Despite the cold and early start over 25 new visitors joined existing customers to find out more about the latest releases in Virtual Desktop technology from Arcom and their partner at Citrix.

Getting everyone's brain into gear, the seminar was kick-started with a 'pub quiz' style tournament covering some of the background issues such as staff absenteeism, flexible working legislation and the name of the very first electronic computer! 'The Crazy Mob' were the clear winners with 7 points and won a phenomenal prize; David Beckham's signed football boot, beautifully box framed courtesy of our amazing caterers Hegstrordinary. Very kindly, the Mob have donated the boot to a charity auction but the winners still got to take home a raft of Citrix goodies.

Dominic Wordsworth guided us into the world of Citrix Virtual Desktop with a helpful and informative PowerPoint presentation. Using as little jargon as possible, Dominic explained the new possibilities that this emerging trend in IT is opening up for SMEs. The response was incredibly positive with over half of the attendees saying that as a result of the seminar they are now seriously considering Virtual Desktop for their business.

Surrey Chambers of Commerce kindly provided the short film case study. Introduced by Louise Punter, Chief Executive, their refreshing and honest appraisal of Virtual Desktop really hit home just how this technology affects real people and real jobs. Surrey Chambers have been using Virtual Desktop since June this year and have found the transformation invaluable considering the fact that they are spread over four offices with over 1000 members that they visit regularly.

The event was rounded off with a demonstration (sadly not on the football pitch due to weather restrictions) by Steve Tritton, Arcom ITs very own Technical Director. The demonstration proved that use of Virtual Office could be slick, swapping between the PC and the Virtual Desktop flawlessly. The pièce de résistance came when Steve proved that geography was no longer a factor by receiving and making two telephone calls to two different area codes from his laptop, finally proving once and for all that the technology is here that allows us to work from anywhere at any time.

"Excellent food, transformed the venue. Background quiz was excellent, woke up the room. Very knowledgeable and persuasive speakers with real people. Well done. Arcom really understands IT. "
- David Taylor, The Naked Leader Ltd

The next seminar will be in Spring 2010 and details will be available at www.arcomit.co.uk/seminar in the very near future.

Alternatively, if you would like to receive our monthly e-shot with details of future events and a round up of Arcom's news then please email heather.abela@arcomit.co.uk

MAKING OUR CASE

Alongside the seminar Arcom IT produced their first Case Study Video. It’s not exactly Spielberg but it is about real people doing real jobs, which means that our case studies are honest and sincere.

The aim of the case study video is to give you an insight into how Arcom IT work with our customers and some of the solutions we offer. Just like the seminar, this is an opportunity to find out more about a particular technology through the eyes of someone who perhaps does not have a doctorate in computer studies but does want to learn more and discover how IT can improve their business.

To see the case study video go to www.arcomit.co.uk/seminar and click on ‘Case Study Video’ where you will find Louise Punter, Chief Executive of Surrey Chambers taking us through their experiences of Virtual Desktop. Louise tells us about the transition to Citrix all the way through to what the future holds next. With some fantastic examples from other staff members including Caroline Cherryman (Accounts) and Debbie Nossiter (Members Co-ordinator) this case study is pure, unscripted, unpolished and frank.

We hope to produce more case studies covering a variety of solutions over the coming year and thank each of our contributors for helping us to provide this helpful resource to other customers.

HOME SWEET HOME

After an exhaustive 3 Year search our customer Classic Collection Holidays finally found themselves a new home in the prestigious Saxon House.

But as anyone who has ever moved offices knows, it can be one of the most stressful experiences.

Stella Buckingham, Head of IT & Administration takes us through the move and explains how Arcom IT helped make the transition as easy as possible.

“When our MD said that after 20 months of negotiations we were finally moving offices it was met with elation and trepidation. Basically it meant that the discussions we’d been having and the plans we’d been making relating to IT and Telecommunications with Arcom would now come to fruition.

The scale of what we were undertaking was vast – 80 staff across 2 sites going in to our new 16000sq ft building and we wanted minimal disruption! This was met by Arcom with their normal ‘can do’ manner, even though the time scale was only 5 weeks and our ‘shopping list’ was long - new phone system configured and installed, a leased line ordered, cabling done, new racks and switches, PCs decommissioned and recommissioned over a weekend, servers moved on a Sunday morning and more…!

I was managing the office move project and out of all the items/suppliers I was dealing with it was the IT and telecommunications that could cause us the biggest problem. With Arcoms involvement, I am pleased to say that we moved in over a weekend with a phenomenally small amount of downtime and effect on our business. They were with us at every stage of the move project and dealt with, amongst others, Telecommunications suppliers when necessary.

For a company of our size we were amazed and delighted that the down time on our phones was only 26 minutes and our business was back to normal by midday on the Sunday having experienced only 3 hours of not being able to physically make a holiday reservation!”

Classic Collection Holidays has been an Arcom customer since 2002 when it had a turn over of £6 million. Today the company is in The Hot 100 List 2009 and has a turn over more than £40 million making it one of the UK’s fastest growing companies.

LAST ORDERS.

I’ve flipped. The last page of my annual calendar that is!

Tomorrow will be December the 1st and despite the chorus of ‘Bah Humbugs’ in my office, Christmas is rolling towards us like an unstoppable steam train.

As if you don’t have enough dates in your diary over the coming weeks with your shopping trips and Christmas parties please make a note on your advent calendar that Monday 21st December will be the final day for orders.

This will give us enough time to track down errant couriers before the office closes of Christmas Day.

Twas the night before Christmas when all through the house, not a creature was stirring, no keyboard or mouse……

Heather
Marketing Manager
Arcom IT
Heather.abela@arcomit.co.uk
0845 241 4123

 

Head Office Unit 3, Walnut Tree Park, Walnut Tree Close, Guildford, Surrey, GU1 4TR Tel: 01483 505055	South Coast Offices Ground Floor, Transair Building, Shoreham Airport, Shoreham-by-Sea West Sussex, BN43 5PA Tel: 0845 2414123
www.arcomit.co.uk