FM Division has always had a 24/7 function but with the growth of not only the FM Team but the organisation as a whole, there was a need to move to new, larger dedicated facilities at Fifers Lane, where there is room for further growth,” commented Emma McMurdock, FM Business Manager at Norse. “There has been a substantial investment, with new offices, operations facilities and meeting rooms being created, all of which will help maintain a highly efficient service to our clients’ sites.”

The centre which currently employs 10 call operators, has also invested in the latest computer telephony technology to log and monitor work requests.

“As the company continues to grow, and call volume also increases as more service divisions start to use the centre, there will inevitably be further job opportunities in the future,” McMurdock said.

As well as receiving and coordinating tasks such building maintenance issues, security issues including alarm activations, cleaning requirements, staffing calling in unwell, and management of the company’s lone worker system, it also manages all the associated administration.

The centre even got a call recently regarding the whale that was stranded on Gorleston beach, as Norse is often a first point of contact for local authorities looking to escalate environmental or human welfare problems under the Civil Contingencies Act 2004.

The new building work was carried out by the Norse in-house teams of FM Service Engineers who installed the electrics, air conditioning and data cabling, with local contractors building the internal structure.

I was really pleased to receive a written testimonial from one of our new customers, Climate Air Conditioning Ltd. Company Director, Phil Rees, wrote “having only 2 telephone lines with a ‘least cost routing company’, I didn’t think it would be worthwhile looking at; however my bill arrived the day before my meeting with Kevin so I gave it to him just in case. His response was immediate, not only was he able to offer me better rates for line rental and calls he also found I was paying for a service I didn’t need. Just by switching to Breakwater I will save over £400 per annum”.

The moral of Phil’s kind letter was to emphasise that you are never too small to take the time to review your telecoms services and look for saving. However, my view was quite different because you are never too big either. If a business with just 2 lines can save £400 per annum, does that mean a 4 line customer can save £800 and a 20 line customer save £4000?

So how did I save Phil money, especially when he was using a so called “least cost routing company”? It was easy, over the last 18 months the wholesale cost of fixed to mobile calls have reduced twice and line rental is reducing this September. At Breakwater IT we are very fortunate because our wholesale partner has passed discounts onto our customers all 3 times! So, I reduced Phil’s line rental by a little and his cost of calling mobiles by a lot, 70% in fact.

Having 20 years’ experience in the telecoms industry, I am very quick to identify cost savings and calling plans that just do not work for customers. Call commitments, call capping, call allowances, call set-up charges, minimum call charges, inclusive minutes, are all terms that just don’t seem to deliver what they promise especially when they are not billed properly. Earlier this year I met Julian Garrood, Director of Drayton Caravans and Norfolk Caravan Hire. I completed a similar audit of their telecoms bills. They have 5 lines so according to Phil’s experience they should get a saving of £1000? In fact annual projected saving was £1290, but that’s not all. 4 of the lines were digital ISDN2e and were on a tariff called “Start-Up” which includes a £20 per line per month call allowance. However their provider was not passing the allowance on due to a billing error. Julian was very pleased with an additional refund of £391 which we claimed back.

So, if you like the prospect of saving money on your telephone bills together with the comfort that your rates are pro-actively monitored then a free Breakwater IT telecoms audit could be for you. Not only that, our fixed line services are only contracted over 30 days as we are confident that you won’t need to look no further.

And again, you are never too big or too small to use Breakwater IT for telecoms services. Phil will receive his line rental reduction on the 1st September along with East Anglian Air Ambulance, Seajacks, M+A Partners, Norfolk Country Cottages and many more.

Breakwater IT offer IT Support and Business Telecoms solutions across the East Anglia region.

The recent case of Newbury v Sun Microsystems [2013] serves as a useful reminder of the importance of expressing documentation to be “subject to contract” whilst under negotiation. In this case the High Court held that correspondence between two parties negotiating a settlement sum amounted to a binding agreement. In order for negotiations to have continued the parties should have used the words “subject to contract” in the correspondence.

An employee (Newbury) brought a claim for unpaid commission. In response the employer counterclaimed for the recovery of overpaid commission, thus a dispute entailed. To avoid going to trial the employer’s solicitor sent a letter offering a settlement sum to the employee’s solicitor containing the following terms:

“Our client is willing to settle the entire proceedings by paying the Claimant within 14 days of accepting this offer, the sum of £601,464.98 (the “Settlement Sum”) inclusive of interest by way of damages, by means of an electronic transfer into his nominated bank account, in full and final settlement of the Claim and counter-claim plus the sum of £180,000 in relation to his legal costs, such settlement to be recorded in a suitably worded agreement.”

The letter was not expressed as being “subject to contract” and the employee’s solicitor responded accepting its terms. As a result there was an offer, an acceptance, consideration and an intention to create legal relations; all the ingredients required to form a legally binding agreement.

The employer had intended to negotiate further terms of the settlement contract, in particular with respect to income tax, confidentiality and the form of the consent order. Therefore the employer argued that there was not an intention for the correspondence to form a legally binding agreement.

The High Court held that there was a contract contained in the correspondence and that the conduct which occurred after the date of the letters could not be used to determine whether there was an intention to create a legally binding agreement. As the letter was not expressed to be “subject to contract” there was a demonstration that there was an intention for the offer to be legally binding. If the words “subject to contract” had been used, then it would have been clear that the terms would not be binding until a formal contract was finalised and agreed.

This case is a classic example of why, when offering or negotiating a settlement of any dispute or agreeing terms of a contract, it is important to add the words “subject to contract” to correspondence where it is intended that further terms are to be negotiated. In fact it is often very sensible or even tactical to focus on key terms at the initial stages of negotiations to enable efficient progress and to then look to introduce certain subordinate or ancillary terms later.

So remember: always express correspondence to be “subject to contract” until you are satisfied with all of the terms and you intend to make the agreement legally binding.

By Stephen Wilson

Norse Commercial Services has been awarded a major building cleaning contract by Norfolk Educational Services.

The three-year, £2.5 million contract covers cleaning at four institutions within the Transforming Education in Norfolk (TEN) Group: City College Norwich, City Academy Norwich, Wayland Academy Norfolk and Fakenham Academy Norfolk.

Norse Commercial Services Director Ruth Metcalf says that the contract covers a wide range of services including daily, periodic, specialist and window cleaning. Norse already provides grounds maintenance and security services to NES, and the addition of this cleaning contract confirms Norse’s position as the leading FM provider in the East of England.

Jan Benson, Managing Director, Norfolk Educational Services, said: “We are delighted to be working with Norse Commercial Services on this major new contract across institutions as part of the TEN Group’s pioneering shared services model.”

“Our aim is to work together to raise the bar in this area, delivering value for money for the college and academies in TEN Group, exceeding the expectations of students and staff with the quality of service provided, and energising the newly transferred staff through a new approach that we believe others will look to follow.”

Sales Director Geoff Tucker says, “This follows other major contract awards for Norse in recent months, totalling over £5 million. In a highly competitive environment, it’s great to win yet another prestige contract. “

Around 90 staff will transfer to Norse under Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) regulations, (TUPE), bringing the company’s workforce to 8,500.

Karl Alderton, the founder and managing director of Norwich-based telecoms company, Comms Supply, an EDP Future50 company, has hit out at other suppliers in the business telecoms sector. He is calling for all suppliers to pass on recent wholesale telecoms price reductions to their existing clients.

Wholesale telecoms costs have dropped three times during the past 18 months. The first two reductions were in landline to mobile call costs. These were triggered by Ofcom, the independent regulator for the UK communications industries, capping the cost of mobile termination rates. Ofcom introduced a staged plan to reduce costs which will conclude by 2015. The most recent wholesale reduction is in physical line rental.

Increased competition amongst the biggest players within the industry is also bringing about improved access to advanced technologies and cost efficiencies. For example, Talk Talk, Vodafone (who have recently taken over Cable & Wireless) and BT Wholesale are pushing hard against each other, particularly in the area of leased lines. Leased lines, or Ethernet services, allow data to be transmitted over a direct fibre ‘pipe’ from a client’s office to an exchange and have, historically, been too expensive for smaller businesses. With the big three players making major advances in this technology and making it available to smaller businesses, leased lines are becoming a cost effective option for more and more organisations.

These price drops, technological advances and efficiencies have saved business telecoms suppliers significant amounts of money across their client contracts and yet the vast majority of suppliers have not passed any savings on to their existing customers.

Comms Supply has passed all their wholesale savings straight on to customers and will be making a further reduction in charges on 1st September 2013. This means that customers will see the third reduction in their monthly bill in less than two years.

“I’m sure that many business owners would say that my decision to reduce our potential profits by passing on wholesale price reductions to customers is a foolish one,” says Karl Alderton. “But I set up Comms Supply with a very public commitment to treating my customers with respect and being open and honest in the way we operate. If I didn’t pass on these savings to customers then that promise would be completely meaningless.”

“I’m incredibly frustrated by the widespread business practice of offering new customers a special deal or reduced rates to tempt them in,” continues Karl. “In my view, existing customers deserve the very best service and prices we can provide. That’s the only way we will secure their loyalty and have the opportunity to stay with them as their businesses grow.”

Comms Supply launched in early 2012, providing customers across East Anglia – and beyond – with a range of business telecoms services: from basic phone or broadband line rental to complete systems. The company has invested heavily in developing new technology including a hosted solution which provides a cost effective and efficient option for businesses of all shapes and sizes.

Comms Supply’s open and honest approach has been well-received by customers. The company reached an annual turnover of £1million in June this year and has more than doubled its workforce in the past 12 months.

To find out more or to arrange a free business telecoms audit please call 0333 2020 900 or visit www.commssupply.co.uk.

ENDS

For more information please contact:

Amber Davis at Plain Speaking PR 01603 487 291amber@plainspeakingpr.co.uk

Norvic have some exciting news we hope will be of interest to you.

This autumn we are opening a brand new training centre on the outskirts of Cambridge. The venue at Glenmore Business Park has the benefit of ample free parking on site.

Open courses in First Aid will commence this October and will run every month. Our venue will also be available for those clients looking for an off-site location for their closed courses.

Course dates for this year can now be found on our website.

Contact us for further information or to book.

Norwich based solicitors, Leathes Prior, one of East Anglia’s leading law firms, will be working with East Anglia’s Children’s Hospices (EACH) over the next 12 months to raise funds and help support local families.

EACH is a charity that runs three hospices, including Quidenham in Norfolk, providing care and support to local life threatened children and their families.

Staff at Leathes Prior have a number of events and challenges planned from the mental to the physical including their annual Golf Challenge.

Leah Phung, Marketing & PR Executive at Leathes Prior, said: “We’re delighted to be supporting EACH this year and raise awareness and funds for such a great cause. The main event is our annual Charity Golf Challenge which is a league based competition during the summer and then ends with all the players taking part in a finals day in September. We look forward to working with EACH during the course of our Golf Challenge and raising money for this Charity.”

Gary Cook, EACH Norfolk Fundraiser, said: “We’re delighted and extremely grateful to Leathes Prior for choosing to support EACH and we look forward to working with Leah and the team on some interesting and exciting projects. Leathes Prior really play an active part in the community and supporting a local charity that helps local families only go to strengthen those ties.”

August Newsletter Racing Special

Recent local media reports have indicated that more over 60s are getting divorced. This follows a recent report published by the Office for National Statistics.

Emma Alfieri from our family team comments: “The team has seen an increasing number of Divorce Petitions being brought amongst the older generation, particularly those in their 60s and 70s. The reason for the steady rise appears to be down to a number of social factors, including the fact that both sexes are living longer as it is reported that life expectancy has increased, particularly for men.

We are experiencing many older clients that are becoming disillusioned with their marriages once the children have flown the nest and for many, the view seems to be that retirement is the start of the next phase of their lives, not the end.

There also appears to be an increase in women’s independence, and cultural values give the perception that divorces are now more socially acceptable”.

Financial matters can be more complicated when over 60s are going through divorce proceedings, particularly when pensions are in payment. Therefore we would suggest that early legal advice is sought.

For further information please contact our family team.

Leathes Prior are delighted to announce the appointment of Sarah Appleton, who joined the firm in August 2013.

Sarah has previously worked at Birketts having joined their firm as a Trainee in 2009 and qualifying in 2011. Sarah brings experience in acting for Employers in a wide range of contentious and non-contentious work and with her passion and enthusiasm she will be a great asset to our firm. Sarah will be joining our Employment team which is led by Partner, Dan Chapman and she will work alongside Partner, Paula Lawn and Solicitor, Catherine Hepworth in our busy and growing Employment team. In particular, we believe that Sarah’s expertise will be appreciated by the many subscribers to our Employmentor® service.

Dan Chapman, Partner and head of the Employment team comments: “We are thrilled that Sarah has chosen to join Leathes Prior and become part of our Employment team. We aim to build on our reputation for providing first class, pragmatic and commercial employment advice and I am sure that Sarah will be a valuable member of the team and will help us achieve our desired objectives.”

Sarah Appleton comments “I am excited to be joining Leathes Prior which signals a new chapter in my career. I look forward to working with the first class team at Leathes Prior, and being a part of the firm’s future success”

In the current heatwave, Labour MP Linda Riordan has tabled an early day motion which could make it law for workplaces to send staff home when temperatures reach more than 30C. The group of MPs behind the campaign, which it seems is unlikely to succeed, claim that it could prevent potentially fatal accidents.

The Halifax MP said ministers should “resolve uncertainty for employers about their duty to combat excessive heat in the workplace by introducing a maximum working workplace temperature of 30 degrees C (86F) and of 27 degrees C (81 degrees F) for those doing strenuous work”.

The motion warns that employees in workplaces are often subjected to temperatures which can “impact seriously on their health and well-being”.

“While the current warm weather can make some workplaces uncomfortable, I think it would be very difficult to enforce a maximum temperature as humidity and air quality vary so much from one workplace to another,” said Big Sky Additions’ director, Justin Murray. “We would encourage all employers to do as much as they can to make workplace temperatures bearable to ensure high levels of productivity and staff welfare are maintained,” he added. “Simple things like using blinds to block out direct sunlight, providing free standing fans close to windows to circulate cooler air and turning off unnecessary computer equipment can all help to keep office temperatures down,” suggested Justin.

There are currently guidelines regarding minimum workplace temperatures, but nothing to cover the current heatwave conditions. An official code of practice introduced in 1992 as part of the Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations states that workplace temperatures should not normally drop below 16 degrees C – or 13 degrees C if the work involves severe physical effort – but there is no suggested maximum limit.