By John Walker on February 10, 2012
It would be nice to trust the people and companies you work with, but experience has probably taught you otherwise. There is a wealth of information available online, although not all of it is easy to find, aggregate or cross-check, while it’s also often pay-restricted. Here are some reasons to set up a profile on [...]
Posted in Accounts, Contact Management, Outsourcing, Procurement, Reporting |
By John Walker on January 18, 2012
QCon, the Software Development Conference will be taking place at The Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre in London from March 7th to March 9th 2012 and would be of interest to enterprise software developers, team leads, architects and those involved in project management.
The organisers list Martin Fowler, one of the industry’s most influential authors, [...]
Posted in Business Culture, E-commerce, IT and Telecommunications Services, Ideas and Innovation, Information Security, Information Technology, Morale, Outsourcing, Procurement, Product Research and Development, Production Facilities, Project Management, Recruitment, Skills and Training, South West London (S.W.), Technology, Trade Shows, Seminars and Exhibitions, Training, UK |
By John Walker on December 12, 2011
BOSTON, Massachusetts, USA — Monday, December 12, 2011
The Free Software Foundation (FSF) today announced the dates for its upcoming LibrePlanet 2012 conference as March 24th and 25th, 2012, at the University of Massachusetts, Boston. A call for papers has also been announced. The conference will include talks from the FSF staff and board, GNU project [...]
Posted in Business Software, Charities, Community Interest Companies - CICs, Cost Management, E-commerce, Equipment & Operational Resources, IT and Telecommunications Services, Ideas and Innovation, Information Security, Intellectual Property, North America, Not-For-Profit Sector, Outsourcing, Political and Economic Philosophies, Procurement, Product Research and Development, Technology, Trade Shows, Seminars and Exhibitions | Tagged call for papers, Eben Moglen, Fedora, Free Software Foundation, Freedom Box Foundation, GNOME Foundation, GNU, Jeremy Allison, John Gilmore, Karen Sandler, LibrePlanet, Máirín Duffy, Matt Lee, PostgreSQL, Richard Stallman, Rob Savoye, Samba, Selena Deckelmann, Software Freedom Law Center, University of Massachusetts |
By John Walker on December 2, 2011
Gartner, Inc. has revealed its top predictions for IT organizations and users for 2012 and beyond. Analysts said that the predictions herald changes in control for IT organizations as budgets, technologies and costs become more fluid and distributed.
This year’s selection process included evaluating several criteria that define a top prediction. The issues examined included relevance, [...]
Posted in Accounts, Business Culture, Business Software, Contact Management, Cost Management, Customer Support, Down sizing / Retraction, E-commerce, Fashion, Trends and Memes, Information Security, Information Technology, Market Research, Marketing, Marketing Facilities, Outsourcing, Payment Processing and Remittance, People and Players, Procurement, Product Research and Development, Production, Project Management, Regulation, Skills and Training, Standards, Technology, The Work Place | Tagged CIOs, client-side applications, cloud, Cloud Computing, Cloud Security Certification, customer-sensitive data, Daryl Plummer, economies of scale, enterprise social software, Gartner, Global 1000 companies, Google, IBM, Inc., Industrialized low-cost IT services (ILCS), market consolidation, megavendors, Microsoft, mobile, mobile application, operational costs, Oracle, smartphones, tablets, VMware |
By John Walker on November 29, 2011
The Chancellor has today delivered his autumn statement to Parliament, alongside the publication of the Office for Budget Responsibility’s updated forecasts for growth and borrowing. He announced permanent reductions in spending to ensure that the UK meets its fiscal targets, using some of those savings in the short term to fund infrastructure investment to generate [...]
Posted in Accounts, Business Banking, Business Continuity Planning, Commercial Property Services, Cost Management, Critical Infrastructure, Distribution Channels, Down sizing / Retraction, E-commerce, Economic Cycles, Employment Levels, Financial Capital, Forecasts, Fundability, Grants and Funding Pronouncements, Industrial Relations, Inflation, Insurance, Lending and Borrowing, Loans and Finance, Monetary Policy, Morale, Organized Labour / Unions, Outsourcing, People and Players, Political and Economic Philosophies, Politics & Legislation, Procurement, Product Research and Development, Public Sector, Public Spending and State Aid, Recruitment, Regulation, Regulatory Compliance, Sales, Mergers & Acquisitions, Skills and Training, Staff, Startups, Taxation, Technology, Telecommunications, UK, UK Budget, Utilities | Tagged Air Passenger Duty (APD), Apprenticeship, Association of British Insurers, Autumn Statement, bank levy, Bank of England, Business Finance Partnership, Chancellor, Child Tax Credit, deficit reduction, enterprise, Enterprise Zones, free education, Free Schools, fuel duty increase, Infrastructure Investors Forum, infrastructure spending, Jobcentre Plus, Jobseeker’s allowance, Local Authorities, measures, mid-sized businesses, National Infrastructure Plan, National Loan Guarantee Scheme, OBR, Office for Budget Responsibility, Official Development Assistance, pension funds, Sector Based Work Academy, Seed Enterprise Investment Scheme (SEIS), small firms, smaller businesses, Spending Review period, State Pension age, super-connected cities, tax relief, Work Experience, young apprentices, Youth Contract |
By John Walker on September 23, 2011
If you’ve seen the news this week, you may have seen that the last of the ‘big six’ energy suppliers has put their domestic energy prices up by 15%. This price rise may sound severe and it’ll certainly worry domestic energy consumers. But in reality, business energy consumers face significantly higher price rises on a [...]
Posted in Business Services, Products and Solutions, Critical Infrastructure, Equipment & Operational Resources, Outsourcing, Procurement, UK |
By John Walker on August 19, 2011
As an alternative loyalty scheme to rival supermarkets signs up more than 500 businesses in just six months, a local business owner under the scheme, Heather Copley talks about her experience running a small business in today’s climate.
A shopping loyalty scheme set up to get people out of supermarkets and into farm shops is gathering [...]
Posted in Advertising and Marketing Services, Agriculture, Farming and Farming Support Services, Contact Management, Customer Retention, Customer Reward Programmes, Deals and Agreements, Fashion, Trends and Memes, Food, Drink and Tobacco Retail, Food, Drink and Tobacco Wholesale, Goodwill, Ideas and Innovation, Marketing, Marketing Facilities, Outsourcing, Product Launches, Sales, Startups, UK, West Yorkshire | Tagged audio podcast, Farm shop, Farmer Copleys Farm Shop, Heather Copley, Ice scheme, loyalty points, loyalty scheme, start-up advice, take on the big boys |
By John Walker on April 6, 2011
In a competitive and tough business environment a lot of businesses, big and small, are looking to grow their online presence and using multiple e-commerce channels is often a key part of their strategy. One such channel which is becoming an increasingly important driver of incremental sales and brand awareness for many businesses is Amazon [...]
Posted in Advertising and Marketing Services, Brands, Business Software, Debit and Credit Card Merchant Services, Distribution Channels, E-commerce, Expansion, Financial Services, Ideas and Innovation, Information Technology, Manufacturing, Outsourcing, Payment Processing and Remittance, Retail, Hire and Repair, Sales, Technology, UK, Wholesale | Tagged Amazon |
By John Walker on January 20, 2011
Tribunal cites lack of ‘mutuality of obligation’ as key to ruling in favour of taxpayer.
A seven-year battle with the taxman has ended in victory for PCG member Mark Fitzpatrick.
The long running IR35 dispute reached a conclusion when a tribunal cleared Mark of using his limited company MBF Design Services (MBF) to avoid tax, in reference [...]
Posted in Accounts, Bristol (Area), Design and Photographic Services, Freelancers, Human Resources, Insurance, Legal Rulings, Outsourcing, Recruitment, Regulation, Regulatory Compliance, Taxation, UK, Vehicle Manufacturing | Tagged IR35, Mutuality of Obligation |
By John Walker on November 22, 2010
Britain’s 1.4m freelance workers love life, are happier with their health, their financial situation, their prospects and their wife, husband or partners!
A ComRes survey published today (Nov 22nd) shows that nearly three-quarters (73%) of the 1,624 polled had actively chosen to become freelancers as a long-term career option in a survey to celebrate National Freelancers [...]
Posted in Employment Levels, Freelancers, Human Resources, Outsourcing, Procurement, Production, Recruitment, Surveys, UK | Tagged family friendly employers, PCG, statistics, trends |
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