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LSS becomes a registered data controller

28 May 2009

The software developer and Microsoft Gold Certified Partner Live Software Solutions (LSS), has registered with the Information Commission as a ‘data controller’.

Hatfield, UK - 28 May 2009 - This means that, under the terms of the UK's Data Protection Act, LSS can hold and administer databases.In particular, these databases can relate to:

• Staff administration
• Advertising, marketing and public relations activities for others
• Accounts and records
• Consultancy and advisory services
• Trading & sharing in personal information
• Research

James Boother, managing director of LSS, explained: “Becoming a data controller is particularly important for us with the imminent launch of our new service, ’Panning for Prospects’ – which harnesses the power of the internet to canvass users’ current contact lists and provide users with qualified sales leads from email marketing campaigns.”

LSS’s Panning for Prospects, is primarily aimed at the small and medium sized enterprises (SME) market. It allows users to upload their contacts - from a number of sources - into the software’s database, providing a way of centralising company-wide contact lists and preventing key sales-related information being ‘locked away’ in ‘information silos’.

Boother added: “Panning for Prospects could easily form the basis for a low cost but highly efficient CRM system.”

LSS:

• collects users’ data and runs each campaign,
• provides a daily list of prospects for users to follow up and
• provides a full analysis report at the end of the campaign, including updated contact details, prospect pipeline and referrals.

Boother said: “Consequently, we needed to become a registered data controller so that we could comply completely with the Data Protection Act – which, I am delighted to say, we do.”

For further details of Panning for Prospects visit www.panningforprospects.co.uk

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LSS helps gocompare.com in Welsh

31 March 2009

Arbenigedd technegol Live Software Solutions yn helpu Gocompare.com

Mae’r datblygwr meddalwedd ‘Live Software Solutions (LSS)’, un o bartneriaid ‘Microsoft Gold Certified’, wedi bod yn helpu datblygwyr ar wefan cymharu yswiriant blaenllaw Gocompare.com. Maent wedi ei helpu i wneud y gorau o’i buddsoddiad yn y sustem ‘Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 Team Foundation Server (TFS)’ - sustem meddalwedd sy’n galluogi rheolaeth ac adrodd nôl effeithiol ar draws prosiectau lluosog.

Esboniodd James Boother, rheolwr gyfarwyddwr LSS: “Daeth TFS i fodolaeth wrth i ddatblygwyr Microsoft ddarganfod nad oedd cyfnodau’r cylch o ddatblygu meddalwedd wedi eu hintegreiddio’n dda - pethau megis casglu gofynion, cynllunio pensaernïol, a chynllunio, adeiladu a phrofi meddalwedd. Roedd amrywiadau eithafol o safbwynt methodoleg, terminoleg, cyfrifiadau ac adrodd nôl.

“Felly, cynhyrchwyd y sustem ‘Microsoft Visual Studio Team’. Mae’r sustem cwsmer/gweinyddwr hon yn atgyfnerthu pethau megis ‘source code control’, rheolaeth prosiect, amgylcheddau adeiladu a phrofi, tracio eitemau gwaith, a thracio bygiau.

“Rydym wedi bod yn defnyddio TFS yn LSS ers tair blynedd, ac mae wedi profi’n amhrisiadwy”, dywedodd. “Dros y cyfnod hwn, rydym wedi datblygu tipyn o arbenigedd gyda’r feddalwedd. O ganlyniad mae ein cyngor ac arweiniad tu hwnt i’r hyn y gellir ei gael mewn unrhyw gyfarwyddiadur.”

Dywedodd Susie Bradshaw, pensaer sustemau gyda Gocompare.com: “Mae TFS yn fuddsoddiad sylweddol i ni. O ganlyniad roedd yn bwysig iawn fod ein datblygwyr wedi eu diweddaru am allu a medrau’r sustem.

“Treuliodd James Boother a’r cyfarwyddwr technegol Mike Goatly o LSS ychydig o ddiwrnodau yn ein swyddfeydd yng Nghasnewydd Gwent er mwyn darganfod mwy am fanylder TFS.

“Roedd eu gwybodaeth ardderchog a’u profiad ymarferol o TFS yn amlwg yn y sesiynau hyfforddiant. Roddent yn medru cynnig cymorth na ellir ei gael ond drwy brofiad ymarferol uniongyrchol o’r sustem.

“Yn Gocompare.com, rydym wedi creu gwasanaeth cymhariaeth lle mae ond angen i’r cwsmer rhoi eu manylion i mewn unwaith er mwyn cymharu dros 90 o gwmnïoedd cyn dewis lefel yr yswiriant,” dywedodd.

“Gall cwsmeriaid ddod i benderfyniad ar sail yr holl wybodaeth hyn, ac nid y pris yn unig.

“Mae hefyd gennym wasanaeth ‘five star rating’ sy’n dangos pa mor agos mae’r polisi’n cymharu gyda gofynion y cwsmer. Y mwyaf o sêr, y gorau yw’r gymhariaeth.

“O ganlyniad, ac o gofio cymhlethdod y sustem, mae’n bwysig ein bod yn cynnig rheolaeth ac adrodd nôl effeithiol ar draws prosiectau lluosog - dyma’r hyn y mae TFS yn ei gynnig i ni. Diolch i wybodaeth a chyngor ymarferol LSS, rydym yn cyflawni hyn er lles ein cwsmeriaid,” dywedodd.

LSS enters partnering agreement with Echelon

18 March 2009

LSS has agreed a partnering arrangement with Organisation development consultancy Echelon

Software developer and Microsoft Gold Certified Partner, Live Software Solutions (LSS) has agreed a partnering arrangement with Organisation development consultancy Echelon.

Under the terms of the partnering agreement, the companies will deliver a single client interface for systems development and implementation. The service will leverage Echelon’s expertise in business analysis, process improvement and training with LSS’s experience in software development.

The one-team approach will overcome the typical planning and communication issues faced when implementing IT change into the organisation.

Alistair Morrison, CEO of Echelon, explained: “We are joining with LSS to produce specific, high quality software solutions that deliver identified business benefits by being designed exactly to requirement and implemented efficiently for quick and sustained return on investment. This will see the combination of Echelon’s expertise in business and process analysis, procedure documentation and training with LSS’s competence in systems analysis, software design and development.

“IT affects every aspect of working life, offering competitive advantage on many fronts. New systems need to drive efficiency, speed and customer service.

“We believe that successful systems deployment requires that both the right system be designed and also that the organisation be properly prepared for its introduction,” he said.

LSS’s managing director, James Boother, added: “LSS and Echelon offer discrete but complementary services. Each company has impressive performance records and we share an ethos based on client satisfaction, quality and efficiency.

“We believe strongly that this partnering agreement will work to the advantage of both LSS’s and Echelon’s clients. In particular, this agreement enhances LSS’s skills set – giving us access to expertise beyond the ‘IT’ sector of business, allowing us to contribute to all areas of business development and profitability.”

Under the partnering agreement, Echelon and LSS will offer a ‘one-stop-shop’ providing consulting on organisational change; performance improvement; customer satisfaction; employee engagement; IT and systems advice. It will also provide software that drives business growth; simplifies business processes; improves productivity, economy and speed, and delivers a return on investment by swiftly gaining the confidence and buy-in of users.

The two companies will complete the holistic offering by providing training in the application of consequent revised business practices and workflow as well as in the use of the new system.

“We believe that the current economic climate is an ideal time to launch this partnering agreement,” said Echelon’s Morrison.

“Now is a good time for organisations to strengthen their procedures and processes to ensure that they are effective and efficient as they can be – and that their staff are using these to their fullest advantage. That will help these organisations provide a better customer service today and put them in the best position for taking full advantage of the up-turn in the economy as and when it happens.”

Echelon provides organisational development consultancy and servcies to a wide range of government, corporate, and not-for-profit organisations the NHS, T-Mobile and the Royal Town Planning Institute. LSS has specialised in developing and delivering software for the insurance and publishing sectors, and numbers leading insurance comparison website Gocompare.com and the publishers Bauer Consumer Media among its recent clients.

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LSS technical expertise helps Gocompare.com

13 March 2009

LSS has been helping developers at leading insurance comparison website, Gocompare.com, to make the most of its investment in Microsoft Team Foundation Server 2008

Software developer Live Software Solutions (LSS), a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner, has been helping developers at leading insurance comparison website, Gocompare.com, to make the most of its investment in Microsoft® Visual Studio® 2008 Team Foundation Server (TFS) – a software system that enables effective management and reporting across multiple projects.

LSS’s managing director, James Boother, explained: “TFS came about because Microsoft developers were finding that, within different projects, the phases of the software development life cycle - requirements gathering, architectural design, software design, software builds, and software testing - were not well integrated. Across projects, there was excessive variation in methodology, terminology, calculations and reporting.

“So, Microsoft produced the Microsoft Visual Studio Team System. This client/server system consolidates source code control, project management, build and test environments, work item tracking and bug tracking.

“We’ve been using TFS at LSS for over three years – and found it invaluable,” he added. “In that time, we’ve developed a fair amount of expertise in working with this software – so the advice and guidance we can give is beyond that which you would find in, say, an instruction manual.”

Susie Bradshaw, systems architect at Gocompare.com, commented: “TFS represents a substantial investment for us, so our developers needed to be ‘up-to-speed’ with all its capabilities as soon as possible.

“LSS’s James Boother and its technical director, Mike Goatly, spent a few days at our offices in Newport, Gwent, helping us to explore the finer points of TFS.

“Both of them were highly knowledgeable in the product and their real-world experience of developing with TFS really came across during the training sessions. They were able to provide us with practical tips and tricks that can only be gained with extensive hands-on experience of using the product.

“At Gocompare.com, we’ve created a comparison service where our customers enter their details only once and compare insurance products on a like-for-like basis so that they can choose the level of cover that they need from over 90 insurance companies,” she continued.

“Customers can make their decision based on the cover that is included, rather than purely on price.

“We also use a special five star rating service which indicates how closely the policies match the customer’s requirements. The more stars, the closer it is to what they've asked for.

“Consequently, given the complexity of our systems, it’s important that we achieve effective management and reporting across multiple projects – which is what TFS offers us. And, thanks to LSS’s knowledge and practical guidance, that is what we’re achieving – to the ultimate benefit of our customers,” she said.

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The LSS Partner Network

11 February 2009

Live Software Solutions launches computer industry network

Software developer Live Software Solutions (LSS), a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner which develops and delivers software for, among others, the insurance and publishing sectors, is expanding the range of services it offers to its clients by setting up a ‘trusted partner’ network.

LSS’s managing director, James Boother, explained: “Having developed software for specialists in a number of fields over the years, we realised that we could provide added value for all our clients if we could both publicly recommend those companies for whom we have the highest professional regard and do something practical to bring these specialist suppliers within the computer industry together with those who need their products and services.”

As a result, LSS has added a page to its website which lists those companies whose products and services it is confident to recommend. Chief among LSS’s initial partners are Microsoft, and Coeo, a company formed to provide Managed Support and Consulting for complex SQL Server environments in the UK and mainland Europe.

“We expect to add further specialist companies to our partner network over the coming weeks and months,” Boother added.

“Of course, we must make it clear that being named within LSS’s ‘partner network’ is not a commercial proposition,” he stressed. “No one can buy their way onto this list of recommended companies.

“Being a member of this network is purely at LSS’s discretion and depends upon meeting a number of quality-related criteria.

“We are happy to act as a virtual ‘business referral exchange’, putting those who need specialist computer-related services in touch with those who can help them,” Boother said. “That will not only help to ‘oil the wheels’ of trade and industry but should help to add value for our clients by providing useful information they might otherwise never find out.”

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LSS offers credit help to customers

29 January 2009

Organisations that need software written specifically for their business operations but are fearful of being able to fund this work in the current economic climate are being given an attractive alternative way of financing the work.

Software developer Live Software Solutions (LSS), a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner which develops and delivers software for, among others, the insurance and publishing sectors, is offering to get Microsoft to fund the development through the Microsoft Financing Scheme (MFS).

James Boother, LSS’s managing director, explained: “As long as the client passes a financial credit check – and wants to use Microsoft software, at least as part of the solution – then Microsoft will finance the development and the client has between 24 and 60 months to repay Microsoft.

“Some of our clients are finding that this is particularly helpful during the current credit crunch when traditional means of gaining credit – via the banks, for example – is proving difficult.”

Access to the MFS, which aims to make it easier for a business to buy Microsoft products, is only available via Microsoft’s certified partners – which include LSS.

“Unlike traditional financing, Microsoft Financing will finance 100 per cent of eligible Microsoft, third-party and ISV software, partner services, and hardware, with no hidden costs,” Boother continued.

“For our clients, Microsoft Financing provides simple, easy and affordable financing to help them acquire Microsoft licenses and IT solutions. For organisations that already license software from Microsoft, financing options are convenient and allow them to spread the costs of the software over an extended time period, thus preserving their precious cash resources.

“The benefit for us, as developers, is that it guarantees us funds and so we can concentrate on producing exactly the software that our client wants and needs,” he said.

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LSS helps nGage get to market on schedule

18 December 2008

OI Software initially outsourced the development of nGage to India but decided to bring the project back to LSS when they needed to add a high quality, sophisticated user interface. LSS helped to bring nGage to market on schedule.

Live Software Solutions (LSS), a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner which develops and delivers software, has helped OI Software to perfect its exciting new product, nGage. nGage is a rich, social application that integrates specifically with Microsoft Office SharePoint Server (MOSS) 2007, using and extending SharePoint's core functionality to transform the user’s intranet into a platform for universal employee engagement.

nGage with SharePoint enables, measures and celebrates:

• Leaders and managers being inclusive in inviting everyone in their team to be part of the solution to a challenge.
• People who enjoy making a difference.
• People who like to share their knowledge and their ideas.
• People who will always go that ‘extra mile’ when a colleague, partner or customer needs help.

Moreover, said OI Software’s CEO, Paul Henry: “It spreads this behaviour virally, around user organisations - even to the most cynical of individuals. nGage also gives leaders and managers powerful new tools to monitor and drive organisational, departmental, team and individual performance.”

James Boother, LSS’s Managing Director, explained: “OI Software had initially outsourced the development of this software to India but, for various reasons, it decided to bring the project back to the UK and contacted LSS.”

“Although our charges were – perhaps reassuringly – higher than those of the Indian software house, we allowed OI Software to bring nGage to market on schedule,” said LSS’s technical director, Mike Goatly.

OI Software’s CTO, Pete Denness, commented: “We initially engaged Indian software developers who did a good job getting the project started but, when we needed high quality, sophisticated user interface work added to the project, we turned to software development specialists LSS.”

nGage transforms SharePoint 2007–based intranets into measurably dynamic behavioural, communication, knowledge and talent management hubs. It does this by extending SharePoint’s out-of-the-box functionality with highly viral social networking features and rich support for generating and capturing ideas and innovation.

It then tracks every relevant use of SharePoint - such as checking in a document, publishing a blog and contributing to a discussion - as well as in nGage’s proprietary functionality, such as giving feedback; questions and answers; submitting an idea; rating someone else’s idea, and so on. This data is then available to be aggregated, analysed and published to the individual's 'My Profile' - defining that person’s reputation as an 'engaged employee' within her/his organisation.

Henry added: “Driving employee engagement is at the heart of how organisational intelligence – the ‘OI’ in ‘OI Software’ – can be captured and mined. Having been continually developing nGage for some time – latterly with help from LSS - we now believe that nGage is unique in driving and measuring employee engagement.”

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The LSS Christmas present of free software

11 December 2008

In the spirit of Christmas we are offering LiveDataScript free of charge

Live Software Solutions (LSS), a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner which develops and delivers software for, among others, the insurance and publishing sectors, has entered into the ‘spirit of Christmas’ by offering all visitors to its website a free utility, called ‘LiveDataScript’.

Mike Goatly, LSS’s technical director explains: “Software developers and database administrators alike often have the need to populate a database with a known set of data. LiveDataScript provides a quick and easy way to accomplish this for Microsoft SQL Server 2005 and 2008 by extracting existing data into a set of SQL insert statements that can be re-used time and again.”

LiveDataScript’s features include:

• Scripting multiple tables, a single table or selected rows from a table.
• Connecting to multiple servers, allowing you to script from different servers into one file.
• Scripting straight to a file, to the clipboard or to a new window.
• Scripting derived columns or even completely arbitrary SQL - scripts are not confined to the columns currently in a table.
• Scripting with identity insertion for tables that have identity columns

Tom Boother, LSS’s business development manager, explained: “In the ‘spirit of Christmas’ we want to help every friend of LSS spend more time focusing on their products and services by providing them with a utility that we have found invaluable at LSS.”

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LSS delivers online booking system for Brandspace

26 November 2008

LSS delivers online booking and reporting system for Brandspace. Surpassing their best expectations in just 7 months and creating a real asset for their company.

When Brandspace part of the Promotion Space Group, a leading provider of promotional space management, wanted to update its booking application system, it turned to software developer Live Software Solutions.

Tom Boother, business development manager at Live Software Solutions (LSS), a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner which develops and delivers software for, among others, the insurance and publishing sectors, explained: “London-based Brandspace works with property owners, agencies, retailers and top brands. It deals exclusively with several hundred venues in the UK.

“Its booking application system has some 20 internal users and over 500 external users. All of these users need to add data to the system – and all of this data needs to be analysed for management reports.

“When Brandspace decided to update its online booking system in order to maintain its leading position in the market, it asked LSS to develop a web based application with a number of levels of user interaction,” he said.

Completing the project in some seven months, LSS developed an application that allows customers and staff to book promotional spaces and follow a pre-exhibition procedure relating to legislative and internal systems documentation. Brandspace managers can now use the system to report on a number of processes – from bottom line sales to tentative bookings.

In addition to writing the application, LSS migrated data from multiple sources into a unified data store. This means that the application works from a single platform and this, in turn, offers various economies of scale which are reflected in improved efficiency.

Andrew Keiller, Brandspace’s Sales Director, commented: “Our new online booking system, built for us by LSS, will be an asset to the company.”

His colleague, Yolanda Lloyd, Operations Manager of Brandspace , added: “LSS took a highly active role in understanding what we needed. They have implemented something that has surpassed my best expectations – making a pleasant experience out of what could have been a stressful situation.”

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LSS becomes a Microsoft Gold Partner

11 November 2008

Live Software Solutions (LSS) has been awarded Microsoft Gold Partner status. Gold Certified Partners represent the highest level of competence and expertise with Microsoft technologies, and have the closest working relationship with Microsoft.

As a Microsoft Gold Partner, LSS has access to Microsoft’s resources and support including access to exclusive online content from Microsoft and savings on additional TechNet subscriptions and internal-use software licenses.

LSS’s managing director, James Boother, commented: “This is an enormous accomplishment for us to achieve Gold Partner status within four years of establishing the business. This accolade demonstrates our depth of knowledge and commitment to Microsoft Technologies.”

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James Boother Introduces TVPs

03 November 2008

James Boother spoke on Table Value Parameters at the UK SQL Server User Groups November Meeting

Databases play an increasingly important part in our business lives. Not only does business success increasingly depend on the quality of the databases we operate but also on those databases’ agility in being able to provide the right information as and when we need it.

And, when databases are corrupted – or stolen, as has happened a number of times in the past year with some ‘high profile’ public sector databases – both the operational efficiency and credibility of the organisation that owns them is called into question.

It was against this background that James Boother, managing director of software developer Live Software Solutions (LSS) addressed The UK SQL Server User Group (www.sqlserverfaq.com) at its October meeting at the Microsoft office in Victoria, London. James Boother was invited to speak at the event by Christian Bolton of Coeo, a company formed to focus on ‘deep-dive’ technical engagements to complement existing teams within Microsoft's customers and services partners.

The User Group examined SQL Server 2008 – the latest version of this popular database - and James Boother spoke on ‘the table value parameter (TVP) additions to SQL Server 2008’, taking a detailed look at how to use TVPs compared with the options available in previous versions of SQL Server (SQL Server 2000 and SQL Server 2005).

“SQL Server 2008, launched in February 2008, brought new features for resource management and better instance isolation,” said James Boother, who has been using SQL Server since 2000 in a variety of enterprise applications. “Making best use of these features is key to the success database development projects where customers want to maximise their investment in SQL Server.

“Understanding the metrics to characterise database and resource use, including transaction throughput, availability and security requirements, are just some of the factors that you should consider when determining the use of these new features.”

James Boother’s company, which holds Microsoft Certified Partner status, develops and delivers software for, among others, the insurance and publishing sectors.

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LSS Expands – Back To Its Historical Roots

30 October 2008

LSS has seen its business expand in recent months. That expansion has prompted it to move its headquarters from St Albans to The Old Forge in Hatfield Park.

“Not only does this move give us the extra working space and facilities that we need in order to meet our current commitments, it also offers us scope for even further expansion to meet orders which are in the pipeline,” commented LSS’s managing director, James Boother.

The Old Forge – complete with its exposed roof beams - comprises a distinctive and historic site for LSS’s new headquarters.

It is close to Hatfield House, a Jacobean mansion built on the site of the Royal Palace of Hatfield which, among other things, was the childhood home of both the future Edward VI and Queen Elizabeth I. Since 1611, it has been the home of the Cecil family and is currently the home of Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, the 7th Marquess of Salisbury.

Mike Goatly, LSS’s technical director, commented: ““In those days, the forge, or smithy, was the powerhouse of the economy. In many ways, software has taken over that role – so it’s appropriate that our company is now based in the Old Forge.”

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