Share Your Diary Online with Tungle

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A New Year, a new diary, and perhaps a new and better way of arranging meetings.

A common problem with meetings is agreeing on when and where. Emails go back and forth with suggestions and just when you think arrangements are sorted, suddenly someone is unavailable.

The advent of online solutions like Google Calendar has eased such administrative nightmares. As well as online sharing, there is often the ability to reveal your free/busy status. But there is still the hassle of checking everyone’s calendar and, into the mix, you may want to specify certain times when you are available.

There is, however, a definitive answer to the many online diary formats and permutations. Let me introduce you to Tungle. Why do I recommend it? Because it: (a) integrates automatically with your own diary so you don’t have to switch to another service (b) shows when you are free or busy, without revealing information you don’t wish to display, and (c) enables colleagues/clients/customers to schedule a meeting with you direct. Take a look at my Tungle page and use it to book any appointments with me.

Synchronising Tungle with your own diary prevents double bookings because it checks your calendar and updates your availability without compromising privacy. In other words your diary is kept private and only you can see meeting details.

Is Tungle good news? Yes, and there’s more. It’s free to use and installation and set up is simple. If you are a Google Apps customer you simply sign in with your Google Apps account. Tungle currently supports:

  • Outlook 
  • Google Calendar 
  • iCal/Entourage 
  • MobileMe 
  • Lotus Notes 
  • Blackberry 
  • Windows Live 
  • Yahoo! 
  • Plancast 
  • TripIt 
  • Facebook

Should you encounter any difficulties with Tungle, remote set up is available via AGUK from £25.

Workshop: Using The Cloud

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Workshop date: 12 January 2012
Workshop time: 11.00-12.00
Networking lunch: 12.00-14.00
Venue: Novotel Hotel, Fishergate, York, YO10 4FD

In response to requests that I circulate details of my talks, seminars and workshops, here are details of a forthcoming event for your diary.

On 12 January at York’s Novotel Hotel, I shall be hosting a live workshop on “Using the Cloud.”  This event, from 11am to 12pm, is being held in association with The Business Network and is followed by their networking lunch from 12pm to 2pm.

The cloud and its benefits for companies is a hot topic.  Indeed, you may already have heard someone else talking about the cloud, detailing the latest magnificent technological advancements that are great for your business.  If, however, you remain unsure as to what the cloud is and does, then this is the workshop for you.

Attendees of any of my past seminars and workshops on a range of business related issues will be familiar with my style of presentation.  This workshop will be no different.  There will be no jargon or complicated scientific technology on the subject matter, and I will not be explaining the cloud to you.  Instead I will be showing you what it is and what it does through live demonstrations.  These include:

  • Editing and working with documents online
  • Collaborating on projects using online tools
  • Online backup solutions
  • Organising photographs and editing images online
  • Working offline
  • “Going Google” and understanding Google Apps
The overall aim of the workshop is to illustrate in a stimulating, practical way the benefits of what the cloud enables you and your business to achieve, and the benefits it can bring.

Workshop places are limited and must be booked in advance through organiser Claire Flatters.  The cost is £25, which includes a three-course lunch and networking session.  Claire’s contact details are:

Please make your booking as early as possible to avoid any disappointment.  Payment must be received before the event to secure your place

Gone Google: Chris Hall Architectural Services

A Scarborough-based architect’s designs for a better way to handle on line business have paid off.

Chris Hall Architectural Services has “Gone Google” with assistance from AGUK Solutions Limited, thus solving frustrating communication problems and improving technical procedures.

As a domestic and commercial architect, business owner Chris Hall undertakes a wide variety of commissions from new build projects to extensions, conversions and renovations.  Project management services include drawing up designs, obtaining planning permissions and building warrants.

On a day-to-day basis Chris Hall Architectural Services liaises with different planning departments, deals with a range of clients and building contractors, and gets to grips with innovative design plans and complex planning applications.  Communicating via email is an important part of the business and losing email access, even for a few hours, causes significant headaches.  The unreliability of his email provider prompted Chris to take action.

The solution, devised and implemented by AGUK, was a complete migration and configuration set-up service to the Google Apps cloud.  Since then, all email difficulties have been resolved and not a single outage problem has been experienced.  Further benefits were derived from AGUK’s strategy.

While Google Apps scans all files sent by email, the work undertaken by Chris Hall Architectural Services involves handling complex documents and files via both download and physical storage options.  To deal with this, and as an added security measure, AGUK then installed PrevX, a leading cloud-based PC and Internet Security system which is fully managed and supported.

Thanks to these steps, Chris Hall Architectural Services can now concentrate on doing what it does best:  planning, designing and constructing buildings and infrastructures for form, function, utility and beauty.

To discover how Google Apps from AGUK can help your business be more productive and save money, please contact us or visit our website.

 

Gone Google: Tricia Douglas Interiors

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Another business has successfully “Gone Google” thanks to the help of AGUK Solutions Limited.

Tricia Douglas Interiors, the award-winning design consultancy based in York, specialises in modernisation, renovation and restoration, offering a full interior design and project management service.  

The company, established in the 1990s, required a solution to its remote working problems as its creative team is often on site producing bespoke designs for apartments, starter homes, show homes, period properties and country mansions.  Commissions from clients in the residential, commercial, corporate and rental sectors of the market, are for projects not only within Yorkshire, but further afield.  

Operating on a national and international basis poses no difficulty for Tricia Douglas Interiors.  However, its designers consistently found themselves experiencing problems accessing emails, contact details and diary information while out of the office.  Director of Business Development, Anne Ma’aye, turned to AGUK for its Google Apps expertise.

As well as undertaking a complete set-up and migration service, AGUK provided a training session to Tricia Douglas Interiors, with on-going support part of the package.  Its switch to Google Apps included migrating existing data from both Windows and Mac systems to the Google Apps cloud.  In addition, iPhone and iPad devices were configured so that team members could share inboxes, contacts and calendars, and access important information remotely.  The end result has undoubtedly improved the design consultancy’s internal operations.

“Google Apps has allowed us to be much more productive and connected to each other.  The team can now get on with what we do best – interior design – without battling against email problems and IT,” said a delighted Anne Ma’aye.   

If you would like to learn how Google Apps from AGUK can help your business be more productive and save you money, please contact us[link] or visit our website.