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Vantage Point June 2009 
Welcome to the June edition of Vantage Point, your newsletter from Vantage IT Solutions. Many people are looking for areas to make economies, so we give a few suggestions in this newsletter. We’re not claiming you’ll save the sort of money usually only seen on an MPs expenses form, but sometimes it’s the small things that can have an impact. If you want some help regarding economies with your IT or advice for your future IT strategy, please contact us for assistance. To try to cheer the world up a bit, we’ve got a couple of pictures of happy looking people in this newsletter - one of them being the young lad opposite. To find out why he is looking so pleased with his new laptop, please read the story below. Please contact us if you need any help with your IT support or you want to take advantage of our many extra offerings. These include a Spam Email Filtering Service, Mobile Email Solutions, a Fire Safe Service for storage of backup tapes and the supply and installation of Environmental Monitoring Systems for computer rooms. Making Economies 1) A single computer doesn’t use a huge amount of electricity, but when you consider how many electronic devices are used in an office, the consumption of power becomes significant. When a computer is shut down, the monitor will stand-by but won’t turn off, so simply turning it off will save additional power. 
Printers and photo-copiers are sometimes left on because people don’t think about them when they go home. New printers and copiers often have a power saving facility, but these are not always configured. Implementing these can make a difference, but turning them off overnight will clearly save even more power! Timer sockets can be used to ensure printers, scanners and copiers are turned off at night. Vantage IT can implement network-wide power saving policies to ensure monitors are always in stand-by within a certain period of becoming idle. If you would like more information, please contact us. 2) Lighting can be very expensive, so only turn it on when necessary and if possible, reposition desks to make the best use of natural light. We’ve all experienced energy-saving light bulbs and realise how poor some of them can be, so although we would advise caution when using them where desks are situated, they can be used in areas where people only periodically spend time. 3) Adjust the heating by 1 degree. It may not seem much, but some calculations say it could save between 5% and 10% of heating costs. 
4) Work out what are 'would likes' rather than 'must haves'? If you really do need a new piece of software, or an old computer is having a detrimental effect on an employee's productivity, then getting new products is unavoidable. However, sometimes upgrading older computers (primarily by the addition of more memory), or making use of software that is already available within your organisation, may be all that is required. 5) Are people printing things when hard copies really aren’t necessary? We were meant to be working our way towards paperless offices and although it appears that will never happen, we should look at the amount of printing that takes place. Less printing will save paper, toner/ink and electricity. A Great Boost For Children’s Charity 
The PACE Centre is a charity based in Aylesbury that runs a school helping children with physical disabilities such as cerebral palsy. Vantage IT has been providing support and equipment to The PACE Centre since 2007 so we have had the opportunity to visit the school and see the excellent work that is being carried out by a wonderfully devoted team.
Giving the children the opportunity to use computers is a key part of their education, so when The PACE Centre contacted us to see if we could help with some new equipment, we were very happy to help. Vantage IT has a good relationship with HP, so we contacted them to see how they could help. HP was very generous with the computers and peripherals it supplied, which we then set-up at no charge for the specific needs of the school and delivered them to some excited children - giving them a fabulous opportunity for future development. Elaine Fear is PACE’s Head of Educational Support and she explained why ICT helps children with physical, communication and sensory impairments. "ICT helps children with motor disorders develop many useful skills such as visual perception and fine motor control. Writing can be a difficult and often slow process so computers can free children to record in creative ways. ICT also increases access to information at the click of a mouse – often much easier than holding books and turning pages". More information on the incredible work carried out at The PACE Centre can be found at www.thepacecentre.org Spam As Far As The Eye Can See 
Recent reports have put the amount of email traffic that is spam ranging from 80% to 97%. Fresh research has also found that over 50% of small and medium-sized companies do not have any form of spam protection, despite the harm it can cause.
Spam emails can contain offensive language, viruses and take up valuable time, so filtering out the good from the bad and the ugly is essential. Vantage IT offers an email filtering solution which is very effective at removing spam and scanning emails for viruses, offering protection for your business and freeing up time. To request details of the Vantage IT Anti-Spam Service, just click here. Be Careful With Your Bandwidth Many people are taking advantage of the BBC iPlayer to view television programs. However, if you install the iPlayer on your computer, you may not have noticed in the small print that it makes use of peer-to-peer (P2P) technology. 
P2P is a way of sharing files from computer to computer, rather than having one central store of data. If there was only one store holding all the programmes the BBC was making available, the 'pipes' would quickly get bunged-up when large numbers of people try to view the programmes at the same time. Using P2P spreads the load to many computers. Initially, some people will download a programme from the BBC and it will be stored on their computers. As more people want to watch the programme, some will get it straight from the BBC but others will get directed to the computers of the people who originally downloaded it. This all happens automatically, so most users are unaware of it. Peer-to-peer file sharing certainly is not exclusively implemented by the BBC, but is often used when a large number of people want to be able to access data files, e.g. music sharing web sites. Although P2P can occasionally present a security risk, an issue that can catch people out is its use of bandwidth. If you use a limited internet connection, having big files being uploaded and downloaded without you knowing can slow things down and even cause you to exceed any usage limit that may have been set by your ISP, potentially incurring costs. The Entertaining Bit Frogs are slippery little fellows. Please click here to find six frogs posing a test for you. Please note that Vantage IT cannot be held responsible for content on third party web sites. |
Vantage IT Solutions Limited Unit 2 Airfield Park, Cheddington Lane Long Marston, Tring, Hertfordshire, HP23 4QR |
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