Highlander were the proud Match Ball Sponsors of the game between The Blades and Birmingham City in the FA Cup last month.

There was a great reception from SUFC for Highlander and the distinguished guests that joined us for the day.

Sadly, the game ended in a 4-0 defeat for The Blades ending this year's cup run. Below are some of the shots from the game.

Highlander have teamed up with Avaya, one of the largets global telephone solution providers in the UK, to offer up to 60% off a new phone system when you migrate from a Nortel BCM system.

Avaya's award winning IP Office solution is perfect for business of all sizes and with the release of Avaya's version 8.0, you can re0use your old Nortel handsets to reduce the cost of the new system, whilst ensuring you take advantage of all the enhanced features; like mobile twinning, CRM and Outlook integration and video "soft phones".

Highlander Telecoms Services can design the system to ensure that it fits the solution requirements exactly, meaning that no additional costs are incurred and a smooth transition takes place.

What if your existing Nortel phone system is working OK? Here are some sensible guidelines that can help you make that decision:

• You should upgrade if your current Nortel BCM phone system is more than three years old.
• You should upgrade if you haven’t updated your current Nortel phone system for several years and the software and/or hardware used on your current system is no longer supported.
• You should upgrade if you plan on operating your business for at least 5-10 years or longer.
• You should upgrade if your business is experiencing growth and/or your business will be relocating in the near future.
• You should upgrade if email and mobile communications are important to your business.
• You should upgrade if a significant portion of your sales and customer service takes place through your communications system.
• You should upgrade if your business relies on conference calls.
• You should upgrade if your business makes heavy use of fax communications.
• You should upgrade if you need call recording capabilities for compliance purposes or to improve employee training.
• You should upgrade if you operate more than one location.
• When the risks and the opportunity cost outweigh the savings gained by holding on to your current solution, it’s time to upgrade.

Not every company with an existing Nortel solution needs to upgrade. While you can unquestionably benefit from a new solution, the gains may not be enough to offset the savings of just holding on to what you have now. This may be the case if:

• You acquired your Nortel system less than three years ago.
• You plan on closing or merging your business soon.
• Communications is not important to your business, i.e., you don’t do any sales or customer service over the phone or via e-mail.
• You don’t do any advertising where you promote a phone number or website.
• You don’t use a mobile phone.
• You never do conference calls.
• You do not do any fax communications.

The checklists provided above are just guidelines. Ultimately, the decision to upgrade your communications is never simply a “yes” or “no” decision. Another way to decide is to look at some of the key capabilities of a new Avaya IP Office solution. These can be so important to a growing business that even if you are missing just one, it’s time to consider getting a new phone system.

Highlander are supporting Sheffield's application for a University Technical College.

This is critically important in the development of future skills for Advanced Manufacturing and the Creative & Digital Industries Sectors.

We are urging all companies and individuals across the region to support this effort and fill in the consultation details at http://www.sheffieldutc.co.uk/

Further information can also be obtained in the .pdf below

/download/files/Sheffield_UTC_Academy_Trust.pdf

Read the full report here.

/download/files/State_of_Sheffield_Full_Report_2012.pdf

Thursday 19th January saw Ponds Forge host the Sheffield Chamber Business Awards.

As sponsors of the Highlander Digital Industries Award, we had 3 entrants to choose from and we were delighted to announce 3Squared as the winners for this category.

Below is the official video for the event, attended by over 900 guests from businesses across the Sheffiled City Region.

Editorial by Steve Brown, Managing Director Highlander I.T. & Telecoms

With the passing of Steve Jobs, Cloud Computing speculation, the continued uncertainty in the global economy, social networking ups and downs and, in the final quarter, a big buzz about ‘consumerisation’; it has been another surprising and fast changing year for the I.T. industry.

Technologies in the year have undergone some of the biggest changes that we, as a company with nearly twenty years’ experience, have seen.  A major contributor to this is the emergence of ‘cloud computing’.  Cloud is the use of resources accessed via the internet to deliver services on demand.  For the majority of SME’s this would mean replacing dedicated servers physically hosted within the companies offices, with a connection from PC systems to services hosted in ‘the cloud’.

Currently demand is low for this, and will continue to remain so in the short term until return on investment and reliability is improved, however it seems certain that Cloud Computing will only increase over the next decade.

‘Consumerisation’ and the ‘Prosumer’ are words that relate to how I.T. consumption has changed.  No longer do we go to work and use high value and high performance systems, whilst at home we put up with outdated and sluggish equipment. Our home technology now often outperforms, outnumbers and out costs more than its office equivalents these days! Employees purchase their own laptops, iPads, Blackberry’s and we simply configure them to a network… this comes with many pro’s and con’s but it is happening more and will continue to do so. Security for companies must be top of the agenda when this is the case.

As well as employees wanting to use their own faster and sleeker home equipment, they also now want to use their social networks in a work environment.   Frowned upon by most years ago but today MSN, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and many more are all commonplace in many organisations.  Again all have positives and negatives and all must be managed effectively.

What will 2012 bring for the industry as a whole? Indications at our business are that organisations are finally starting to spend on the infrastructure upgrades that they postponed when the first signs of recession hit.  Reliance on I.T. to give greater business efficiencies and power the management information and customer relationship systems that most modern companies rely upon should give the industry another steady, but far from outstanding, year.

For the full Sheffield Star Industrial Survey 2012 - click on the picture below.

Highlander will be exhibiting at this years Sheffield Business Works event on 2nd February at Showroom Workstation (17:00 - 19:00).

The event is aimed at providing a network for local businesses to share ideas and ultimately, stimulate growth in the economy.

For further details of the event Click Here

Chris McKeith, a member of the Technical Services Team, has won a once in a lifetime trip from Highlander to the Monaco Grand Prix later this year.

Highlander gave staff the opportunity to win this fantastic trip and Chris was delighted when his name was pulled from the hat.

The trip includes:

• Full hospitality for the entire weekend
• Watch one of the most exhilarating races in the world
• Hospitality situated on a Luxury moored yacht
• Ideal location on Tobacco Bend
• Giant Video Screen onboard Yacht
• Pair of Headsets
• Complimentary Gastronomic Buffet, Mineral water and wines
• Champagne at the end of the day
• Hostesses in attendance all day
• Return Flights from London to Nice
• Two nights in a Top Hotel in Nice
• Transfer from Nice to the Yacht

Steve Brown, Managing Director with Chris McKeith

The Highlander Man of the Match award for Hallam FCs game against Yorkshire Amateurs on Boxing Day.

The award went to Tom Carnall for a cracking defensive display.

The game was a 1-1 draw in difficult conditions.

For more information, click on the link www.hallamfc.co.uk

Tom Carnall with Dave Hughes of Highlander

Highlander I.T. and Telecoms solutions are delighted to be sponsoring this year's Digital Industries Award for Sheffield Chamber of Commerce.

The awards ceremony, to be hosted at Ponds Forge on 19th January, is a focal point for local organisations and a significant date in the business calendar.

This year's award is going to be incredibly difficult to judge as we have three excellent entries from WANdisco, Bond Bryan Architects and 3Squared.

We'll be tweeting loads more information about the event in the run up and look forward to a fantastic evening on the night.

For more information about the event, please click on the picture below.