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Newsletter

5th Edition
January 2008

Welcome to the first edition of the SpiderGroup Newsletter in 2008. We've put a great year behind us and now we're looking forward to an exciting 2008. We'll keep you informed and up to date on all our activity and hopefully give you some valuable inside knowledge into the planned developments of technology and business over the coming months. If there is a topic or technology you are specifically interested in, please let our News Team know or you can jump onto our website at www.stretchingtheweb.com. We hope you enjoy this issue and encourage you to pass it onto friends and colleagues so they can subscribe. Subscribe to our newsletter

Managing your Email - Part 1: Growing Pains

Email can seem relentless, everyday more and more builds up and over a longer period of time this can add up to massive amounts of information which can cause all sorts of problems searching for passwords, quotes or any other bit of critical information we all leave safely, securely lost in our inbox! It is very easy to just let it accumulate and ignore the old messages. This however, can cause other problems. The bigger your email store, the slower your computer will run...

People using advanced email systems such as hosted Exchange benefit from their email being stored centrally on a secure server. A copy of this email can be synchronised down to their local computer allowing off-line access to email on their personal computer, as well as access to the same information from anywhere, via a web browser. If their personal computer is lost or stolen, their email will be safe as it is stored centrally. However there are limits on the amount of email that can be, and should be, stored on the central servers.

This gives us a dilema; on the one hand I want my email to be available from anywhere and I want it protected. But on the other hand I don’t want my mailbox to get too large and unmanagable...continued

Ben Nichols, Technical Director

Information Management Solutions

For most companies information is their life blood, it is the way they go about their business, it is the essence of what they sell to their customers. All too often however, little thought is put into what happens to this information, where is it stored, how are the files named and what backups need to be taken.

The key requirements for most business are to be able to create and store vital information such as word and excel documents and to be able to communicate with clients and suppliers using email. Increasingly people also want to be able to communicate via email and manage their calendars and contacts whilst outside the office using a PDA, Blackberry or smart phone.

It is quite common for people using Windows to store copies of documents and other important information in the computers My Documents area or on the Desktop, this in itself is fine although if the person hasn’t implemented any backup regime then there is a high risk of either a computer component failing or if it is a laptop being stolen or damaged. One very simple solution for this if you are a single user that doesn’t need to share information with anyone is to either email yourself the document using something like hotmail and Gmail or to get a simple online backup system that are available relatively cheaply from lots of sources... Continued

James Cook, CEO

Buzz from the Board

2008 is an important year for SpiderGroup. We are focussing heavily on our online marketing and web presence in the first quarter with a renovated spider office site underway (scheduled for launch in February) and a revamped corporate home in March. These sites will support the continued growth of spider office, the first step in extending its focus from the south west region to the national stage. This year also sees the birth of our OCS Gateway product, aimed at our SpliceCom reseller channel and delivering unified communications to the workplace. The success of this product will depend heavily on the performance of Microsoft's Office Communications Server which we are confident will form a core components of Microsoft's server offerings within the next 2 years. We have some exciting new software development contracts lined up which we will tell you about in due course and hope to continue the success of last year with this division.

Dan Hancock, Operations Director

Showcasing Flexworks

Flexworks! is a recruitment company with a difference; their aim is to cater for the growing demand in flexible working, boasting clients such as BT, Royal Mail, Tesco and Axa. A key component of their growth was to develop their online presence to enable what is expected of modern recruitment companies and to provide important internal tools to assist the traditional recruitment side of the business.

To deliver the online component of Flexworks! vision it was necessary to integrate their state of the art Asp.Net website with a neural network for CV and job matching called Burning Glass. The system uses our advanced BaseFramework™ Content Management System and dynamic skinning engine to ensure the system is always "flexible!".We implemented designed and built all the user interface technology and provide in life management to ensure the system continually delivers on their vision.

;)	Overheard in a computer shop: Customer: "I'd like a mouse mat, please." Salesman: "Certainly sir, we've got a large variety." Customer: "But will they be compatible with my computer?"

Coming in the Next Edition of SpiderGroup Newsletter...
Project Management for Donkeys, Mobile Email and Me and Larry has a valentine

Larry takes up golf

Today was a big day for Larry
Not only was he trying desperately to close a deal that he’d been working on for 6 turbulent months, but it would be the first deal he’d ever struck on a golf course!

Now Larry was horrendously bad at golf, it was a joke amongst his friends and colleagues that you were safer standing directly in front of him than you were behind him! And, as with all good jokes, it was partially based on the truth… come to think of it, Larry couldn’t remember the last time it had made anyone laugh, at least not since Bob and Jerry were both hospitalised in one shot. Thankfully Bob had already had 3 kids and Jerry now had one of those cool bionic legs and provided endless hours of amusement doing his Terminator impression, ‘I’ll be back!’ Larry chuckled to remember it.

After a week’s intensive training however, Larry was getting rather good, in fact, he was currently leading by 2 shots! The trouble was his client, Mr Yamoto did not look best pleased and was becoming more despondent by the minute. Larry drew back for a long arching swing… “BEEP BOOOP” flailing mid-swing and spooning his club into the grass, the ball pinged off a surprised looking tree 50 yards into the rough. Larry swore at his BlackBerry and opened up his inbox to see one new email:
From: Mr Humphrey

Body: Harry, forgot to mention, Mr Yamoto sent a supplier into liquidation because the guy had worn a more outrageous tie than him… don’t fudge it up ;)

Baffled, Larry turned to see Mr Yamoto jiggling with laughter, “That was a good one Mr Larry, very funny!” he said between gasps, using his glittery green and salmon tie to wipe the tears from his eyes.

Larry reconsidered his tactics, follow his training and risk Mr Yamoto sending his company into liquidation or do what comes naturally and risk killing the client... Still frustrated with his last shot, Larry opted for plan B and took an almighty swing, spanking the ball directly upwards, smashing an overhanging branch into smithereens and showering himself with debris.
Slightly shocked at himself, Larry self-consciously pulled leaves and twigs from his hair and woollen cardigan and glanced round to see Mr Yamoto actually rolling around on the grass, crying with laughter and clutching his sides.

“Please Mr Larry, I accept your proposal, just don’t play any more golf!”

Calling it a day, Larry helped Mr Yamoto back to the club house where he proceeded to drink an entire bottle of Jonny Walker in an unsuccessful bid to control the giggling. Trying not to be affronted, Larry logged on to his spider office CRM system with his trusty BlackBerry and updated the Yamoto account to ‘Closed – Won’ – Notes: Chuck out glittery green and salmon tie!

Play smart like Larry, stay connected with spider office™

To any size...

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