James Mills is a web developer in the North East of England and founder of Refresh Teesside »
Mike Hughes is the Head of Business for the Evening Gazette. He will be blogging on all matters of importance to Teesside businesses - and some that are just worth knowing »
Jez Davison, business writer at the Evening Gazette, is a regular blogger on all things business - particularly finance, entrepreneurship and the state of the Teesside economy » 
Karen McLauchlan is the Evening Gazette's deputy business and features editor - with special interest in all things industry, property and arts related » 
Jeremy Middleton is a venture capitalist and the co-founder of FTSE-200 company HomeServe » 
Deloitte, which has 23 offices across the UK including Newcastle, is among the country's leading professional services firms » 
ClimateNE & Climate Change Schools Project support the move to a low-carbon, resilient economy and help businesses avoid risk and realise commercial opportunities. Posts by Jen Atkinson, Krista McKinzey and Harriet Thew » August 2009 Archives
Wire We Waiting?
- Tags:
- Croft Technology
Posted by on August 3, 2009 4:32 PM
Ever since wireless information technology and protocols started to change our lives a few years ago, people have suddenly been feeling far more restricted by the wires we've been left with: Power cables.
Pretty much every household in the UK must be home to a spaghetti of wires behind the TV; Blackberrys may have changed the way we do business, but you still have to get the things back home or to the office to plug them in at the end of the day.
It seems the technology which will change all that may not be as far away as you'd imagine. Scientists have unveiled what they claim is a safe way to power devices wirelessly. It may be years until we see it in action, but this could really change the world and I, for one, can't wait.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/8165928.stm
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Swine Flu and IT Remote Access
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- mcware
- remote working
- swine flu
Posted by Jonathan Wheatley on August 4, 2009 10:11 AM
If Swine Flu does hit hard in the winter it could have a huge impact on the economy with some analysts predicting a 7% decrease when we were just starting to ponder a recovery. A few simple steps should be looked at that will give you the flexibility to keep your staff working from home whilst not infecting the rest of the workforce.
Many people have remote access to mail through outlook web access and on their phones and this will go some way to keeping things moving but what about true remote access. MCWare have found that unless you can offer a solution that looks and feels exactly like the system users are used to they are unlikely to use it properly. What are these solutions: -
Remote Desktop - This is a feature offered by Microsoft Servers but beware you will need to purchase terminal sever licenses for each user who wants to use it. Also you will need plenty of lovely internet bandwidth and around 32mb of RAM (memory) for each user.
We prefer VMWARE view see http:\\www.mcware.co.uk for an explanation. If you leave the office and you are in the middle of a report, what you get home and fire up the remote connection the cursor will be flashing where you left it. True remote working.
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Hello there!
Posted by on August 5, 2009 2:29 PM
Hello there! In case you're wondering who the photo is it's Caroline Theobald, managing director of Bridge Club Ltd and chief conversationalist (its great when you can choose your own job title) of CONNECT North East.
We won the tender to deliver CONNECT North East from the North East Regional Investment Fund (NERIF) in order to provide more investment choice for exciting young technology companies.
We can't do that alone so our raison d'etre is partnership working. Helping businesses find investment and signposting them to the public and private support organizations that can best help them grow is key to our delivery.
With six strong founding partners already in place we're now building the network to include professional partners and a growing number of strategic links in and out of the region. Two weeks into our contract we are therefore pleased to welcome Baker Tilly, NEBusiness and Urqhart, Dykes, Lord (UDL) into professional partnership. Discussions are ongoing with other private sector professional firms to widen access to their services and give the north east's innovators what they're asking for - choice! And particularly choice in new money, markets and management!
No surprise then that our first event delivers on investment choice, which was at the top of the innovators' list! It's also a celebration of partnership working - a marriage between North Star Equity Investors POC clients (and other investment-hungry technology companies) and the investment choice provided by Rivers Capital - a new name in the region, but a combination of investment expertise offered by John White of E-Synergy, Peter Hiscocks of Cambridge Angels and one of the POC architects, Jonathan Gold, now the CEO of Finance Tree. Of course NSEI are supporting the event - they want to give their clients choice too!
It seems like a magic formula - the event was fully subscribed within a week and so we plan to repeat the exercise later in the autumn!
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It's all about partnership
Posted by on August 5, 2009 2:33 PM
The CONNECT North East extension is all about partnership so we're particularly pleased that its our partners who are driving the 'must attend' (if not already sold out..) events planned for the autumn.
First on the list is the 'meet the investor' event that is a marriage between North Star Equity's proof of concept clients and Rivers Capital, which is providing new investment choice in the Region.
The event was sold out within a week proving that there are plenty of hungry young technology companies out there and local and out of region investors who want to help them on their journey. We'll organize another event later in the autumn.
September will be pretty full...this time with a focus on toolkits for growth, but again working with our partners as delivery agents.
Continue reading "It's all about partnership" »
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Cash backing in classroom vital for manufacturing
Posted by on August 17, 2009 2:44 PM
ONCE again, politicians give with one hand and take away with the other.
On the face of it, the Government's announcement that it will fund student loans for 10,000 extra university places in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM subjects) was great news for Britain's beleaguered manufacturers - but read the small print.
Continue reading "Cash backing in classroom vital for manufacturing " »
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Damned if they do, damned if they don't
Posted by on August 17, 2009 2:47 PM
IN this post-apocalyptic era following the Great Financial Crash of 2008, bank-bashing has become a favourite pastime.
For months, companies and lobby groups have slammed major high street banks for their reticence to release the purse strings to businesses.
Continue reading "Damned if they do, damned if they don't " »
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New airline could help Tees Valley take off
Posted by on August 17, 2009 2:50 PM
ON the face of it, news that a new airline has flown into Tees Valley is a shot in the arm for local business.
Darlington-based Excelsis Airways has big plans to rev up the number of regional flights in and out of Durham Tees Valley Airport (DTVA) - starting with a business-targeted, Teesside-London City service later this year.
Continue reading "New airline could help Tees Valley take off " »
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Easing pressure on banks - or businesses
- Tags:
- banks
- lending
- Quantitative Easing
Posted by on August 25, 2009 9:59 AM
THE Bank of England's recent decision to pump another ã50bn into Britain's ailing economy has cast doubt on the healing ability of so-called Quantitative Easing (QE).
The policy - where the Bank buys up gilts from investors with newly created funds - has boosted money supply by ã175bn since January in a bid to get credit flowing into the wider economy.
But there's little evidence that local businesses are seeing the benefit yet.
Continue reading "Easing pressure on banks - or businesses " »
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