This week in the UK I’ve been hearing about how our great country may lose its triple A rating.  I’ve listened to business owners who are suffering from higher supply costs whilst losing custom despite not raising their prices. A 2nd recession may not be official but look around and some people are struggling.

Attending a webcast from my favourite vendor today left me slightly stunned as to the timing of their latest announcement and if they really are making decisions that will not cause more harm to their company than good.

Microsoft as many of you know are my favourite vendor.  They have provided us with the groundwork to grow NCI with their products and no other company has invested in a joint relationship with such vigour.  Saying that, one of the reasons the partnership works so well is if I tell them there is an issue with any part of what they do, they listen.  NCI may be small fry in the big world of IT in terms of company size and turnover but Microsoft know if we say something is wrong we can prove it and normally offer a solution.

I have no solution to their latest decision other than, “don’t do it”.

The webcast today was to explain Microsofts decision to bring into line the cost of Microsoft Licensing in the UK with the Euro.  Rumour had it that a price rise was going to happen but the severity of it hasn’t yet been realised by partners.  Customers won’t be affected until July and Microsoft Partners won’t know by how much until potentially May but it is expected to mean a 20% to 35% rise in the cost of Microsoft Licensing in the UK.

My American friends need not worry, no changes for you (that I am aware of) and my Swiss friends, well you are actually going to see a significant price drop if all goes to plan – unfortunately I don’t have any Swiss friends so I can’t celebrate with you.

So Microsoft Corp, thank you for your official line of “We are doing it to bring all the countries in line with the Euro” It really eases the pain.  You chose the right moment too, we’ll wave goodbye to AAA and join the US in our downgrade making our countries equal too (except your much bigger and have much more debt).  The poor lady who made the announcements on the webcast today was so professional but you just knew she had dreaded doing it, thanks on behalf of her Corp.

I hope additional resources are being budgeted for in your piracy division, you’ll need to invest in the UK.

In conclusion there are three things that this massive price hike is going to do for Microsoft in the UK.

  1. speed up the process of UK businesses folding
  2. promote piracy
  3. cause grief to the staff at Microsoft UK who do a fantastic job but have to follow the company line.

Will it do any good?  I’ll leave you to decide on that one.

 

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NCI School Technology Show

After our exciting trip to BETT and taking in all the amazing new technologies for the school market, we are thrilled to announce that we will be hosting our own technology show!  On 20th June at the National Maritime Museum in Falmouth, there will be a buzz in the air!  We’ve invited leading IT companies from across the country who will be having exhibition stands to showcase their new products and will also be performing demonstrations and presentations throughout the day.

It’s still early days of planning, but it’s very exciting!  All the schools that we’ve spoken to are looking forward to it.  We’ll be putting together a schedule of demos and presentations so people can pop in as and when they like.

Find out more on our School Technology Show Page….

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On Friday we said a sad goodbye to Mr Ben Marchant.  Ben has left us for pastures new, moving on from his role as Manager in our Plymouth Office to a more technical based role in Exeter. Of course we couldn’t let him go without a bit of a fuss, so the NCI troops gathered round and hit Falmouth on Friday night.  After a few drinkies at the Boathouse (where we were joined by Ollie’s lovely new dog Tilley), we headed to the Ghurkha restaurant- if you haven’t tried it – do- it was lovely!  After eating waaaay too much we headed into Falmouth and had a lovely time, chatting and laughing away….  Last orders came and went and then we had no other choice but to let Ben leave… bye Ben, we miss you already!

However, Ben leaving has left me with a slight problem… who do I put on our brochures now?!

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Welcome to NCIs new staff blog.

Here you’ll hear what we get up to, what we think, problems we have encountered and trips we have made. We really hope you’ll get involved and put forward your comments and suggestions.

The first news we have regards a visit to London by Dave, Sarah and myself to meet with some important vendors and to visit the BETT show.  For 2 days the 3 of us split up and tried to gather as much information from all the stands as we could on the great educational offerings available.  Hardware, Software and services that could really enhance the way schools of all levels teach.

The trip up to London wasn’t as smooth as I hoped for though. Heavy fog caused the lady driver in front of me to drive extremely slowly all the way to the train station (a normal 15 minute trip took nearly 30 minutes) and I pulled up into the train station car park 2 minutes after the train should have left.  With Superman like effort I parked, grabbed my bags out of the boot and sprinted like a young gazzelle through the train station and onto the train, not bad for a granddad eh!. except, I hadn’t paid for a car parking ticket.

The next 30 minutes was spent phoning my wife to phone the train station to get the number I could pay online. Then with a very interupted signal availability as the train sped through the Cornish countryside and tunnels I was finally legal to park – worry over.

BETT was extremely worthwhile for us all, we met people that can help us grow our solutions, people who want to resell our services and hardware and software we can test and promote. We also managed to resolve a couple of issues that had been nagging us with a vendor for a while which was worth it’s weight in gold.

Due to some great contacts and careful planning by David we were invited to tour the inside of the Houses of Parliament.  What an incredible building, steeped in history, architectural wonder and it’s own internal laws that define how all the the occupants of the building act in each of the rooms they can go in.  Our hosts were so helpful and informative I honestly learnt more about politics in one evening than I ever knew before.

Houses of Parliament

On the trip back to Cornwall we spent the time planning our own NCI Schools Technical Show (a mini BETT) which we hope to hold in the Summer.

Arriving back in the station takes me back to an earlier part of my story, my car. No ticket on it, not clamped but also not locked, in my rush I had left my car in the train car park for 3 days in one of the roughest towns in Cornwall with the contents available to anyone who wanted them. Luckily, no-one did, my car had remained as I left it at the start of the journey. We all make mistakes, sometimes we get away with them and sometimes we have to do all we can to repair them.

Many of our staff have digital photography as a hobby, feel free to look at the photo’s we publish, let us know what you think.

Thanks for reading

Andy

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