Aspen staff have been doing their bit to raise money for the people of Haiti… we have place numerous SCIAF boxes in every department, and the last time I check the money total is significantly raising! Well done to all who are contributing – keep up the generosity! 
Mar
1
Dec
24
Everyone at Aspen is feeling very festive this morning… it’s thick with snow outside and the temperature has dropped to -11 degrees!! Not a good day to be travelling anywhere.
We are closing today for the Christmas break and will reopen on Tuesday 5th January 2010. Any queries please email us at info@aspensolutions.co.uk
Have a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
Dec
4
At Aspen are an Enviromentally Friendly company who tries to limit our carbon foot print at every opportunity!
Therefore we have decided not to send out paper Christmas Cards this year and send all our customers an electronic card – what’s more we are donating the money we would have spent, then some, to our preferred charity the Craighalbert Centre. For more detail on this charity click here or see our card below.
Aspen's Electronic Christmas Card!
Dec
1
Last week Aspen in partnership with Xerox hosted a Business Live Event in the Bonham Hotel Edinburgh to promote the benefits of the Xerox ColorQube machine.
We had a great turn out over both days, where many people realised that the cost of colour on your multifunction doesn’t have to be high!
The new revolutionary machine has a three band pricing system, solid ink that is fully comsumed and lasts up to 200,000 copies and only one customer replaceable unit for an all round maintenance free environmentally friendly solution to your printing needs.
We hope that everyone who attended enjoyed it, and if anyone has any further questions please get in touch!
You can contact us on 08450 780 790 or email info@aspensolutions.co.uk
Oct
19
Aspen are holding an event for the newly released Xerox ColorQube with solid ink technology!
The Xerox ColorQube Business Live Event is the perfect opportunity for you to see how your business can achieve affordable colour for EVERY document, every day!!
This revolutionary technology brings a whole new meaning to colour printing for the office, whether you are interested in saving money, looking for a more efficient way of running your business or wanting a more environmentally friendly energy efficient solution to your current machine Aspen will be demonstrating all these aspects at the event.
The event will be running over two days:
Monday 23rd of November 2009 – 12pm, 2pm and 4pm
Tuesday 24th November 2009 – 10am, 12pm, 2pm and 4pm
Event Location:
Bonham Hotel
35 Drumsheugh Gardens
Edinburgh
EH3 7RN
For more information and Registration for our Event click on the link below:
Or call us now on 08450 780 790 and speak to one of our advisors!
Sep
24
Businesses are increasingly looking towards Managed Print Services (MPS) as a modern approach to control and managing the cost of print across their companies. Hybrid vendors can offer a mix of products, services and software which will ultimately reduce and control the cost of print.
To drive out real productivity gains and focus on cost savings, recognising the need for a fact based approach, and investing in the technology to provide organisations with the tools to carry out “print audits” throughout a business enterprise this technology can capture most networked and local printing devices.
To achieve outstanding results you need an IT solutions company that will be working between specific dates were the assessment tools allow analysts to capture the total volume of print generated across an enterprise, this information can be used to calculate along with consumable costs the total cost of every print produced during this period.
Other assessment tools used allow calculations of the environmental effect of companies existing printing methods, and good vendors can advise on best practice and how companies can reduce their carbon footprint by adopting green printing methods.
Office layout advisor software can help map the layout of your office to maximise use and access to deployed devices.
Software can enhance access and control printing through swipe card, fob or secure pin code access technology, management software can notify, report on volumes, performance, faults across devices and fleets and middleware can allow integration into existing back end office systems to speed up business processes.
You can take the first 4 steps to Managed Print Services by adopting this consultative strategic deployment model:
- Analyses and investigate cost of current printing processes and methods throughout your enterprise.
- Apply a strategic design and layout to improve workers productivity and workflow needs.
- Provide a balanced deployment of services, software and products across the enterprise to increase uptime, improve office productivity, reduce wastage, control printing and improve the overall user experience.
- Provide ongoing management, support, services and maintenance to optimise the new businesses model.
If you are decision makers in your company who are responsible for adopting MPS strategies and are looking to take cost out of the business then MPS will deliver and drive out other benefits, such as streamlining of labour intensive business processes, system integration, convergence of paper and electronic information in a structured searchable format.
If you are looking to take the first steps towards a MPS strategy then contact Aspen to support your business needs.
Aug
27
Many people all over the world have been using the current Mac OS leopard since 2001 with little complaint.
In the light of the newly developed Snow Leopard 10.6 OS there has been mixed feeling of apprehension and anticipation from all faithful MAC users.
Many people are wondering why the developers at Apple have decided to change the software at all, as it is widely believed that the current version is good enough.
Reviews from previewers have noted the following:
- Faster and more responsive than current version
- Excellent compatibility with move to 64bit and new scheduler
- Installation simple and easy
- Reports suggest that it takes up to 10GB memory in installation and not the advertised 7GB
- No new applications and improvements are minor
- Easier to read folders with more options such as impressive new preview feature Quicklook
- Menu options have an iphone look.
- Long awaited services update – supports exchange 2007 servers (windows does not do)
- Safari has been described as one of the best things about the new software – giving the user greater ability to grab and manipulate web data.
Therefore overall the reviews have been positive and the majority of people noticed the benefits more once switched back to the current version of Leopard, and at £25 for a single user upgrade the benefits are definitely worth the price!
Release date: 28th August 2009
Aug
25
The designers of the Acer TravelMate Timeline series laptops had one thing in mind for their new range of laptops – efficiency.
The TravelMate has been designed to be 40% more energy efficient than any other laptop on the market with an excellent 8 hours battery life for essential business on the move. You can take your laptop out of the office for your full working day without worrying if you will be near an electricity port!
Even though Acer is providing a longer battery life laptop for your convenience, they have not compromised on usability, the TravelMate Timeline basically distributes its energy in a unique way to give you lasting power, keeping the features that are important to the user such as ultra slim and lightweight, a cooling system, environmentally friendly and ultra secure and reliable.
The TimeLine series laptops are a slim 24mm thick and weigh an ultra light 3.5lbs, giving you a perfect on the go solution. Acer have gone to great lengths to make sure that their laptop exceeds expectations making it a least 5 degrees cooler than standard laptops, and comes with a “PowerSmart Adapter” that has awarded the TravelMate eco friendly awards such as EPEAT silver, Energy Star 5.0, WEEE and ROHS.
What is more the TimeLine laptops have excellent security with built in finger print reader and disk anti shock protector.
Therefore art Aspen we recommend the Acer TimeLine TravelMate Laptops for business on the move!
The Acer TravelMate series comes in a variety of power options and memory sizes, for more information and full specifications on the Acer TimeLine TravelMate laptops please call one of our professional advisors Monday-Friday on 08450 780 790 today!
Aug
21
It has been announced today that the US Justice Department has given its approval for Oracle the business software firm to takeover Computer hardware/software maker Sun Microsystems.
The business originally agreed a takeover with IBM which fell through as there were talks of competition law violations, the deal breaker came about as IBM decided to lowered its valuation.
As a result Oracle a business software firm made their move on Sun – excited about the fact that they could finally compete more intensely with IBM and HP, by snapping up Suns two important pieces of software Java and Solaris operating system, which are both widely used throughout the world.
Some feel that the takeover would be a sad end of a 27 year era for Sun who are selling for a cut price $5.6 Billion instead of the $200 Billion it was worth just over 10years ago. However although it marks a sad day for Sun’s fortune, Sun’s chairman Scott McNeadly s commented that the takeover will mean a “momentous day” in the technology world – redefining the industry.
Deal or no deal?
The deal might sound set in stone, however the European Commission office has 25days to review the deal to decide whether it meets the guidelines set out in the European Union Merger Regulations – or open a 90day further investication. The first report will be published on the 3rd of September 2009.
The combination of Oracles takeover of Sun will bring greater benefits for the end user giving a complete package “from database to desk” making all of the technological pieces fit in perfectly. The decision therefore lies in the hands of the commission’s findings, so this will be an interesting case to follow.
Aug
19
Late on Tuesday 11th of August Microsoft were faced with the news that they were banned from selling Microsoft Word 2003 and 2007 in the United States and fined over $240m for violation of the US intellectual property laws.
The Toronto based firm i4i who are a collaborative content solution and Technology Company own a patent that covers a way of reading XML (extended mark up language) documents. They brought the lawsuit against Microsoft on the basis that they’re Microsoft word products can open XML, .DOC or DOCM files or better known as XML files. However XML is the basis of Microsoft’s Open XML document formats, and is used not only on Word but a number of Microsoft applications such as Vista and NET.Framework.
The question most people are debating is whether the injunction should have been passed in the first place… and Intellectual Property Law in the US or in the state of Texas is too fast to prosecute and over support patent lawsuits, so much so to earn the term “A haven for Patent Pirates”
It will be interesting to watch the progression of this case, as it may well prove to be a historical moment – due to the scale of the punishment, the high profile status and the already believed flawed intellectual property law system in the United States with regards to the issue of technology patents.
In some courts in the US and in particular the court in Texas that has issued the ban on Microsoft, are being accused of issuing patents that cover prior art, which should prevent them from being issued in the first place. Therefore it has been argued if something is not done about the procedure of issuing patents then the price of technology will keep rising and as a result putting more and more technology innovators in the US out of business. Therefore a revision of the law may well be the outcome of this high profile case!
What could happen to Microsoft?
If Microsoft do not either buy the rights for the use of XML or have the injunction over turned they will see a vast expenditure to redesign and redistribute not only Word but the whole Office package, and major distributors such as Dell and HP to name a few could see major disruption to their sales.
However to look at it from another point of view, Microsoft are the worlds dominating software manufacturer and the thought of not being able to buy a new copy of the Office may send the businesses and individuals of the United States in to a panic buying frenzy before the ban date in just under 60days!
