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Eyeful Presentations: The Solution For The PowerPoint Design Agency

It looks to have become a truth universally acknowledged that PowerPoint presentations are boring: and if they are not boring, then they are embarrassing. Cheap-looking graphics, low-quality images, amateur PowerPoint design, stultifying text accompanied by a stop-starting, droning presentation: it appears that most organisations accept that these are simply routinecomponents of the ritual humiliations which are sales presentations. But why should this be? It’s perverse that we should have resigned ourselves to an important part of business life being more or less routinely rubbish. Would this kind of routine underperformance be accepted in any other area of office life? Faulty fire escapes, malfunction-prone delivery vans, dial-up internet connections? No way – so why sales presentations and PowerPoint design? Something has got to change.

Step forward, Eyeful Presentations! The heroic team at Eyeful (also known as Eyefulites) have given themselves the job of combating the culture of shoddy PowerPoint presentations, with energy, innovation and enthusiasm. They offer a rounded package of measures to give your sales presentations a much-needed shot in the arm. Eyeful will inoculate your sales presentations against such maladies as death by PowerPoint”, presentation anxiety, and technical disaster.

Not everyone is a born performer. And not everyone has a natural, innate gift for crafting perfect sales presentations. But the Eyeful team will do their level best to make you a star of the presentations stage, and a PowerPoint artist. Eyeful’s basic philosophy is that they don’t want you to simply outsource the business of producing PowerPoint presentations: they view their job as training up your very own army of Eyefulite presentation geniuses within your organisation, and transforming your overall PowerPoint design and presentation practice from within.

Fresh thinking is key – Eyeful run a plethora of Eyeful Labs, presentation seminars, workshops and training programmes whose main objective is to get you to look at the task of crafting and delivering a presentation differently, with a liberated eye. From deceptively simple matters of design technique, like crafting a presentation around the framework of a story to make it more memorable and gripping for your audience; to the practical business of getting up on the podium and presenting your heart out; to the technical questions of how to make your software really go to work for you as best it can, the Eyeful strategy is all about turning your colleagues into lean, mean presentation machines. So say goodbye to the dark, dark night of substandard PowerPoint design presentations, and step into the light of excellent sales presentations with Eyeful!

Please visit http://www.eyefulpresentations.co.uk/

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Minimise Duplicate Payments risk with software from Fiscal Technologies

As with every step forward and with the crossing of each new frontier, the constant development of business€“ and the constant development of accounting technology and multiplication of business models and practices – presents firms with new challenges and new problems. Your Accounts Payable department is now a hugely more complex beast than its predecessors of even a decade ago were: and it is charged with burdensome and serious new responsibilities. What’€™s more, any increase in the size of your AP department, let alone in its complexity, inevitably opens the door to an increased threat of faults: and they can add up. The new complexity and diversity of the ways in which AP departments receive payments has created mind-boggling new tasks and this means new dangers of things falling between the cracks. In a more complex, modern department, old problems like fraud, duplicate payments and overpayment still loom large, but in new ways.

Rubbing out everyday errors like duplicate payments, faulty procedures or even failures to get the most out of the programmes that you use demands proactive self-auditing. In order to really get to grips with the challenges of a modern and expanding AP operation, you need an excellent Accounts Payable audit system. That’s where Fiscal Technologies €™AP Forensics software service comes in. AP Forensics is an easy-to-use system which can give you an oversight of your whole AP operation from A to Z.

The technology choices that businesses make are now crucial to the success of your accounts payable audit operation. The recovery audit software that you use has to be absolutely top of the range or else it is simply useless. Fiscal Technologies’ accounts payable audit software package AP Forensics falls firmly into the former category. One of AP Forensic’s greatest virtues is its simplicity. The system is designed to be as straightforward and intuitive for AP professionals as possible, so that information gleaned from your AP Forensics audit can be quickly converted into effective corrective action.

Accounts Payable Audit software isn’t the only important weapon in Fiscal Technologies’ armoury. Recovery audit software, designed to assist with recovery of money lost through overpayments or other errors which are detected after the transaction has been completed, is a vital tool: AP Forensics has the software solutions that are needed for effective recovery audits, as well as audits of your AP department’€™s procedures.

Fiscal Technologies’ decade of experience in the AP field points to the fact that if your staff are not adequately motivated; or if they are not suitably prepared for the fast pace of technological and organisational change, then even the most well-meaning management strategies for improving AP will leave your team feeling shell-shocked rather than empowered. AP Forensics is the software package that you need that can deliver the clear information and hard facts that AP teams require to navigate their way confidently through the changing AP environment.

Please visit https://www.fiscaltec.com/uk

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How does Bacs software help enterprise?

Bacs software is a form of payment and documentation software which automates the disbursement and claiming of direct debits and direct credits across the entire financial sector. Any business receiving or paying direct debits or direct credits in the UK has to make sure that it has the ability to receive Bacs payments, in order to safely, securely and legally carry out these transactions. Bacs is a term often used to refer to the universal UK automated payments system. In actual fact, the term signifies the not-for-profit group, owned by 16 UK banks and building societies, which controls and regulates the payments systems.

Direct debit is used by approximately 75% of UK adults to handle phone bills or subscriptions, or to make donations to charity – and it’s far more common for each adult to hold multiple direct debits. Meanwhile, direct credit is used by companies to pay fixed wages or salaries, and by UK benefits departments to distribute the hundreds of different benefits involved in the UK system: housing benefit, job-seekers benefit, child benefit etc.

In actual fact, most households pay out multiple direct debits and many receive multiple direct credits. And a company or charity of any size usually needs Bacs software in place to be able to make or receive Bacs payments. When the organization gets bigger, its accounts payable departments are generally swamped with multiple direct debit payments. This means that most companies above a medium size – and some small to medium enterprises – use automated Bacs payment software to ensure that their payments are safe, accurate and efficient.

Although some still work with manual processing, this can leave departments open to fraud or simple losses through inefficiency. When a company receives and makes payments internationally, an additional layer of complication is added. A professional automated payments solution will validate and verify bank account information at every point of payment, and will have software accredited by the Bacs group in place. This accreditation is a labourious process which involves direct supervision and training. This means that if a properly accredited software provider is used, direct debit and direct credit payments are guaranteed to be safer and more accurate.

Companies often take to automated payment solutions because of their mixture of cutting costs with fantastically increased productivity. Payments can be most effectively handled by a professional software solution – and if companies choose an accredited Bacs software solution provider, a huge weight is taken off the company’s back.Â

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Please visit http://www.bottomline.co.uk/ for further information about this topic.

http://www.bottomline.co.uk/

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Document management in the digital sphere

The old image of document management – office workers literally pushing papers around a desk – is well out of date. Document processing in the digital world has an entirely different face. With most big organisations, public or private, on course to develop entirely digital systems, very few organisations at any level can afford to be content to use paper documents as their main resource. Financial figures and confidential files are all more secure and more efficient when stored digitally.Â

Companies which place a premium on security, efficiency and confidentiality, such as those working in the health, technology and banking sectors, almost all rely on digital document management. For instance, the NHS aims to be completely digital, across the whole country, by 2018. However, businesses in other sectors which deal with intense invoice processing, payment or documentation automatation, cash management and supply chains are increasingly turning to digital solutions.Â

The reason for this shift is quite simple: digital document processing simply offers a more accessible and more secure system, both for workers and for clients. Data can be easily searched for, corrected and analysed. And customers are less patient than ever with mix-ups caused by inefficient paper-based systems. This means that investment in digital document management equates to investment in customer service, as well as savings on office space and worker time.Â

Many companies initially find the shift to digital document processing difficult. Depending on the size of the business and its security needs, a new way of doing things can be intimidating. However, once a digital system is in place, most people find it to be much more flexible to changing regulations, demands and company developments. Most services are “future-proof”, meaning that the shift of data will usually only have to happen once. Compared to laboriously rewriting or refilling documents to fit a new system each time a tweak is needed, simply informing the document management tool to make a small tweak takes hardly any time at all.

Different companies have very different document management needs. Some companies only need simple invoice processing solutions in place to ensure their suppliers get paid on time, while others need a comprehensive and flexible approach to content management to keep up with changes in their industry or a rapidly expanding business. Many people find that once they’re using a reliable digital service, they can see far more clearly what can be improved in the way they operate, and become surer than ever that digital really is the way forward.

Please visit http://www.bottomline.co.uk/ for further information about this topic.

http://www.bottomline.co.uk/

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Maple Sunscreening: a maker of glass louvres that don’t cost the earth

When it comes to judging the environmental impact of your offices; as well as thinking about costs of heating and air conditioning, one consideration that many managers often overlook is the way that shade and sunlight are used outside the building. The environmental – and financial – impact of keeping a building hot or cool can be significant. In fact, it can be one of an organisation’s single biggest outlays. Add in the costs of protecting it from degradation caused by the elements, and it becomes clear that old-fashioned bricks and mortar, and straightforward solutions like central heating or air conditioning aren’t enough: more subtle approaches are required. Since 1983, Maple Sunscreening has offered a way of turning the elements from foe to friend, by harnessing them to your advantage.

Intelligently-placed elements like brise soleils, glass louvres and other external louvres can help you make the most out of the natural heating and cooling that the weather offers, by organising shade and sunlight intelligently. A strategically-placed glass louvre can improve airflow and rain defence simultaneously; on the other hand, an opaque external louvre on a roof can improve the rain-resistance of a building while masking unsightly rooftop plant, for a better appearance. And a brise soleil is a perfect tool for strategically creating shaded zones around the outside of your windows, to keep rooms at a desirable temperature and prevent them from baking in the sun!

Placing external louvres and other structures optimally can be a complex business, and the technical complexity of the undertaking can often seem daunting. But Maple Sunscreening have the expertise and the wherewithal to make it… a breeze!

Maple Sunscreening know that selecting, designing and installing the right external louvre or brise soleil can be highly technically demanding. But their service is organised in such a way as to provide the maximum local, personalised assistance as possible. Maple Sunscreening is divided into regional offices, and it handles its clients on a regional basis, to make sure that you are given the maximum support from start to finish. Maple Sunscreening offers a rounded package of support, with dedicated teams who can help you every step of the way, from conceiving and designing the product your building needs, to producing it in their own workshop, to installing it. An ethical company, they are dedicated to explaining every stage in the process honestly and straightforwardly – their aim is to do business while maximising the energy efficiency of buildings in the UK, not to bamboozle clients into ordering unnecessary works.Â

Please visit http://www.maplesunscreening.co.uk/ for further information about this topic.

http://www.maplesunscreening.co.uk/

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Bacs payments and the issue of transaction reversibility

Bacs, or Bankers Automated Clearing Software, has been around a long time. Essentially, though, bacs payments merely mean transferring money directly from one bank account into another. FPS or Faster Payments Service is exactly the same, but it generally happens almost immediately, whereas Bacs takes up to three working days. Bacs software is therefore different to credit or debit card transactions, and has advantages and disadvantages in comparison.

Since bacs payments are made directly from one bank account into another, they are effectively irreversible. With credit cards, the transaction can be cancelled and the cash returned to you if there is good reason (such as fraud, or the goods you ordered turned out not to be as advertised, or never dispatched at all). With bacs, this is far harder. That is a good thing for merchants, since you won’t have to worry about customers making uncalled for chargebacks if they change their minds. For buyers, though, it means transactions cannot be undone. In most cases, this will not be a problem because bacs tends to be used for paying suppliers and for your people’s wages, and so on. These are generally predictable and are paid in arrears. However, if a mistake (such as a typo) is made, it is not a simple matter to reclaim the money. Without the goodwill of the recipient, it can be extremely time-consuming. If you are making monthly payments, it might simply be easier to change the next one rather than rectify the last one.

Bacs software can be connected into your accounting package to ensure that mistakes don’t routinely happen due to human error, but it’s impossible to eliminate them altogether. That bacs payments are made in their millions every day demonstrates that this need not be a fatal flaw for bacs, and that there’s no reason your organisation should not use it too. Indeed, the advantages far outweigh any minor problems that might arise from its use. Bacs is more secure, faster and easier than paying by cash or cheque. It’s also the standard, now – or, at least, FPS is – which means that if you’re still paying by more traditional methods then you will naturally find yourself at a competitive disadvantage. There is really no good reason to hold large amounts of cash on the premises or to use time-consuming and inefficient cheques when immediate and straightforward transfers are possible at minimal cost.

Please visit http://www.bottomline.co.uk/ for further information about this topic.

http://www.bottomline.co.uk/

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Document management and your organisation’s paperwork

Document management is still a comparatively little-known idea, but one that has the potential to transform the office place. In an age in which the paperless office is a rarely-achieved ideal, the collection of technologies known as document processing (and the accounts department special case, invoice processing) can actually make this a reality.

Document management systems are highly effective collaboration tools. They allow people to store, exchange, modify and keep track of documents. There are also facilities to track the changes made and record different versions of documents. This allows many people to work on the same project, keeping it centrally without the need for many different versions or fragments that later have to be standardised and put together as a final product.

If you have paper documents, as most offices do, then there is obviously a gap between that reality and the fully online version to which you may aspire. Simply, it is hard to work across the two – sometimes having to deal with paper letters, memos and documents and sometimes with virtual ones. This is where document processing comes in. It is a set of technologies that turns physical documents to their electronic equivalents. Some of the simplest (and therefore cheapest) of these technologies involve just scanning-to-PDF: creating an image or other file out of a written document. However, at its most advanced it is possible to turn handwritten notes into editable files, like any other business document. These can then be saved into your document management system and treated like any other electronic document.

Document management and the document processing that makes bridging the gap between ‘real’ and virtual possible are therefore extremely useful technologies. Invoice processing applies this to your accounts department, allowing you to turn physical invoices into electronic ones. This is important, since many suppliers and organisations will still submit paper invoices, and these can easily be treated differently to the ones you receive electronically. They can get forgotten or mislaid, with implications for your relationships with your suppliers and for your reputation. If you are aiming for a paperless office, whether for financial or environmental reasons, then this is an effective way to help bring that about. The solution you opt for will depend upon the nature of your organisation and its needs, as well as its budget, but the number of alternatives available means there is something for everyone.

Please visit http://www.bottomline.co.uk/ for further information about this topic.

http://www.bottomline.co.uk/

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School uniforms: the blight of parents’€™ holidays

School uniforms have to be bought with monotonous regularity: it seems that it’s only a few weeks since you had to make the last investigation of the high street with your uncooperative offspring in tow that the next occasion comes around. But the good news is that you can buy school uniforms over the internet from a London schoolwear supplier, rather than subject yourself and your family to the stress of the traditional shopping nightmare. It doesn’t take much work to set yourself up – you just need to do some simple research and pin your children down for a few minutes to measure them – and then you can do all of your shopping at the computer.

If you’ve shopped for your own clothes online then you probably won’t have many misgivings about doing the same for your children. The process is actually simpler, since you won’t have to decide which outfits and shoes suit you best – there are uniform specifications and standards, and all you have to do is pick the right brand or style from a list. The only problem is making sure they fit properly, which you can overcome by informing your kids it’s in their interests to stay still and let you take their measurements. Additionally, you can use their existing clothes to see if you’re in the right ballpark.

A good London schoolwear supplier won’t just sell school clothes. They will have literally everything you need for the new term: uniforms, shoes, sports equipment, accessories, stationary, calculators… Find the right website and you can treat it as a one-stop-shop. That’s a truly attractive option when the alternative is to drag your kids around the shops for a whole afternoon, or possibly more.

The really outstanding news is that you won’t even have to pay extra for the convenience. In fact, purchasing school uniforms on the web is usually cheaper. A London schoolwear supplier that trades online doesn’t have the same overheads that a physical shop will. School clothes come in all the same brands you’ll find on the high street, but the prices will be better. There’s also no need to concern yourself about returns: most stores have a policy that means you can send clothes back on the off-chance they don’t fit and have them send you a different size. If you’ve left it until the last minute, no problem: they will often have a school delivery service too!

Please visit http://www.uniform4kids.com/ for further information about this topic.

http://www.uniform4kids.com/

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Document management: the first step to a more productive office

Not so long ago, every document in every office took physical form. Documents were always paper, and had been for nearly 2,000 years. Then, just a few decades back, desktop computers really started to take off. Now, documents could be created on the screen and printed to produce a hard copy – like everything else in the office. But as computers grew even more common and with the rise of the internet, there came a point when documents no longer had to be printed to be distributed – they could be stored online or on a network, in the office’s document management system. Now, there were two separate systems: paper and virtual, and the problems this entailed – and still entails – could be serious. It can be messy, wasteful and inefficient. Employees trained in one system may not be very familiar with the other. Documents can get lost in the paper system, perhaps getting buried on one person’s desk, or taken out of the office and never brought back. Document processing aims to bring the two systems together, bridging the considerable gap between a paper-based office and a paper-less office. Invoice processing does the same for the accounts department – an invaluable asset in an age where some invoices are sent through the mail and some are sent electronically, by bacs.

The technology used to achieve this has come a long way in the last few years. At one point, the best you could hope for was a scanned image – a picture file of a document that could not be edited, and certainly not using a word processor. More recently, optical character recognition has enabled printed documents to be turned back into editable computer files. Further changes mean that even handwritten letters can be converted into Word or other documents. The technology typically takes a while to ‘learn’ to read handwriting well, but boasts accuracy rates of upwards of 97 percent.

This means that document processing is now extremely reliable and effective, and when combined with a good document management system can make for a much more efficient office. Everyone can access the documents they need – and the documents will always be accessible to those who have permission to read them. Similarly, invoice processing means that your accounts department is less likely to miss a payment – something that always undermines a firm’s reputation with suppliers and clients.

Please visit http://www.bottomline.co.uk/ for further information about this topic.

http://www.bottomline.co.uk/

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Shops to rent in north London as the slowdown ends

Shops to let in north London are just one of the great opportunities currently offered by commercial property London. One of the interesting things about a shop for sale in London is that this might provide a more stable form of investment than other kinds of property. There has been plenty in the news about house prices stalling, although this always has to be viewed from a country-wide perspective. Overall, residential property is set for a somewhat brighter future in 2013 than it enjoyed in 2012. Some disappointing falls across England and Wales and in the north especially pulled average figures down, but in London residential property saw a 7 percent bounce on last November’s prices. Prices across the city now average £365,000, with some areas commanding considerably higher prices.

Residential property is just one sector. Office space is a second strand of commercial property London, but the last few months and years have shown the volatility of this. At one point, not long after the crash of 2008, the cost of office space was down 40 percent – and nearer 50 percent in some areas. This was followed by a sharp uptick, due to the lack of new developments and the consequent bottleneck. Still, as many people lost out heavily as gained on the low prices, and much of the money came from foreign investors who were in a position to grab a bargain.

Retail space, by contrast, has been a lot more stable. shops to rent in north london are a better long-term prospect, at least for those who are prepared to put their money in and wait it out for at least a few years. Consequently a shop for sale in London might be a better prospect for a landlord looking to make an investment into commercial property London. Retail space tends to follow nominal GDP growth relatively closely, as might broadly be expected. Despite the ups and downs of a business cycle, this means that if you take a long view things should broadly continue upwards, and never drop too badly. Office space, on the other hand, is affected by other factors, including the development cycle. The volatility that this brings to the sector can be scary for landlords, unless they plan to hold onto the property for decades. Naturally, as sales prices fall yields rise, so if you judge your timing well it can nevertheless be a lucrative market.

Please visit http://www.claridges-commercial.co.uk for further information about this topic.

http://www.claridges-commercial.co.uk

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