We’ve previously described at length in this blog the benefits of the Microsoft Office 365 technology that we use ourselves here at Company Net, but it is interesting in the same article to hear about the changes that Microsoft have made themselves in their Amsterdam office, leveraging Office 365 to overcome a shortage of office space. By investing in their same unified communications and cloud computing that we use, Microsoft have been able to halve their previously cramped office space and completely change the way they work. Employees no longer have a desk and are are encouraged to decide where they work depending on the tasks they have have to do, perhaps at home, in a coffee bar, hot desk or private room as they feel appropriate. Microsoft report that as a result, their workforce is happier and more productive, and both sales and cost savings have increased.  

© BBC. Staff in Microsoft's Amsterdam office have no fixed desks and instead decide where they want to work each day based on the tasks they have to perform

An important point made by the article is that physical changes to the way we work, in terms of location and flexibility, requires a re-think in the way in which we look at productivity, shifting the focus away from “face time”. This puts me in mind of a recent article on the Harvard Business Review, “Reward Value, Not Face Time“,  describing the benefits of giving your employees greater autonomy and accountability in the work they do.

So it seems clear that increasing flexibility in the workplace is likely to benefit your business just as much as it has done for organisations such as Microsoft and the LSO, as long as you have the correct technology in place to underpin it. It works for us at Company Net and we’d be more than happy to discuss your plans to leverage technology to increase productivity in your organisation on 0131 559 7500.

We’d love any feedback as to what else you’d like to hear about on this blog, so please comment and let’s get some discussion going!

Hazelwood School for children and young people with sensory impairment is a co-educational, inter-denominational school for children and young people aged from 2-19 years, and can accommodate up to 60 pupils, who are supported by a team of 50 specialist staff, along with helpers and volunteers. The School is purpose-built and placed in a beautiful wooded setting adjacent to Bellahouston Park, and the specially designed and award-winning building (voted Scotland’s Best New Building in 2008, amongst a number of other accolades) includes features such as tactile walls which allow visually impaired pupils to navigate their way around the school by touch.

The purpose of the evening was to raise funds to help Hazelwood to deliver a range of important therapies to their pupils, which have had to be reduced due to funding cuts in the education sector. These therapies include massage, music therapy, rebound therapy and equine therapy, all of which provide a range of vital benefits to the children, from facilitating movement, relaxation and sensory stimulation to improved communication skills and confidence.

We had a fantastic evening hearing about the important work done by the school, and enjoying a performance by the school band The Fridays, a pre-dinner game of ”True or False” (during which one of our number ended up on stage!), a hotly contested auction and plenty of entertainment. The hotel itself has recently undergone a £20 million refurbishment and we were lucky enough to spend the evening in the Grand Room with its beautiful chandeliers and candles, the perfect venue for such a great event.   

© Grand Central Hotel

The evening raised £21,500 for Hazelwood School, and Company Net were absolutely thrilled to be able to support both Howden and Hazelwood and be a part of such a fantastic event.

Anywhere Working is a group initiative whose aim is to show how remote working can benefit ourselves and our environment, increasing our productivity and wellbeing and saving us time and money, and is encouraging as many people as possible to explore their options for working away from the office this week. Readers of this blog will know that remote working and the myriad ways in which technology is changing the face of our workplace are one of our passions at Company Net, so we’re pleased to be able to get on board and spread the word.

There’s plenty of good information on the site, including a really useful calculator which works out how much time, money and CO2 you could save per week, month and year, depending on how often you might commit to working from home. Having the figures in front of you certainly makes for a compelling case, and I was suprised to learn how much CO2 in particular I could save just by commuting one day fewer per week.

The Anywhere Working Consortium is supported by a number of organisations, including Microsoft, Vodafone, Nokia, Transport for London, Nuffield Health and Business In the Community. As a Microsoft Partner, we’re not at all surprised to see Microsoft involved with the initiative – Microsoft’s Office 365 is what we at Company Net use to stay connected and securely access and collaborate on all of our documents via the cloud, allowing us to move seamlessly from working in the office to offsite. We’ve had a fantastic experience using this technology and we’re happy to be able to offer our expertise to allow others to see the advantages Office 365 can bring to your business. As active users ourselves, we’re ideally placed to talk you through any questions you may have. Please feel free to get in touch at contactus@company-net.com or on 0131 5597500 for further info.

“It’s no longer viable for businesses to stick to rigid, inefficient ways of working if they want to compete successfully in the market,” Gordon Frazer, Managing Director at Microsoft UK.

The Anywhere Working site also features plenty of really interesting case studies, from the likes of EDF Energy, the Open University, BAA Heathrow, MacRoberts LLP and the London Symphony Orchestra to help you explore the implications and impact for your business. 

So where’s your favourite place to work, for days when you’re not in the office? I’m lucky enough to live in the centre of Edinburgh, so I’m surrounded by places with wi-fi to stroll out to if working at home becomes lonely, but for me it’s a toss up – the focused peace and quiet of my kitchen table, or the sociability and ready availability of all those sustaining lattes in my favourite cafe… I think I’d have to choose a little bit of both!

As always, we’d love to hear your thoughts. Will you be working remotely for Anywhere Working Week? Have you been surprised by how much time and money you could save by commuting one day less a week, and is this a commitment you’re thinking of making? And do you have all the technologies you need to stay connected already in place?

Let us know what you think and any experiences you have of Anywhere Working this week, and let’s see if we can get some discussion going!

Image via CrunchBase

We were preparing a client presentation this week and one of the slides included a reference to last year’s Forrester report on Dynamics CRM 2011 and quoted a 243% ROI. Now, having a past life as an FD, I was suddenly sceptical that any ROI calculation had to be flawed or at very best subject to scrutiny, so off I went and had a thorough read through the report.

Now, Forrester Research have created an enviable reputation since 1983 in the IT industry for their reports into every aspect of modern IT solutions and go to great length to maintain editorial ownership of their reports so delivering objective and dispassionate results. We at Company Net certainly have used their research to better understand the marketplace for our products and services and have learnt a great deal in the past.

When I read through this report rather than the more usual skim reading, I was taken aback by the sheer force of the message coming from the Dynamics CRM customers interviewed in the process. Feeding my FD instincts, there also is a very detailed breakdown of how the figures are calculated including crucially, a proper risk correction using Forrester’s own Total Economic Impact methodology.

Total Economic Impact™ (TEI) is a standard methodology developed by Forrester Research that captures and quantifies the voice of the customer relative to technology investments. In this study, we interviewed nine Microsoft customers in one-on-one discussions about each organization’s experience in implementing Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011.
Forrester’s interviews and subsequent financial analysis determined that a composite organization, based on the organizations we interviewed, would expect to experience the risk-adjusted ROI, costs, and benefits summarized in Table 1.

Summary. Overall this study concludes that the composite organization achieved a three-year NPV of U.S. $471,218 (risk-adjusted net benefits) as a result of deploying Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 for an initial team of 50 users. The payback period was over four months with an average NPV per user of $9,424 over three years.

Factors Affecting Benefits And Costs
Table 1 illustrates the risk-adjusted financial results that would be expected by the composite organization  The risk-adjusted values take into account potential uncertainty or variance that exists in estimating the costs and benefits, which produces more conservative estimates. The following factors may affect the financial results that an organisation may experience:
 The pre-Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 environment (whether there was no pre-existing CRM application or
whether another CRM tool was being used).
 Level of deployment of CRM tools within the organization and integration with other business processes.
 Customization required for CRM deployment and other implementation risks.

OK so having passed a test of financial probity, we can read on. The report has some fascinating insights into the decision making process and evaluation that the respondents shared during the research.

(Interviews conducted with 9 specific)… companies uncovered a number of important insights about customer organizations’ experience with Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011:

 The majority of the organisations interviewed either did not have a CRM system in place or were using “home-grown” legacy software before turning to Microsoft. A number of the organizations had been using other packaged software CRM solutions in a limited capacity and decided to consolidate around Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011.

 All the organisations were experiencing rapid growth and had departmental collaboration barriers that were hampering their sales processes. They needed more collaboration among sales, marketing, customer service, and delivery to get to the next level of customer engagement.

 For most of the companies interviewed, familiarity and integration with Microsoft Outlook were fundamental to their choice of a CRM solution. One organization even had representatives from its sales team going into the evaluation process preferring different CRM software, but after the evaluation, the team was unanimous in choosing Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011.

 These organisations’ deployment choices ranged across all options, including: on-premises, online, and partner hosted. Organizations with 10 to 100 initial users typically had an online implementation while those with 200 users or more implemented an on-premises CRM solution.

 Interviewees also highlighted the cost effectiveness of the Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 and the ease of implementation. Rollout to users was also characterized as “smooth” and “seamless,” because users were already familiar with the UI and the CRM solution was integrated with Outlook. Users on average had five hours of training although one organization recommended at least a full day of user training.

 All the companies interviewed worked extensively with Microsoft partners to configure processes and roll out the project. As one customer stated, “A partner’s value shouldn’t be underestimated. They gave us a reality check on what was needed. With our experience, you should trust them [Microsoft certified partners], and you should set up your goals together.”

 The organizations interviewed also noted the cost savings they would experience during each extension or customization. For instance, one organization liked that it could easily change the CRM screens using internal IT resources, avoiding the cost of outside consulting fees. Another company that had integrated Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 with its front-end website noted that with its initial investment, it could now scale its business internationally without a commensurate scale in its costs.

 While the integration with Outlook enabled faster user adoption, these organizations also set up policies and other incentives to reinforce use of the solution for customer management with their account teams.

Improved Sales Productivity

The customers interviewed talked about the challenges of implementing any new technology with sales teams who usually do not have a technical background, have multiple demands on their time, and have extensive mobility requirements. They noted that these concerns were less of an issue with Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 due to their sales teams’ familiarity with the software, the software’s integration with Outlook, and easy navigation. Users did not have to extensively change their processes as CRM workflows were integrated into the business productivity software (such as Microsoft Outlook and SharePoint) that they were already using. Customers who had implemented other CRM tools before shifting to Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 reported higher adoption rates. One customer’s contacts database grew by 733 percent in its first year of adoption of Microsoft Dynamics CRM. Another characterized its user adoption as “phenomenal.” At the same time, these organizations also set up communication and policies with the deployment to incentivize their employees to use the CRM software.

“Salespeople and account managers want to do things as rapidly and as flexibly as they can. Adopting [Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011] was easy from their perspective — they embraced it because of their familiarity with Outlook.” (Operations director, IT solutions service provider)

“The key on the sales team side was integration with Outlook. It was why we got such high user adoption. It’s easy. There’s integration and there’s integration, and this is really integrated.” (CEO, financial and accounting solutions firm)

Customers also noted that the benefit of the “true integration” of Microsoft Dynamics CRM functionality with their Outlook and Microsoft Office software on the desktop and on mobile devices enabled their sales teams to be more productive. Data entered in Outlook and Office was automatically captured in the CRM system, making it very easy to use. “Even if they didn’t try to use it, it would still go,” one customer observed. “The single most important feature for us was integration with Outlook,” another confirmed. One customer with a mobile workforce based on customer sites outside the company’s firewall said the ability to update data directly into Outlook improved their organization’s sales efficiency. The interviewed companies estimated sales productivity improvements from 5 percent to 20 percent.

This productivity improvement was experienced by the sales teams of the interviewed companies through improved sales reporting and better management of their customer database leading to faster and more efficient processes for sales forecasting. These companies now had a more accurate picture of their sales pipeline. With all the data in Microsoft Dynamics CRM, their sales teams could now, as one customer said, “walk in the door with real-time information on clients and better manage the relationship.” Customers also noted that their sales teams were spending less time in internal meetings and more time with their customers in the field.

Benefits.

In interviews with Microsoft customers, Forrester also identified several benefits of implementing Microsoft Dynamics
CRM 2011 in the areas of personal and process productivity. These quantified benefits include:

1) improved sales productivity because of the ease of use of the CRM software and improved opportunity/deal tracking and routing through integration with Outlook;

2) customer service productivity savings from a better UI, documented processes, a holistic view of the customer, and faster case resolution;

3) streamlined processes and operations leading to lower cost of sales;

4) shortened sales and conversion cycle and corresponding revenue gain as teams improved their collaboration
and were better connected across systems;

5) marketing cost savings due to more real-time insights from better analytics; and 6) productivity savings due to better reporting tools.

“If you can scale a company up to 35% year over year and utilize Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 to provide a common thread between your company and your customer, it truly is priceless.” (VP of marketing, healthcare IT company)

Other benefits noted by the customers but not quantified in the study include:

1) improved collaboration;

2) lower cost and effort to customize the solution for unique requirements, including extended CRM scenarios; and 3) compatibility and ease of integrations with other systems improving process efficiencies.

Forester also reported the following benefits that represent those experienced by the interviewed companies:

o Increased sales productivity of 5 percent with the ease of use of Microsoft Dynamics CRM software and integration with Outlook leading to higher adoption, improved opportunity and lead tracking and routing, and a more accurate picture of its sales pipeline. The interviewed companies improved their sales reporting and better managed their customer database and achieved faster and more efficient processes for sales forecasting.

o Customer service productivity savings from a better UI and documented processes. The composite organization avoided hiring 1.5 full time equivalents (FTE) for its 10-person customer service team even as its division grew. Customer service agents improved issue resolution as new processes were implemented, and agents had access to all the customer information they needed to resolve cases quickly and with precision.

o Streamlined processes and operations leading to lower cost of sales as Microsoft Dynamics CRM enabled the composite organization’s technical consultants to shorten time spent on the proposal process by 10 percent. The interviewed organizations saw process improvements for their account management, engineering, order taking, and project delivery teams, which led to lower operational costs and improved customer responsiveness.

o Acceleration of sales conversion cycle by 50 percent and corresponding revenue gain as teams worked better together across different business systems, processes, and geographies.

o Marketing cost savings of more than $200,000 (risk-adjusted over three years) due to more real-time insights and improved campaign management from better analytics.

o Productivity savings of 16 man-hours per month due to the better reporting tools in Microsoft Dynamics CRM with data consolidation, reporting automation, and richer dashboard capabilities. o Improved customer service delivery with quicker response times, dialog boxes, and segmented levels of customer service through insights from Microsoft Dynamics CRM.

o Improved cross-sell collaboration within sales and customer service teams by providing access to reporting tools and other collaboration software such as Microsoft SharePoint® Server 2010.

o Lower costs and effort to customize the solution to unique requirements, including extended CRM scenarios. o Ease of integration with other business technology systems, improving process efficiencies.

Costs.

The organisations we interviewed incurred the following costs

o Vendor software license fees or subscription fees.

o Professional fees paid to a Microsoft partner for implementation.

o Internal labour costs for planning, design, and implementation. o User training costs.

o On-going administrative support costs.

Summary

We can always be sceptical about statistics, especially proposed financial returns, but I would suggest that this feedback from actual customers using and benefiting from the high impact of Dynamics CRM adds a worthwhile insight, which supports and reinforces the financial analysis that Forrester have discovered.

The full report is attached for free download below and I would thoroughly recommend reading it in full if you are contemplating a new CRM system and would like clear insight into how others have successfully adopted and benefited from Dynamics CRM.

source : Forrester Consulting The Total Economic Impact Of Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 Published May 2011

We at Company Net are regularly deploying Dynamics CRM and SharePoint business solutions and .net applications  for a wide range of customers and would be delighted to hear from you contactus@company-net.com if we can help you in any way.

Andy Hamilton

MD Company Net February 2012

There are 10 key updates available as follows:

1. “Microsoft Dynamics CRM Mobile” (New Cloud Based Mobile CRM Service Subscription)
2. Cross Browser Support (IE, Safari, Firefox, and Chrome)
3. Rapid View Forms (Load forms quickly)
4. Enhanced Activity Feed (“like”, “unlike”, improved filtering)
5. Industry Solution Templates (Vertical solutions)
6. Microsoft SQL Server 2012 (Improved Performance)
7. Business Intelligence (BI) Insights with Power View (Excel workbooks)
8. Certifications (Industry Compliancy)
9. Portal Framework Enhancements (Enhanced Customer and Partner Portal)
10. Custom Workflow Activities in CRM Online (Custom Workflow: .NET Development)

Dynamics CRM Mobile

Today we want to surface the exciting new mobile CRM service which includes direct support for iOS5 on the iPad, thereby extending rich access to your Dynamics CRM system on the world’s most popular tablet.

Along with the new cross browser support also announced for the Q2 2012 update, we think this new mobile service will be a very popular addition to the Dynamics CRM system.

It is common for sales, service and marketing professionals to use a variety of devices e.g. a sales person might have both a phone and a tablet device from which they need to access their CRM data and processes. With Microsoft Dynamics CRM Mobile, each licensed mobile user can access Microsoft Dynamics CRM from up to three different mobile devices. Microsoft Dynamics CRM Mobile will also offer an offline mode on most devices* so that Microsoft Dynamics CRM can be accessed even when there is lack of Internet connectivity.

But its not just for sales & Marketing, through the power of xRM, the flexible application development framework of Microsoft Dynamics CRM, customers will also be able to easily mobilize their extended CRM applications by having seamless integration between Microsoft Dynamics CRM Mobile and their existing Microsoft Dynamics CRM environment.

And it’s not just for iPad either, Microsoft Dynamics CRM Mobile offers the user the full breadth of Microsoft Dynamics CRM functionality, including the dashboard capabilities, on the mobile device of their choice. There is no need to load multiple apps onto their device; Microsoft Dynamics CRM Mobile provides a single consistent application experience.

And for IS department ease of deployment and Data Security policy adherence Microsoft have ensured that Microsoft Dynamics CRM Mobile is centrally managed; administrators can configure the record types, forms, views, offline synchronization rules and navigation structure for the mobile application. These configurations are published only once, regardless of the range of devices that the users employ. This simplifies and streamlines the management of mobile CRM for your organization. To cater for the differing needs of functional groups within your organization, administrators can set up multiple profiles which expose role-specific data and functionality – the result is a mobile experience which is tailored and optimized for each user. Administrators also have the ability to remotely wipe devices of CRM data should a device be lost or stolen or the employee moves to a different organization.

BROWSER FLEXIBILITY
In addition to Microsoft Dynamics CRM Mobile, the Microsoft Dynamics CRM Q2 2012 service update provides the ability for end users to access the Microsoft Dynamics CRM Web Client across all modern Internet browsers on various platforms. This includes browsers such as Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome, and Safari running on PC, Apple Macintosh or iPad. The list of devices and specific browser versions that will be supported is as follows:

This extends the reach of Dynamics CRM 2011 onto multiple mew browser platforms and opens the way for many organisations to seriously consider accessing the benefits of using Dynamics CRM 2011 for significantly less investment cost than competitor systems.

Sources used:

MICROSOFT DYNAMICS CRM
Roadmap
Release Preview Guide
Q2 2012 Service Update

At Company Net we are a Dynamics CRM Gold certified specialist and love working with CRM and xRM applications which are rapidly replacing legacy, expensive to maintain systems with the flexible and usable power of business solutions that are a joy to use. Join with us today contactus@company-net.com

Last Wednesday, O2 launched a huge flexible working initiative, closing the doors to their head office and enabling one quarter of their staff to work remotely for the day and continue business as usual. This bold move was designed to test the organisation’s contingency plans for managing the anticipated disruption around this summer’s Olympics, in addition to acting as the next phase in O2′s flexible working strategy. The article suggests that one third of UK businesses are expected to encourage their staff to work flexibly this summer, so O2′s initiative will also act as a pilot for other organisations.

It’s great to see a one-day event like this grabbing the headlines and getting people talking about the benefits of remote working, with reduced carbon emissions and rush hour congestion, improved staff engagement and productivity, and opportunities to access vital talent for your business without the constraints of geography - regular readers of this blog will know that here at Company Net we love to talk about the benefits of remote working as part of our 2020 Vision. We use Microsoft’s Office 365 to ensure that we can all securely access all of our documents and tools and communicate with one another whenever we need to and from wherever we are, and it has changed the way we work and collaborate for the better. So now that we, like many other businesses, have enabled our staff to work remotely, perhaps now is the time to start actively encouraging it?

Perhaps I’ve been jogged into thinking more about this personally this week because on Tuesday I did actually work from home – the usual kind of story, car being serviced and an appointment in town in the late afternoon that would’ve been hard to make if I’d been going there straight from the office. But even before I read the O2 article, I was thinking about how much I’d achieved that day and how much more productive than usual I’d felt.

I went through the working day, accessing and collaborating in secure documents with colleagues. I was able to communicate instantly with anyone I needed to speak to in the office using Lync, without even having to pick up the phone. Lync carries presence information, allowing me to easily see which of my co-workers were at their desks and could immediately respond to a query, who was in a meeting and at what time it would end. I never felt disconnected from being part of the “team” and was even able to share jokes and participate in the usual ’round the coffee machine’ chat, so I didn’t feel distanced from my colleagues at all.

I made all of the usual calls I would make to clients and partners, accessing our CRM system through Outlook to allow me to record actions and any important information so that my colleagues in the office could be updated and see the status of any leads or accounts instantly. I dialed in to a meeting. Even though I was in the middle of a large organisational task, preparing for our SharePoint event with AvePoint on Monday, I never once felt that I was missing a piece of paper that I’d left on my desk or didn’t have contact details to hand.

But what surprised me most by the end of the day was just how much I’d achieved. Perhaps it was the lack of distraction from ringing phones, other conversations in the office, involving myself in less relevant tasks, seeing someone else getting up for a fresh coffee and going to make one for myself… who knows? But I certainly felt more focused.

Now I’m not suggesting that working remotely is something I’d want to do every day – I enjoy spending time with my colleagues and I’d miss the social side of work if I did that all the time. But perhaps it is something that both I and the business would benefit from doing more often. And now that our staff have the provision to do so, perhaps it is time for us to start looking at what that might mean for the business on a larger scale? What if everyone worked from home on one day a week and what are the positives and negatives that might impact our productivity?

So now I’m interested to know, is this something you would consider for your business? Are your employees ready to work remotely in the event of major disruption, such as the Olympics, Glasgow 2014, or even just a bout of bad weather? How would you feel if each of your staff worked from home on one day a week? Does your organisation recognise results over “face-time”, or would a cultural shift be required?

I’d love to hear your thoughts on the whole topic of remote working and the technologies that support it. Just like O2, if we all share the knowledge gained from our individual experiments, positive and negative, then our collective learnings can make a huge difference to the way we all work on a daily basis.

So what do you think?

On Thursday evening, we at Company Net were delighted to host some of our clients at a table with our partners AvePoint, at the 12th Microsoft Burns Supper at the EICC. This fantastic event was a night of great food, music and entertainment, and the perfect excuse to get dressed up and leave the house on a bitterly cold Thursday evening!

We were regaled with some great anecdotes about the tribulations of working with Sir Alan by The Apprentice’s Nick Hewer, giving the Toast to the Lassies, and were entertained by the fantastic Sandy Strang. But more importantly, the Supper raised an amazing £36,000 for two brilliant charities, Aberlour Child Care Trust and Specialisterne.

Aberlour Child Care Trust is the largest solely Scottish children’s charity, providing help to over 6,000 of Scotland’s most vulnerable children, young people and their families each year. ACCT’s focus is on working with young people at risk, and with children and families affected by disability or by drug and alcohol abuse. This is a really fantastic charity, with plenty of opportunities for us all to get involved at a corporate or personal level, and you can find out more information about how you can help here.

Specialisterne is a software testing and web development company which employs staff with Autistic Spectrum Disorders, enabling them to find employment within the IT Industry. Their specialist skills include a passion for detail, something which is absolutely vital in the testing and development process. Specialisterne’s commitment to promoting the employment of people with disabilities is award-winning and their growing client list indicates that their supporters are feeling the benefit.

£36,000 was raised for the two charities on the night and we were proud and honoured to be able to support Microsoft and be part of such a fantastic event.

Roll on next year!

AvePoint is the world’s largest provider of infrastructure management software solutions for Microsoft SharePoint Products and Technologies, so we are really pleased to be partnering with them. Propelled by the world’s largest SharePoint-exclusive research & development team, AvePoint is the premier provider for EPG, SMB, Mid-Market and Government organizations demanding the most powerful and flexible infrastructure management solutions for their SharePoint environments and assets.  AvePoint’s award-winning DocAve Software Platform is recognized as the industry standard for comprehensive, scalable, and truly integrated solutions for SharePoint backup and recovery, administration, replication, migration, archiving, deployment management, reporting, storage optimization, and content lifecycle management.

This brilliant event will be held on Monday 13th February at Microsoft’s Edinburgh offices at Waverley Gate and will be a fantastic opportunity for you to meet the experts and hear their thoughts making a success of your SharePoint environment.

Register now!

Leena Drummond, our Business Planning Director was in fine form on Friday as she communicated the following to our staff:

 “Today at Company Net, we’re over the moon! Not only did we start the day with bacon rolls (well, it is Friday), but even better we’ve just renewed our Microsoft competencies for another year!

This means that we retain our Gold status in both Customer Relationship Management and Portals & Collaboration – in fact we continue to be the only Gold CRM Partner in Scotland, and one of only handful of partners in the UK with Gold in both of these competencies.  We have also retained our 3 Silver competencies in Digital Marketing, Web Development and Software Development.  Having just one gold competency puts us in the top 1% of Microsoft Partners globally, ensuring that our clients know that they can always expect the very best from Company Net.

These competencies are a massive testament to the work done by everyone here and it is indeed a team effort that allows us to achieve them.  In order to get the competencies, there are a number of criteria we need to meet, including having people with relevant qualifying exams, not just from a technical perspective but also in project management and sales & marketing, feedback from customers in the form of references, and achieving minimum licence and sales targets.

So, we’d would like to thank every person here for all your continued hard work.

And I think I’ll be heading off early today to celebrate with a glass of something fizzy!”

Company Net Core Drinking Team – Christmas 2011

Andy Hamilton, MD of Company Net said:

“As you can see for yourself we get very excited by this internally because we know that we can deliver better results to our customers by being right up to date with Microsoft technology and have great Customer feedback from our past projects that confirms our hard work is worthwhile and rewarding. The real buzz we get is by putting our skills and experience into practice and delivering the best projects to our customers. Its fair to say that we don’t ever stop seeking to improve and the Microsoft Partner Network Gold Competency programme provides the best framework for us to ensure that we are right on track.

If you already have a top track record of achieving great things with Microsoft technologies such as .net, SharePoint 2010 or Dynamics CRM 2011 (or all 3 together !!) then get in touch with Leena, I promise she will be excited to talk to you.  We want you to be part of our Gold team as we push our boundaries ever higher.

Microsoft said:

“Gold competencies demonstrate your best-in-class expertise within Microsoft’s marketplace. Earning a gold competency is evidence of the deepest, most consistent commitment to a specific, in-demand, business solution area, along with the distinction of being among only 1 per cent of Microsoft partners worldwide that have attained this outstanding degree of proficiency.”

Today’s blog is a guest post from Amie Stevense here at Company Net, who is interested in looking at the implications of our 2020 Vision for your workforce:

I read a comment on LinkedIn recently which prompted me to participate in the discussion, something I haven’t often done. Later, I found I was still pondering the ideas behind it and so decided to write a blog post in response. Let me explain. The original comment was someone displaying frustration that companies are still not endorsing flexible working despite the fact we have some fantastic technology to allow us to do this easily. As someone working in the HR department of an IT company, you can imagine my dismay at reading this! I responded as you might expect someone in my position employed in a flexible working environment. I won’t bore you with the details, they’re not relevant here.  The thing that really surprised me was the next comment to follow; someone who seemed truly upset and indeed, discouraged by the idea of flexible working.

The arguments against it were thought provoking and had some value, and for me highlighted something much bigger: that flexible working is a fantastic thing if it’s used correctly. I could talk to you for hours on the benefits this company sees by endorsing flexible working, made possible through mobile phones, laptops and tablets. Like making a cake, when you combine these things with Microsoft’s Office 365, Lync and the Cloud, you have the perfect environment to promote flexible working for your organisation. So why the grunts of dismay? The comment stated that it’s not possible for every person to work flexible hours; that there is no line between work and personal life; that not everyone can have a task orientated day, and what about if you have to be in the office for a meeting?!

Good points, right?

Wrong.

They are valid points, but only in organisations that endorse flexible working, but don’t handle it in the right way. Flexible working is about being flexible - not home all the time or in the office all the time, but a mixture of the two. It’s about being able to take a day off when your kids are sick but still being able to get important work done. For me, there should be no question of the fact that if you have a meeting you need to be in the office, surely that’s obvious. But, in the same vein, if you need to be at home to let the plumber in it shouldn’t mean you have to take a day’s holiday. Just log in to Office 365 to access all your emails and work, sign into Lync to communicate easily with all your colleagues and, theoretically speaking, you are in the office. I appreciate that there will always be some work places that would struggle to promote flexible working, but I don’t believe that just because some people can’t partake in it, everyone should dismiss it. With a huge percentage of the population based in offices, these negative thoughts need to be addressed. If one person has voiced concerns, others will be thinking them too.

It has to be about give and take. Flexible working should never, ever mean ‘never leaving work’ or ‘only task orientated work can be done if working for home’. It saddens me to see people worry about that, or indeed experience that. Here at Company Net we want to lead by example. Not only do we promote flexible working, and experience a huge success rate with it, but we can also help other organisations implement it successfully. From supporting you with the technologies to advising you on the best methods of implementation, we’ve got it covered. Don’t let something with the potential to be absolutely brilliant end in disaster because the correct policies and technologies haven’t been put in place to protect both the organisation and your staff! Begin something on the right foot, and chances are your journey to a flexible working organisation will be a smooth one.

Now, I’ve been working from home this morning on this, so I guess it’s time to change out the PJ’s and make my way into the office…sounds nice? It could be you!