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Slide 1: new letter Ziptech Services July 2011 News Ziptech IT Sport Team A couple of weeks ago on a classic British Summer’s day, Ziptech held its annual IT Services Team Event. It had been a tough few months solving all manner of IT problems so the team was more than ready for some well-deserved fresh air and a bit of healthy competition. The day consisted of quad biking round an obstacle course against the clock, clay pigeon shooting and highest score at the golf driving range. In the days leading up to the event there was plenty of fighting talk in the office. Everyone knew that the truth would come out eventually. Who had experience of shooting clays with a real gun? And whose expertise was all virtual through playing ‘Call of Duty’? Had anyone actually ridden a motorbike of any variety (with the exception of Perry)? And whose biking experience had been gained purely by watching MotoGP on a Saturday afternoon? Who knew his wood from his driver and who would end up in the bunker? It was the day of reckoning … Beware The Accountant Next came clay pigeon shooting which uncovered some surprise contenders. Our accountant, Bob, who claimed no previous experience turned out to be a crack shot, scoring the second highest score of the day. But the winner was Al Patterson who also won the prize for most unusual result when he managed to hit two clays with one bullet! Thankfully with no friendly fire injuries incurred the team moved on to the afternoon’s golfing competition. Page 1 - IT Sport Team Page 2 - Jim‘s Journal, Staff Profile, Rad‘s Tech Tip Page 3 - Website Conversion, Mini News Page 4 - New Client News, Your Referrals The Injured Win the Day Now it’s well known in the office that we have some golfers amongst us. They’re up early at the weekends, they can be seen sporting a nice line in polo shirts and Pringle jumpers some days and we totally expected them to sweep the board on this final deciding event. Alex and Dan were looking the part and feeling pretty confident. But golf is a funny game sometimes and out of nowhere Technical Daniel Y. Perry Quad-tastic Rad Do driving styles mirror our personalities? It’s an interesting question we were pondering during the quad biking. You can draw your own conclusions: • Most careful, considered and altogether thorough lap was completed by Operations Director, Rad. • Hair-raising ‘wheels off the ground’ laps were driven by Jim, Alex and Dan • But speed and accuracy just came naturally to our winner, Amit Jim Amit Director, Perry and newbie support engineer, Ammo stole the show. Both claimed injury before the event – but was this just a smokescreen? When questioned they put their success down to shunning a healthy lifestyle and having a bad back – which apparently helped their golf swings! Other fine performances included those from new Support Engineer Dan Younge and sporting all-rounder, Amit. The team retired for a bit of post-match analysis and a few beers. Ziptech Services Ltd Shepperton Marina | Felix Lane | Shepperton | TW17 8NS | Tel: 0845 1233 942 Web: ziptechservices.co.uk | © 2011 Ziptech Services Ltd. All Trademarks Acknowledged.
Slide 2: Jim‘s Jourmal July 2011 Some New Voices On The Service Desk I wanted to give you a “heads-up” on some staff changes at Ziptech. They’re good changes – I’m expanding the support team and improving the way we manage it for you. Expanded IT Support Service Desk Firstly, we have a dedicated team leader for the expanded Service Desk. The Service Desk is the team that you speak to first when you call us for support. Amit Parbat has been promoted to manage this team – congratulations Amit. You may already have heard some new voices in the expanded Service Desk. Amardeep Malik and Daniel Younge have joined the team and are already performing beyond my expectations. Growing IT Projects and Escalation Team We’ve also recruited a new senior engineer who joins the Projects Team soon to deal with escalations. In the future we’ll also be recruiting for a manager for this team. Until then Perry Bowles, our Technical Director will be managing Projects. Growing Dependence on Business IT Support We are determined to recruit the best resource ahead of the growing need for IT Support so that we can continue to deliver excellent service to you in the coming years. I’ll keep you posted as they happen. he T 60 Sec ond Int erview You’re one of the new rec ruits to the team - where did you work before you came to Ziptec h? I’ve got a bit of an unconvent ional background for an IT Sup port engineer. My last job was selling Mercedes Benz cars and I’v e had a number of other sales roles in my career. But I also studied Computer Science at colleg e and would consider mys elf a salesman who loves to get technical. I was alw ays the ‘go to’ person for fixi ng PC problems – so I thin k that’s where my strengths lie. Amardeep Malik (aka Ammo) IT Support Engineer. Favourite car? It’s got to be the Bentley Continental GT – Clarkson describes it as “ a truly wonderful , jaw-slackeningly awesome driver’s car” – that’s goo d enough for me. Last track downloaded? (Or album bought) It would be a selection of truly che esy 80s classics – what a decade! Best film watched this mon th? (What was it like? Cinema or TV?) Transform ers Dark of the Moon it was long… v long Armchair expert or sporty type? (What’s your favourite sport – do you play or watch?) I love F1 so definitely armchair exp ert. What do you like to do out side of work? After a hard week at Ziptech - as litt le as possible. Obviously I like to spend time with my wife but I’m also try ing to get back into rock cli mbing after a 5 year abs ence and I have plans to start playing golf soon too. Jim Simpson If you were a superhero what superpower would you choose and why? Of course I would fly (who wouldn’t?) – the daily commute would beco me a short and enjoyable hop and savings on airlin e tickets would be huge! (Not so great when it’s raining and I’m not sure where I’d put my holiday luggage – but hey - the devil’s in the detail). Last book read? The Magici an’s Apprentice – Trudy Canavan. Love Sci-fi fantasy and this did not disappoint. Rad‘s Tech Tips Pinning Programs to Windows 7 Taskbar You can use Windows 7 Taskbar to quickly access programs, files and websites that you regularly use by pinning these programs to the Taskbar. Start the program you want to use (e.g. Excel). The icon for the program will appear on the Taskbar at the bottom of your screen. Right Click on the program icon in the taskbar and click on ”Pin this program to taskbar”. The program will now stay on the taskbar, even if you restart your PC, until you unpin it. To unpin a program, right click on the program icon in the taskbar and click on ”Unpin this program from taskbar”. Pinning files to programs When you right click on a program icon in the task bar, the pop up panel lists 2 sets of files; “Pinned” and “Recent”. To move a file from Recent to Pinned, simply drag and drop the file from the Recent list to the Pinned list. Or right click on the file in the Recent list and click on “Pin to this list”. To unpin a file, right click the file in the Pinned list and click “Unpin from this list”. d! anks, Ra h T
Slide 3: How to Increase Website Conversion our top 10 page layout tips (Part 1) As a small business owner you’ll certainly be interested in your website giving a return on its investment – whether that is time or money or both. But how do you make sure your webpage is “optimised” as much as possible to have people convert? The list below is OUR top 10 webpage design, layout and content tips for high web page conversion. 1. Keep the most important content above the fold Make sure to capture your audience within 6 seconds or they will probably exit. Put the most important content “above the fold” (so called from newspaper print days!). If you need to, shorten sentences, or shift content around your page completely, then just do it. 2. Call to action buttons If you want your customer to go in a particular direction, don’t politely suggest but shout your action out. “Buy now”, “Sign up now”, “Download Now” – strong action-based terms on a strong button or area. Prioritise and highlight this call to action using whitespace, larger fonts, different colours or capitvating icons or images to draw attention. And make sure the call to action is above the fold! Big, bright orange button under a captivating heading Rotating service offering with big calls to action above the fold 3. Captivating headlines Set out your stall with your headline. Why bother reading any further? What is the main focus or point of interest on this page? Get it said, and get straight to the point. 4. Scannable copy Visitors to your site will FIRST scan your website (the 6 second rule) and THEN if you win their attention, they’ll read in depth. Go back to newspapers and magazines – how do they do this? Some simple techniques • Headings and subheadings state an overview of the page without needing to write an overview • Bullet lists slow visitors down and provide short, focussed soundbites • Keep pararaphs short and succinct • Highlight important words • Use graphics to highlight – for instance, comments or testimonials in breakout boxes with quotation marks rather than just part of dull prose About the Author Thanks to Mark Haller from LogicSpot for this article. LogicSpot has been ‘wow-ing’ customers with their website design, web development and search engine optimisation since 1991. Mark has been working with us at Ziptech for a while now, designing and developing our website as well as running our search engine optimization programme for us. www.logicspot.com 5. Keep your first paragraph short and sweet Following that concept of captivating headlines, make sure your first paragraph gets to the point – what do you want to say in the whole page, summarise it in a few words and blast it out to your readers in the first paragraph. After the page has been scanned, if someone hasn’t already clicked your call to action, it’s likely they’ll read that first paragraph. They’re likely to decide if they should still stick around based on that first paragraph. Really big call to action above the fold See Part Two next month. + Mini News ++ Mini News ++ Mini News + Cell phones ‘unlikely’ to cause cancer Mounting evidence suggests there is no link between mobile phones and brain cancer, according to a review by the Institute of Cancer Research. It stated that despite near universal mobile phone use, there had been no jump in the number of tumours. Its report, in Environmental Health Perspectives, also identified flaws in many studies investigating a link. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news health-13988882 Japan discovers ‚rare earth‘ minerals used for iPads Discovery on the floor of the Pacific Ocean around Hawaii could immediately reduce concerns about supply Japanese scientists have discovered huge deposits of „rare earth“ minerals, crucial for making electronics products such as smartphones, tablets such as the iPad and flat-screen TVs, on the floor of the Pacific Ocean around Hawaii – and they say they are easy to extract. The discovery could expand the known deposits of the materials by a thousand times, immediately reducing concerns about supply. http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2011/jul/04/japan-ipads-rare-earth Fox News hacker tweets Obama dead Hackers have taken over a Twitter account belonging to US broadcaster Fox News and declared President Obama dead. The @foxnewspolitics feed stated: „BREAKING NEWS: @BarackObama assassinated, 2 gunshot wounds have proved too much.“ More than two hours after the malicious postings appeared, they had still not been removed. A group or individual, calling themselves The Script Kiddies appeared to claim responsibility. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/ technology-14012294
Slide 4: New Client News TMS One of Ziptech’s newest clients is TMS Theatrical. They are an interesting business. Unusually these days they make a physical product and have a large production facility in Bermondsey, SE London. They are a team of craftsmen who produce stage scenery for the West End and around the world. One of their most recent projects was making the scenery for Shrek, the Musical, which opened in the UK at Theatre Royal, Drury Lane in May. Your Referrals It’s always good to get a referral from a client. It means that they are so happy with the service that they are willing to spread the word. We’ve already send a small gift to the following clients for passing on our name. Jonathan Rawle of BlueGull. Jonathan runs a web development business and recommended Dish to us. He provides the web applications for another of our clients – Off To Work. Thanks Jonathan! Alan James of Alan James & Co. Alan James is a Surrey based firm of Accountants. Our 2 businesses have a close working relationship - we run their IT and they look after our accounting. Alan was kind enough to recommended one of his clients to us and we are currently discussing their IT strategy with them. Thanks Alan! hanks! T Dish Dish is a London based, award winning events catering company that caters for private parties, corporate events and regular venues across London. In our opinion the food smells great they are definitely our best smelling client! Fiona Stewart-Brown, one of the Directors brought Ziptech in when their server needed replacing and they were moving office. of want one ce…! We offi e for the thes Printer produces personalised 3D chocolate Chocolate lovers may soon be able to print their own 3D creations thanks to work by UK scientists. A 3D printer that uses chocolate has been developed by University of Exeter researchers - and it prints layers of chocolate instead of ink or plastic. Although still a prototype, several retailers have already expressed interest in taking on the device. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-14030720 To talk to us about any topics in this issue of newz please call us on 0845 1233 942 or visit us on the web at ziptechservices.co.uk Ziptech Services Ltd Shepperton Marina | Felix Lane | Shepperton | TW17 8NS | Tel: 0845 1233 942 Web: ziptechservices.co.uk | © 2011 Ziptech Services Ltd. All Trademarks Acknowledged.