UNS provide Fusion-IO data acceleration solutions increasing performance and reducing complexity.

UNS are proud to announce our Partnership with Fusion-IO the pioneering flash storage memory platforms for enhanced datacentre performance and processing capability.

Brining process critical active data closer to the CPU where it’s processed reduces latency and increases efficiency in the Datacentre. This greatly reduces the complexity and high expense of traditional storage solutions.

Fusion-IO integrated hardware and software solutions leverage non-volatile memory to provide enterprise grade performance, reliability, manageability and availability.

With solutions from 365Gb to Terabytes of storage and performance up to and above 1m IOPS, UNS can now provide blistering performance for the most demanding datacentres.

Our purpose built Fusion ION Data Accelerators utilise leading brand Server technology alongside Fusion-IO software and hardware to lift your storage performance to previously

UNS provide fully integrated Fusion-ION systems.

unimaginable levels increasing application performance up to 20 times.

ioTurbine is optimised for VMware to allow IT Managers to run more virtual machines on less hardware and guarantee high performance whilst reducing traditional storage spindles and cost.

For more information or to arrange a demonstration contact our Fusion-IO team now or call 0208 5003300

By eMarketing I mean Newsletters and updates a little like this one, and include Social Media. Firstly the most important piece of advice I could give is only do that kind of marketing if that’s where your clients are. It sounds simple, but it’s especially relevant for Social Media. Lots of businesses spend hard earned money and far too much time on social media campaigns without asking the question “Are my customers using social media”? If they aren’t (and the easiest way to find out is ask them) then don’t waste time and effort on it.

Many of our engagements for our IT support services throughout Essex and the South East start with a recommendation or from a telephone conversation. As we deal mostly with Directors or owners of those businesses we’ve found that the vast majority don’t use Twitter, Facebook etc and wouldn’t take up a service as important as the support on their IT systems based on a Tweet or Facebook page, but rather on recommendation and meeting us. Therefore we don’t waste too much time on those sources.

On the other hand informative and regular eNewsletters have helped us build some great relationships by introducing us via offering some useful information. tips. tricks and general advice which we do in our monthly Newsletter.

Your business is probably totally different, so take the time to ask your customers what style of communication they prefer and work around that.

eMarketing has come on a long way now, with online services (constant contact, mailchimp to name just two) offering automatic emailing, template based newsletter creation and

SuperOffice shows the results of a campaign straight from the CRM system. Click to enlarge

response, open and click through tracking all as part of the service for a monthly fee. In addition there are some eMarketing solutions built in to CRM (customer relationship management) systems, like our own SuperOffice offering, that allow you to build a list, design a Newsletter, mail it and track all of the stats via your own system. This has some advantages as it’s a one of purchase rather than an ongoing monthly fee and it’s a little simpler, as it involves no exporting and importing of spreadsheets or lists and shows all of the information in one package.

The most important thing with all of this though is follow up. It’s vital that whatever you choose that you have a method of tracking the response and that you follow up any opportunities. When we implement CRM for clients it’s always interesting to see how many do not have a system for following anything up, they leave it to fortune. They love it when we automate that part. Making sure that you call up any interested readers that have been looking at articles, or that you send further information really completes the circle and ensures you get the most from any campaign.

For more information on SuperOffice or just call us on 020 8500 3300

or email us to discuss exactly how it can help your business find and retain more customers.

If you’re using Windows XP in your business then there is only 350 days left until Extended Support ends for it along with patches and security updates. That’s not bad really. 12 years of life for a desktop operating system support is a great so it’s now time to start considering moving to Windows 8 and getting all the business benefits that it has to offer.

Earlier this year I wrote about my experiences with Windows 8 and I can safely say that I’m now a convert and really enjoy working with it. We’ve also been able to upgrade several clients already and our own systems, and all have found it more reliable, quicker and intuitive.

Part of our IT Audit includes an assessment of your current Desktop estate and a plan to help you migrate to Windows 8 with the minimum of fuss and cost. This coupled with better integration to cloud apps like Office 365 and Windows 8 is a great leap forward.

If you’d like to discuss an IT Audit to help you decide how to move to Windows 8 and avoid the hassle of leaving it to the last minute, or even worse find that you hit a snag next year and can’t get any support then contact us now and we’d love to talk to you about how we can help or call Helen on 020 8500 3300.

Ask yourself these questions.

1. Are you currently allowing users to BYOD or supplying them with smartphones, tablets etc to access data on the move?
2. Do you know exactly who’s using mobile devices to access data or personal cloud apps/information?
3. Do you know if those devices are secure or are open to cyber threats?
4. Can you control what applications they access whilst connected to your data?
5. Is mobile device control becoming a real concern?

Mobile devices are here to stay so management of them is now a vital part of any IT strategy. Let’s take applications as an example. There are several well known cloud file sharing applications available on iPhone, Android, iPad and Blackberry. All of these application present an opportunity for data to be “clipped” and copied into those cloud apps and onto peoples own devices. Once it’s there what control do you have over it? What important pricing, HR or other data could currently be simply copied out of your system into people’s mobile cloud file apps?

With mobile device management it’s now possible to “blacklist” certain applications so that they can’t be installed or run on any mobile device connected to your network.

It’s also simple to “roll out” applications to fleets of mobile devices from a central console saving time and money and providing your users with the data they need when and where they need it, securely.

Mobile device management allows for app catalogues so that IT managers can control and manage what’s installed. Many clients already support 50+ apps in this way.

It’s not as confusing as it might seem to manage and secure your mobile users and we often help our customers get to grips with this growing problem with free evaluations and advice.

If you’ve not thought seriously about how your mobile devices are managed then now’s the time to start, it can be easier and less expensive than you think.

To find out more call us on 020 8500 3300 to discuss an evaluation and some advice, or email us. It’s that easy!

It strikes me that in the challenging economy apprenticeships can offer businesses a great way of continuing to expand and to develop committed, reliable and dedicated new members of staff that can bring some fantastic new ideas and help them to achieve their business goals. If you’ve not looked at it before then why not give it a go?

Find out more about our story and how we worked with Redbridge College to find the right candidate.

However, it’s not just having CRM that’s important it’s using it correctly and developing the “buy in” from users that ensures you achieve the full benefits that CRM brings.

Often, the most overlooked part of the CRM system is effective training. If you’ve spent valuable time and money getting the right solution then it’s common sense to make sure you invest in the training, however it is quite frequently overlooked in attempts to reduce the cost of implementation.

• Make sure that all of the users who will come into contact with the CRM solution have been trained and understand why you are implementing CRM.  Explain how their role fits into the whole customer service or sales process and there’s a much better chance of success.
• If you have a large number of users, think about training the trainers, where you will have a number of staff trained to then pass on that knowledge to your team. You can keep the costs down but also personalise the training to include your business goals and communicate the benefits CRM will bring the whole organisation.
• Look at producing your own user manuals that personalise the user training and subsequent use to reflect your business and it’s processes.

Consider an online training solution such as the  SuperOffice eLearninig, which gives the users access to great overview training and also provides feedback to the project team that shows progress and completion to help to integrate CRM into the business.

Making sure that your user base has had the right level of training will vastly increase the effectiveness of the solution, improve the “buy in” from them and reduce the return on investment time so that you see measurable, tangible results far more quickly.

To find out more about our CRM solutions and to find out more about how SuperOffice can help you gain more sales and improve customer service call us on 020 8500 3300 for a chat, or drop us an email

We all have a smart-phone these days, right? But do we really understand the full potential it provides for us in business? As the capability of Smart phones increases with new Processors, more memory, better camera’s and updated Software the possibilities for us to use them in Business as productive tools also increases.

We’ll look at security and BYOD (Bring your own device) policies in a future blog, but Businesses can now take advantage of some great applications to allow their staff to be more productive, provide better insight into Sales or Project information and vastly improve customer experience.

Here are 5 key things we can do on our smart-phones that can really help productivity and could increase business.

1. CRM connection. If you’ve got a CRM system investigate the possibility of mobile access. You can update contacts, appointments and even track you sales pipeline.

2. Office 365 is a great productivity tool for business. The mobile client gives you access to a shared Cloud service for email, and you can edit and create office docs too.

 3. Mobile dictation is a great way to record memo’s and then have the office transcribe them for you.  Quotes, Letters and other correspondence can be done quickly and easily whilst you’re on the move saving hours of typing.

4. We all know about Skype, but did you know your Smart phone can also double up as your business phone? Hosted voice solutions allow you to use your mobile instead of a desk phone and calls to you from the office are Free when you have WiFi.

5. Finally if you take credit card payments it’s now possible to do that using your Smart-phone. No more credit card machines to carry to events and you can get payment for services on the spot!

To find out more about Smart Phones in business or any of the services mentioned, why not call us on

020 8500 3300 or drop us an email.

Despite the amount of coverage it gets, many smaller businesses think that Virtualisation is still only the larger companies, and some of those still haven’t Virtualised their Servers. Here I’ll aim to remind you about the advantages that Virtualising can bring your business in a simple clear way.

Virtualisation addresses IT’s most pressing challenge: the server sprawl that forces IT Managers and Business owners to place 70% of their budget into maintenance, leaving little resource for business-building innovation.

The difficulty comes from the architecture of today’s Servers which are designed to run just one operating system and application at a time. As a result, even small businesses have to deploy many servers, each operating at as little as 5% to 15% of their capacity—highly inefficient by any standard. Imagine if that were happening in any other areas of your business. It would be unacceptable.

Virtualisation solves the problem by enabling several operating systems and applications (Exchange email, Databases, Accounts etc) to run on one physical server called a “host.” Each “virtual machine” is isolated from the rest, and uses as much of the host’s computing resources as it requires, which is far more cost effective.

Virtualise brings Efficiency, Higher Availability, and Lower Costs

Virtualisation is simply the most effective way to reduce IT costs while boosting efficiency and agility—and not just for large enterprises, but for small and midsize businesses too. UNS expertise and VMware virtualisation lets you:

• Run several operating systems and applications on a single computer. For example, if your older legacy accounts software needs Windows 2003, then you don’t have to upgrade to Windows Server 2012. You can just bring up a new Windows 2012 Virtual Server on the same hardware for any new application that needs it without effecting your accounts software.
• Consolidate hardware to get vastly higher productivity from fewer servers. You’ll no longer need a separate server for each application so you can reduce the amount of hardware you are paying support on.
• Save 50% or more on overall IT costs. Less hardware and maintenance means less cost. IT’s that simple. Less power and cooling too.
• Speed and simplify IT management, maintenance, and the deployment of new applications. New applications can be brought on line in minutes not days or weeks.

The Benefits of Server Virtualisation

The benefits advantages of virtualisation are nothing short of huge:

• Up to 80% greater utilisation of every server. Theyt’ll no longer be sitting in the rack at only 5% utilisation.
• Reductions in hardware requirements by a ratio of 10:1 or even better. One of our clients went from 42 to 4 servers.
• Capital and operations expenses cut by half, with annual savings of more than £1,500 for each server virtualised
• Robust, affordable high availability. If one host fails or needs planned maintenance/upgrade (the most common reason) then applications can be moved across to the other host without disruption.

Server Consolidation

Virtualising one or two servers is just the beginning. For example, instead of 4 servers running at 15% of capacity each, you can reduce your hardware count—and associated costs—to 1 or 2 servers, each performing at 80%. Far more cost effective.

For more information or to discuss how Virtualisation can help your business call us now on 0208500 3300 or email info@uniquenetworks.co.uk

If you answered yes, then you need to join us at one of dedicated workshops to understand how we can help you explore a new beginning in data management and push budget further in these critical times.

The scope, scale and complexity of today’s data-driven world creates new demands in the data centre. The NetApp infrastructure optimises data and storage managements at scale and this enables rapid response to business opportunity. Only NetApp delivers a single integrated platform for an agile data infrastructure that is based on three unique attributes:

• Improve Storage Efficiency – Unified platforms with seamless scaling capabilities could allow you to quickly be able to react to demand, not compromise on capacity and drive down costs while maintaining or boosting performance.
• Automate Processes – Service automation and analytics would allow you to control, automate and analyse data to deliver an immediate response to changing business requirements.
• Stop Disruptive Operations – Agility gives data a lifespan beyond the infrastructures existance, helping to maintain service levels, guarantee reliable and stable systems and drive down business costs whilst increasing productivity.

NetApp’s new Agile Data Infrastructure can help your budgets go further and your business go faster.

Find out more at our exclusive event at Vinopolis in London on 7th March

Agenda

09:00 Registration and Coffee
09:30 Welcome and Introduction
09:40 Business Objectives achieved at Speed with NetApp Agile Data Infrastructure
10:10 NetApp Customer Live Experience – Lotus F1. Hear how a Lotus has developed an infrastructure like no other in the data hungry world of F1.
10:40 Coffee Break
11:00 Breakout Sessions
1. Revolutionizing storage for the business applications
2. Why the right Storage Solutions Strategy plays a key role in delivering business value and competitive advantage
12:40 Guest Speaker
13:30 Lunch and Networking
13:40 Close

Just click here to register

We spoke about the savings, flexibility and Business Continuity that can be provided using our Hosted Voice Solution and customers got the chance to have a “hands on” on the technology and try it for themselves.

Using your current broadband, or with a dedicated line being supplied from UNS, you can have all voice calls routed through the Internet, allowing you to remove current expensive Phone lines and benefit from being able to use your business phone extension whilst working at home or on your mobile, smartphone, Tablet or Laptop via Wi-Fi. Not only that but you get Business Continuity as standard, meaning that in the event of a line outage all calls can fail over to mobiles or to another number automatically.

Imagine having no “box on the wall” in your business that needs annual maintenance, updates and support. All support is included in a flat monthly fee, so it’s simple and cost effective. All new features are added automatically so you will always have access to the latest tools that can make your business more agile. Voicemail is also standard with no extra equipment or cost needed.

To find our more read the article and download the White Paper, or why not call us on 020 8500 3300 or email callme@uniquenetworks.co.uk