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Royal Bank of Scotland Copy

Headline: Teamwork Produces New Business First

Main Text:

The first ever silver hedge for RBS Group has been traded by Commodities in conjunction with RBS International’s Corporate Treasury Solutions on the Isle of Man.

"Customers often don’t realise that banks can do this sort of thing - especially on the commodities side", said Mary Maginnis from Isle of Man Corporate Treasury Solutions. "But we bring expertise from the vast experience of all aspects of corporate finance for many different kinds of business over many years".

"The Bank can offer things such as wrapping different areas of financing together - typically in something like a silver hedge we might wrap foreign exchange exposure and commodities exposure together in one package".

"This deal shows how important it is to get out there and keep in close contact with all the RBS customers. It was a conversation at a customer function the subject came up. We delved a bit deeper and told the customer RBS had a commodities section".

"Our local Isle of Man presence and the price, service and level of professionalism impressed the client and a new channel of business for RBS was forged", said Mary.

The silver is used in the making of kettle elements by the world’s largest manufacturer. They traded 2680 kg of silver at a fixed price for the year 2007 to iron out fluctuations in world silver prices to stabilise forward costs of manufacture.

Ends

228 words

Headline: Achieving their goal in Gibraltar

Main text:

RBS teams scored an incredible winner when they organised a unique football match in Gibraltar.

Forget pub teams, RBS managed to get 14 former Liverpool legends to play in the friendly match against mostly ex-Gibraltar footballers. Big names attracted to the Rock included European Cup Winners Jimmy Case, Phil Neal and Bruce Grobbelaar.

More than 3,000 spectators – a huge chunk of the Gibraltar population – turned out to watch the International Legends Charity Match, which was sponsored by RBS International Personal Banking division and RBS Corporate Markets.

Head of the Gibraltar Corporate Team Marvin Cartwright said: "We invited key customers and guests to watch the game, before taking them for dinner in the evening.

"For our guests, it was an opportunity to enjoy a unique event, and to meet some real footballing legends. For RBS, it was a chance for our people to spend some real quality time with key clients to further strengthen relationships."

The event, staged in October, attracted huge publicity for RBS on the island and netted more than £30,000 for the Research into Childhood Cancer charity.

And the score…2-0 to the men from Anfield.

Ends (185 words)

Headline: Getting to Know the Customer

Main text:

Little did RSB client Andrew Herbert, Finance Director of Domino Printing Sciences PLC, realise that he would come out of a business meeting with Jon Bramwell of RSB East Anglia with a commitment to a sponsored charity bike ride from London to Cambridge.

"Getting to know the customer better by spending some quality time towards a shared objective which is nothing to do with business really strengthens the relationship between RSB and the client and helps maintain the business link", says Jon Bramwell.

"We agreed it would be nice to do something together to raise money for charity", said Jon. "Both Andrew and me being keen cyclists we persuaded ourselves to do the 50 mile London to Cambridge bike ride and raised about £500.

" I got more than I bargained for because Andrew was a bit quicker than me so I spent most of my time looking at Andrew’s back", Jon said.

Ends

154 words

Headline: Innovation Wins Business

Main text:

Banking mandates from long established Barclays customers have been won by RBSI Guernsey as a result of the innovative, professional and positive approach adopted by the Guernsey commercial team.

"NatWest Guernsey Premium Banking had opened personal accounts for the Co owner of a long established property company and advised us of the potential business banking. A meeting was set up within 24 hours", said RBSI’s Rob Girard.

Working with Relationship Director Scott Philpott and Offshore Corporate Credit, an innovative revolving credit facility was put in place within a short timeframe.

"Whilst Barclays quoted a lower price, the flexibility and reaction time of RBSI and the relationship teams approach in winning the confidence of the client in their ability to deliver were viewed as critical factors. The deal was completed in two weeks and a strong relationship based on innovation and delivery established" Said Rob.

The second win from Barclays within 10 days was Channel Islands Media business ‘The Image Group’, who felt they were not getting the service from Barclays they expected and called Rob Girard after remembering a conversation ten years previously.

"Key factors in winning the business were RBSI’s professional added value relationship approach, with in depth strength of the relationship team and knowledge of the local markets" said Rob Girard.

ends

214 words

Headline: Funding Global Growth

Main text:

Norfolk food company Lakeside Food Group has been able to expand it’s business even faster with a new £9.1m funding structure from RBS to help it buy, import and store ready prepared foods as it carries on increasing it’s turnover by an estimated 30 per cent this year.

"Providing working capital to business is an essential service RBS offer", says RBS Corporate Director Bob Annable. "Without it modern commerce would slow down to a snail’s pace.

"With the immense amount of RBS experience gained over many years of understanding and managing corporate finance for a wide variety of business activities we can also offer access to financing expertise to our clients which they would not have themselves", Bob told Reach.

"We are very happy with the funding structure provided by RBS. Bob’s team was able to provide us with sound advice and an imaginative approach. With the facilities now in place, we can concentrate on our global growth strategy over the next few years", said Lakeside Finance Director Graham Edwards.

The Lakeside Food Group was set up in 1989 by Michael Masters and Mark Taylor to buy ‘value added’ food products from around the World through supply contracts in Asia, South America and Eastern Europe.

It supplies own brand products for supermarkets Tesco, Iceland and Morrison as well as its own Lakeland and Foxwood brands. Lakeside Food Group is also increasingly selling to Western European countries and recently expanded into Australia and the United States. Global expansion continues with more international offices in the pipeline.

Ends

258 words

Headline: £3m RBS Investment in School Grounds

Main text:

The largest ever private sector investment in school grounds saw RBS completing yet another playground improvement project in June at the Montgomery Primary School at Sparkbrook, Birmingham.

It was all smiles as the ribbon was cut to officially open the brand new Quiet Area, specially designed and planted for the children as part of the £3 million Supergrounds programme developed by RBS to improve more than 450 school grounds throughout the country.

Chris Hyde and Tom Senior from RBS Corporate Banking in Birmingham nominated Montgomery Primary because they were involved in the school.

"As a parent myself I know what a difference a playground like this makes to the lives of children and I’m really proud that the bank, through Supergrounds, has turned Montgomery Primary School’s dream into a reality", Chris Hyde Said.

Head Teacher at Montgomery School, Olga Owen, said " We are so pleased to have Chris, Tom and their colleagues from RBS working alongside us, as their continuing commitment to the school via Supergrounds is most impressive. Supergrounds has been a most successful and rewarding project".

The Royal Bank of Scotland Group spent £40 million on its community investment programme last year, which is one of the largest in Europe.

Ends

206 words

Headline: Time for Local Community

Main text

Giving time to something that benefits the local community saw six members of RBS East Anglia running in the ‘Chariots of Fire’ relay race through the streets of Cambridge on Sunday, September 24th.

RBS team members were Jon Bramwell, Steve Murray, Phil Green, John Everett, Nick Taylor and Duncan McCunn. A total of £533 was raised by RBS for the East Anglian Air Ambulance new helipad at Addenbrooke’s Hospital, which relies totally on voluntary donations.

"We felt we could do our bit and give up our own time for something that benefits the local community because RBS is part of that community", says Steve Murray. "RBS can be seen to be involved and it also helps us improve business opportunities".

"The RBS team may not have come first, but they certainly didn’t come last either ! Let’s just say they came respectably somewhere in the middle of the field with a very creditable time of 1 hour 22 minutes", said RBS team member Steve Murray.

The ‘Chariots of Fire’ race was founded fifteen years ago and consists of relays of 1.7 miles for each member of a six man team.

Ends

192 words

SAM - MICROSOFT - BUSINESS INSIGHTS PUBLICATION

SOFTWARE ASSET MANAGEMENT - AN INTRODUCTION

What is SAM ?

Dramatic cost savings in IT budgets are being completely missed by the majority of UK businesses according to research by many industry analysts.

With a proper Software Asset Management policy in place Gartner Research estimates as much as 30 percent savings can be made on IT assets during the first year followed by between 5 percent and 10 percent annually. Other business analysts such as the Butler Group and IDC reach similar conclusions.

What is Software Asset Management or SAM ? Software is an asset just like any other business asset and needs to be managed to get the most out of it says Ram Dhaliwal, Licensing Programmes and Marketing Manager at Microsoft UK. A good business manager doesn’t ignore other, more tangible assets, and software assets shouldn’t be ignored just because they are intangible, Dhaliwal explains.

‘SAM delivers one really important thing - which is getting maximum value from the software investment. It then delivers three key benefits’, says Dhaliwal.

- Overall reduction in costs of management issues. More control so you only buy what you actually need to use.

- Increased security and improved patch and upgrade management .

- Overall costs savings.

Senior Research analyst at The Butler Group, Mike Azoff, says Small to Medium Enterprises (SME’s) haven’t readily embraced SAM because it is mostly thought of as simply a tool for software licensing compliance and they are too busy to worry about yet more administration when they would rather grow the business.

‘They don’t realise there are other advantages of SAM too’ he says. ‘ Efficiency and productivity can also be improved and this translates into an improved return on investment. A SAM policy will invariably pay for itself’, he says.

Surprisingly, Gartner estimates that globally only about 10 percent of businesses have a SAM policy in place.

But in September 2006, an anonymous survey at the Gartner IT and Software Asset Management conference revealed that 35% of clients had experienced an on-site audit from a major software vendor. Gartner reports this trend accelerating In the short term.

Without a SAM policy to provide transparency and control the complexities of software licensing, more businesses will find themselves in expensive trouble with compliance issues they had no idea existed. SME’s are particularly vulnerable, according to industry analysts.

‘Over expenditure on purchasing software licenses that are not required at all - a complete waste of money which eats into company profits - is also extremely common, Butler Group analyst Mike Azoff says.

‘In the SME market it is quite typical for the IT department to have a folder with a few sheets of paper in’, he says.

‘They put SAM at the bottom of their list of priorities because it seems easier. But licensing is also too complex to rely on bits of paper. SAM can tell you everything you need to know about what software you have in the organisation. You may have software with 50 licenses but only 10 of them are being used’, says Azoff. ‘Or another software with 20 licenses which are overused. SAM will allow you to rationalise your licenses and provide what is really needed for your business’.

Because SAM starts by establishing the known software in your IT environment, the SAM tools will pick up other software that is running and flag them to the administrator who can find out if it is licensed and how often it is used and so on.

This also includes Virus software. This will be detected in the SAM auditing process and can be removed, improving IT efficiency and business productivity.

Duplication of software - where different departments are using the same software and there are more licenses than are needed - will also be picked up using SAM. Significant rationalisation can often be achieved in this area.

A typical example of a small enterprise encountering the usual range of software asset managing problems is Chilfen Joinery of Hertfordshire.

Established in 1960 as a small family run manufacturing organisation, it specialised in traditional joinery. Today the company is a much larger concern with an annual turnover of 2.6 million. They employ at total of 53 people, 12 of whom are office based.

As the company grew Chilfen hastily added more PCs and employed a design specialist who worked with AutoDesk’s AutoCAD software package. During this transitional period there was still no one on site managing IT usage. Profits were up and the business was getting bigger, but unfortunately their control over IT assets was struggling to keep up.

A distant relationship with an offsite managed IT service provider and a lack of staff on site with knowledge of software asset management (SAM) left Chilfen Joinery unwittingly in breach of copyright law.

‘Our server was also being very erratic – there were so many problems with our software and general IT network Something had to be done’, a senior Chilfen manager reports. Our server had not backed up 3 weeks’ worth of data, so if a server failure happened we would have lost tens of thousands of pounds in man hours, money and possibly, even clients. Now as an integral part of the SAM policy in place it is monitored and backed up every day.

Following a SAM audit, a whole server re-build took place. A host of unauthorised programmes were found to be lurking on the system, along with several viruses.

All these problems were sorted out when a proper SAM policy was implemented for the first time. SAM has also given Chilfen a fresh approach to the use of IT within the business, making it more efficient and providing a strategic advantage over rivals who fail to manage their software assets with a SAM policy says Chilfen.

ENDS

951 words to here

MICROSOFT - BUSINESS INSIGHTS

NEXT STEPS

Research by Business Analysts Ovum have found the single biggest IT concern quoted by 30 percent of SME’s is managing costs. Staying on top of technology changes was quoted as the second biggest concern by 18 percent of SME’s.

"Software costs are among the most misunderstood and poorly managed costs in IT organisations. Advanced Software Asset Management begins with cost modelling to identify long term costs as well as the risk exposure associated with licensing software", according to Gartner Analyst William R. Snyder.

CEO Lisa Hammond of Centrix, independent business and IT consultancy specialising in advising on SAM, says this makes Software Asset Management more vital than ever.

"Because a lot of SME’s do not have dedicated IT personnel they find it more challenging to get a grip on SAM. They view hardware as an asset but tend to ignore software as it is not visible".

"Centrix has found that for every 5000 people in a large organisation you can save £2 million a year by implementing a SAM policy. That equates to £400 per user and I would say it scales down exactly through to small and medium size enterprises too. Of course implementing SAM with an approved partner specialising in SAM provision is desirable, Lisa Hammond says, But it is now much easier to go down the DIY route as well".

"The new ISO standard 1977-1:2006 introduced last year is very pragmatic and the introduction says good practice in SAM should result in the following benefits".

a) Risk management: SAM should facilitate the management of business risks including:

1) risk of interruption to IT services;

2) risk of deterioration in the quality of IT services;

3) legal and regulatory exposure;

4) risk of damage to public image arising from any of the above.

b) Cost control: SAM should facilitate cost control including in the following areas:

1) reduced direct costs of software and related assets, such as by negotiating better pricing through improved use of volume contracting arrangements, and by avoiding purchasing new licenses when old ones can be re-deployed;

2) reduced time and cost for negotiating with suppliers because of better information availability;

3) reduced costs through improved financial control, such as through better invoice reconciliation and more accurate forecasting and budgeting;

4) reduced infrastructure costs for managing software and related assets, by ensuring that required processes are efficient and effective;

5) reduced support costs which are significantly affected by the quality of SAM processes, both directly within IT and indirectly within end-user areas.

c) Competitive advantage: SAM should help the organisation gain competitive advantage through the following:

1) better quality decision making because of more complete and more transparent information availability (for example, IT procurement and system development decisions may be made more quickly and more reliably with better quality data);

2) being able to deploy new systems and functionality more quickly and reliably in response to market opportunities or demands;

3) providing IT which is more closely aligned to business needs, thus ensuring that all users have access to appropriate software and applications;

4) being able to handle the IT aspects of business acquisitions, mergers or de-mergers more quickly;

5) better personnel motivation and client satisfaction through having less IT problems.

The basic steps for setting up SAM are quite simple really, says Hammond. They are:

1 - Make a list of all hardware devices

2 - Note how each machine is set up (is it attached to a network or not ?)

3 - Find out what software is on each machine. This can be done either manually or by using a software inventory tool to do it automatically.

4 - Locate whoever is responsible for buying software

5 - Find all the license documentation and proof of ownership.

6 - Compare your software inventory with your licence records.

7 - It should now be easy to see if and where your business is over or under licensed from the final spreadsheet.

"The first thing you have to do to get the SAM process going is to centralise all software records in a definitive software library", Lisa says.

- Centralise software purchase and distribution

- Appoint a Software Asset Manager

- Get company wide acceptance of SAM process

- Set policies and procedures

- Audit current software usage

- Create software asset management database

- On going management

Alan Cross, Head of SAM Solutions at Microsoft Certified partner and software reseller, Grey Matter says, "IT Managers typically see needing licensing help as a failing and they will

be criticised for needing third party help. But, as our client Southampton Football Club (Saints) has discovered, that is simply not the case. There shouldn’t be a stigma attached to such a relationship as its all about being proactive and maintaining control".

The Saints IT department of four supported a vast infrastructure that encompassed about 40 different systems such as point of sale, CCTV, audiovisual and TV distribution, and turnstile monitoring access. More than 100 staff relied on the IT infrastructure.

The club was already well versed in carrying out regular manual audits, generally when a work experience student was on site. The student would visit each computer on the many different sites to check the software actually installed matched the records held by the club.

The SAMwise remote asset sniffing software tool AssetSearch supplied by Grey Matter replaced the student and removed the disruption and loss of productivity physical visits to each computer caused.

"I was amazed at how in depth the audit process was", says Saints IT Manager Mark Wierzbicki. "It would have taken us weeks of manual auditing to achieve the same level of detail", he says.

"I was expecting lots of disruption, but there wasn’t any. Within one day it had all the audit data", said Mark.

954 words

Nicholas Windrum

Freelance Journalist

Telephone: 01403 262330

Email: nickwindrum@btinternet.com

MICROSOFT - BUSINESS INSIGHTS

OPINION

CHANGE OF ATTITUDE NEEDED

‘It has now become absolutely critical for all business enterprises to radically change their attitude to managing their software’ , says Julie Strawson, Chair of the UK division of the World-wide Business Software Alliance in 2006-2007 and European Marketing Director of Monotype Imaging.

‘The penny is beginning to drop as people discover it costs more not to manage your software assets than to invest whatever it takes in implementing a proper Software Asset Management (SAM) policy. We have seen an increase of 85 percent of software vendors reporting a rise in SAM enquiries ’.

‘Even smaller enterprises now use software so much more than previously for nearly every

business activity the whole issue of software management has come to a head’, Julie Strawson says. ‘IT managers are tired of running around trying to fire fight endless problems just to keep everyone on-line and able to continue working’.

‘The BSA has found many small companies of 12 - 20 users have often never had a focus on their IT infrastructure. They have never looked at what might affect the workforce. Their workers often don’t have access to the most recent software programs and are not using the right software for the job. This must change for enterprises to function efficiently and legally in what is an increasingly complex and demanding software environment’.

‘One example which illustrates how SAM can improve IT systems I came across recently was a publishing company with 11 000 different fonts, each one of which required licensing. When they put a SAM policy in place and analysed what they really needed they discovered they only required 3000 fonts. Straightaway they reduced their licensing requirement by about 70 percent’.

‘I think organisations are finally beginning to realise the real benefit of software to their business. They have made the first bold move away from things like drawing boards, for example, and use computerised systems like autoCAD instead. They now need to support that software more because users are becoming less tolerant. People expect their software to work seamlessly every minute of every working day’.

‘If that isn’t happening a lot of pressure builds up in an organisation and it is generally felt by the IT manager or whoever else is in charge. These managers are starting to look for ways of alleviating that pressure and solving those problems. That is why SAM is becoming elevated on the business management agenda’.

‘SAM is becoming part of corporate governance too and is mandatory in the Unites States where the Sarbane - Oxley legislation of 2002 has enormous implications for software management and can lead to criminal penalties for running unlicensed software. Under the Sarbane - Oxley act CEO’s are responsible for the security, accuracy and the reliability of the systems’.

‘It is a matter of time before similar legislation comes to Europe and there is already discussion among the legislators of the EEC about how best to regulate the software market’, Julie Strawson adds.

‘The UK is already leading the way with a new International Standard for SAM - ISO 1977-1: 2006 introduced by the The British Standards Institute in May last year. It is already being revised and improved and a newer version is currently being reviewed for publication later in 2007. BSi is the World's leading standards and quality services organisation’.

‘The new ISO standard makes it easier for even small organisations to just go online and for a very modest cost download a comprehensive template telling them how they should be managing their software and implementing SAM controls to give that all important transparency to the IT system - so the organisation actually knows what is really going on’.

‘There are huge security risks associated with downloading cheap software which often bring viruses into the organisation. I recently came across a small business with two viruses in its server, and so they were serving out viruses to their own workers’.

‘It is a false economy to buy cheap software because all these issues add to the cost of managing the software’ Julie Strawson explains.

‘At the same time these organisations haven’t engaged with the vendors properly to get the right program which adds value in the long term. They miss out on added value services vendors provide with software’.

‘Most companies don’t go out of their way to be illegal and non-compliant, so I think getting that resolved and having transparency in the organisation and actually knowing what is going on on your IT system is a great benefit and a great weight off management’s mind ’, Julie Strawson adds.

‘There is a lot of quite unintentional use of unlicensed software because employees load company computers with unauthorised software when they take them home. Consultants of all kinds are being used more frequently and they come in and deposit software all over the place as well’.

‘The annual BSA Global research study undertaken in conjunction with IDC shows that 35 percent of business software in Western Europe is illegal and the figure for the UK is 27 percent’.

‘That is an horrific number because if you compare it with retail goods, for example, only 1.3 percent are pirated. When you see the amount of publicity fake goods get all the time you begin to realise what an enormous issue it is for the software industry with a figure more than twenty times greater for pirated software than the figure for fake retail goods’.

‘A 10 point drop in the rate of piracy in the UK from 27 percent to 17 percent would translate into 33874 jobs in just four years and contribute £18.9 billion to the UK GDP. That’s significant’, says Julie Strawson.

Ends

936 words

Nicholas Windrum

Freelance Journalist

Telephone: 01403 262330

Email: nickwindrum@btinternet.com

Nicholas Windrum

Freelance Journalist

Telephone: 01403 262330

Email: nickwindrum@btinternet.com

My own board

Rabu, 20 November 2013

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