Click here to register – tickets are free!

Progress your business at The Business Show 2015

The Business Show 2015 is THE place to be if you’re looking to grow your business. Where else will you find 350 exhibitors offering a wealth of opportunity, advice and information to smaller businesses to help them improve, evolve and expand in a challenging economy?

With 25,000 visiting small businesses, it’s also a fantastic opportunity for you to network and learn from your peers. And with 250 free seminars taking place, hosted by business experts, you’re sure to pick up some invaluable tips and small business success secrets.

And best of all… It’s FREE to attend! Click here to register for tickets.

Do you want to achieve better results in the areas that really matter when it comes to growing your business? Visit the Microsoft Dynamics stand at The Business Show to find out how!

Microsoft Dynamics technology can help your business generate higher-quality leads, close more profitable sales, optimise your inventory andproduction processes and make sure you get paid on time. Designed specifically to help smaller businesses like yours achieve their growth ambitions, Microsoft Dynamics is the cost-effective way to master your sales, marketing, operations and finances.

Find us on STAND 420, just by the Speed Networking Zone, and chat through your ambitions and challenges with our expert team. We’ll demo how Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online and Microsoft Dynamics NAV help businesses like yours to grow and prosper.

Click here to register for FREE tickets to attend The Business Show 2015

Visit The Business Show 2015 event website >

Well here’s even more good news! As part of your registration, you’ll will have access to both the main business day keynotes and the Expo area giving you even more opportunity to gain insights and business guidance.
 

Hear from Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and Richard Reed, Innocent Co-Founder.

The morning main business keynotes are promising to be hugely informative with lots of business insights for SMB’s.

From 9.30 you’ll get to hear from a wide range of speakers including Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and Startup to Enterprise business Co-founder, Richard Reed from Innocent.

Richard Reed particularly will be of great interest having setup Innocent with the strategy to challenge conventional business methods. The company now sells over a million drinks each week and holds a 70% share of a growing market.

Essential SMB Sessions 

Post keynote we have three specialist sessions hosted by Enterprise Nation, British Chamber of Commerce, UKTI, DHL Express and O2.

These sessions have been designed to give you essential insights alongside practical ideas and tips on how you can develop your business further:

Connect with Customers – Build and Grow your customer base

Gain insights into how you can raise your business’s profile, attract traffic to your website, keep customers coming back, and surround yourself with business support.

Emma Jones, founder of Enterprise Nation, will be revealing her strategies and tips to grow your business. She will also be Joined by a very special guest for a Q&A.

Grow Efficiently – Identifying Growth Opportunities

Prepare your business to not only be positioned to adapt to necessary change, but also how you can find new growth opportunities.

In addition, you’ll hear from British Chamber of Commerce, UKTI and DHL on how exporting could be the passport to your growth. The session will also feature a panel event with three small business sharing their experiences and learnings on how exporting has helped them expand.

Business Anywhere – Flexible Business on the Move

Explore both the opportunities and challenges for working anywhere. O2 will share learnings in respect to their journey to doing business anywhere.

LinkedIn will be providing tips and ideas on how using their platform can help small businesses to Hire, Market & Sell. And you’ll hear from Minicabit in respect to how technology has been key to them successfully engaging with large corporate customers
 

Come and visit us – SMB Stand

At the SMB stand, you’ll be able to meet and learn more from our event hosts (Enterprise Nation, BCC, O2) and get more ideas on how to increase your marketshare, grow your business, develop a business anywhere approach and protect your business.

Learn from Fellow Small Business Owners

Alongisde the latest technologies to help you achieve above, you will able able to talk with SMB’s who have transformed their businesses including:

• Graham’s the Family Diary
• DesignMi
• IX Cameras
• Shopwave
• Worldpay
• DP Medical
• Lucana Digital
• To Market
• Yun Ya

 Download the Future Decoded App and start building your Agenda

Like Surface Pro 4...You Can Win One

Reserve your copy of the Future Decoded eBook and tweet us @MicrosoftSB #FutureDecoded, and you could win a Surface Pro 4 as well as getting top tips and practical advice on how to win new customers, communicate effectively across your organisation, keep your business data safe and to expand your business.

Christmas is just around the corner – really. Chances are you’ve already had your first Christmas-tune earworm stuck in your head. Wreaths and decorations have probably started to crop up in your local pubs. While the slow trickle of the season may have already begun, the floodgates of the Christmas season really open up on the newest of British holiday traditions: Black Friday. Will you be ready?

So why all the fuss about Black Friday?

Until a few years ago, Black Friday had primarily been a US invention – referring to the day after Thanksgiving, when many Americans having had their fill of Thanksgiving turkey and extended family, would flock to their local shopping centres to get started with their Christmas shopping. Retailers, realizing this was a perfect opportunity to woo shoppers began promoting specials. As competition for Christmas shoppers increased, so did the scope and intensity of their promotions. A frenzied mob clamouring for that half-price flat-screen TVs in one of your stores? Well, that was a sign of a good deal… and a good year.

For many retailers, Black Friday became the most important day of their year, as it was a strong predictor of sales for their Christmas season. The time in which most retailers had their peak sales, accounting for roughly 20% of their annual revenue. So, that’s why it’s been sort of a big deal. In fact, it’s become a significantly bigger deal over the past decade, steadily growing year over year, and generating roughly twice the revenue in 2014 than it did in 2005.

As you might notice in this graph, the past two years has actually seen a decrease in Black Friday spending in the US. Is this a sign that the whole shopping splurge around Black Friday fad has passed? Quite the contrary – it has grown and evolved. In short, Black Friday has competition in the form of Cyber Monday (dedicated to online shopping) and Small Business Saturday (for promoting smaller retailers). And even beyond the themed shopping days, retailers have begun to become much more savvy in how and when they serve up offers to customers throughout the holiday season.

Are you ready for Black Friday?

Again, although the Christmas season seems far off, it really is just around the corner. If you’re a retailer, you may feel as though you’re behind the curve if you haven’t already fully prepared by the end of September. By prepared, I mean are you able to answer all of the following questions. Have you anticipated what your peak demand will be? Which of your customers will be shopping online vs in the store? What’s your optimal campaign schedule for holiday offers for your customers? What’s the most important differentiator for shoppers when choosing a retailer? How will social media channels impact your sales or customer service?

How will social media channels impact your sales or customer service? If you’re still preparing, there’s good news. First, Microsoft and Retail Week have partnered to bring you Planning for Peak: 2015 and Beyond, a free new guide for Black Friday and the rest of the holiday season. It offers unique insights into consumer plans for their Christmas spending this year, including their views on Black Friday, whether they will be spending or not and, if so, who they will be spending with.

Second, with cloud-based services from Microsoft, retailers can start to deliver amazing customer experiences and ramp up for peak demand with solutions such as Dynamics and Azure before the holiday rush is in full swing.

Managing Director and Founder of Technology Management, and Microsoft Most Valuable Professional (MVP)

Take managing your business processes to a whole new level with Dynamics NAV2016

The recent launch of Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2016, in my view, has taken it to a whole new level. I hesitate to sound like a marketeer for the product but it now really enables you to transform your processes to a whole new level in a way unparalleled in any comparative product. So what’s my justification for that bold statement? Well tell me what other business system at any level of the market has all the following advantage:

Ultimate Flexibility with Easy Upgradability

Dynamics NAV main selling point has always been its total flexibility. You can take what is a good set of functionality across Finance, Customer Service, Logistics, Manufacturing etc. and add the specifics of what you really need very quickly and efficiently. This is still the case for Dynamics NAV 2016. The trouble in the past was that the more you customised it the more difficult it was to upgrade. An upgrade required doing almost all of that work again, a process that took time and incurred expense. The last couple of versions have seen huge progress with scripted upgrades doing 98% of the work. This means that upgrades that used to take weeks could be delivered in hours.

See how Bounce Foods found upgrading to the latest version of Dynamics NAV

With the new ‘events’ and ‘enhancements’ in 2016 however, we can do most of those customisations with zero changes to Microsoft’s standard code. That means updates can be delivered in a totally automatic process. You still have the total flexibility to make it do what you want but you can get new sophisticated functions such as the automatic OCR (Optical character Recognition) of incoming purchase invoices that’s in 2016, as soon as Microsoft releases them.   

Ready for a Cloud First world (if you are)

I live out in the lovely countryside of Shropshire and know first-hand what restricted internet access is like. Any business of any size locally has to have servers on their premises because they could not get the
bandwidth to work successfully, any other way.  At my office in Wolverhampton we have a great 1Gb capable connection. Here running in the cloud is not only easy but makes it easy for our staff all over the country to work simultaneously with no infrastructure investment and with reduced risk.  No single option is right for all businesses but Dynamics NAV gives you the total flexibility to choose. You can have the software on premise in the traditional way, hosted by a third party of your choice or now with 2016, as a true ‘software-as-a-service’ managed by Microsoft themselves.

You can even change from having it installed at your premises to be moved into the cloud or vice versa, any time you choose if your business circumstances change. The system you use in the cloud is exactly the
same as you would have on premise, the users will not see a difference. A completely separate choice from where your software is installed is how you licence the software. Microsoft give you the option of paying up front for a so called perpetual licence or you can pay a monthly subscription. The choice again is what’s best for you rather than the system supplier.

Ready for a Mobile First world 

With Dynamics NAV 2016 we have a new phone client that’s installable as an app on iOS, Android and Windows. That’s not unique I know but what is unique is that all the functions that I can do on the full Windows client I can now do from the phone. This is no restricted subset, even specific customisations made to your system are instantly reflected on your phone. So no more returning to your desk when people ask you for information. Just whip out your phone, a couple of quick finger movements and you’ve looked up a balance or availability, run a report and emailed the PDF or amended/approved an order. Remember how the capability to do emails on our phone improved our productivity and flexibility? Expect the same from having your business system always available. It’s useful inside your office or on your production floor so being able to do it from anywhere in the world with a mobile signal, is just fantastic.

Can you think of another business system that has the choice of using any part of the system, not just from a Windows client but via any web browser (including Safari on a Mac), an interface designed for touch on any tablet or designed for your fingers on a phone? Which one can publish any screens into SharePoint making creating portals for intranets or extranets beautifully straightforward like Dynamics NAV can?

Information at your fingertips

One of the most exciting new features for me is the standard integration to Microsoft’s Power BI reporting tools. Recently rated by Gartner as the clear leader for usability across all business intelligence products,
Power BI has a standard content pack for Dynamics NAV. This allows not just easy drag and drop reporting but also for you to type natural language questions to get it to present the data you need. Even more exciting is that Microsoft’s Cortana digital assistant is integrated with Power BI. Imagine being able to push a button on your phone and ask for information from your ERP system such as ‘tell me all the customers with balances over 180 days’, then getting it read back to you complete with those balances. Only Microsoft has the combination of technologies to be able to do this.

The platform your business needs now

We are in a business world where you’re continually pressed by your customers to do more for less. Working harder is not viable, so you need systems that help you to work smarter. Isn’t now the time, while the economy is stronger, to prepare for any cyclical downturn by getting your systems in the best shape? Ask us to show you how much more productive Microsoft Dynamics will make your business today.

Find out more about Dynamics NAV

Request a demo

About James Crowter

I’m passionate about how businesses can improve their efficiency by getting process optimal more of the time. I founded my company, Technology Management, in 1992 and have led from the front ever since. Our 70+ staff help clients use Microsoft Dynamics solutions (Dynamics NAV and Dynamics CRM) to grow their businesses and drive up productivity. My interest in computing began at the age of eight, long before my school had the equipment to cope. Throughout school and university I developed software commercially. 

I hold many IT certifications, such as Microsoft Dynamics NAV (for over 12 years), as well as Microsoft Windows Server, Exchange and SQL. More recently, in October 2015, I was honoured to become one of 31 globally recognised Microsoft Most Valuable Professional (MVP) for Microsoft Dynamics NAV. After years of working with a range of distribution and manufacturing software for hundreds of organisations, I now focus on understanding the business requirements of an organisation and what it will take to deliver the systems required to maximise their potential.

Brandauer is a family-owned business dating back to 1862 that has gone through many good times as well as many hard times. As with many businesses that form the backbone of manufacturing and engineering in the UK, they may not be a household brand name, but they are present, if unseen (and unsung), in our everyday lives.  Brandauer can boast that 80% of houses contain one of their kettle or plumbing components. In addition, a staggering 55% of cars worldwide host examples of theirprecision parts.  Brandauer exports 75% of its products, with China being its major market.  

“You will have relied on a Brandauer part if you are in a car and your mirror has auto-adjusted due to dazzle from the cars lights behind” 

So how has this company, based close to Birmingham’s Jewellery Quarter originally making steel pen nibs, reinvented itself to be cutting-edge and competitive today as one of Europe’s leading independent high-precision metal component specialist?  Productivity has always been critical in manufacturing, and Brandauer have been quick to recognise that they need to constantly improve productivity and look for new ways to make marginal gains to benefit their business.

“Productivity comes from people and re-investing in new technology, not standing still”  Rowan Crozier, Chief Executive at Brandauer

Their most recent investment in productivity has been in the software to run their financials and manufacturing operations.  Brandauer was being run using manually updated spreadsheets and an old manufacturing software package, rather than a modern business software solution.   Incredibly,
month end reporting was taking them 2 weeks to complete. With determined leadership and strong growth ambitions, Brandauer took the decision to modernise their financials and operations and engaged, Wolverhampton-based Microsoft partner, Technology Management to help them.

Brandauer now use Microsoft Dynamics NAV for finance, manufacturing, production planning, warehousing and management reporting/KPI’s, and Microsoft Dynamics CRM for account and contact management, lead management and scoring, opportunity management, quality management (i.e.
case management) and also estimating (with integration to Dynamics NAV for accurate tooling and production costs).  With this work they will have completely re-engineered and simplified their business – productivity could be 30% higher than it was at its previous peak before the 2008 recession.

In the words of their MD, Rowan Crozier “It was not an IT project, but a business simplification project." 

The experience within Brandauer echoes the passion that Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft, has for reinventing productivity and business processes.  In Satya’s blog  - Office 2016: Reinventing productivity and business processes -  he describes how solutions that change business processes are a catalyst to organizational productivity.

Manufacturing is a business driven by productivity and in a recent survey by The Manufacturer, more than four-fifths (84%) of respondents have indicated that they need to improve productivity in the nextsix months if they are to achieve their growth plans.  See The Manufacturer article: Productivity puzzle still a challenge for smaller manufacturers   

Maybe the start of that productivity improvement journey, as Brandauer found, is to start by looking at business processes.

Find out more how Microsoft Dynamics NAV can simplify your business and increase your productivity:

More Information  Take a Guided Tour

So here are my top 5 cool features of the new Surface Pro 4 for small business.

So pretty

One trait of a successful businesses is good communication.  Without effective communication, a message can turn into misunderstanding, frustration, and big headaches.  Communication is the process by which we share information between individuals or groups of people. It is a process where we try as clearly and accurately as we can, to convey our thoughts, intentions and objectives.  Microsoft offers tools to help small and medium sized businesses be successful by delivering best in class communications that can help win new customers, manage suppliers and build strong relationships between employees.  As your ModernBiz Technology mentor, my recommended communication tool is Skype for Business and these are my #BizBoffin top ten tips and tricks for using this tool to your advantage.

1.  Quickly find contacts you connect with regularly
Using the search box, you can find people in your organisation or those outside of your organisation who use Skype quickly.  Right click on them and choose 'Add to Contact List' so you can search for them quickly when you need to connect.

2.  Messaging
Double Click someone on the contacts list and start typing - it really is as simple as that!

3.  Presence
You can easily see if someone is available or busy with the useful traffic light colours!  Green means they are free, yellow means they are away from their device and red means they are busy.  You can also see any extra details - for example whether they are on holiday, or they are travelling.  This makes it really easy to identify the best form of communication with this person.  For example, if they are green then they are likely to be available to meet over video, and if they are red it might be better to send an instant message so they can respond when they are available.

4.  Make a phone call
If you want to make a call, you can do this from your device.  Hover over someone in the Contacts list in your Skype for Business application, click the Call button.  Or if they are not in your Contact list you can simply use the dial pad to type in their number.

5.  Meet face to face over video call
Body language and facial expressions play an important part in good communication.  Click the Video button whilst on an IM or call (or even from the Contact list).  You can also preview yourself so you can check your hair before you start!!  You can also use the IM windows whilst holding a video meeting so guests can make comments or share feedback in the message window if they wish to.

6.  Schedule a meeting
Using Outlook, you can schedule a Skype for Business meeting.  Click on the time you want to schedule the event.  Click New Skype Meeting and invite your guests.  You can meet with up to 250 people even if they are not on Skype for Business.  All they need is phone or internet connection.  Click on the More Options button bottom right and you can quickly click to record your meeting and share with your guests after the meeting.  The red recording dot will appear to advise you and meeting attendees that the session is being recorded.

7.  Share your documents
Optimise meetings by sharing documents and collaborating on materials.  Simply click on the Present button and you can share your desktop or a particular document.  You can also preload resources into your scheduled meetings so guests can browse the materials before, during or after the meeting.  Click on the Present button and Add Attachment.  If you are taking notes you can also share these with your attendees.  Click on the Present button and My Notes or Shared Notes to add these.

8.  Set call forwarding options
Call forwarding lets you define how you want Skype for Business to handle incoming calls when you're away from your work phone or when you want someone else to take your calls.  You can reset your Call Forwarding options at any time by clicking the Call Forwarding button drop-down at the bottom of the Skype for Business main window.

9.  Add a participant
Ever been in a meeting where you were asked a question but didn’t know the answer?  With Skype for business you can quickly add a participant with the clikc of a button.  Click on the Invite more People button top right, and either include them using their name or phone number.  They will be notified that you are inviting them into your conversation or phone call and can choose whether to accept or decline.  No more wasting time waiting to make decisions or provide the accurate answer!

10.  Keyboard shortcuts
Keyboard shortcuts are combinations of two or more keys that, when pressed, can be used to do a task that would typically need a mouse or other pointing device. Tab and Shift+Tab are common ways of moving through any UI. Tab moves through the UI usually left to right, top to bottom, whereas Shift+Tab moves through the UI in the reverse order.  Use these keyboard shortcuts when the Skype for Business main window is in the foreground.

Ctrl+1 Move to the Contacts list tab.
Ctrl+2 Move to the persistent chat tab.
Ctrl+3 Move to the Conversation list tab.
Ctrl+4 Move to the Phone tab.
Ctrl+5 Move to the Meetings tab.
Ctrl+1 or Ctrl+Shift+1 As a delegate, transfer a call to someone else’s work number.
Alt+Spacebar Open the System menu. Alt opens the menu bar.
Alt+F Open the File menu.
Alt+M Start Meet Now.
Alt+T Open the Tools menu.
Alt+H Open the Help menu.

Find out more about Skype For Business and the benefits to your business.

Technology shouldn't be a hindrance, it should be an enabler, a productivity tool, a helper. 

It should be reliable and professional - the reason why your new client chose you as their supplier instead of your competitors who have outdated and unreliable technology.  Easier said than done, right?  Buying a new PC can seem like a daunting task.  We don't all talk the technical lingo and who actually cares about all the speeds and feeds?  All we really want is a modern device which gets the job done quickly and with no technical degree required. Oh, and we don't want to spend too much either...

So.. What would you say if i offered you £300 for your old PC?

Ok so i am not going to give you £300 but HP might!  You could trade in your old PC for a brand spanking new HP PC and get up to £300 cash back.  This awesome trade in offer comes with a few terms and conditions (well of course it does, you are not going to get £300 cash back if your current laptop is in 2 pieces, the keys don't work and the motherboard is missing are you!).  But the cool thing is that you could get money for something you didn't think was worth anything, and this can all go towards that new modern PC from HP.  So check out whether you qualify for cash back when you trade in your old PC, and have a browse at some of the HP laptops and desktops which make the most of Windows 10.  The process seems pretty simple, you buy a qualifying device, you submit a claim form, then you send your old device to be traded in for cash.  They will dispose of the device responsibly too so your old data is destroyed carefully.

Take a look for yourself, you could get some extra cash in your pocket for trading in your old device.

A start-up business is unlike other types of businesses. A brand new start-up can face unique challenges, such as the need to stick to a tight budget and a lack of brand recognition. Even if you have a very small number of people on your e-mail list and are struggling to make a splash, however, you can still create a marketing strategy that is economical and effective. To help you take your start-up business to the next level, here are some marketing strategies that will allow you to expand your business without breaking the bank.

Hit All The Basic Points

When it comes to marketing your start-up business, never eschew the basics of the social media. In the online marketing sphere, there are thousands of articles proclaiming why Twitter, Facebook and the like are "dead." While it may be more difficult to use these social media platforms to make a big splash than it used to be in the old days, that doesn't mean that you should eschew them altogether. It is essential to have a Facebook, Twitter and Instagram presence. However, it is also essential to create a wise strategy for your social media marketing efforts.

Use Social Media Wisely

The biggest mistake that any start-up business can make is to "spam" their social media accounts. The quickest way to alienate potential customers is to go overboard on your social media efforts. If you're sending dozens of Tweets an hour that are all saying the same thing, you're doing it wrong. Instead, put effort into Facebook posts and Tweets that offer the customer real substance or a great deal. Publish these statuses sparingly.

Invest in Promotional Gear

Until this point, you should have spent zero dollars on any marketing efforts. After all, Twitter and Facebook are completely free, even if they are somewhat saturated. When you're ready to actually write checks, promotional gear is an excellent use of marketing funds. These promotional shirts, key chains and other items are great gifts to give to clients and other businesses. People love getting "presents" and these t-shirts and other products serve as advertising for your business.

Create Video Content

As stated before, the social media sphere has become incredibly competitive in the past five years. While it's hard to stand out with simple statuses and blog updates, video content still has quite the fighting chance at putting your business on the map. Creating quality video content can really help to launch your start-up. This is also a great area in which to allocate funds. Remember when creating video content, however, to never "try" to go viral. Viewers can smell lame attempts to intentionally create a viral video from a mile away. Instead, create content that is organically and naturally appealing to the viewer.

Run Contests, Deals and Promotion

There's nothing that people love more than, to put it simply, free stuff. Although it can feel like quite the investment, running free product contests and dirt-cheap promotions can be a phenomenal way to drive customer buzz. This is the absolute best way to drive new consumers to your brand or product. Use your social media platforms and video content to promote these deals and contests. You can also encourage bloggers and vloggers to discuss your product for free by giving them samples and complimentary items.

Encourage Feedback and Foster Customer Dialogue

Your social media platforms should be a place where your customers feel free to speak to you directly about your brand or product. Encourage your customers to tell you exactly what they think about your product. While you may encounter some dissatisfied clients along the way, you'll also encounter people who love what you're doing. Posts and public feedback from satisfied customers are the absolute best way of making your company seem enticing to new customers.

Today, it's more competitive than ever for companies to make a splash in the online marketing world. However, if you follow these tips, you will soon learn that it just takes perseverance and creativity. Always pursue new marketing opportunities and speak to your customers like real, living people. If you manage your marketing efforts ethically and creatively, your start-up will see loads of new business and new opportunities for growth.

Author Bio

Bob Gorman is a freelance writer and a passionate blogger. He likes writing articles that cover small business, corporate business and home related topics. He has written numerous articles and contributed to several other blogs. When he is not writing, he spends his time with his four year old son and his wife Lana.

Contact Bob.

Hello Fellow Business Owners! 

Being a small business owner is exciting but it does come with challenges which seem daunting to overcome.  Luckily, we are all in the same boat and by sharing our learnings and ideas, together our small businesses can make a big impact.  After all, there are over 5 million small and medium sized businesses in the UK.

Let’s start off by keeping thing simple.  What technology is available to help small businesses overcome daily challenges such as productivity or security?  I have created this simple product glossary so you can see what is on offer from Microsoft, and what it actually does!  Many believe that Microsoft only provides solutions for larger organisations with lots of money. 

Well think again because Microsoft designs lots of technology solutions with small businesses in mind, providing enterprise class solutions, but at an affordable price.  But don’t just take my word for it, you can check out some of our inspirational small business customers who have used our technology to make a big impact in the UK.  For example, Pooch and Mutt, a healthy dog food business in the UK have used Microsoft Devices and Windows technology to grow their business, Vivobarefoot, who produce ‘barefoot’ footwear use Microsoft collaboration and security technology to stay connected with their team in China or what Grahams Family Dairy,  one of Scotland’s independent milk producers who use Microsoft Office 365 to boost agility and service so they can compete with multinational competitors -  pretty cool hey!

So, check me out and feel free to ask questions through twitter – my profile is @MicrosoftSB and I will be on hand to answer any questions you have using #BusinessBoffin.  Look forward to doing great things with all of you.