June 2009
With the current economic climate being so poor everyone is seeing business level change. As always, we are very busy helping our customers, but without a doubt, we find ourselves nursing systems that would usually have been replaced.
Our customers have told us time and again how grateful they are for this unique level of support. Especially as we try not to charge for email or telephone support.
We have also been supporting local community events (such as the Caterham Boat Race) and have also displayed at the Meet Coulsdon Business. A valuable showcase for local businesses. Whilst foot-fall was nowhere near as big as last year (again, and indication of the economic climate, perhaps?) we still find it worthwhile.
December 2008
A busy Summer and Autumn has given way to the pre-Christmas rush! With bargain prices to be had on laptops and desktops. prices have been pushed down further by the Credit Crunch.
We exhibited at the Caterham Business show (and won first price offered by Morrison's Solicitors!). The show was a great success, and very enjoyable. If you would like to come along to either of our two annual shows please contact us. Attendance is free, and there are plenty of prizes to be won!
With the launch of Small Business Server 2008 we have begun trials and testing. We will shortly be supplying this as our standard offering for Small Business.
January 2008
Another busy start to the year. We had a little rush of machines that needed urgent attention after the Christmas break. We see this every year - often machines that have met with accidents over Christmas, or bored users that have decided to have a play!
We have also subscribed to a remote control system for offering remote support to customers. This will be a boon for us - less wasted time - and great for our customers - a fraction the cost of on-site visits. See our Remote Control page for more info.
September 2007
A very busy Summer. With the arrival of the new baby time has been short. However, we managed to install three full installations on-site during July and August. We have also carried out extensive testing and preparation for increased Vista deployment. We are now a member of Brigantia - a trade organisation to increase our buying power and offer additional services.
As I am now a member of the Round Table we are also getting an increase in small jobs for other members - which will hopefully lead onto other things.
We are still hoping to gain a new member of staff very shortly.
May 2007
We have started looking after customers from Maestro Computer Services. Maestro has been gently wound up we have have volunteered (with no payment to ourselves) to continue supporting customers who still have contracts to run. We hope that these customers will appreciate the quality of our support and renew with us in due course. These customers may otherwise have had no ongoing support under the contract that they had purchased.
We have also had a busy few weeks when no less that 5 customers have re-located - some requiring complete cabling and telephone systems. All are now settles into their new premises.
As always, we had a big rush towards the end of the financial year. Many customers, including some of our larger charity customers, needed urgent orders pushed through before the end of the financial year. A large number of laptops and desktops were supplied, along with all the usual peripherals, software and services. Many charities use us as we can supply charity licences for most software.
February 2007
Another busy start to the year. Windows Vista was released on 31 January. This new version of Windows is very impressive to look at. It comes in several different varieties. Along with the new Office 2007 it has been the biggest Windows release for many years (since Windows 95 some say...). Many customers have been holding out for the new release - and some have chosen to jump on the Vista bandwagon whilst others have had to return to Windows XP due to software compatibility issues. Whilst these issues will be resolved in time (mainly due to third party software unable to comply with Vistas stringent security systems) the short term solution was to use the tried-and-trusted XP.
We are continuing the installation of telephone systems, and hope to grow this side of our work.
December 2006
We've had several complete system installation recently, and we've also had some very awkward cable installations. However, with Keith and other help we've managed to keep to our time schedules. We have a couple of customers moving premises before Christmas - always very hard but I'm sure that we'll be able to fit around the removal firms and other service installers.
September 2006
As always things had been busy before and after our one-week Summer break (last week in September). However, just a few days after our break Glen was rushed to A&E and required a minor operation. This happened at a bad time, whilst a client was moving premises. However, Keith and Alan stepped up to the oche and kept everything in control. Many thanks.
The previous three months have been our busiest ever. Now that the large upgrade tasks are complete things are less manic, we will consider how to increase our capacity. It is very hard to find technical personal that can work at the speed that we require, and cover the very wide range of services that we offer.
August 2006
We had completed much of the upgrade work. So far everything has been completed on time and on budget. We have another large installation (server, workstations and telephone system) book for the middle of September. Recently PCs prices have changed with the arrival of the Intel dual-core processors. Customers are seeing higher clock speeds and greater memory for the same price.
Our year-end is June 30th, so accounts are now being drawn up by our accountant.
We are considering how to recruit to replace Simon and ease our workload.
June 2006
It has been a busy few months. Simon has been unable to work for some months, and sadly passed away at the start of June.
However, we have continued to provide the support our customers have asked for, and have started work on two large upgrade servers. As we approach our year-end we can see that 2005/2006 has been another very productive year for Computers Solutions - and this indicates the growth of our customers.
Some customers have noticed that we have withdrawn our Yellow Pages (and other) advertising this year. We obtain about 90% of our work through repeat business and referrals. With the loss of Simon we do not need to seek out large amounts of work at present. We are still taking on new work, but the £10K or so we spend on annual advertising is unnecessary this year. We will re-assess the situation next year once we have worked out how much spare capacity we have. As you know, we pride ourselves on the level of support we give out customers - this is what sets us aside from other support companies. We do not, under any circumstances, want to reduce the quality of our work.
March 2006
A busy start to 2006, with several large installations taking place. As usual there is also a bit of a rush to push through orders before the end of the financial rush (this is especially true of our many charity customers). We have stopped advertising in Yellow Pages this year because we find that we receive about 90% of our work through word-of-mouth or repeat business. We've also managed to find some free time to carry out some in-house upgrades of servers and PCs.
Many of our customers are rushing through orders before the end-of-financial-year deadline. The start of April will also be quite busy as customers receive their new budget allowances for the new financial year.
December 2005
Wow! What a few weeks! We have had an extraordinary amount of work in - mainly from our regular customers. We have to cables up three sets of buildings - one quite substantial. We have two complete new systems going in - new workstations and servers. We have new telephones to install for a customer, and we have all our usual load of work as well! In addition, we have seen a big virus outbreak. Many of our customers received our warning, carried their software updates, and were safe.
We have, as usual, also a rush for PCs and laptops for home users to be installed before Christmas. The week before Christmas will be reserved for rush jobs from previous customers. New customers will, unfortunately, have to wait until after Christmas.
October 2005
We are still very busy due to staff shortage. However, we now have everything under control and we are back on-track with appointments and work schedules. We now have an ultra-fast 10M link to the Internet.
September 2005
As Glen becomes Chapter Director for BNI Surrey Hills workload has finally settled down again. BNI can help small businesses to bring in more work, and can also provide a forum for business advice and discussion, as well as a source for reliable business services. Please visit our BNI website at www.bni-caterham.co.uk. With the loss of Simon for some weeks we have had to concentrate more on our on-going clients. We have cancelled some of our Yellow Pages advertising. As our clients know, we aim to give the best quality of service possible. Although we have looked to recruit new engineers, it is very difficult to find the right person.
August 2005
Simon has been rushed into hospital, so we are a little short handed, but coping well. We wish Simon a speedy recovery.
The amount of telephone system work has been steadily increasing as Yellow Pages adverts are published. We have found that our ability to provide exactly what the customer needs is a real bonus - one customer only needed a single analogue line, with up to five wireless DECT handsets, with voicemail and auto attendant. Whilst this would not be a standard installation, were we able to tender a very competitive quote. Because we look after all IT, we can also take on their computer requirements and even website work. Computer Solution the ONE STOP SHOP for ALL your computer requirements!
July 2005
Following our year-end on 30th June we have, as always, had a busy time getting our account information ready for the annual trip to the accountant.
May 2005
April and May, as always, have been busy months for us. We've seen a rush of Small Business Servers being installed (allowing mail access for employees to read business emails from any Internet PC, and remote access to files etc.). Continuing training on telephone systems, a complete workshop/office tidy up has taken up all our 'slack'.
March 2005
Telephone system training continues. We have managed to help many of our customers overcome a problem created by a Microsoft update. Microsoft have yet to fully address this problem. We continue out training for installation of Panasonic and Alcatel telephone systems.
February 2005
We have begun our Panasonic training on installation of Digital Telephone Systems. We will be installing our own new exchange during March. Simon has completed his Panasonic training and will be looking after telephone installations for the next few weeks.
Our new firewall/router is in place. We have full access to our server and email whilst working away from the office. This will be useful when fault-finding and analyzing systems.
January 2005
Following the birth of Luke, Simon has been doing most of our running around. A busy start to the year.
December 2004 Normal office hours, please ring 08451 302 302 (9.00 to 5.30) For EMERGENCIES (ie. things that cannot wait until the following day) the pager number is 07666 525872. We would ask that my mobile number is used only when an urgent discussion is needed - and please leave a very brief message on the voice mail (just your name and number). Always leave a message on the landline number first. For routine enquiries, quotes etc. I suggest emailing
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. Emails will usually be replied to the same or following day.
October 2004
Our new logo has arrived, and new letterheads are being printed. The website has been re-vamped.
Our mid-range Professional PC has dropped in price to £399+VAT. We still offer budgets PCs from £299+VAT
We were invited to a seminar in Liverpool by one of our distributors. This proved to be very useful - a look at new and future technology, especially with respect to the building of PCs.
September 2004
At the start of September our account information shows that last year Computer Solutions had a turnover increase of about 30% - a considerable increase considering the current economic climate. We would like to thank all our customers for their business during the last year. Our increase often reflects the growth of our customers, and we wish continuing success to all our contacts.
We are hoping to continue our recent wave of 'updating' by employing a graphic designer to design a new logo/letterhead. So, WHAT THIS SPACE!
August 2004
Following a busy Summer, Computer Solutions are now a member of BNI Caterham (Business networking International) and so our client base grows.
Our new office has been active for about a year, and our clients are able to see the increase in productivity.
Unfortunately Yellow Pages has put the wrong advert in the London South directory. This will have an impact on new customers, but as about 90% of our work is referral or repeat business, we don't expect to suffer too much, but losses will occur.
April 2004
So far 2004 has allowed us to show that our new facilities are working well. Even with massive increase in order level we have managed to improve our level of service with our customers, and gain some extra capacity.
We have also benefited from increased support from our suppliers, and the integration of some very innovative products into our range.
December 2003
2003 has been a monumental year for Office improvements at Computer Solutions. As many of our customers have grown, we have required better facilities to enable us to keep pace and provide the level of service that is required.
The as well as a complete new building (our 'dirty' workshop), we have had a complete office refit (twin mains supplies, air conditioning and security improvements). We are currently replacing our driveway to allow parking of up to four vehicles.
We wish to thank all our customers for their understanding over the last few months, and look forward to completion of the works over Christmas, and the full functionality that we can then offer to our clients.
August 2003
We've added a new 'Links' page. Here you will find a few links to friends, and a couple to customers. Why not have a quick look? If you are a customer please feel free to ask us to add a link to your site - no charge whatsoever.
Computer Solutions continues to grow from strength to strength. We now have more resources at our disposal than ever before. Our customers can be assured that they will always get the personal attention that they require.
We have also negotiated deals with major distributors to ensure that our prices remain very keen. We have the facilities to lease equipment if required (depending upon status) - email
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for more information.
Our new high-bandwidth Internet connection will assist with customer support. We can now deal with your emails, download request, web site updates etc. much faster than before.
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