Well, goodness me, another year gone by, and what a busy and exciting one we've had here at R.E.D. - I think I can safely say that no two days are ever the same!
Everybody with a support contract should have received their end of year updates by now, and from all the new facilities, I expect you can see just how busy we have been!
The plan for R.E.D. is that, like last year, we shall be closed between Christmas and the New Year. However, if you have something really urgent come up, it is worth faxing us, as various bodies will be in the office at different times.
Christmas spirit will be available in copious quantity at R.E.D.
on the evening of 16th December - do come along and help us celebrate
if you can.
The youngest member of the R.E.D. office is Aline May Cochrane
Jeffrey, born on 10th September. weighing 9lb 7oz. She's a great
pleasure and asset in the office, offering the odd gurgle to unsuspecting
clients, and very occasionally screaming in sympathy with the
rest of us!
Those of you who have been on the annual picnic with us, will, I'm sure, know Valee by now. She and JB were married on 29th October in Norbiton Registry Office, with John Barry as JB’s best man.. There were 20 or so people there, and we went on to a meal - Thai, of course - at the Norbiton Dragon which was as wonderful to eat as it was spectacular to look at!
We wish them the very best in their future together.
Most of our subs clients will by now have received the Autumn update to the subs program and are now using the facilities described in our last newsletter. However, wrapped knuckles for all those that didn't read the notes that we sent with the update. We shall try a different layout next time to make it more obvious if there is anything you need to do. Please, do read instructions carefully before you ring us!
The frontier of R.E.D. clients is steadily shifting northwards. We are very pleased to welcome two new companies into the fold this month - they are almost in spitting distance of one another; one being in Carlisle and the other in Glasgow.
We have begun to wonder what might be north of Scotland and
have had to get the R.E.D. atlas out!
This new module is now under development, and we expect it
to be on general release in the early Summer. It has been designed
after meetings with BPA representatives, and with input and suggestions
from our existing users who have expressed interest in BPA. If
you would like to know more about it, please get in contact with
us.
ABC have recently issued information on a new service that
will allow publishers to produce the audit issue data on a floppy
disk. We are currently looking at their requirements and will
be happy to help any users who would like to take advantage of
this new ABC facility.
Just to remind everyone using Mailsort or Pressstream that Database 95 must be put onto the system at the end of January. You will need the fixed format version of the database from the post office.
As it is over a year since we last touched upon this important subject, we thought it worthwhile reminding everyone of the following;
If you are using a network we have the following tips;
Always log in as Supervisor to do the backup, otherwise you may be denied access to some areas of the disk and data will NOT be backed up.
Make sure everyone logs out properly and that no files are left open as this will stop files being backed up. If you are unsure, bring the file-server ‘down’ and back up again.
Keep backups of important dates eg. financial year end or ABC/BPA audit issues so that reports etc can be produced retrospectively.
Get your IT manager to make sure your backups work properly!
A new tutorial is in the pipeline and will be issued to all
users who are under the first 12 months of free support. Any of
you longer term users who would like a copy of this new tutorial
should let us know.
To SCOPE (previously the Spastics Society) for winning the Charity Publication of the Year award for their monthly journal ‘Disability Now’. This was awarded by the Corporate Publishing Association and they faced stiff competition in winning this award.