By John Walker on March 9, 2010
Barclays has become the first bank in Europe to launch commercial contactless debit cards to its business customers. From March, all Barclays Business customers receiving new or re-issued cards will find that they come with contactless technology as standard. This enables them to pay for low value transactions by holding the card over a reader, [...]
Posted in Debit and Credit Card Merchant Services, Financial Services, Ideas and Innovation, Product Launches, Sales, Technology |
By John Walker on December 9, 2009
The UK Chancellor of the Exchequer, Alistair Darling, introduced a temporary lower rate of VAT in last year’s pre budget report.
There was some speculation that he might have extended this reduction beyond the original term. However, in today’s pre-budget report statement to the House of Commons, he said:
I can confirm that VAT will return to [...]
Posted in Procurement, Professional and Business Services, Sales, Taxation, UK, UK Budget | Tagged Alistair Darling, Chancellor of the Exchequer |
By John Walker on December 6, 2009
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has announced that the MIT Red Balloon Challenge Team won the $40,000 cash prize in the DARPA Network Challenge, a competition that required participants to locate 10 large, red balloons that had been placed at undisclosed locations across the United States. The MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) team [...]
Posted in Advertising and Marketing Services, Awards and Accreditations, Fashion, Trends and Memes, Human Resources, Ideas and Innovation, Marketing, Marketing Facilities, Multi-Level Marketing, North America, Sales, Technology | Tagged ARPANet, DARPA, MLM, Multi-Level Marketing, Network Marketing |
By John Walker on December 3, 2009
Processors could become smart enough to let PCs use “vision” to interact with people.
Researchers from Intel Labs demonstrated an experimental, 48-core Intel processor, or “single-chip cloud computer,” that rethinks many of the approaches used in today’s designs for laptops, PCs and servers. This futuristic chip boasts about 10 to 20 times the processing engines inside [...]
Posted in Business Software, Financial Services, IT and Telecommunications Services, Ideas and Innovation, Information Technology, Manufacturing, Product Research and Development, Technology, Worldwide | Tagged Cloud Computing, concept chip |
By John Walker on November 20, 2009
Responding to the implications of the recent flooding across areas of the UK, Barclays Local Business has today announced that it will be offering a financial support package to all of its affected business banking customers.*
The package will allow businesses time to recover from the immediate impact of the flooding, or to bridge the gap [...]
Posted in Accommodation, Business Banking, Business Continuity Planning, Critical Infrastructure, Cumbria, Lending and Borrowing, UK | Tagged Barclays, Floods November 2009 |
By John Walker on November 5, 2009
When adding up all costs for IT equipment, software and any other related technology that your new business might need, you’ll probably factor in some sort of office suite. This generally consists of a Word Processor, Spreadsheet, a Drawing application and perhaps a Database.
Indeed, all of these products are vital to any organisation, but the [...]
Posted in Business Software, Financial Capital, Ideas and Innovation, Information Technology, Procurement, Technology, Worldwide | Tagged Cost Cutting, Open Source |
By John Walker on November 5, 2009
Google Wave Protocol was demo’d at the 2009 Google IO Conference in May this year.
You can see the long developer’s demo video. But, below is a shorter introduction to this new radical concept that may, one day, become a replacement to ‘traditional’ email.
There is one key aspect of Wave that the video (above) does not [...]
Posted in Business Culture, Business Software, Computer Services, Customer Support, Fashion, Trends and Memes, Ideas and Innovation, Information Technology, Internet Services, Market Research, Product Launches, Skills and Training, Technology, Telecommunications, Telecommunications Services, Television and Radio Broadcasting, Worldwide | Tagged Google IO, Google Wave, Wave Protocol |
By John Walker on October 29, 2009
Ministers gave further backing for British manufacturing excellence today with Business Minister Pat McFadden announcing an increase of Government funding to £40 million for a new manufacturing technology centre (MTC).
Since the Manufacturing Strategy was published in 2008, Government has set out a new activist approach to supporting the economy. The transition to low carbon and [...]
Posted in Employment Levels, IT and Telecommunications Services, Ideas and Innovation, Leicestershire, Manufacturing, Nottinghamshire, Product Research and Development, Skills and Training, Technology, West Midlands |
By John Walker on July 27, 2009
The Insurance Industry Working Group (IIWG) today published its report into the medium and long-term challenges facing the insurance industry.
The group was set up in October 2008 to look at the challenges and opportunities facing the UK Insurance Industry. It is co-chaired by Chancellor of the Exchequer, Alistair Darling and Andrew Moss, Group Chief Executive [...]
Posted in Business Continuity Planning, Industry Reports, Professional and Business Services, UK |
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