Since then we’ve received questions about the number of installations people get with the traditional Office suites, transferability, and how they compare to Office 2010. With that in mind, we want to offer some clarity to help you make the best purchasing decision.

Here’s how our Office 2010 and Office 2013 licenses compare:

*An exception is granted when the software is on a PC that is replaced under warranty.

It’s important to note that Office 2013 suites have consistent rights and restrictions regarding transferability as the equivalent Office 2010 PKC, which was chosen by a majority of Office 2010 customers worldwide.

We think this new lineup offers unmatched choice and value for business, students, families and everyone in between.

• For those looking to use Office on multiple devices – Office 365 Home Premium works across up to 5 devices (Windows tablets, PCs or Macs) and can be activated and deactivated across devices.
• For those who only require Office on one device – The Office 2013 software is licensed to one computer for the life of that computer and is non-transferable (consistent with the rights and restrictions of Office 2010 PKC). In the event that a customer buys the Office 2013 software and installs it on a PC that fails under warranty, the customer can contact support to receive an exemption to activate the Office 2013 software on the replacement PC.
• For college and university students - Office 365 University works across 2 devices (Windows tablets, PCs or Macs) and can be activated and deactivated across devices.

If you’re interested in getting the new Office, we encourage you to call or email us to explore which offering will give you the most value. Tel – 0800 0731701. Email – info@thedigitalgroup.co.uk

With Office 365 you can use Microsoft Office Web Apps to view, edit, and share documents from virtually anywhere. You can attend meetings online through video, call, or instant message with Microsoft Lync. Tools powered by Microsoft SharePoint enable you to collaborate on the web, access your data with Access Services, and safely share large files online. And there’s no compromise in email. With Office 365 you get a 25-GB mailbox and the capability of sending messages up to 25 MB.

Where Collaboration Meets the Cloud…

Office 365 brings together secure cloud versions of Microsoft’s familiar communication and collaboration products, including: Microsoft SharePoint, Microsoft Lync, Microsoft Exchange, and for bigger businesses, the Microsoft Office Professional Plus desktop suite. Give your workers access to the latest productivity tools in the most cost-effective way, whilst retaining control over your business’s ability to scale up or down.

Professional Services that Scale to Your Business…

Thanks to Office 365’s cloud-based services model, IT departments and businesses can focus on growth and productivity rather than system maintenance.  It’s also highly secure. Microsoft Forefront Online Protection for Exchange includes multiple filters and virus-scanning engines. You can also count on professional performance and availability thanks to Office 365’s guaranteed 99.9% uptime.

To learn more about Office 365 either call us on 08000731701, email info@thedigitalgroup.co.uk, or visit our Office 365 specific webpage here.

Free Office 365 trials availbale on request.

The Philips Recorder for Smartphones is designed to fit perfectly into the Philips SpeechExec software suite. Recording, editing, and sending dictation files from your Smartphone offers mobile flexibility and reduces document turnaround times.

Click this link to see a short video demo of the Philips digital dictation solution.

Contact us on 0800 073 1701 to sign up for a 30 day free trial.

For further product information click here.

Here’s why…
Island Solutions

For many businesses, the typical experience when a customer calls is that they’re kept waiting while the business locates the information they need. Companies still tend to rely on ‘island solutions’, using a number of different, independent systems that are not integrated with the telephone system.

Staff either have to open several applications to find the information they need, or end up transferring the call to someone else. Either way, it creates delays and frustrations for customers.

But what if you could integrate the information from all your systems and display it on a single screen? A unified communications system can do just that, delivering these significant benefits:

1. Be more responsive

If your telephone system is integrated with your customer relationship management (CRM) solution, then when a customer calls, the system will use their phone number to automatically identify them and then show relevant information.

In a single window on your screen you can see everything you need to know about the customer, including their name, address, what they’ve bought in the past, and so on.

Having instant access to this information allows you to respond more quickly to the customer’s requests.

2. Provide faster turnarounds

Whether it’s a sales or support query, sometimes you need to transfer a call to a different person or department. With an integrated telephony system that can read information from employee calendars, you can immediately see who is available and where they are.

This avoids games of ‘telephone tag’ that can prolong the sales or service cycle. You can even incorporate remote or mobile workers too, so that clicking a button on-screen puts the call through. In a competitive market being able to put a sales call through immediately can stop a customer going elsewhere.

3. Offer better support and service

According to YouGov, 58% of small and medium-sized businesses in the UK suffered as a result of severe winter weather in 2009/2010. Many workers were unable to make it into work and as a result companies found themselves shorthanded.

A good unified communications system should be location independent, meaning staff can work just as easily from home with the same access to internal documents and resources as if they were in the office.

Likewise, unified communications enables employees to share documents across different offices or sites.

4. Improve credit control

Perhaps one of the most surprising benefits of a unified telephone system is the impact it can have on cash flow.

If your telephone system can pull information from your accounts system, then when a customer calls you can flag if they have unpaid bills. You can even transfer them straight to the finance team and request they make payment before placing another order.

5. Boost customer retention

Every business appreciates how building one-to-one relationships can be the key to long-term success. The telephone is a wonderfully intimate and direct tool for developing a rapport with new and existing customers.

When combined with software-based unified communications, you have access to even more tools to make your customers feel special. For instance, you can integrate web-based information like details of the weather where that customer is or local news that’s relevant to them.

It’s the little things that can make the difference between good service and exceptional service.

6. Stand apart from the crowd

It’s becoming increasingly difficult to stand apart from the crowd, so it’s areas like customer service that can really differentiate your business.

By combining data from several sources, you can keep the optimum amount of information at your fingertips. Knowledge is power, giving you everything you need to match customer requirements with the right product or service.

To learn more about unified communications, book a demo, or simply chat to us about your telecoms requirements call 0800 073 1701, or email info@thedigitalgroup.co.uk.

Historically we’ve majored on telephone systems manufactured & software-developed by Samsung* and Swyx**, both of which have enabled us to fulfil the majority of solution requirements irrelevant of client scale. However, we’ve recently bolstered our offering with the addition of the Mitel 5000 Communications Platform, which is a system that delivers vast amounts of functionality at a similar price-point to more traditional phone systems. As a result we’ve undertook a series of training that means our technical and pre-sales teams are conversant with the solution so are able to consult, implement and support to the highest of standards.

We’re therefore delighted to announce our partnership with Mitel, who in telecoms terms sit within the top 3 of adopted systems globally.

In terms of the product itself, here’s a brief summary…

The Mitel 5000 Communications solution is the ideal platform for organisations interested in the latest technology and application capability. It will enable you to blend your voice system with the data network, creating an efficient, cost-effective communications environment.

As the 5000 solution natively provides IP capabilities, you will be able to easily adapt your system and grow it over time and at your own pace. With the 5000’s feature-rich network capabilities you will be able to effectively connect geographically dispersed employees and working locations, whether linking offices and applications together over a data network, or deploying IP phones to on-site employees.

The 5000 includes a complete suite of business applications out-of-the-box, including unified voice messaging (voicemail, auto attendant, email integration, etc), hot-desking, meet-me conferencing, ACD and enhanced mobility with dynamic extension express and teleworking. In addition,
it supports the same award-winning Mitel Unified Communications Application portfolio that is used with the Mitel enterprise platform, MCD.

Each 5000 supports 250 users in single or multiple environments and may be networked with other 5000′s over multiple locations to cater for larger corporate networks.

As accredited Mitel partners we’re able to demonstrate live solutions either remotely at client site, from within our Sheffield HQ or at various Mitel suites throughout the country.

Please visit the Mitel section of our website for a more in-depth look at the solution and applications.

If you’d like to learn more about the Mitel 5000, or have a current project requirement you’d like to discuss please contact us on 0800 0731701 or info@thedigitalgroup.co.uk. Alternatively click here to view a short video overview of the solution.

* Samsung hardware solutions can be a mix of analogue, digital, and/or IP.

** Swyx solutions are software-based and form part of a server environment. They typically are pure-IP although it is possible to integrate analogue devices if necessary.

Below are the major changes that will occur from December 1^st; these may be of importance to you depending on your current licensing position so we would recommend you contact us to discuss your specific situation. It is still possible to buy any of the affected software during November at their current lower prices.

Summary of major changes…

User CALs

• Change: No usage restriction changes.
• Price: Increase of 15% compared to previous user CAL pricing.

SharePoint 2013

• Change: SharePoint Server is moving to a single version only.
• Price: Increase of approximately 38% compared to previous version (SharePoint 2010).

Lync Server 2013

• Change: Lync Server is moving to a single version only (Previously Standard / Enterprise).
• Price: Increase of up to 400% when compared to Lync 2010 Standard.

Visio 2013

• Change: Simplification of product range; Visio Premium removed (Visio Pro replaces).
• Price: Visio Standard increases by approximately 20%, Visio Pro increases by 5%.

Note: Visio Pro upgrade from Standard will decrease by 20% for a limited time.

Project 2013

• Change: Both desktop versions (Standard and Pro) to increase by approximately 5%.
• Server version (Project Server) increase of circa 15%.
• Server CAL User CAL to Increase by 21% (Device CAL will increase by 5%).

Note: Project Pro upgrade from Standard will decrease by 5% for a limited time.

Office 365

• Change: Office 365 suite increases to include Project and Visio.
• Price: Increase (Dependent on subscription / purchase method) of up to 8%.

 Other notable changes…

Exchange Server 2013 – External connector removed from price list. No change in prices to the SERVER product – the CAL is affected by the USER CAL price changes.

Office 2013 – New commercial use Subscription available for mobile devices. No change in prices.

Enterprise CAL Suite – Forefront UAG CAL removed from ECAL 3.0. Exchange Online Archiving removed from Exchange Enterprise CAL
(Available as an “Add on” or via eCAL Suite). Exchange Online Protection and DLP will be added to the Exchange Enterprise CAL.

Please contact us on 0800 0731701 or info@thedigitalgroup.co.uk to discuss your situation on how these changes may impact your organisation.

We can help you move to the future of dictation technology by buying back your old analogue hardware when you upgrade to digital.

To find out how much you could reduce your upgrade costs by please contact us, or call 0800 073 0701.

To learn about the benefits of upgrading from analogue to digital dictation, click here.

Effective 1st December 2012 Microsoft is making a change to the pricing of the “User” option when specifying Client Access Licences (CALs).

Background

Currently customers have the option of specifying either a “Device CAL” (intended for an individual device and providing server client access for an unlimited number of users of that device) or a “User CAL” (intended for an individual user and providing server client access for an unlimited number of devices for that user).

Traditionally the price has been the same regardless of which option customers chose. Going forward Microsoft will differentiate between these CALs. As part of this approach Microsoft will be raising the price of the user CAL by 15%. The device CAL price will remain the same (no price increase). Microsoft is making this change in response to the increasing value of user based licensing over the single device licensing model.

The products affected are:

• Bing Maps Server CAL
• Core CAL Suite
• Enterprise CAL Suite
• Exchange Server Standard and Enterprise CALs
• Lync Server Standard and Enterprise CALs
• Project Server CAL
• SharePoint Server Standard and Enterprise CALs
• System Center 2012 Client Management Suite
• System Center Configuration Manager
• System Center Endpoint Protection
• Visual Studio TFS CAL
• Windows Multipoint Server CAL
• Windows Server CAL
• Windows Server RDS, RMS, Terminal Services CAL

Customers operating the the User CAL model with multi-year contract based Microsoft volume licence agreements (such as Enterprise Agreement, Enterprise Subscription, Open Value Subscription and Open Value Perpetual) will retain their pre-negotiated pricing until the end of their current contract term.

Organisations presently considering the purchase of Microsoft volume licence products that include CAL options are recommended to contact Digital Exchange’s sales department to discuss their options prior to the proposed price changes taking effect on 1^st December 2012.

NB Public sector pricing under the PSA12 agreement will not be affected by this change and will remain the same as they currently are.

Digital understood my dilemma and presented an offer that i couldn’t ignore. They bought back my old system and within 3 days (and no disruption) had fitted a brand new Samsung system which gave us far more features than we ever had before. The system, as a result, has totally changed the way we work and two months on I can honestly say that it’s easily paid for itself. The feedback received from my consultants and clients is that good I wish I had upgraded sooner.

Darren Robinson
The Agency Search & Select
www.agencycareers.co.uk

“I am writing to let you know how the Beck Primary School visit went last week, which was supported through your 480 scheme sponsorship this year.

I spent some time with them on Friday, by which point they’d had plenty of time to settle in on the farm and were full of stories to tell me! They stayed in the newly refurbished Westfield Barn off Ringinglow Road.

The group were between Y5 and Y6, so a little older than our usual audience. So they took part in some of the usual activities such as pony riding and farm tours, but in addition they spent a morning in the woods nearby making sculptures out of natural materials. This involves the children looking around in the undergrowth to find sticks, stones and leaves. It’s an opportunity for the team to teach them about how leaves rot to soil, and lifecycles in the woods. They also found larvae, chrysalis and mushrooms, so they learnt more about how butterflies and bugs grow and the effect of all the moisture that we’ve had recently on our woodland!

I gather they really enjoyed this. The other favourite activity was ponyriding, they told me eagerly that both of the boys had been scared of the horse before they rode her, and the girls weren’t scared at all!

The teacher with the group told me that the visit is part of an early transfer for the children from Y5 to Y6 and this week of getting to know each other and their new teachers outside of the school environment was hugely beneficial and developed strong bonds before such an important year at school. She had done the same with a previous group and said that they had talked about their stay at Whirlow for the rest of the year!”

Here’re some pictures from the visit…