Congratulations Panel Graphic Ltd. of Loddon on the successful certification of their quality system by BSI to the updated ISO 9001: 2015 standard.
Back in March, Panel Graphic determined that their quality system needed a shot in the arm to meet the needs of their ever expanding blue chip clientele. They are the leaders in the field in the provision of design, manufacture and improvement of protective and contrast enhancement front windows and panels for electronic information displays, and optical quality coatings for plastics.
Being Chamber members they scanned the Chamber directory for a local specialist in quality. They found John Campbell, a Norwich based consultant, with success in this area, and an action team was born.
After six months of planned improvement actions, The British Standards institute (BSI) awarded Panel Graphic Ltd. the certificate to the international quality management requirements standard ISO 9001: 2015.
This well respected certificate indicates that Panel Graphic Ltd. have a robust structure in place to give their discerning clients confidence in their products and services.
FLYBE SUMMER ’17 SUN ROUTES FROM NORWICH NOW ON SALE
Flybe, Europe’s largest regional airline, has today (6th October 2016) put on sale the first phase of its 2017 Summer schedule that includes the return of popular sun routes from Norwich to Alicante and Malaga that will both operate twice weekly. Seats can be booked now at www.flybe.com with one way fares from £49.99 including taxes and charges and currently available for travel between 27th March and 13th August 2017.
Flights to Alicante operate on Tues/Fridays with those to Malaga on Monday and Thursdays.
The year-round flights returned earlier this year following the announcement of a partnership between airport owners Regional & City Airports (RCA) and Flybe that resulted in one of Flybe’s E195 118-seater jet aircraft being employed to service both routes.
Flybe, Europe’s largest regional airline – 218 routes serving 10 countries from 75 departure points, 40 UK/35 European airports* (all routes on sale May’16 – Apr’17); operates more UK domestic flights than any other airline (UK CAA May’15 – Apr’16); one of only two UK-based carriers in top 20 global airlines punctuality league table by OAG (Jan ’16) and named top UK airline for punctuality in report issued by UK consumer watchdog Which? (Dec 2014); named ‘Best Short-Haul Airline’ at the 2016 Business Travel Awards (Jan ’16); is the largest scheduled airline by air traffic movements at Belfast City, Birmingham, Cardiff, Exeter, Isle of Man, Jersey, Manchester, Newquay and Southampton airports (UK CAA Apr ’16); operates fleet of 76 aircraft – 51 Bombardier Q400, 9 Embraer 195, 11 E175 & 5 ATR 72s; codeshares with BA, Air France, Etihad, Finnair, Aer Lingus, Cathay Pacific, Emirates, Virgin Atlantic, Air India and Air Berlin; has three franchise partners, Loganair, Stobart Air and Blue Islands making it only UK airline brand with 70% coverage of reporting airports (UK CAA Apr’16); has own globally recognised Training Academy in Exeter with flight deck and cabin crew simulator facilities, 26 classrooms and 150-seat conference facility.
East Anglia’s Children’s Hospices (EACH) is very excited to invite you to the inaugural EACH Gala Dinner at the Natural History Museum on Wednesday, 30th November 2016.
The dinner will be hosted by EACH and Sir Martyn Lewis and will take place in the beautiful setting of the Hintze Hall at the heart of the Natural History Museum. It will be attended by more than 350 guests from East Anglia, London and around the world, including many of our supporters, a number of our ambassadors and patrons, and a host of celebrity guests and will include a surprise performance Ed Sheeran and will attract global press coverage.
EACH supports families and cares for children and young people with life-threatening conditions across Cambridgeshire, Essex, Norfolk and Suffolk. Our family centred approach includes specialist nursing care, symptom management support, short breaks, wellbeing activities, therapies and counselling; all meeting the individual needs of the child, young person and family. Due to high demand and restricted facilities in Norfolk, we have launched a fundraising appeal to deliver a new purpose-built hospice, called .
Since its launch in November 2014, supported by our Royal Patron, HRH The Duchess of Cambridge, has secured £3.5 million with a further £6.5 million needed to make this much-needed facility a reality. We hope the Gala Dinner will bring in £500,000 for . We rely on donations for the majority of income, with your help we can transform the lives of children, young people and families. Your support is vital.
We have a variety of sponsorship, advertisement and table packages that can be tailored to what you need including using the your logo and advert in the EACH Gala Dinner brochure and on our website.
Fountain Partnership Limited are a digital marketing company based in Norwich, established in 2008. With a team of experts, Fountain are able to identify a company’s growth opportunities and build a customised strategy for the best results and command market share. Their strategies drive browsers to client’s websites, increasing opportunities to convert browsers into customers and then increase customer value by testing and measuring. In order to do this, they specialise in the optimization of search engines and conversion rates, as well as pay per click advertising. In order to do this, Fountain uses a combination of pay-per-click advertising, search engine optimisation and conversion rate optimisation.
The problem Fountain were faced with was a time consuming one. When advertisements needing changing or updating it was a painstaking process. They had to upload a new set of adverts from a spreadsheet, going through each one manually to pause all of the old adverts in order to make room for the new ones. it would take days in some cases.
“What was taking 20 hours of work is only now taking an hour.”
Naked Element were chosen to build a script which would allow Fountain to manage one of their largest clients in Google AdWords, saving time and ultimately money. This particular client currently had 75 individual accounts. What the Fountain team were doing to update these was logging into an account, creating the new adverts, then log out of that account, then log into the next one 75 times over!
So what was Naked Element’s solution? In simple terms a script was created that allowed the user to specify AdWords accounts, campaigns and ad groups and then to enter a search, replacing each with a phrase or word. When running, the script would look through all of the ad groups in the campaigns specified and would copy the ads found with the search phrase, update the field with the updated phrase and pause the previous ads.
For example: A client has a campaign called ‘Car Sales’ with three ad groups – blue, red and black. Within those groups there are ads with the description “newest model”. The search phrase “newest model” is entered, followed by the update phrase “drive away today” and the script is run. All of the previous ads with “newest model” will be paused and replaced with the new ads containing the phrase “drive away today”.
“By developing this software to improve process efficiency, Naked Element has saved us four weeks worth of work per year!” said Laura Jennings, Strategic Director at Fountain. “The script they built us is saving up to 95% of our processing time. What was taking 20 hours of work is now only taking an hour – a big saving. ” When software produces such immediate benefits, the advantages are clear.
“The process of working with Naked Element was really straightforward, they tried hard to extract the correct information from us. Lewis, the developer, came out to see us several times. Documentation was also really easy to understand.” The only issue Fountain had was during the creation of the script, as it didn’t always work quite as expected. “However Lewis was quick to identify and resolve the problems. It was never too much trouble to sort out an issue and assistance was always available via telephone.”
KLMUKE’s Finance Department were busy baking over the weekend so they could take part in MacMillian Cancer’s Worlds Largest Coffee Morning, they did a great job and raised £237 for the charity. Many thanks to all the bakers for the tasty cakes!
The Enterprise Centre at the University of East Anglia (UEA) was named Best Corporate Work Space and “Best of the Best”, the most highly-rated of all winners, at the British Council for Offices (BCO) awards ceremony at London’s Grosvenor House last night (4 October). The judging panel of the BCO, the country’s leading forum for the office sector, commented that the involvement of local tradespeople and use of local materials and extensive recycling has produced a building that Norfolk can be proud of. The Enterprise Centre is one of the UKs most sustainable buildings and a leading hub for entrepreneurs, innovators and businesses that are committed to creatinga low-carbon future. It offers flexible work space and has achieved a near 100% occupancy – chiefly SME and start-up businesses – since opening in June 2015, helping it to become one of the region’s most successful green business centres. Tenant Michael Stiff, from Michael Stiff Animation, said: “The Enterprise Centre is a fantastic place to work. The variety of business based here is growing rapidly, creating a brilliant environment for us to grow.”
The Enterprise Centre also hosts exhibitions, events and conferences, with facilities including a roof-top terrace, 300-seater lecture theatre, seminar and meeting rooms. Fergus Rolfe, Team Manager for The Enterprise Centre, said: “We’re delighted to have been successful in two categories of these highly-prestigious awards. The building is already award winning but this recognition, from an organisation solely concerned with excellence in office space, is particularly exciting. Our building truly is inspiring and innovative, so we were delighted to have been successful alongside quality competition.”
Adapt Low Carbon Group that manage The Enterprise Centre will be exhibiting at the B2B Exhibition come and visit us on Stand 72 to find out more about this exciting workplace and venue.
As a partner in the Future50 business growth programme for Norfolk and Suffolk, UEA hosted the inaugural F50 Live conference at the Enterprise Centre on 22 September.
The conference was attended by delegates from Future50 member companies, representing sectors from computing to catering and energy to education, including UEA alumni company Lambda Films, and Iceni Diagnostics, a spinout company based on the research of Professor David Russell, from the School of Chemistry.
UEA Vice-Chancellor Prof David Richardson opened the event, speaking of the part that UEA plays in helping the region’s growth and how businesses help the University to develop its entrepreneurial activities.
Keynote speaker Josephine Fairley, co-founder of Green & Black’s, spoke about her business journey, and the ethical side of entrepreneurship, explaining how “doing good is good for business”.
Robert Jones, Brand Consultant at Wolff Olins and UEA visiting professor (who established the popular Brand Leadership Masters course) gave delegates an insight into how to develop a successful brand and integrate it into all activities.
Lynn Walters, founding director of Pure Resourcing Solutions, spoke on the importance of recruiting and retaining the right people for the job and the organisation, emphasising diversity, succession planning and creating an engaged workforce as key success factors.
Martyn Jackson, Group CEO of Injury Prevention and Rehabilitation Services Group, shared his experiences of transforming a business facing collapse, into a successful and profitable one overcoming people management issues and difficult decisions.
Future50 recognises Norfolk and Suffolk’s most innovative companies, seeking out the region’s ‘ones to watch’ and driving to accelerate their growth ambitions through business advice, networking opportunities and access to grant funding. The programme is funded by the Government’s Regional Growth Fund, and delivered by Nwes and Archant, with partners Barclays, Birketts, Lovewell Blake and UEA adding ongoing support throughout.
Future50 is one of several business initiatives in the region that UEA supports. To find out more about opportunities for collaboration, visit www.uea.ac.uk/business.
A financial comparison site developed in Norfolk is now competing with the country’s top household names after being shortlisted for the prestigious Website of the Year Award.
Reflection PR is supporting its client Knowyourmoney.co.uk to challenge nationally renowned comparison sites such as moneysupermarket.com and confused.com.
The Norwich-based company was set up by three entrepreneurs who built up their digital media expertise while working for online agencies, Google and insurance company Aviva.
Knowyourmoney.co.uk users can compare the details of current accounts, business banking, loans, mortgages and breakdown cover. The site aims to simplify financial product information to enable clear comparison for consumers.
Their experience, tenacity and decision to remain independent from bank or insurance company ownership has paid off – www.knowyourmoney.co.uk has now hit 400,000 visits a month.
As the number of knowyourmoney.co.uk users continues to grow towards half a million each month, the website has achieved national recognition by being shortlisted for Website of the Year Award.
The Know Your Money team is asking for support from across the region to push knowyourmoney over the line in this national competition. Votes can be cast from October 3rd – 11th November.
More than 70,000 visitors passed through the breakdown cover comparison tables last month, making Know Your Money one of the largest comparison sites for breakdown cover in the UK.
This success has been attributed to the strong partnerships with brands such as The AA, The RAC & Green Flag as well as the introduction of a simple to use comparison table.
Know Your Money’s Breakdown Channel Manager, Jamie Wright said: “Keeping on top of search trends and a close handle on what people are actually looking for on search engines such as Google and Bing, along with excellent brand partner relationships and a well-optimised site, has enabled us to deliver sustained growth in this channel”
Head of Business Development Mike Jones hopes to replicate the great results from the breakdown cover campaign into the recently launched credit card channel and is keen to continue the growth as the website expands and further staff are employed.
“Knowyourmoney.co.uk was started as the team believed we could offer consumers a clear and straightforward comparison service, where customers can save time and money.”
“Over the last three years we have grown into a comparison site capable of competing with the big household brands for premium positions within Google. The Website of the year award is a real opportunity for the team at knowyourmoney.co.uk to gain national recognition for the fantastic effort they put in.”
More than 30 business people attended the launch of North Norfolk District Council’s Coffee Means Business networking event organised by Genix, the business engagement specialists.
The first networking event was held at North Walsham on 23rd September. These monthly, informal events give businesses the opportunity to chat over coffee, make new contacts, gain knowledge and inspiration.
North Norfolk District Council has appointed Genix to organise and host Coffee Means Business in the North Norfolk area as they could see there is a need for a regular networking opportunity for businesses which didn’t involve expensive membership fees.
North Norfolk District Council has appointed Genix because it is a not for profit organisation which, for over 20 years has been supporting businesses. In Norfolk Genix provides, free business advice sessions for established businesses and start-ups, subsidised business skills courses and events for ambitious small businesses and self-employed people.
Cllr Nigel Dixon, Cabinet Member for Business and Economic Development said: “It was a good informal session and a chance to hear directly from companies in our region; I’d encourage other businesses to get involved and come along to the next session on the 20 October at the Red Lion in Cromer.”
Alex Till, Chief Executive of Genix said, “It was fantastic to have so many businesses attend Coffee Means Business. We’re very grateful for the support of North Norfolk District Council who understand the importance of helping businesses to grow ensuring future employment and apprenticeship opportunities for the area and increasing the prosperity of the county.”
Gary Parker hosts Coffee Means Business and commented, “My thanks to our sponsor, Ruth from Different Dimensions who demonstrated why having a website that is user friendly and designed for the right target market will bring more sales for a business. Ruth’s examples showed what happens when we get it wrong and how Different Dimensions can provide the information a business needs to ensure its future customers buy from them and not a competitor.
“Genix aims are to support business growth in Norfolk and Coffee Means Business provides businesses with an informal, friendly environment in which to network, establish new business contacts and make sales.”
Coffee Means Business will next be held on Thursday 20 October at The Red Lion Hotel, Cromer from 9.30am until 11.30am. There are no membership fees, just £2 towards coffee payable on arrival and booking isn’t essential.
Norwich’s growing cycling culture has taken another step forward as leading cycle courier company Outspoken Delivery has added a second tricycle to its fleet. The new cargo trike is the first from UK manufacturer Iceni Cycles, unlike previous trikes that were purchased from Europe.
Outspoken’s German-made trike is already a common sight around the centre of Norwich quietly delivering hundreds of parcels every week and helping to reduce the number of delivery vans. The second trike is set to add to the 6,000 miles alreadytraveled in 2016 and expand the areas of the city covered.
Cargo tricycles carry the weight of three people in goods ranging from printer paper to supplies for hair salons, motorcycle parts, window displays and everything else. The Iceni trike has a number of innovative features including T45 aircraft-grade steel for strength and lightness, vital for the hills in Norwich city centre.
Richard Jennings of Outspoken Delivery Norwich said:”Email has meant that there are fewer documents moving around the city, yet the number of parcels is growing. We are moving from two-wheeled bikes that can carry 60kg to three-wheeled trikes that are similar to a small van but unlike a van they are emission free.
“We work our trikes hard every day so it’s great to collaborate with a British manufacturer to produce a strong and reliable machine. Our couriers have really taken to the Iceni trike.”
“We saw a gap in the market for a nimble, lightweight tricycle that could be used by a family to carry children or by courier companies, ” added Iceni Cycle’s Clare Emery. “We’ve designed in an electric assist option for heavier loads and longer journeys. We’re excited to see one of our first trikes on the streets of Norwich.”
Algorithms are everywhere. Our children are even taught about them at school, but have you ever found yourself wondering what an algorithm actually is? Maybe you’ve thought they’re something used by computers and created by computer programmers, but don’t really know what they are?
The dictionary defines an algorithm as:
“A set of rules for solving a problem in a finite number of steps.”
Algorithms come in all shapes and sizes. They can be extremely complicated, but they can also be very simple and easy to understand.
Examples of more complex algorithms include those used to price financial products in a bank or to determine the best route between two points in a satellite navigation system. Simpler algorithms include those used to sort lists of numbers, such as Bubble Sort.
Bubble Sort
Bubble Sort is one of the easiest algorithms to understand. As its name suggests, it’s an algorithm used for sorting. Often the easiest list of things to sort are numbers. Bubble Sort works by comparing each number in the list to the number next to it and swapping them with each other if the numbers are in the wrong order. This process is performed again and again until a pass over the list requires no swaps. At this point the list is sorted. Knowing when to stop sorting the list is just as important as knowing how to sort the list. As we know when to stop (when a pass has no swaps), Bubble Sort can be used for lists of any size.
The easiest way to demonstrate Bubble Sort is with a simple example. Take the list of numbers:
3, 2, 1
We can use Bubble Sort to reverse the list. The first time we pass over the list the first two numbers are 3 and 2. 3 is greater than 2 so we swap them over:
2, 3, 1
Next we compare 3 and 1. 3 is greater than 1, so we swap them over:
2, 1, 3
There are no more pairs of numbers to compare on this pass and there were two swaps (3 & 2 and 3 & 1) so we pass over the list again. The first two numbers on the second pass are 2 and 1. 2 is greater than 1, so we swap them over:
1, 2, 3
Even though we have successfully reversed the list, we’re not finished. Next we compare 2 and 3. 2 is not greater than 3 so we don’t swap them. There are no more pairs of numbers to compare on the second pass and there was a single swap (1 & 3) so we pass over the list again.
1, 2, 3
The first two numbers to compare are 1 and 2. 1 is not greater than 2, so we don’t swap them. Then we compare 2 and 3. 2 is not greater than 3 so we don’t swap them. There are no more pairs of numbers to compare on the third pass and there were no swaps so we’ve finished and successfully reversed the list.
Sorting Algorithms in the Real World
Bubble Sort is taught to trainee software engineers as it’s easy to understand and implement. However, it’s rarely actually used in the real world as it’s inefficient and there are other more efficient sorting algorithms, such as Quicksort, which are only a little more difficult to understand implement.
Sorting occurs in all sorts of systems in the real world. One example is in the software used to sort mail into the order a postman will deliver it as he walks along his round. Postcodes and other address elements are read into the system and sophisticated algorithms used to sort the mail into the correct order.
The next time someone mentions algorithms to you, remember it’s a set of rules for solving a problem in a finite number of steps.
A European leader in the regional jets & narrow body aircraft market and having an internationally acknowledged expertise on the BAe146/Avro RJ, Fokker 70/100, Boeing 737 & Airbus A320 Family, KLM UK Engineering has extended its services to include the Embraer 170/190 Family to meet the growing demands from its customer base. This latest offering compliments the existing portfolio at KLM UK Engineering’s facility, where it can maintain 5 lines of heavy maintenance, provide onsite workshop support and operates a technical training college delivering Part147.
Peter van der Horst, Managing Director – “We are delighted to be adding the E170/190 to our heavy maintenance portfolio and will provide a competitive rate, high quality product & short turnaround times to both existing and new customers. We have been delivering line maintenance support for a number of years on the Embraer product and will start our first heavy checks inNorwichwith the KLM Cityhopper Fleet starting in October”.