Tandem Welch Motorsport Sponsorship

Following our recent news that we are proudly sponsoring Welch Motorsport, we are pleased to present images of the newly branded cars that Welch will be racing throughout the season.

This year, Welch Motorsport are striving for their first podium. Follow their success, adrenaline and passion by subscribing to their YouTube channel

Latest YourSite goes live!

Lincolnshire based Heritage Roofing Services are specialists in traditional roofing services.

Heritage Roofing had a large amount of information that they wanted to condense into easy to read sections across their website to get the key points across at a first glance whenever a visitor lands on their site.

We designed and developed a YourSite for Heritage Roofing with easy navigation options to enable visitors to the site to easily find the specific service that they are looking for, increasing conversion opportunities for the company. Our web team designed an impressive gallery of images which successfully displays a portfolio of projects that Heritage Roofing have completed to provide potential customers with excellent visuals that reinforce the quality which Heritage are proud of.

We incorporated clear call to action buttons to increase enquiries and added large testimonial boxes to promote the complimentary comments that Heritage customers often leave.

Click here to visit the new Heritage Roofing Services website

Managed Print Services Proving 'Key Trend' in 2013

A new report claims that investing in a Managed Print Solution (MPS) has been on the agenda for many businesses and named as one of the top services trends for 2013 so far.

There has already been a great interest in the solutions for businesses that are keen to streamline their printing operations and cut costs. Companies are keen to take advantage of the benefits that can be provided by a good MPS agreement. Large companies in particular may find their printing operations a complex and expensive procedure, due to large overhead costs for items such as consumables and power.

But, by signing up for an MPS solution, enterprises can greatly reduce this. One of the first things that an MPS provider will do is perform a thorough assessment of your current setup to determine where inefficiencies lie. Often, it's the case that businesses are running many desktop printers when they may be better served by a smaller number of networked multifunction printers. In fact, figures from International Data Corporation suggest some firms could have up to ten times more printers than necessary.

However, cutting down the number of machines is only the start of a good MPS solution. The technology can analyse and optimise workflows for faster output, while a clear maintenance schedule improves reliability and cuts down on unplanned downtime.

By combining all these functions and more, most businesses could expect to see saving of up to 30 per cent on their printing costs. It can take a large amount of time and resources to maintain a large printer fleet, improving in this area is one of the best things you can do to boost the efficiency of your office.



source: OKI

A Very ACTIVE YourSite Goes Live!

Our latest website within our YourSite range of products to go live is Definitions Health and Fitness Gym.

As a fairly new establishment, Definitions wanted to appeal to customers of all ages and abilities within the Spalding area. It was important to Definitions that their website portrayed the family run atmosphere and the range of goals that the gym could offer – from losing wight, toning up or just some straight forward de-stressing time.

We designed and developed a website which really emphasised the new and immaculate facilities with clear banner images to really capture interest from the moment a visitor first lands on the website. We also created the copy for each page of the site with SEO in mind to give the site a boost within the search engines, increasing the chance of visitors being able to find the website in the first instance.

To add further to the quality of engagement with website visitors, we added a variety of virtual tours to the website to allow prospective customers to take a look around the gym facilities beforehand. Teamed with clear call to actions and links to their active social media pages, Definitions Health & Fitness Gym have already set themselves a well deserved place within the market.

Click here to visit the new Definitions Health & Fitness website

Bespoke Recruitment Website Goes Live!

Our latest website to go live is the freshly designed and developed bespoke solution for More Performance Recruitment.

The Brief

MorePeople Recruitment needed a professional solution for new and existing customers to book training courses online, completely hassle free.  It was crucial that the website also provided an up to date information point for all available courses.

Our Solution

We designed a brand new look and style to introduce a new service that MorePerfomance are offering to enable customers to not only find a suitable training course but also have the ease of making a booking online for the customers convenience.  We incorporated a handy "Find a course" search functionality to make the website as functional and efficient for customers as possible and clear call to action buttons so visitors to the site can call or email MorePerformance quickly if they need to speak to an advisor therefore reducing the website 'drop off' rate and avoiding customers being deterred from continuing with their search.

Our graphic design team carefully chose a design with some key factors in mind:

1. We wanted it to be very evident from a first glance what the website was all about
2. The graphic layout needed to be eye catching enough to capture attention but also serve a purpose
3. The overall look and feel needed a different corporate branding to that of the MorePerformance recruitment website

Finally, as a new website and to help promote the new training service, we needed to make sure that the website could be found within the search engines.  We implemented Search Engine Optimisation across the entire website to improve the likelihood of customers and prospective customers being able to find the website when searching for online courses through Google.

Visit the new More Performance website to see the full design

Tandem Shortlisted For UKBAA High Growth Team…

Tandem Solutions have been shortlisted and is one of the final 6 nominated companies for the UKBAA high Growth Team award, sponsored by GrowthAccelerator.

GrowthAccelerator is a unique service led by some of the country’s most successful growth specialists where you’ll find new connections, new routes to investment and the new ideas and strategy needed for a business to achieve its full potential

GrowthAccelerator aims to get to the heart of the barriers that are holding your business back and help you identify the critical steps you need to take to achieve your next phase of growth – rapidly and sustainably.

The UKBAA Investment Awards Gala Dinner takes place on 2nd July at the London Film Museum, Southbank where the winner will be announced.

Tandem Run 2nd PowerRetrieve ‘Lunch & Learn’

Due to the success of our last PowerRetrieve demo day, we offered a second opportunity for our clients to join us for another ‘Lunch & Learn’ seminar at our offices in Bourne, Lincolnshire.

Our partner InfoCap presented an informative and interesting demonstration on our exciting new PowerRetrieve product capturing all the powerful and intelligent features that it has to offer. Our customers that attended were amazed at just how clever the software is and how much time and money it can potentially save a business.

If you would like any further information on PowerRetrieve or to arrange an appointment to discuss the product in more detail please call 01778 426661 or email software@tandemsolutions.co.uk

Take a further look at our new Power Retrieve product here

Sponsorship Success At Northamptonshire School Business Management Forum

Tandem Solutions were delighted to sponsor the 2013 NSBMF at Whittlebury Hall & Conference Centre.

The conference attracted Bursars and Business Managers from all school phases – primary, secondary and special, foundation, trust, community and PFI Schools within the Northamptonshire area.

Northamptonshire School Business Management Forum (NSBMF) – Membership purposely consists of BMs/Bursars for all schools within each of the 7 County Area Improvement Partnerships represented by a BM from their area. This ensures all aspects of school business management, and the way they affect all schools, are discussed by the group and that every part of the county is represented ensuring well disseminated information.

The Conference ran over 2 days incorporating various workshops and seminars and a chance for Tandem to showcase our Managed Print Solutions to new educational establishments as well as catch up with our existing MPS customers within the Northamptonshire area. As a key sponsor we also donated 2 Samsung Galaxy Tablets to the evening Gala Dinner and the raffle which took place during the main conference.

For Tandem Solutions and the Bursars who attended the conference this year, we can safely say it was a resounding success and we look forward to the next NSBMF Conference!

Tandem Sponsor Welch Motor Sport

Tandem Solutions are pleased and proud to be associated with Hampshire based Welch Motor Sports as a key sponsor for IT Support, equipment and services.

WMS host increasingly popular track days which allow owners of both high performance and specialist built ‘track’ cars to drive most of the famous circuits throughout Europe including Brands Hatch, Thruxton and Donington Park to name a few without the worry of being caught speeding!

WMS advise and support people from all aspects of Motorsport, from Rallycross to Drag Racing and Single Seaters and their two drivers Dan Welch and David Nye are competing in the 2013 British Touring Car Championships (BTCC).

Visit Welch Motorsport for more information

Cloud Computing Can Cut Costs

Companies that are moving select IT capabilities to the cloud are saving money and increasing profits which they are putting back into the business to increase headcount, boost wages and drive innovation.

The decision over whether to move your organisations IT to the cloud can be a daunting one. After all, it means a wholesale change in the sourcing and delivery of IT products and services. However, many companies are making the leap, at least for select capabilities – a recent survey by CDW of 1,242 IT professionals found that more than half of organisations are moving a variety of capabilities to the cloud. And a majority of them are recognising cost savings and increased profits.

The study found that 88% of cloud users pointed to cost savings and 56% of respondents agreed that cloud services have helped them boost profits. Additionally, 60% of respondents said cloud computing has reduced the need for their IT team to maintain infrastructure, giving them more time to focus on strategy and innovation.

Reducing IT operating costs is only one of several cloud benefits, according to cloud users surveyed by CDW. In fact, organisations implementing or maintaining cloud computing point to increased efficiency (55%), improved employee mobility (49%), increased ability to innovate (32%) and freeing current IT staff for other projects (31%) as the top benefits.

Visit YourMarketingCloud to find out more about how Cloud Computing can help your business

UK is a nation of data-hungry net shoppers

Internet shopping is more popular in the UK than in any other major country, a survey from regulator Ofcom suggests.

Consumers in the UK spend an average of £1,083 a year on internet shopping, compared with Australia which spends the second highest at £842. The UK’s fondness for internet shopping is in part, driven by mobile devices. UK consumers are also downloading more data from their mobiles than any other nation, according to the survey.

The study also indicated that:

• In December 2011, the average UK mobile connection used 424 megabytes of data, higher than Japanese users who averaged 392MBs 
• 16% of all web traffic in the UK was from mobiles, tablets or other connected devices – more than any other European country. 
• Four in ten UK adults now access Facebook, Twitter and other social networks via their mobiles 
• For 18 to 24 year olds, the figure is even higher, at 62% 

The findings form part of Ofcom’s seventh international Communications Market Report, which looks at the take-up, availability, price and use of broadband, landlines, mobiles, TV and radio across 17 major countries. Click here to find out about Tandem’s YourSite E-Commerce Package

PowerRetrieve ‘Lunch & Learn’

In conjunction with our partner InfoCap, we have recently launched our latest software product Power Retrieve.

Power Retrieve is an intelligent document management system that automatically indexes information held in scanned images and most electronic office files for quick retrieval.  In fact, it is one of the most powerful document management retrieval solutions used by the police force and revenue & customs for intelligent searching.

To coincide with the launch of Power Retrieve, Tandem held a ‘Lunch & Learn’ seminar today at our offices in Bourne, Lincolnshire for a full demonstration and Q&A session on the benefits and functionality that Power Retrieve can

offer.  A variety of businesses from various industries attended the seminar to see how the document retrieval solution can save their company both time and money.

We are holding a second Power Retrieve seminar on Wednesday 12th June, 12.30pm – 14.30pm for those who were unable to attend today.  If you would like to book a place call us on 01778 426661 or email reception@tandemsolutions.co.uk 

Take a further look at our new Power Retrieve product here

Tandem Win B2B Reseller Award Again!

Network Group held its annual headline event, the Gala Awards Dinner and Exhibition on Thursday 2nd May 2013.  The event took place at the prestigious Whittlebury Hall in Northamptonshire followed by a black tie gala dinner and awards ceremony hosted by Kevin Johns and entertainment by Nina Conti.

Wayne Cockerill, Group Chairman said “It gave me great pleasure to host a perfect evening of reward and recognition for all those that helped the Group to deliver 21% growth against a market that continues to be fiercely competitive and very challenging.  The awards are voted for by members and demonstrate invaluable contribution to the group’s strategic growth.”

Tandem Solutions were awarded the B2B Reseller Of The Year Award for the second year running.

Top 10 Common Logo Errors

With the power of the Web, and more eyes watching than ever, it's important for a business to communicate its unique message clearly.  The easiest way to recognize a company and distinguish it from others is by its logo. Take a look at our top 10 common mistakes made in logo design below:

1.  Avoid cheap logo design
A professional business should look professional.  New business owners often invest a lot of time and money in property and equipment, but do not often match it by investing suitably in their logo.

2. Don't be too trend reliant
Trends come and go and can often turn into cliches.  A well-designed logo should be timeless and this can be achieved by ignoring the latest design tricks and gimmicks.  The biggest cliche in logo design is the dreaded 'corporate swoosh' which is the ultimate way to play it safe.  To create a unique identity it is best to completely ignore logo trends.

3. Use Vector Software

A vector graphic is made up of mathematically precise points which ensures visual consistency across multiple sizes.  The alternative of course is to use raster graphics software such as Adobe Photoshop - a raster graphic or bitmap as it's commonly called consists of pixels and can cause problems with reproduction of your logo and if you zoom in on a raster graphic it will appear pixelated making it unusable.
The main advantages of vector graphics for logo design are:

- The logo can be scaled top any size without losing quality
- Editing the logo later on is much easier
- It can be adpated to other media more easily than a raster image

4. Avoid using stock art

This mistake is often made by business owners who design their own logo or by amateur designers who are not clued in to the laws on copywright.  Downloading stock vector imagery from websites such as VectorStock is not a crime but could possibly get you in trouble if you incorporate it in a logo.
A logo should be unique and original and the licensing agreement should be exclusive to the client: using stock art breaks both of these rules.  Chances are, if you are using a stock vector image it is also being used by someone somewhere else in the world, so yours is no longer unique.  You can pretty easily spot vectors in logos because they are usually familiar shapes such as globes and silhouettes.

6. Avoid Overly Complex Designs
When printed in small sizes, a complex design will lose detail and in some cases will look like a smudge or worse, a mistake.  The more detail a logo has, the more information the viewer has to process.  A logo should be memorable and one of the best ways to make it memorable is to keep things simple.  Look at the corporate identities of Nike, Mcdonald's and Apple.  Each company has a very simple icon that can easily be reproduced at any size.

7. Don't rely on colour for effect

This is a very common mistake.  Some designers cannot wait to add colour to a design and some reply on it completely.  Choosing colour should be your last decision, so starting your work in black and white is best.

Every business owner will need to display their logo in only one colour at one time or another so the designer should test to see whether this would affect the logo's identity.  If you use colour to help distinguish certain elements in the design, then the logo will look completely different in one tone.

8. Avoid choosing a poor font style

When it comes to executing a logo, choosing the right font is the most important decision a designer can make.  More often than not a logo fails because of a poor font choice.  Finding the perfect font for your design is all about matching the font to the style of the icon. But this can be tricky - if the match is too close the icon and font will compete with each other for attention; if the complete opposite then the viewer won't know where to focus.  The key is finding the right balance, somewhere in the middle.  Every typeface has a personality - if the font you have chosen does not reflect the icon's characteristics then the whole message of the brand will misfire.

Bad fonts are often chosen simply because the decision isn't taken seriously enough.  Some designers simply throw in type as an afterthought.

9.  Don't use too many fonts!

Using too many fonts is like trying to show someone a whole photo album at once.  Each typeface is different, and the viewer needs time to recognize it.  Seeing too many at once causes confusion.  Using a maximum of two fonts of different weights is standard practice.  Restricting the number of fonts to this number greatly improves the legibility of a logo design and improves brand recognition.

10.  Don't copy others
This is the biggest logo design mistake of all and unfortunately is becoming more and more common.  As mentioned, the purpose of a logo is to represent a business.  If it looks the same as someone else's it has failed in that regard.  Copying others does no one any favors, neither the client nor the designer.

Get in touch with Tandem's creative design team to discuss your next new logo project to ensure that you are standing out from the competition and attracting potential new business.  01778 426661

Tandem Shortlisted For CRN Sales & Marketing Awards 2013!

The social networking site Facebook is inundated with businesses, both large and small. This may make it harder for small businesses without an existing Facebook presence to make themselves heard. However, many small businesses have used Facebook to their advantage, successfully marketing themselves by integrating Facebook into their larger marketing strategy

Using Facebook for business in this way is a good idea for any small business, even if your audience is small to begin with. Not only will Facebook provide your business with a more personal identity, it’s a great platform from which your target audience can learn more about your business and interact with you directly. Since consumers are more likely to make purchasing decisions based on the recommendation of a friend than they are from an advertisement, getting sociable with your customers can only be good for business.

Social media optimisation is capable of driving traffic and therefore sales. But Facebook is predominantly about enjoyment, not marketing. Users don’t want to feel as though they’re being advertised to and for this reason alone, it’s important that businesses do not treat Facebook like a pure marketing platform. Instead, its value arises out of providing a forum in which your business can interact and communicate directly with customers. This will, in turn, support your marketing efforts elsewhere, particularly if these efforts are integrated into your regular Facebook posts and conversations.
The most important thing to remember about implementing a marketing strategy on Facebook, just as with any other social network is that you cannot simply set up a profile and wait for the results. Social media marketing requires constant monitoring, both to maintain regularity in your posts and to monitor and manage your brand’s social media reputation. This doesn’t necessarily mean that you need to be on Facebook 24/7 – in fact, many small businesses have achieved success by automating their status updates and then visiting their page only once a day, or a few times a week.

The main advantage of posting regularly on Facebook is that your brand will experience increased visibility and therefore greater reach.  In addition, maintaining a consistent human presence on your Facebook profile will enable your users to interact and communicate more positively with your brand, leading to increased satisfaction on their part and improved ROI on yours.  It’s important to remember that sometimes the best social media results will come from performing actions which aren’t quantifiable such as taking the time to answer a customer’s query directly but with social media marketing a little will go a long way.

Get in touch with Tandem Web and Marketing team to discuss developing an effective social media marketing strategy 
01778 42666

New Website Launched For Damian Dale

Our creative web team have launched the latest website in our portfolio, designing and developing a modern site for leadwork specialists Damian Dale.

Damian Dale are recognised as highly competent in lead roofing, specialising in milled lead sheet to BS EN 12588 industry standards and sand cast lead sheet.  All leadwork is carried out by skilled craftsman who pride themselves in achieving the highest quality workmanship with attention to detail.

Damian Dale needed to create an easy to navigate website for their customers and prospects to find all the services that they offer whilst keeping with the traditional skill of leadwork that Damian Dale represents.

Click here to take a look at the brand new Damian Dale website 

Winners Again!!!

Tandem are proud to announce that we have won the prestigious award of Medium Business of The Year at the Peterborough Telegraph Business Awards on Friday 23rd November 2012.

This is our second award in 8 days and we couldn’t be more delighted to have won – it is a great achievement to be recognised for our commitment to providing first class products and IT Solutions to each and every one of our customers.

Olympic gold medalist Tim Foster MBE was the host at the Peterborough Telegraph’s annual Business Awards at a glittering ceremony at the Peterborough Arena.

The best in business in Peterborough was recognised at the Peterborough Exec Centre in front of more than 300 people.

The awards were hosted by rowing star Tim Foster who entertained the audience with details of his rowing career and insights. He also praised the Peterborough Telegraph Business Awards winners. He said “It was a fanastic night and a pleasure to recognise some truly fantastic success stories”

We Are Winners!!!

Beating tough opposition from some very strong opponents at the CRN Channel Awards, Tandem Solutions walked away with the prestigious title of Specialist Reseller of the Year 2012.

Managing Director Darren Bush and Sales Director Peter Nicholson were delighted to accept the award on behalf of Tandem. The award is considered a major achievement being the largest of it’s kind within the IT industry. It represents a fantastic achievement for Tandem and the icing on the cake following a tremendous year of growth and success.

Tandem are delighted to have won the award and we would like to thank all our customers and partners for their support over the past year.

Tandem Launch New YourSite Range

We are pleased to introduce our new range of website packages designed for every type of customer and every budget. Our websites are stylish, flexible and above all, easy to use and navigate around. Often, our customers are not looking for a fully bespoke website – they may just require a simple website template which allows them to start their online presence and act as a landing page to direct web traffic to. This is why we have launched ‘YourSite’ - a complete range of standard templates which offer the flexibility to select the exact features and functionality suited to your business and most importantly, within your required budget. 

We take care of everything your website needs from design, hosting, images and copy. Our creative team work with a wide variety of business sectors and organisations – having such a broad range of experience means we have a strong creative portfolio and the ability to present an inspiring and exciting website portfolio.

From an initial brief, our creative process ensures that we design websites that are visually compelling and gives the visitor a great online experience. We can customise the design and functionality to suit your business and the type of visitor you receive to your website.

You can choose from YourSite, YourSite Plus and YourSite Premium. To find out more about our YourSite range, please call our web team on 01778 391812 or email web@tandemsolutions.co.uk

Tandem Shortlisted For CRN Sales & Marketing Awards 2013!

We are pleased to announce that Tandem Solutions have been shortlisted for the Best Sales Team category at the 2013 CRN Sales and Marketing Awards.

These awards were introduced to recognise the achievements of those individuals and teams that are responsible for making the UK IT channel truly impressive.

The winners of the first ever CRN Sales and Marketing Awards will be announced at a prestigious awards ceremony taking place on 19th June a
t the Lancaster Hotel, London.