Well Done Jules!

Congratulations to Julie for completing her skydive on Saturday in aid of Action for Children.

As promised the pictures have arrived!

The weather was fantastic and the team celebrated her safe descent with a BBQ – the pilot even flew the plane over the garden as promised.

Thank you to all of those who sponsored Julie making us 37% closer to reaching our target. This is fantastic and very much appreciated.

We are now looking ahead to Byte Night on October 2, where all of the team will be sleeping rough for one night to experience what it is like to be homeless.

We are hoping this will allow us to reach our £3,000 fundraising target and make a big difference to young people across the region.

Action for Children has helped over 19,000 children in the North East over the past year and it relies on support from the business community to continue its work.

If you would like to get involved in Byte Night please click here and please also visit our JustGiving page www.justgiving.com/bond-solutions if you are able to sponsor us and help change the lives of children across the country.

Click here for more pictures of Julie’s jump.

Pete Clark completes the C2C bike ride

Well done to Pete Clark for completing the 138 mile Coast to Coast bike ride yesterday. Pete and 3 friends were doing the gruelling journey in aid of Action for Children and it was part of fund raising activities at Bond over the next 3 months.

The search for the next Bond Girl is over

Derek Curtis MD Bond pictured with Katie Dodds

The search for the next Bond Girl is over. 

Katie Dodds, 23, has beaten off stiff competition from other finalists in the Miss Sunderland beauty contest to be crowned Bond Solutions’ Bond Girl.

The Wearside business software solutions specialist picked Katie, from Cleadon Village, Sunderland, to represent its business after hearing Miss Sunderland had returned to the region after several years’ absence.  Seeing the call-out for local business support, Bond decided to back one of the girls through to the final, and hopefully all of the way to Miss England.

Katie, a teacher at Horndale Infant and Nursery School in Newton Aycliffe, County Durham, has modelled in the past and thought it would be a great experience to get involved in the competition.  Katie said: “I am honoured to be picked as the ‘Bond Girl’ and I hope I can make the company proud at the final. My friend was recently diagnosed with Leukaemia and I am trying to arrange a fundraiser to raise awareness of the disease. The team at Bond has said they will help me with this, which is fantastic.

“I haven’t told the children in my class that I am through to the final yet, but when I do I know they will all be very excited.  “I’m sure that they will have lots of questions about the contest and I can’t wait to see their reaction when I tell them.”

The grand final takes place on May 22 at the Stadium of Light and the Bond team will be at the event cheering Katie on.

Bond Solutions’ managing director Derek Curtis said: “We were very keen to support a local girl and cheer her through the final stages of the competition.

“I thought Katie was a great choice and I’m sure all of her students and fellow teachers will be very proud of her.”

Tickets for the final are available now and company sponsorship is still available for some of the final 24 girls – find more information at www.misssunderland.co.uk.

 

Sage Accounts and Payroll v11 Lifecycle Policy

As of 1 May 2009 Sage are implementing the 'Accounts and Payroll v11 Lifecycle Policy.'

What does this mean? 

Sage will be withdrawing support, updates and upgrades of v11 software in a phased approach. From April 2010 customers will not be able to directly upgrade v11 to the latest version of software and from April 2011 all support will be withdrawn.

Software included:

Sage Instant Accounts v11
Sage Line 50 Accounts v11
Sage Payroll v11

Offers & Campaigns to support the Lifecycle Policy, the following offers are available until 31 July 2009:

• Instant Accounts - 20% off Upgrade OR SageCover Extra - 12 months for the price of 10· PLUS 12 Weeks free E-learning AND 3 months of Legislation Manager
  
• Line 50 · 20% off Upgrade OR SageCover Extra - 12 months for the price of 10· PLUS 12 Weeks free E-learning OR 3 months of Legislation Manager.
• Payroll · 10% off upgrade OR SageCover Extra - 12 months for the price of 10· PLUS free Payroll Workbook OR 3 months of Legislation Manager.

Important Dates:
01/05/09 · V11 Lifecycle Policy Applies· New SageCover not available
31/07/09 · Offers End
05/04/11 · Payroll v11 Support Ends
30/04/11 · Accounts and Instant Accounts v11Support Ends

In the meantime, if you would like further information, call our office on 08700 434303 or email sales@bond-solutions.com.

Sage CRM and Internet Explorer 8

On Tuesday April 21 2009 Microsoft deployed Internet Explorer 8 via the Microsoft Windows Update service.

Sage CRM only supports the following browsers:

Microsoft Internet Explorer 6.x & 7.x.

We would advise customers to use versions 6.x or 7.x only of Internet Explorer however if customers are forced to use Microsoft Internet Explorer 8.0 it is highly advisable that they run Internet Explorer in 'Compatibility Mode' to prevent any issues with CRM occurring.

The following Microsoft Knowledge Base article details how to enable compatibility mode within Internet Explorer 8.0:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/956197/en-us 

Sage CRM will support Internet Explorer 8 from version 6.2c onwards.If you have any questions, please contact our support team on 08700 434 303.

Search for the next Bond Girl

A SUNDERLAND software specialist is on the look-out for the next Bond Girl. 

Bond Solutions is appealing to ladies across the region to enter the Miss Sunderland contest, which has returned to the region after several years’ absence. 

Bond will be sponsoring one of the finalists - who will also be given the title of Bond Girl - and backing her throughout the final stages of the competition where she will battle it out to win the title of ‘Miss Sunderland 2009’. 

Bond Solutions managing director Derek Curtis said: “It is great that the Miss Sunderland competition has returned to the region and we thought it would be a great idea to start the search for our very own Bond Girl." 

“As a Sunderland-based company, it’s important that we support local initiatives and all of the money raised on the night will be given to the Sunderland Foundation which is a wonderful cause. Miss Sunderland is open to girls across the country however the girl that we back will be from the region." 

“We will aim to drum up as much support for her as possible, as it would be great if she won the competition and went on to win the Miss England title.” 

Miss Sunderland is currently taking entries. Open auditions will be held on April 19 and the final will take place on May 22 at The Stadium of Light. 

The judges for the event include Emma Beard of Paris Hilton’s British Best Friend, Serenity in the City spa owner Jocelyn Maxfied and an SAFC footballer. 

Miss Sunderland’s event organiser Simon Robertson said: “It is great that we have Bond Solutions on board as a sponsor for the event. 

“Bringing Miss Sunderland back to the region has been a great experience and it is something that we have wanted to do for a long time. It is fantastic that local businesses are rallying round to support the event. 

“In total there will be 24 finalists, so we are urging other companies to follow Bond’s lead and back a girl to win the competition.” 

As well as automatically going through to the final of the Miss England competition, the winner will also win a modelling contract and portfolio with AM Models and car dealer Wearside Audi will give the winner an Audi A3 cabriolet for a week. 

All details for the competition, including how to enter, sponsorship packages and purchasing tickets can be found at www.misssunderland.co.uk.

Withdrawal of Support for ACT v7 and v8

Sage have recently issued a “Withdrawal of Sale/Support Policy for ACT! v7 and v8”.  This withdrawal statement basically outlines their declaration that Sage will no longer provide technical support or additional licences to any ACT! v7 and v8 users as of 31^st August 2009.

Sage are adopting this policy as ACT! v7 and v8 are now 3 and 4 years old respectively and are not maintained or tested on the latest operating systems.

Bond will continue to support our existing ACT! customers with our “In House” support contracts. This may however be limited without second line support from Sage, and as such, we strongly recommend a review of your present system to establish if an upgrade to a new version of ACT! would be beneficial to your company.

Please note that without an upgrade, you will be unable to purchase any additional licences for ACT! v7 and v8 as this facility is also to be withdrawn from Sage, with effect from 31^st August 2009. As a result, Sage are currently offering an extra 20% off the already discounted upgrade price to the latest version of ACT!  Please note that this offer from Sage is only available until 30^th April 2009.

Please contact us on 08700 434303 or sales@bond-solutions.com for further information.