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May Newsletter
Dear Newsletter Subscriber
Focusing in on your online business provisions, we have another useful tip from Neil Lathwood our Technical Director and some specific marketing strategies for e-learning projects. The spotlight this month fits in nicely with our marketing minute as it profiles Ontuition as they prepare to launch online maths courses for 9-11 year-olds.
Our hot topic brings news of a new EU directive being written into UK law next month that will affect all internet businesses.
Before we get into the company news, we’d like to start with a short appeal. The McCann family’s search for Madeleine has affected many of us. As UKFast has clients across Europe and we are aware that each one of you has your own network of contacts, the potential reach of our extended community is considerable. So this month we begin with an appeal to forward official posters and aid in the search for Madeleine.
Please get in touch with any comments on this newsletter or suggestions for future editions.
In this months issue
Poster Appeal - Madeleine McCann
The police are now widening the search across Europe and the continental press is only just beginning to turn its attention to the story. We’d like you to help by emailing the relevant posters to any clients that you have in Spain and France and of course we have included a new English speaking version as well.
You can download them from UKFast direct:
English
French
Spanish
You can also get these posters from the Sky News website.
Madeleine has an official website as well, which you may like to visit.
We hope that you will join us in supporting the McCann family.
May@UKFast
In the last newsletter we discussed many of the environmentally friendly developments we’ve achieved across the UKFast Network. This month we’ve challenged the R&D team to further improve our eco-services and first off the production line is our paperless invoicing system.
If you would like to switch to our paperless accounting system then you can now select this option in the Your Details section of the Client Area. Paper invoices will then be replaced by emails sent out following the same procedure as before.
These emails will continue to go to the contact assigned for Account update alerts in your alerts manager. So please check that your best possible contact is set up in the new multiple contacts section and make changes if necessary.
The R&D team has also been working closely with the tech team to give you more control over the coming months. In June, we hope to launch the Back-ups Viewer in every server customer’s client area and set live the new Request Reboots functionality, which many of you have requested.
The tech team has continued its recruitment drive throughout Spring. June is a busy month for Technical Support Manager, Matt Spores as he places emphasis on skilled level 3 and 4 technicians for front line support. It’s important to us that as we grow we avoid diluting the expertise of our support team by employing engineers who can successfully deal with an extensive range of enquiries.
On the hospitality side, the Sale Sharks will be announcing the fixtures list for the 2007/2008 Rugby Union season in the coming month. Please contact me if you would like to join us at Edgeley Park for a great night of hospitality. We really enjoy the chance to get to know you better and as anyone who has been before can testify, it’s always a memorable evening. Especially when I manage to get into a wrangle with the Sharks number eight and French International Sebastian Chabal over Polaroid cameras!
Shedding extraneous programmes
With all dedicated server solutions we provide a standard image which has a variety of software pre-installed. This selection includes items such as MySQL, Email, FTP.
(View a full list for your Windows server / Linux Server)
Our Network Team has noticed that there are some clients who do not use one or more of these packages but leave them running on their machines. This could potentially place the server at risk. Clients who manage their own patches are unlikely to keep a piece of software up-to-date if it is installed but never used. This could lead to system vulnerability.
So this month’s tip is to check the software currently running on your server and make sure that you either disable from running or remove entirely any software that you do not use.
We’re working hard to make the network as hacker proof as possible and this is one way in which you can help us tighten the control.
Encouraging E-learning
E-learning is fast becoming as popular as traditional methods of acquiring skills. A number of our clients are taking part in the e-learning revolution so we thought it would be useful to look at the different types of online learning and a few quick tips on marketing them.
Primary school e-learning
Parents search for online learning for their children so it is important to remember that your site should be appealing to children but also demonstrate the benefits of e-learning to parents. You have to attract parents first and children second.
E-learning languages
Make it a tangible product. Giving away free trials of online learning allows potential customers to see for themselves how good your product is. Don’t hide your products behind a registry process, make it easily accessible so that more people are likely to enrol and keep on coming back.
E-learning to build skills for staff
Training staff using e-learning promotes internal marketing, you can reduce training costs and keep staff skills current. Involving line managers or people who are passionate about what they are doing ensures that they champion the learning topic and you reap the benefits in the long term. If you work in a large organisation, choosing an influential evangelist who persuades others is an effective way of marketing the learning in a viral way.
MBAs and degrees
Online degrees reach a broader segment of the population and also meet the needs of mobile and non-traditional students. Providing online testimonials and case studies of successful alumni is an excellent way of proving your e-learning works.
The global learning community is at your fingertips with e-learning. So why not take advantage of this wealth of new resources? Or get involved in providing e-learning, like our Spotlight this month…
Use your Ontuition
The subject of education presents parents with some of their toughest decisions and the advent of e-learning has increased the options substantially. One client looking to find success at the quality end of the spectrum is Ontuition. Whilst new to the net Ontuition is far from new to the industry, with over 20 years of primary tutoring behind it.
Merseyside’s Park View Private Tuition Centre has successfully tutored thousands of children in the North West. The aim now is to give primary age children across the UK the opportunity to improve their subject knowledge through affordable online interactive teaching courses.
The website (www.ontuition.com) is due to launch in June and at £199 for a course the team’s looks to help parents who cannot afford one-to one tuition for their children. Courses consist of 25 lessons and 10 revision lessons and run over a nine month period. It equates to £6 per session when you include all assessments and additional practice exams.
Because they are developed by specialist mathematics tutors, turned entrepreneurs, each course enhances a child’s full time education focusing on the National Curriculum. The creators understand first-hand the tutoring process and the needs of the students so they know how to balance the curricula with effectively teaching different children.
“There are a great number of selling points to the courses,” says Jackie Carruthers, Ontuition’s instructional designer. “Not only do we save a history of every users work as they go along but we provide continuous reporting by email and text messaging, keeping both the pupil and their parents up-to-date on progress. It’s an ambitious project that relies heavily on technology.”
While the website awaits launch, we can offer you a sneak preview. Our shortcut to Ontuition allows you to find out more about the company and the team would also like your feedback. Please do take a look and feel free to email your thoughts either to myself or direct to support@ontuition.com.
Laws to make trade fair across Europe
It sounds like a very tall order and as such, it’s no surprise that the Department of Trade and Industry has been working with the EU on this for a number of years. Consultation documents have been seen by many prominent UK businesses and organisations since July 2003 and we are now close to cementing an encompassing law that will cover all areas of trade including the online marketplace.
While the Unfair Commercial Practices Directive doesn’t affect businesses until December it will be transposed into UK law in June. So this month’s hot topic gives you a head start on the DTI’s plan to harmonise unfair trading laws across all EU member states and create a safety-net of consumer protection legislation.
The directive offers three tiers of protection: a general duty “not to trade unfairly”; specific prohibitions of misleading or aggressive practices; and 31 specific practices that are considered unfair in all circumstances. The overall effect to encourage businesses not to mislead consumers through acts or omissions, or subject them to aggressive commercial practices such as high pressure selling.
The list of 31 unfair practices being outlawed includes; falsely claiming that a trader (including his commercial practices) or the products he is selling have been approved by a recognised body, falsely claiming to be a signatory to a code of conduct; holding bogus closing down sales; emailing prize draw scams.
The Office of Fair Trading has done some research involving 11,200 interviews and found that 1,388,000 UK consumers fall victim to prize draw and sweepstake scams, 400,000 to bogus holiday clubs, 330,000 to work at home scams, 200,000 to miracle health scams, 170,000 to clairvoyant and psychic scams, 110,000 to loan scams. Any emails and websites promoting such services will soon contravene the new directive if they are not found to be genuine.
John Fingleton, chief executive of the Office of Fair Trading said this week: 'This is a great step forward for everyone who wants to see markets where businesses compete fairly and consumers choose what to buy on the basis of clear, honest information with no harassment. It will allow the OFT and other enforcers to focus our efforts on the worst practices, such as scams and the intimidation of consumers least able to protect themselves.'
It also means that all businesses online will be pressured to up their game in terms of the information they provide on websites and the content they send out in marketing emails and newsletters.
For more information and to follow the directive’s progress in its final stages, see the DTI website UCPD page.
Please get in touch with me if you would like more information on any of the articles mentioned above.
Until next time, I hope the summer starts in style for everyone and I look forward to speaking to you at some point.
Best wishes,
Jonathan
For more information on the range of UKFast products and services go to http://www.ukfast.net
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