The cloud in 60 seconds (or thereabouts)

Having been subjected to the hype around Cloud technology for some time now, I’d imagine that many business owners are confused about what the Cloud actually is and how it might help them run their business.

To understand what the Cloud is let’s go back in time to understand where it came from.

Here’s my 60 second précis on the history of computing since 1970

Reading from left to right we can see that the 1970’s was the era of the mainframe, the 1980’s saw the emergence of personal computing, and the 1990’s welcomed client server computing and the introduction of the local area network (LAN). During which time we saw a massive adoption by businesses as they computerised some of their traditionally manual business processes.

Like all good things, businesses wanted more, they wanted more users connected to the network, and they wanted multiple sites connected to the network. However, scale of this nature resulted in higher costs, more in house IT people were required to keep the servers running reliably and efficiently, it was increasingly costly and time consuming to keep all the software up to date on all of the PC’s, and a new breed of network engineers were needed to setup wide area networks (WAN) and maintain high speed connections between sites in order to deliver acceptable performance.

Virtualisation and the Internet

Then some bright spark came up with the concept of virtualisation, whereby all the businesses software could be installed on a central server, instead of the local PC’s, and users simply log into the server to run their software from any business location.

Around the same time, circa the dot.com years, businesses also started to interact with the Internet, many hosting their own web sites and starting to trade on line. Once again, new skills were required to deliver this, and because businesses were reaching out beyond their own bricks and mortar, a brand new set of issues around security arose, enter to the world of firewall and security technology.

So, great opportunities for businesses, but increasingly costly to do it right, and at the end of the day most businesses aren’t interested in spending on IT infrastructure per say, they’re interested in making money.

Managed hosting

This time help is at hand in the shape of Managed Hosting providers such as Rackspace who specialise and excel in running highly resilient servers and IT infrastructure. So, we start to see the provisioning and operation of servers transfer from in house ownership to that of the Managed Hosting provider. Virtualisation and web presence is fully supported by the Managed Hosting provider and security is properly taken care of.

However, as businesses switch from in house to Managed Hosting, they need to create and pay for enough capacity with the managed hosting company to cater for their peak computing needs. Not a problem for businesses that have a steady and consistent need for computing power. However, for businesses that have occasional high computing demands around seasonal sales periods or heavy month end processing, it means paying for managed hosting servers that are mostly underutilised for long periods of time.

Cloud hosting

Not ideal by any means, but don’t worry, with a fanfare of trumpets, we’re saved again… enter the concept of Cloud Hosting as pioneered by the likes of Amazon Web Services. Unlike Managed Hosting, Cloud Hosting has no initial set up costs to provision servers and you only pay for the processing power that you use. The layman’s definition being, “think of Cloud Hosting like electricity, turn it on when you need it and turn it off when you don’t,” and so the phrase “Utility Computing” is reborn… I say reborn as John McCarthy had this vision way back in 1961.

More recently Cloud Hosting has further evolved into Cloud Platform, Microsoft Azure being a good example, whereby a number of preinstalled services are available alongside Cloud Hosting.

Cloud is…

So there you have it, cutting through all the hype, quite simply the Cloud is Cloud Hosting and Cloud Platform right?

Unfortunately not… enter stage right the marketing machines of some very clever Software as a Service (SaaS) vendors. Somewhat different to virtualisation, SaaS is software that has been specifically written to run in a web browser and allows many tens (hundreds) of thousands of users all to share the same application and database. It’s actually a wee bit more complex than that, but that’ll do to make this point… Most of the SaaS applications in the world today aren’t running on Cloud Hosting or Cloud Platform, they’re actually running on Managed Hosting. In what can only be seen as a brilliant piece of marketing the technical definition of the Cloud has been changed to incorporate Managed Hosting.

But this leads to confusion as no longer is the Cloud a simple to understand hosting concept. And more confusion is to follow as some SaaS vendors set about alienating other software vendors who don’t provide an identical service to themselves, even though technically speaking they aren’t actually running on the Cloud themselves!

So there you have it again, the Cloud is now Cloud Hosting, Cloud Platform and some, but not all, SaaS applications running on Managed Hosting right?

Not quite… even more confusion follows as a raft of hardware vendors try to jump on the Cloud bandwagon, offering on-premise servers with built in connectivity to the internet as a “Cloud in a Box.” I’m sorry, but even using my wildest imagination this doesn’t tick the Cloud box for me.

Oh, and did I mention public and private Clouds and security and service level agreements… no, maybe next time?

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Posted in: cloud,seconds,thereabouts

Are you ready for the VAT increase in January?

We’ve known for a while now that the VAT increase was coming. In fact, we’ll finally come face-to-face with the 2.5% VAT rise on the 4th January. But while you’ve probably been busy planning for Christmas, has your business got its plans in place to cope with the new 20% VAT rate?

Well, if you’ve not given it too much thought so far you’re not alone. We surveyed 1500 of our customers and we found that nearly one in five small businesses are not ready for the increase.

So, what else did our survey find? Well, while 68% of small businesses are anticipating the effect of the VAT rise, a substantial 11% have yet to contemplate the impending changes, and a further 7% have expressed concern about their lack of preparation.

Suzanne Wardingham, our VAT Specialist, has outlined a number of measures that small businesses can take in order to ensure they are best prepared in January:

Getting prepared

We’ve set up a website to help our customers navigate the VAT change and find  details on what the changes mean for our software. http://www.sage.co.uk/legislationchanges

Pass on the costs?

In the past couple of years we’ve already had two changes to the standard rate of VAT, so making the change is not as much of a daunting task as it used to be for some businesses. As before, small businesses will have to decide whether they want to pass the costs on to their customers.

VAT return

As the VAT increase takes place on the 4th January rather than the 1st this time, there will be some businesses that have to complete a VAT return incorporating both standard rates of VAT. Where this is the case, we strongly recommend that the business owners seek advice from either their accountant or HMRC if they are unsure.

Ask your accountant

It’s likely that accountants will be busy with clients’ self-assessment returns towards the end of the year, so consult with them early on to understand how the change will impact day-to-day transactions.

Special dispensations?

Exploring whether there are any special dispensations for your business to help you manage the change more efficiently. Last time retailers received a two-week grace period to re-price stock on the shelves.

Be good to your customers

If possible invoice them before the increase so they will not incur the higher VAT rate and will appreciate the gesture.

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Posted in: increase,January,ready

HR Vision – bringing you the hottest topics in HR

Here at Sage HR and Payroll we’re working in partnership with HR magazine to produce HR Vision. HR Vision is a series of videos, in-magazine features and web content exploring key themes that will be of increasing importance in the future of work.  There will be 7 videos in total, released monthly from this month.

You’ll be able to watch interviews, read articles, post comments, have live chats, download white papers and have your say.

Each month I’ll be writing a blog around the topic, giving you my opinions, advice and experience. Look out for my first blog later this month on building effective relationships with line managers.

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Posted in: bringing,hottest,topics,Vision

Business Start Up Show: It’s all about the people

Escape from the frozen North?

We’re at Business Startup show this week – Earls Court 2 Tuesday and Wednesday – and there will be more Sage people there than ever. That’s not because we all feel like escaping the snow in the North East or a few days on our feet – it’s because we seem to be in demand.

We go to lots of events, from local niche market to national large scale; and they’re all different in their own ways. Something always remains the same though. And that’s the reception we get from the people that come and see us.

That sounds really corny doesn’t it?! I’m not sure how to make it not sound corny or explain what I mean, but I’ll have a go…

Talking about business

I suppose the starting point is that all of us Sage people genuinely (again trying not to be corny) enjoy talking to businesses. Whatever size, market, type etc. it doesn’t really matter. Every business is unique so you never get bored hearing about their stories, challenges and ambitions.

And from our point of view it’s about understanding how those businesses work and seeing if there’s something we can do to help them to improve or make simpler.

We can also share a lot of knowledge about business in general so whether it’s VAT or business legislation we up for having a conversation about almost anything.

And most importantly we’re honest in what we do – if we can’t help we don’t pretend we can, but we do always try to learn about what businesses actually need to make things better… so we can improve ourselves.

Things tend to go from there.

Come and say “hi”

So instead of just saying ‘come along and find out about how to manage your finance, people, customers, payments etc…’,  I wanted to find a non-corny way of saying come and have a chat to our great people. Because they really are great.

Oh and for those that do want to hear about everything else we’re doing then here’s a list that just so happens to be the perfect size to fit in a tweet:

Free software coffees finance/payroll/hr/customer/payment advice balloons filming research camper van seminars workshops brightly coloured t-shirts

So come along and see us… that’s if you don’t get caught in a tube strike or snow deluge!

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Posted in: about,Business,people,Start

The Sage Apprentice

Here at Sage, we’re always looking for ways to ‘wow’ our people and make Sage a great place to be. One of the things we’ve come up with is The Sage Apprentice (our very own version of the popular TV show), which gives our people the chance to take part in something new and exciting. (We considered running something similar to another TV show where loads of people stay in a house for a few weeks, but then realised they have day jobs to-do!)

As if being chosen to be one of our 16 candidates isn’t enough, the winners (we’re working in teams rather than individuals) win loads of fab prizes, including an all expenses paid trip to South Africa to do conservation work in the bush. The other great thing is that any profit they make during the challenges will be donated to the charities each team has chosen to support – we like to link what we do back our Corporate Social Responsibility initiatives whenever we can so charities and conservation work hit the mark big time!

How are we getting on?

Well, we went nationwide looking for candidates and after sifting applications (and one or two ‘debates’) we finally came up with our top 16 who come from Dublin, Manchester, Newcastle, Purley and Witney. So far, they’ve picked team names, chosen charities, set-up blogs and wikis and started getting really competitive.

And just to make it a little more competitive, we thought ‘how about asking our customers to tell us which of the team names they think is the best’ – choose wisely, we’ll be awarding some brownie points for the one with the most votes. [Thanks for voting everyone, the poll is now closed].

What’s next?

Each team will be awarded points for their performance in weekly challenges that take place over the next few weeks and end with a final challenge on Thursday 9 and Friday 10 December, where they’ll be grilled in the boardroom by our very own Lord Sugar (aka Paul Stobart – Sage UK & Ireland CEO).

With the first challenge underway and less than a week to go, we’re waiting with baited breath to see how they get on.

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Posted in: Apprentice

Do you lead like Simon, Cheryl, Danni or Louis?

Love it or loathe it, you can’t deny the impact that ITV’s The X Factor has had upon popular culture. Acres of newsprint have been devoted to it, some of its contestants can be seen in the upper echelons of the hit parade and, lately, even yoghurt companies have jumped up onto the bandwagon.

The X Factor is a massive money-spinner for ITV, and for Simon Cowell’s Syco entertainment company. In 2009, X Factor brought in £75m in revenue and is projected to smash through the £100m mark this year. And of this not including money made from the phone-In votes, live shows and appearances, merchandising, download sales via iTunes or the eventual record sales of the winner.

Like all great commercial enterprises, The X Factor is a success because of the vision and dedication of the people who make it. And like many great commercial enterprises, The X Factor has a distinctive leadership team – Simon Cowell and his three co-judges, Dannii Minogue, Louis Walsh and Cheryl Cole. Each of the judges brings a distinctive flavour, personality and style into the mix. The competition between the judges adds the element of conflict necessary to create the tension that is at the heart of the show’s weekly vote-off and it could be argued that the secret of The XFactor’s success lies in the interplay between these different leadership styles.

There are many academic theories and models out there that aim to unlock the secrets of effective leadership and characterise different leadership styles. Among these is Bass &Colleagues’ model of the five distinct styles of leadership. Looking at these five styles through the lens of The X Factor, we can see that our four judges match up with four of these distinctive leadership styles.

Simon Cowell – Directive leadership style
Characterised as a leader who exercises complete control over followers, the directive leader tells people what to do and when and how to do it. The classic Svengali, Cowell architects his act’s every move and song. His final act to remain in the competition, boy band One Direction, are a great example of Cowell’s directive style – the band itself was created by Cowell from contestants who had all auditioned as soloists.

Dannii Minogue – Participative leadership style
For Minogue, the directive leader is the antithesis of what she aspires to be; she far prefers reaching decisions by consensus and sees herself as a member of a team, rather than as someone atop a structural hierarchy.Minogue epitomises the participative leader, creating a real team atmosphere amongst her acts, who pick this up in turn, behaving in a very supportive manner to each other. “Team Dannii” contestants who have been voted off often go on to publically back their teammates to win. When her acts are criticised, Minogue is defensive and displays behaviours to suggest that she feels that she herself is in the firing line.

Cheryl Cole – Consultative leadership style
Similar to Minogue’s participative leader, Cheryl Cole is very much a consultative leader. She is at pains to stress the time she spends with her acts and that they are very much involved in the decision-making process. The consultative leader leverages the particular skills and talents of individuals in their team to achieve results; witness the four very different acts Cheryl worked with this year, each maintaining their distinctive style throughout the competition.

Louis Walsh –Delegative leadership style
Although his success with bands such as Westlife would suggest that he’s more of a directive leader, on the current series of The X Factor, Walsh has generally displayed behaviours more associated with the delegative style of leadership. Walsh has repeatedly stated that his acts are genuine and self-directive, autonomous artists rather than puppets dependant on his direction and advice. Walsh tends to avoid decision making whenever possible, for the most part doling out generic platitudes rather than constructive criticism. The delegative style is most effective when your team members are trustworthy and solid; the leader can trust them to make good decisions. However, the delegative style falls down when used with people who need more direction and guidance.

With all this in mind, we were curious to see who our customers thought would make the best boss. Out of the four X Factor judges, you may be surprised to hear that Simon Cowell was the runaway winner. Could it be that, when it comes to work and career, many of us still like the security and surety of someone telling us what to do? Are consultative or participative leaders less effective in practice? Leave a comment and let us know your thoughts.

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Posted in: Cheryl,Danni,Louis,Simon

The morning shift for working mums…

Everyday seems a bit like Groundhog Day, from the moment my eyes open at 6.00 a.m. I am subjected to a tsunami of things-to-do and decisions-to-make flooding simultaneously through my mind.

What shall I wear to work? Have I got any fresh bread for the packed lunches? Is it PE day? Have they done their homework? What shall we have for tea? Have I prepped for my management meeting? I must get cash to pay for Judo lessons. I must remember to put the bins out – is it blue bin week, brown bin week or green bin week? What happened to just having one bin – life was much simpler then. OMG, my eyebrows need waxed!

The Morning Shift for working Mum’s is quite simply 90 minutes of Swiss clock precision timing – if I have my children fed, dressed, teeth cleaned, school bags, lunch bags, PE bags and 2 x water bottles in the car by 7:45 on the dot and there hasn’t been any major G8-summit-style negotiations on sandwich fillers (usually a hugely complex battle between ham or tuna), my day starts well and I drop them off at Breakfast Club with a loving kiss and cuddle.

Occasionally, I have a ‘Bonus Day’ when I’m wearing something coordinated and I had a Moment-of-Delight when the dishwasher was empty as I went to put the breakfast dishes in. However, the moment my car door shuts after dropping the boys off I have a mental transformation from Mum to Marketing Manager.

The 40 minute drive to work is equivalent to a mental workout at the gym – I arrive with a cerebral list of things to do which has been prioritised, planned and programmed to maximise efficiency and delivery. I boot up the laptop, grab a coffee and I’m hot to trot. Those are the good days, which, given the complexity of the universe within which I operate, are few and far between. More often that not something happens between the early hours of 6.00am and 8.30 am to unbalance the perfect equilibrium which is required to enable me to arrive a work feeling like a woman-in-control.

Then, this morning I had an epiphany. I suddenly thought – hang on there just one minute. I have spent the last 11 years of my professional life marketing the truly tangible benefits that Sage software can bring to your business. It’ll make your business more efficient, save you time, save you money, help you reduce the stuff that zaps your time and let you concentrate on the things that matter…the list goes on. All of which sounds exactly what I need in my life as a working Mum. So do you know what? The very next call I make after I finish this blog will be to the Head of R&D to explore a software solution for working Mums, something miraculous to help me and no doubt millions of others achieve some of that efficiency and time effectiveness in my Mummy-life.

Now wouldn’t that be worth having?

Rebecca Barnett, Sage HR and Payroll

View the original article here

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Posted in: morning,shift,working