Member News

Norfolk businesses and a local charity have combined to support adults with disabilities gain valuable job search skills.

Five adults with learning disabilities accessed the Jobsearch Skills workshops through the Norfolk based BUILD Charity, who teamed up with senior managers, and owners of Norfolk businesses to pass on their experiences, and provide mock job interviews to candidates for a fictitious role.

The workshops were designed by BUILD Charity’s Chief Executive, James Kearns, and co-hosted with Teresa Kelly, Business and Education Consultant with Talk Enterprise. Over a four week period, the workshops explored issues ranging from choosing the kind of job to aspire to, exploring where jobs are advertised, selling yourself as an applicant, building a CV and experiencing an interview.

Each session was inter-active and involved testimonies from people in local businesses. The final session saw four local business managers host 15 minute selection interviews for a fictitious role. Stephen Ferrey (MoCo), Ian Woodley (Quartz Healthcare), Richard Buck (John Lewis Partnership) and Anne Francis (Carnival Consulting) each interviewed two candidates, and provided positive feedback, as well as areas where candidates could improve their applications and techniques.

So impressed was one business leader, Anne Francis, of Carnival Consulting, that she offered some temporary work to one of the candidates after the interview.

BUILD Charity’s Chief Executive, James Kearns said “The partnership working with colleagues in the business world made the whole experience real for participants, who got real feedback, from real employers, not just a table top exercise. The added confidence and aspiration experienced by people taking part was significant.”

The workshops had been free to access, thanks to funding from a Norwich based Charitable Trust but the low take up of places had come as a surprise to organisers. James Kearns said “In the current economic climate, where people with disabilities are finding it even harder to get on the jobs, and careers, ladder we expected to be inundated with people wanting to access these workshops, but in the end only half the places were filled. We have some funding to run a second series of workshops in the autumn, if the demand is there, so would welcome expressions of interest from people with disabilities, their carers or supporters, before setting a date.”

The BUILD Charity was established in Norwich in 1967 and provides around 400 social, leisure and learning opportunities to adults, and young people, with sensory, physical and learning disabilities each year with activities ranging from a weekly social club, known as The Wednesday Club in central Norwich, two clubs for young people in Norwich and New Buckenham, and arrange of sporting, cultural and healthy living activities across the county. For more information visit www.buildcharity.co.uk

Cozens-Hardy LLP is pleased to announce that lawyer Lucy Steele has joined its family and children department.

Brought up and educated in Norfolk, Lucy studied English and Communication Studies at Liverpool University, going on to complete the Graduate Diploma in Law and Legal Practice Course at the College of Law, York.

Lucy previously worked for a niche family law practice in Wilmslow, Cheshire before relocating back to Norfolk to join Cozens-Hardy. Lucy specialises in private law children matters, divorce and financial provision.

Jane Anderson, partner, family department commented: “I’m thrilled that we’ve been able to recruit a solicitor of Lucy’s calibre to our department. She has had excellent training and experience working in a niche family practice and is already adding strength to our team.”

Added Lucy: “The firm’s well established reputation and friendly, honest and hard working ethics fit in well with my approach to work and life generally. My work is predominantly focused around providing clear and practical advice to clients in relation to divorce and separation and the financial issues which flow from this. I fully endorse a conciliatory approach to resolving family-related issues wherever possible.”

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For further information please contact: Clare Haylett ph: 07764 270570 and [email protected]

Our latest article in our popular website design series is out. “The Bigfork Guide to Competitive Website Analysis” tells you why you need to analyse your competitors websites and how to do it. If you want to see our past articles please let us know.

Bigfork Ltd – we make websites stand out

Tel:01603 513080

Email: [email protected]

Microsoft Office 365 is the natural cloud based progression for PC based Microsoft Office applications. The current MS Office product provides customers with a powerful set of tools that supports the entire spectrum of productivity scenarios, from the most basic to the more advanced. More and more businesses are choosing Microsoft Office 365 over Google Apps. The reason? Simple really, they can’t afford to compromise, and with Office 365, they don’t have to. They get the familiarity of MS Office, the capabilities they need, plus a cloud service they can trust.

I’ve recently been involved in setting up a local business with MS Office 365. The business, a property and development consultancy require the powerful toolset provided by MS Office with the flexibility of working on the fly when away from the office, which in their line of work, is a regular occurrence.

Using a single sign on function, I was able to install and configure Office 365 with ease providing the customer with the following,

• A unified shared document library via an online SharePoint Team Site – providing simultaneous document collaboration

• Instant communications capability through Lync (including chat, desktop sharing and document transfer)

• SharePoint file synchronization between computers, mobile devices and the cloud via SharePoint WorkSpace (2010) and most recently SkyDrive Pro (after recent upgrade to Office 2013)

• Outlook collaboration – Shared Contacts, Calendars and Tasks

As with all cloud based solutions, security of information will always be at the forefront for any business. MS Office 365 transfers data across the internet using the highest encryption methods in the industry, which, alongside their proactive monitoring of the Office 365 platform, monitors, records and investigates any attempted intrusions or suspicious activities.

Office 365 is maintained and patched regularly to protect its customers from existing and emerging security threats, which provides much needed reassurance that valuable confidential company data isn’t compromised.

One of the most common methods used to breach security is through email. Office 365 takes care of this by scanning all emails for malware, viruses and spam mail to quarantine malicious programs and junk mail in real time.

Another feature of Office 365 I like is the ability to customize the retention schedule for company emails. This feature provides a flexible and robust function to archive messages which may need to be retained for legal compliance or otherwise.

How about document retention? Documents stored within SharePoint are protected against accidental deletion by the virtual recycle bin feature, meaning any documents deleted in error can be restored within 31 days with the click of button!

In terms of reliability, Office 365 is second to none. MS offers a 99.9% uptime guarantee for Office 365 which coupled with an online accessible service health dashboard gives system administrators peace of mind that their systems will be available when they need them. This dashboard also details any planned maintenance or fixes to the 365 system.

We at Breakwater IT have been using Office 365 extensively in our day to day roles and I personally have been really impressed with the functionality it provides. I would definitely recommend it to other clients as an extension to their current MS Office installation. Every client is different and there are many solutions and migration paths available why not give us a call and find out what we and Microsoft Office 365 can do for you.

Call Kelly Hemingway or Mark Poole on 01603 709300.

Dying Matters Awareness Week is taking place between 13-19 May. This yearly campaign seeks to raise awareness of end of life issues. Angela Ireland, a Chartered Legal Executive in Steeles Law’s wills, probate and tax team, considers these issues.

Steeles Law is one of 30,000 members of the national Dying Matters Coalition, all of whom have an interest in supporting the changing knowledge, attitudes and behaviours towards dying, death and bereavement.

Set up by the National Council for Palliative Care in 2009, the Dying Matters Coalition aims to encourage people to talk openly about their own end of life issues with friends, family and loved ones in order to make “a good death” possible for the 500,000 people who die in England each year.

Research for Dying Matters has found that many people have specific wishes about their end of life care or what they would like to happen to them after their death, but a reluctance to discuss these issues makes it much less likely that these will be met. For example, an astonishing two-thirds of adults in the UK do not have a Will, generally because it is something we “put off” doing until another day. Within a Will, you can ensure that your money and property pass to those family members, friends and charities of your choice. Otherwise, if you do not make a Will, your estate passes according to the intestacy rules, a complex set of legal rules providing for your nearest blood relatives – not necessarily those who you would wish to provide for!

At Steeles Law, we encourage all of our clients to make a Will including their funeral wishes, as well as prepare Lasting Powers of Attorney and Advance Decisions. Having these documents in place can help your loved ones in what can be some of the most difficult and emotional times of their lives.

A Lasting Power of Attorney is a legal document allowing you to appoint someone you trust to make decisions on your behalf in respect of your property and financial affairs, and also health and welfare decisions, should you become mentally incapable of dealing with your own affairs. By an Advance Decision you can specifically record what life-sustaining treatments you do not wish to receive if you become unable to communicate these wishes yourself.

By talking about Wills, Lasting Powers of Attorneys and Advance Decisions and making these important documents you can help your family and friends now with difficult decisions they may be faced with in the future.

To speak to one of our specialist members of the wills, probate and tax team please contact us.

Great Yarmouth based energy services company Proserv has won a multi-million dollar contract in Angola, underpinning the company’s fast-evolving subsea status and increasing demand for its sampling system innovations.

Proserv is to design and manufacture a subsea sampling system for BP’s PSVM field development which, with a water depth of 2,000 metres, is believed to be the deepest offshore project in Africa.

The system, which is being designed, manufactured and tested by Proserv’s dedicated teams, can go to a maximum water depth of 2,500 metres as well as interface with two and four-slot subsea manifolds. It is also fully compliant with corrosion society, NACE International, and meets the high engineering standards set by the American Petroleum Institute.

Chief executive officer at Proserv, David Lamont, said: “This contract win represents another significant achievement for Proserv. It underpins the strong track record we are continuing to build around the world by consistently delivering robust technology systems and services for customers on time and to the highest standards including overall compliance with very stringent technical specifications.

“With an established track record spanning over 35 years in the sampling services sector, we have strengthened our capabilities and expertise through organic growth and strategic acquisitions. This has resulted in us capturing a large share of the subsea market and with the increasing demand for flow assurance and reservoir analysis, we fully intend to set the pace as the leading global player in the subsea sampling field.”

Proserv’s sampling system will interface with the subsea production system to support the monitoring of PVT properties in the production fluid as various levels of these elements can cause flow assurance issues such as scale build up.

The contract is the second one that Proserv has undertaken for BP Angola on the PSVM development. The company previously provided two similar subsea sampling systems for Block 18 through FMC Technologies.

Proserv has fast emerged as a leading industry specialist in exploration & production, drilling, and infrastructure technical solutions and services to the global energy industry.

The company has experienced exceptional growth over the past 12 months particularly in the subsea services sector.

Proserv operates worldwide from 30 sites in six geographical regions namely North UK & Africa, South UK & Europe, Scandinavia, the Americas, Middle East & North Africa and the Far East & Australia and currently employs over 1,700 people globally.

For more information about Proserv, visit: www.proserv.com

There is still time to join us for EACH’s biggest and oldestevent in Thetford Forest. In it’s 20th year Ride for Life has raised over £775,000 and this year we are aiming to raise a further £50,000 from it. We are also hoping to reach 1000 participants this year and we are well on the way toachieving this aswe have over 630 people signed up already.

Places are still available on all the events which include 19 and 35 mile on road cycle rides, 10 and 25 mile off road cycle rides and 3 and 9 mile walks. Our on line entry will close on Monday 13th May at 9.00 a.m butyoucan just turn up and enter on the day if you miss this.

Please help us reach our 1000 participants and £50,000 targets. The need for our services continues to increase so your support would as ever be very much appreciated.

For more details of the event please visit www.each.org.uk or call the fundraising office on 01953 666767.

Jeanette Wheeler, head of employment in the Norwich office of leading East of England law firm Birketts LLP, has been appointed as the President of the Norfolk and Norwich Law Society. She succeeds Roger Holden who has held the position for the past two years.

The Norfolk and Norwich Law Society (NNLS) is the representative body for solicitors in the Norfolk and Norwich area. It was first incorporated in 1892 and is the local branch of the national Law Society based in Chancery Lane in London which represents the solicitor’s profession throughout England and Wales. Traditionally the Law Society has provided training and support for solicitors and acted as a sounding board for law reform. It no longer has a regulatory function. This is provided by the Solicitors Regulatory Authority.

Jeanette commented on her appointment; “I am pleased to be given the opportunity to take on the mantle of President of the Norfolk and Norwich Law Society. However I recognise that my appointment comes at a time when solicitors nationally and locally have never faced such serious challenges to the profession’s future. People don’t appreciate that recession, the introduction of ‘alternative business structures’ and the imposition of a range of controversial Government policy initiatives adds up to the perfect storm in the legal world and threatens the future ability of many legal professionals in Norfolk to provide quality advice and the high standards of service which the public and businesses demand and have traditionally received. We risk being commoditised and de-professionalised and there is a growing reputational deficit which we need to address. I hope I can make a difference during my tenure as president.

“The lawyers I have worked with over the years are genuine, hard working and committed to obtaining the best outcomes for their clients and providing access to justice. The public needs to take more careful note of some of the reforms being pushed through by Government and how these will affect the way in which they in the future will be able to seek legal redress or assistance. Unrepresented litigants face an uphill struggle and I would urge people not to misjudge the lawyers as the bad guys. To mitigate against some of these changes locally the NNLS will be supporting the UEA with its proposal to set up a new Law Clinic. “

“I urge all of my fellow legal professionals in Norfolk and Norwich to support the NNLS over the next few years. “

Business Club Networking Evening Thursday 16th of May 8pm @ Bar 11

Champagne & canapé reception, complete with a guest speaker too. Plus Saville Row suit designers, Grover of London will be on hand ready to create bespoke outfit for you! Don’t forget to bring your business cards because there will be a chance to win; exclusive Bar 11 member’s card, a champagne table for yourself and 5 guests for an evening, plus we will be giving you the chance to include your company logo on all our advertisement for a month. This is a free event and is by invitation only. If you would like to attend please just RSVP to [email protected]

Norwich based website design agency, Bigfork, were appointed to design the new website for solar PV company, Absolute Renewable Energy. The new site’s main objective was to produce enquiries and the design included appealing images, strong calls to action and informative content to help achieve these targets. Using their successful website design process, Bigfork’s work made sure the new website looks great and works as an effective marketing tool. Bigfork are leading SilverStripe CMS developers (a powerful and easy to use content management system) and this was used on the Absolute website, giving them control over the website’s content.

www.absoluterenewableenergy.co.uk/

Bigfork Ltd – we make websites stand out

t:01603 513080

Local law firm, Ashton KCJ, has been instructed by national fish and chip restaurant chain, Harry Ramsden’s. Harry Ramsden’s, which was established in Yorkshire over 80 years ago, has over 30 outlets around the UK and Ireland. Following a competitive tender process, Ashton KCJ has been instructed to advise the chain on all of its domestic and international franchising.

Harry Ramsden’s is embarking on a period of expansion, with plans to launch fifty new ‘quick service’ restaurants around the UK and Ireland. Joe Teixeira, CEO at Harry Ramsden’s said: “Ashton KCJ have a proven track record in the franchising sector and we are looking forward to working with the whole team. We look forward to evolving this much loved and iconic British brand into the nation’s favourite fish and chip proposition”.

John Chambers (pictured), head of the Franchising team at Ashton KCJ commented: “We’re delighted to be working with Harry Ramsden’s and to be adding such a well recognised brand to our growing portfolio of local, national and international clients. Being a Yorkshireman myself, this is one client which is particularly close to my heart.” Ashton KCJ has also recently been appointed by Shawarma Xpress, a Bahraini restaurant chain, to advise them in their UK and international roll out.

Zing Insights have had their contract renewed for the second consecutive year with BBC Haymarket Exhibitions who organise the award winning BBC Gardeners’ World Live and BBC Good Food Shows. Zing conducted visitor research onsite at each of the consumer events using iPad research pods achieving, on average, sample sizes 50% larger than other research suppliers, a significantly more representative sample than online surveying and as an added extra, a sales & marketing database of over 2,000 individuals to use for future marketing activity.

The Zing team has over 40 years of experience in research and commercial insights which they use to design surveys that are intuitive and engaging, so it’s no surprise that sample sizes increased significantly. On average, Zing achieved sample sizes in excess of 50% larger than the previous years’ suppliers, increasing statistical confidence and ensuring a higher degree of confidence in the results generated. This is especially important when testing creative, marcoms and new concepts – where there are high levels of investment and you need confidence in your business decisions.

The Zing onsite research team is trained to approach all passers-by to participate, meaning that the research sample is completely random and unbiased – a more representative sample compared to the overall audience – an important consideration for accurate business insights. The typical online survey sample is biased towards advocates and opponents, missing the all important middle ground (click here for more info on the inherent bias of online research).

As an added extra, we spent a few hours each day before the research started collecting contact details of almost 2,000 visitors. We particularly targeted walkup visitors where the organizers did not have direct contact details; those who bought their ticket on the day or were visiting in a group where another member of the group had purchased the ticket – to help support the organisers future marketing activity amongst these groups.

Marilyn Jarman, Head of Marketing at Haymarket Exhibitions said “Zing Insights have delivered some fantastic research for our shows this year and we have been delighted with their approach, professionalism and experience. Lisa and her team grasped our brief perfectly and delivered valuable feedback to shape the future of our shows. We look forward to continue working with them.”

Zing Director, Lisa Holt said “We’re thrilled that Haymarket Exhibitions have committed to a longer-term relationship with Zing, our business is built on strong client relationships that deliver repeat business and recommendation as a result of our exceptional quality, strategic business insights and great value for money.”

For more information on how Zing could support your business growth and development, call the team on 0844 800 9588.