EAPSOL – an energy consultancy in Norfolk - sought our help in setting up their energy monitoring equipment in a store whose owner wanted to reduce his spiralling energy costs.

For us this was a simple networking task, but we were very impressed with the equipment which had been set up in the store. Soon after we’d configured the monitoring devices the supermarket manager was able to identify, on a real-time basis, the exact power draw of the store equipment (e.g. chiller cabinets, store lighting, or the general store areas).

Not only is this information available in real time from a web browser on the managers PC, data is automatically uploaded to a server where it is collated and analysed over an extended period of time.

A host of reports, facts and figures are available and could answer questions such as:

• What is the carbon footprint of my supermarket?
• What time of day does my store draw most electricity?
• What is my energy cost per hour when the store is closed or open?
• Which equipment is using the most electricity and where are my biggest cost savings?

Of course the system is not just useful for retailers – any small business with a five figure annual energy cost may be able to use this system to identify where energy costs can be reduced.

If you would like to discuss how to analyse your energy usage levels and reduce your energy costs, we’d suggest you give EAPSOL a call…. visit their web site here.

]]> http://www.computersupportnorwich.co.uk/2012/05/analyse-reduce-energy-costs-network-devices/feed/ 0 http://www.computersupportnorwich.co.uk/2012/04/has-your-web-site-been-tested-in-other-browsers/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=has-your-web-site-been-tested-in-other-browsers http://www.computersupportnorwich.co.uk/2012/04/has-your-web-site-been-tested-in-other-browsers/#comments Tue, 17 Apr 2012 10:57:28 +0000 Computer Support Norwich http://www.computersupportnorwich.co.uk/?p=782 Continue reading →]]> During web development work it is important to make sure that your web site is compatible with a wide variety of “platforms” and “browsers”. By platform we mean different computer systems (e.g. PC, Mac, Xbox, Playstation, Mobile Phones) and by browser we mean the software used on the platforms to view your site (e.g. Internet Explorer, Firefox, Opera, Chrome).

A failure to check for this ‘cross browser’ compatibility can mean that a portion of visitors to your web site will have a poor experience. At best some pages may not load quite correctly or some animations may not load – but at worst you’ll lose a customer and get a bad reputation. It smacks of poor attention to detail and reflects badly upon you.

Unfortunately – unless you have deep pockets (or your site is extraordinarily basic), you cannot expect your site to work in exactly the same way on all systems. Moreover it is simply not practical to test for every single eventuality.

At time of writing, there are no less than SIXTY different versions of Internet Explorer. (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/969393) Of course many of these versions are similar and should function in the same way within each ‘major’ version (e.g. version 8 or 9) however as IT support specialists we know that they do not and in fact many of the version changes address ‘fixes’ to the way web sites are displayed.

It is true that many of these versions are no longer in use by the majority of the public – so a line must be drawn as to what is ‘reasonable’ in terms of testing browser compatibility; the same applies to other platforms and other browsers. There could be as many as a thousand combinations you could test for – many of which are simply not worth bothering with.

So where do you draw the line when testing browser compatibility……? The answer must be based on a number of factors and is variable with each site developed, but the main things to drive compatibility testing are:

Browser Usage Statistics, Time and Money.

Browser usage statistics show what percentage of visitors to web sites use which browsers and is a good starting point when selecting where to draw the ‘testing’ line. Some statistics are available on the internet and can show you the most popular browsers available at a given point in time, but these statistics are flawed.

One client recently quoted an ‘expert’ source which indicated that 37.3% of people use Google Chrome, while 18.9% of people use Internet Explorer. Certainly Chrome is doing well but we knew that these ‘facts’ were just plain wrong for his web site.

We were able to prove to the client the actual visitor statistics to the client showed that 60.1% of visitors use Internet Explorer, 16.9% use Safari, and just 11.8% of visitors use Chrome. The reality of the situation is that no external ‘expert’ can tell you the browser usage of visitors to your web site – only your web host or developer can. Stats can only be given on a site-by-site basis and it is a mistake to think otherwise.

Sample image showing actual web site usage statistics for a given web site - 17-04-2012

Once you have accurate statistics for your site you can then make a judgement call on testing. Let’s say for example that you have 100 visitors a day. In the example given above you’d want to make sure the web site worked well in Internet Explorer and Safari because this represents nearly 77 visitors to your site in that day. In this example we’d recommend compatibility testing on Chrome and Firefox too because together they represent 19 visitors per day which is a decent chunk of potential clients.

The Pandora’s Box of compatibility testing however is that what happens when you find a problem…? If you find the web site works in three browsers, but 7.5 % of the population will not see your web site properly, will you want to spend the money to iron it out? Of course you should, but what if that development costs you several hundred pounds, or the act of instigating a ‘simple’ fix for one browser causes issues in other browsers. You must compromise somewhere.

Browser compatibility testing is now also compounded by the (understandable) fashion for self-managed web sites developed with such systems as WordPress. Such tools allow us as web site designers to give our clients a ‘reasonably cheap’, ‘reasonably attractive’, ‘reasonably compatible’ web site which they can manage ‘reasonably easily’ themselves.

WordPress is great if you are seeking to add a blog and cut web site development costs but can make browser compatibility an issue if you want to do anything out of the ordinary. WordPress plugins for example may look great in Internet Explorer but could display poorly in Chrome. Finding a plugin to do what you want that has good browser compatibility could be a difficult, time consuming and expensive task.

Ultimately, any web site can be made to work on any browser, but sometimes you need to spend a lot of money to do so. Without these deep pockets, you will have to compromise somewhere, and with a CMS based web site the compromises may be greater.

We designed them a ‘static’ HTML based site several years ago and while it has done them proud in terms of ranking top of Google on relevant search terms, it was becoming difficult to update. The client really needed the ability to update their own web site without requiring technical knowledge.

The new site looks similar to the old site and has much the same content on, but is now in a format that the client can update themselves without any intervention (or invoices!) from us…

Follow this link to view the new Banqueting Hire Service web site.

If you run a small business in Norwich and want to be able to update your own website, please talk to us about WordPress or other Content Management Systems.

“I don’t know where to dispose of my old equipment.”

“Will the data on my disks be accessible?”

As a director or owner of a small business, you are responsible for making sure that this hazardous waste is disposed of in a legal and environmentally responsible way and that the data on your disks and other storage media does not fall into the wrong hands.

We now outsource disposal of all computer equipment to a third party, and for existing clients it is a completely free service*. We’ll collect small items while we’re on site, or you can have larger quantities collected by our contractors.

Our contractors provide a physical data destruction service, and we can provide a supplementary (and chargeable) disk wiping service for added peace of mind.

*A charge of £10 is made per CRT screen, and a charge of £10 is made per computer if you require the additional disk wiping service.

Please note that we always insist on getting a waste transfer note and copies are available upon request. 

If you are an existing client and would like to  have your old electrical waste disposed of, please call Computer Support Norwich today on 01603 781902.

* I have known disgruntled ex-employees to steal all of their contact data and then delete the entire contents of their mailbox. Are you protected against this kind of activity?

During the period of time that a now-departed member of staff has been at your business, he or she may have sent or received many important emails, made appointments that may no longer be kept or built up a database of contacts – be they clients or suppliers. It is often important to look at this data and properly migrate it so that other users can access that data. Here are the three main options for decommissioning:

Move The Data to Public Folders

If you run Microsoft Exchange then one of the best ways to decommission a mailbox is to have the data moved to Public folders. The data can then be viewed by named Outlook users on the network. This process requires creating of a suitable set of Public Folders, appropriate permissions being assigned, moving the users data to the Public Folders, and
then educating users on how to access the data. After a period of time the data can be deleted if necessary.

Move The Data to Another User

If you do not run Microsoft Exchange then the ex-employees data will probably be stored in a PST file on their computer(s). In this situation the PST file can be moved to a different
computer and the data can then be viewed by another user. Note that because newer versions of Outlook do not support PST files being stored on the network, this has implications for backup.

Delete The Data

There are a few other ways we can give you access to ex-employees Outlook Data, but they all achieve similar results. Fundamentally you have to make a decision – do you want the data or not? If you do want the data then the steps above are your best bet – but if you do not then it is best to delete the data entirely. There’s no point keeping it if you do not want to make it accessible.

Closing The Email Account – Forward Or Bounce?

Once the migration process is complete, you’ll need to make a decision about what to do with that users email address. The two most common scenarios are as follows: 

Configure Email Forwarding

The ex-employees email account is closed, but emails that are sent to that person are instead forwarded to another location. That location could be to another person, or (if you have Exchange) to a Public Folder.

Bounce Email

It may be better to just bounce email back to the sender when an email to this old address has been received. This makes it clear to the sender that the email address to which they are sending an email is no longer valid and if it is important then they’ll contact your company a different way.

We actually recommend a mixture of both these approaches – configure email forwarding to another person for a given period (e.g. three months) and then delete the email address from the system.

 A Note on Email Privacy

My own personal view* is that employees should use their work-provided email accounts for business only. Work email accounts should never be used for any personal reason whatsoever.

If you have such a policy in place then you arguably have a right to view and access that data at your leisure, because it contains information that is pertinent to your business only.

If you do not have a proper usage policy in place, then users can theoretically use their email accounts for personal reasons and you may therefore be flouting privacy laws by looking at their mailbox data.

* This is my opinion and is not legal advice – you should take legal advice if you are not aware.