soVision - Complete IT Services Provider

Thursday, 31 March 2011

A brand new website with no upfront cost

It sounds too good to be true, but soVision’s new soCMS website offering gives you a brand new website with no upfront cost. Our monthly payment model includes everything you need to get your new website up and running and includes a whole host of additional extras and benefits.

So what is included?

• No contract.

• No upfront cost.

• A bespoke website built and managed within our Microsoft Certified soCMS content management system.

• Your current site migrated to our soCMS platform or a brand new bespoke design created – the choice is

yours.

• The first 5 pages of content populated by soVision, including provision of an online contact form.

• The ability to create as many pages as you wish within our soCMS solution, all managed through a secure online control panel.

• A search engine friendly content management system producing optimised page URLs and pages linked to Google through a Google sitemap which automatically recognises changes to content and improves search engine rankings.

• Our exclusive Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) guide to enable you to optimise your website content.

• An initial SEO report and recommendations from an SEO professional to help you optimise your site’s contents and keywords to improve search engine rankings.

• Web Hosting included.

• Google Analytics Included.

• One domain name included. e.g. http://www.mysite.com/

• 5 Email accounts with multiple Email addresses. e.g. me@mysite.com

• Unlimited Telephone and Email website support during website testing and 1st month after launch.

• Unlimited Email website support for the life of the website.

In addition to this fully featured solution we have additional ‘bolt-on’ solutions which will enhance your website's functionality:

E-commerce bolt on

soVision’s E-commerce solution is a fantastic way to sell your products and services online. As an integrated addition to your soCMS control panel, the E-commerce solution is simple for you to manage and designed to match the distinct look and feel of your website. Integration with the PayPal, Secure Trading and Cardsave is included and our solution supports multiple VAT and carriage rates.

Online booking bolt on

soVision’s online booking solution is a powerful yet flexible booking engine which soVision has developed and implemented for clients in many different fields who have an online booking requirement. Integration into the soCMS control panel means this solution is easy to manage and use on a day to day basis.

With no contract terms and no upfront costs a soCMS website from soVision is risk free way to get the online presence you want at a price you can afford.

To find out more simply call us on 0845 450 3669 or Email info@sovision.com now.

soVision - Complete IT Services Provider

Professional and friendly IT Support Services to businesses across Bristol, Bath and throughout the South West responding quickly to fix all your IT problems.

IT SERVICES | BUSINESS IT SUPPORT | BESPOKE WEBSITE DESIGN | CLOUD COMPUTING

Sunday, 27 March 2011

Build sales with email but make sure to avoid heavy penalties

Email marketing is an effective way to build business sales but you must follow the rules

Faced with on-going postal rate increases nearly every year, we’re all looking for cost effective ways to reach new customers or keep in touch with current ones. In the 80’s and 90’s fax blasts were the alternative to costly snail mail.

Unfortunately, many firms abused customers’ fax machines and now the Fax Preference Service (FPS) has enacted severe restrictions and stiff fines virtually shutting down the fax as a marketing tool overnight.

Failure to observe these regulations will mean investigation by Data Commissioner at the Fax Preference Service. Although fines on first and second offences are rare, fines from the third illegal fax advert can go to £5,000 per fax.

Today the alternative to snail mail is email. True to form, spammers sending out those unwanted “Male Enhancement”, “Lose 20 Pounds in 5 Days”, or “How to Make Millions at Home Stuffing Envelopes” junk ads caused Congress to jump back into action. In 2003, the UK amended The Privacy and Electronic Communications (EC Directive)

Although the legislation specifies rules for message presentation opt out guidelines, labelling for sexually explicit materials, and penalties of up to £5,000 in a magistrate's court, or an unlimited fine if the trial is before a jury per violation, the law was clearly not intended to exclude legitimate marketers from using email.

In fact, a solid, well-targeted marketing campaign with a strong message can yield extremely high returns while remaining well within the EC guidelines. The difference between running a marketing program and generating spam ads is the difference between being an “invited guest versus an unwanted pest.” Too many businesses fall into the latter category.

To avoid the limitations and ensure compliance with the law, businesses are turning to inexpensive bulk emailing services like MarketU.

These services provide:

• Email addressed to the recipient from you – A good percentage of these messages are opened and read.

• Opt out services – Avoid contacting people that don’t appreciate your offering.

• Return services - Escape “dead” addresses clogging your email box.

• Database updates – Send messages to current and prospective “Live” clients.

• Up-to-date email procedures – Limit your legal risk. Whether you strike out on your own with email or use a bulk mailing service, it would be wise to check out the law on the web, craft a solid marketing plan with an attractive offer, and always include a link back to your web site or electronic marketing materials to maximize your ROI.

To find out more about email marketing contact us at soVision or call 0845 450 3669

soVision - Complete IT Services Provider

Professional and friendly IT Support Services to businesses across Bristol, Bath and throughout the UK responding quickly to fix all your IT problems.

IT SERVICES | BUSINESS IT SUPPORT | BESPOKE WEBSITE DESIGN | CLOUD COMPUTING

Thursday, 24 March 2011

You just found out one of your employees had their laptop stolen…

Quick, What Do You Do?

The bottom line is no matter how careful you are with your laptop, mistakes occur and losing a laptop (or having one stolen) is likely to happen to you or your employees at some point in time.

Recent figures from UK police forces show that over 34,000 laptops are reported stolen each year. This is almost 100 per day and only deals with those that are actually reported to the police.
Source: creativematch.co.uk

In the hands of a relatively unsophisticated hacker, all of your laptop information can be transferred off, often exposing an open back door into your network. This is no different in giving a thief the key to your office and the code to deactivate the alarm.

Imagine the embarrassment of having to contact all of your customers to let them know THEIR confidential information may be compromised because one of YOUR unsecured laptops is in the hands of a criminal!

Asking employees to be more careful about where they keep their laptop IS a good step in the right direction, but accidents happen and it would be naive to think that thieves aren’t always on the prowl.

For this reason measures should be taken to lock down and secure any mobile devices you and your staff use to access your company’s network.

Here are just a few things that should be looked at:

Encrypt All Information – Drive encryption software such as BitLocker (which is included in some versions of Microsoft Windows Vista and Windows 7) can secure all the data on your hard drive. Also, check your computer to see if it has a Trusted Platform Module (TPM) chip which is generally more secure than those without TPM.

Multi-Level Access Security – Don’t rely only on passwords to keep your laptop safe. Hackers can usually break most passwords in a few hours. We recommend adding a second way for people to prove that they are who they say they are BEFORE they are able to log in.

Some people use smart cards to do this, but fingerprint pads are gaining in Log / Back-Up Information – It’s critical to log and back-up all information on business laptops to ensure smooth operations in the event of loss or destruction. We can automate the backups so they are done ON SCHEDULE and in a way that won’t interfere with the useof the laptop.

The Right Response - What happens when an employee loses a laptop? Do you have a next step action plan in place? If not, we suggest calling us immediately to report the loss (Note: clients on our 360 Managed Services plans will get after hours support for situations like this).

The sooner we know, the sooner we can take preventative actions to lock that laptop out of the network and set active monitors for any internet activity on the stolen laptop. If we pickup on any we can usually detect an IP address which we can then send to the local police authority for tracking. A blame culture where people are afraid to report losses is actually much worse for security.

77% of organisations say protecting their data is important, but only 11% prevent it from leaving the building. (Source: toshiba.co.uk/informationassurance)

Take the time NOW to secure your laptop and limit the damage to your business if it happens. soVision specializes in IT security and in securing business data like yours, and making sure it is available whenever you need it, so give us a call at 0845 450 3669 to discuss encryption options and how to make your business network more secure.

Saturday, 12 February 2011

The business behind bespoke software development

Bespoke software development - whether it is for the web or for an application - is all about you: your vision, your ideas or your needs.

The first thing to do is ask yourself the question – What do you want to be able to do?

Once you've answered this by listing your needs and requirements then you need to find a suitable software developer.

Coming up with bespoke solutions to your problems is just as much about understanding your business requirements as well as your technological needs.

The best application and web development companies will help you with both the technological and business sides of your ideas.

You need this dual input because there's no point someone creating a wonderful piece of technology which automates your workflow or back-end systems unless it's actually going to improve the way you operate.

Too many companies will approach your specific problem from a purely technical point of view.

What you really need is someone who looks at your business first and then moulds the technology to meet your needs second rather than the other way around.

You also need to make sure that the application you end up with is easy to use as too many systems don't take the user into account.

What's the point of having a brand new system if it takes a doorstep-sized instruction manual to work out how to use it.

Good bespoke development should produce a system which not only solves an existing problem - or set or problems - but it should also do it in an intuitive way which you and your business can understand.

To find out more about our Bespoke Software Development, Web Design or other IT Services please contact us via email at info@sovision.com or call us on 0845 450 3669.

soVision - Complete IT Services Provider

Professional and friendly IT Support Services to businesses across Bristol, Bath and throughout the UK responding quickly to fix all your IT problems.

IT SERVICES | BUSINESS IT SUPPORT | BESPOKE WEBSITE DESIGN | CLOUD COMPUTING

Friday, 4 February 2011

Hardware and software can easily be replaced but a your data cannot

One of the most valuable assets in your company is your data and you should always do everything you can to make sure you don't lose any of it.

Here are 4 simple things you can and should do to make sure your company - and your data - is protected against and ready for any disaster:

Back up your data remotely - Everyone knows data should be backed up on a daily basis but many people still use in-house tape drives which can get damaged in a natural disaster or fire and can easily be stolen. We recommend backing up all your data to an off-site location away from such dangers and harm.
Use a surge protector and uninterruptible power supply battery - A high-quality surge protector combined with an uninterruptible power supply battery backup will go a long way towards protecting your sensitive electronic equipment from power surges and other electronic irregularities which can destroy your computer’s circuitry.
Make sure your servers are off the floor - If your office gets flooded, ensuring your equipment is off the floor will prevent it from being completely destroyed. Server racks which server this purpose are easy to find and are very inexpensive to install.
Have a disaster recovery and business continuity plan - Every business should have some type of plan in place for continued operation after a disaster. Hopefully you’ll never need to use one but having a simple plan will make you sleep a lot easier at night knowing you have a way to continue your operatations if and when disaster strikes. It can be as simple as making sure people know where to go and who to call in a disaster situation and ensuring they know how to log in and access our data remotely.

If you need help or any advice in any of these areas please get in touch as we can not only help get you prepared but get you back up and running fast in the event of a disaster.

To find out more about our Backup and Disaster Recovery services or any of our IT Support or other IT Services please contact us via email at info@sovision.com or call us on 0845 450 3669.

Saturday, 22 January 2011

6 ways to liberate your inbox by choosing a good spam blocker service

Spam is a problem that nearly everyone who regularly uses email has to contend with on a daily basis.

However, you can liberate your inbox - but first you need to separate the good spam removal services from the bad.

To do this make sure your Spam filtering includes the following 6 critical areas before even considering it as an option:

SMTP protocol and blacklist checks - Senders email is checked against multiple real-time blacklists maintained by Internet organisations such as Spamcop, SpamHaus and CBL.
Gray listing - A variance of automated delaying and re-checking tactics are employed to ascertain whether the email is spam.
Email content filtering - There should be a level of intelligent heuristic checking which analyses the email for words, phrases and links that would indicate the email is spam.
Image scanning - Images within the email are scanned for words, phrases and other factors that would indicate the email is spam.
Local accessible support - Are you able to speak with someone in the UK if there is a query or issue with you Spam IT service? Is this extra or included with your IT service?
Evidence of continual updates - The Spam service should be constantly evolving to combat the new methods spammers are employing to sidestep other spam removal tools, ensuring you receive the most up to date protection available today.

We offer MailSort™ to combat Spam and once you begin using it you can expect to see your spam problem virtually disappear.

For a FREE trial or to simply find out more visit our on MailSort SPAM Blocker System page on our soVision website, email us at info@sovision.com or call us on 0845 450 3669.

Friday, 21 January 2011

Top 5 tips for creating a great website – Part 3: Website Content

We’ve had a little break from blogging over Christmas and the New Year but we’re back now with more tips to help you create a winning website.

This instalment will help you get your website content up to scratch as writing your website content requires a different approach from writing content for printed literature.

People tend to read more slowly on the web as reading from a screen can tire your eyes. Therefore your website content needs to be short and to the point.

Purpose: Think about the purpose of your website content. Is it to sell? What is your product or service?

Why should someone use your product or serve rather than anyone else? What is your USP (Unique Selling Point)?

Readers on the web scan - or skim - text rather than read every word. So answering these questions and getting your message across quickly can be done by highlighting text.

Using bold text to add emphasis, making keywords hyperlinks to further information and using bulleted lists are all good methods.

However, try not to rely on colour as a surprisingly large percentage of males (8% to 12%) are colour blind and many web users are visually impaired so the wrong mix of colours will mean any emphasis is lost on them.

Human Interactivity: You don’t have long to engage with a reader.

Research suggests you have just 10 seconds to capture the attention of your reader and if successful you’ll have just under a minute to provide the reader with a clear understanding of your company or product.

And don’t forget what your ultimate goal is? Direct your reader with a clear call to action.

Information Process: In writing it is common to build anticipation and lead up to a big reveal.

When writing for the web use the ‘inverted pyramid’ theory, where the most important point or conclusion comes first.

This could be a fantastic price upfront, then your web page can cascade down to reveal exactly what it is you get for this price in descending order of importance.

Verbal Expression: Identify your audience and write in an appropriate tone. Building credibility is major factor in retaining a reader’s interest. Use objective language with meaningful headlines and sub-headings. Avoid marketing jargon or exaggerated claims.

Attention to detail: Spelling, grammar and other errors are a real turn-off. Check and double-check your content.

Get someone else to review it before you publish as they may notice errors you’ve overlooked.

You may have prepared your text in Word® or a similar word processing package and then copied and pasted the content into your web-editor.

During this process errors can be introduced so it’s always good practice to review your final web page exactly as it will appear for your readers.

So once you’ve published your content live online - read it once again for good measure.

FREE Website Rating

Most of these elements are customizable to a degree and ensuring they look like an integral part of your website and making them look as though they are supposed to be there to add value to and not detract from your website is important in providing a complete user experience.

Look out for our next instalment focusing on website oringality but if you can’t wait and would like to submit your website for a FREE website rating then visit our Web Design section on our website and enter your details in the form on the left-hand side of the page.