Allied Office Machines and Hampshire Business Computers announce a strategic partnership

Allied Office Machines are delighted to announce a strategic partnership with Hampshire Business Computers, a leading IT provider in the Hampshire region.

Steve Drayson from Allied and Olly Ross from HBC and the team

This collaboration between Allied Office Machines and Hampshire Business Computers aims to combine their strengths and expertise. With Allied Office Machines’ extensive experience in office equipment and business process automation and Hampshire Business Computers’ proven capabilities in IT infrastructure, cybersecurity and cloud based phone systems, the alliance is set to provide exceptional value to clients.

“We are excited to join forces with Hampshire Business Computers,” said Steve Drayson, MD at Allied Office Machines. “This partnership allows us to expand our service offerings and provide a more comprehensive IT solution to our clients. Both companies share a commitment to excellent customer satisfaction and support for local community and  charities.”

Olly Ross, Sales Director of Hampshire Business Computers, added: “Partnering with Allied Office Machines is a fantastic opportunity to bring together our complementary skills and expertise. Our combined resources will enable us to offer a broader range of services and drive innovation in the technology solutions we provide.”

Picture: Steve Drayson from Allied Office Machines and Olly Ross from Hampshire Business Computers and the team

Supporting Romsey based children’s charity

We are delighted to announce Allied Office Machines are sponsoring a local charity Romsey Opportunity Group. Mavis Watts, the founder of Romsey Opportunity Group and Steve Drayson, MD at Allied Office Machines

Romsey Opportunity Group supports children under five with physical, emotional and sensory disabilities and their families in a play based setting.

The charity has been open since 1971 and continues to provide facilities for babies to pre-school children with special needs. It gives the children the opportunity to learn and develop through play, as well as provide information, support and valuable respite for their families.

The group is run by a committee and staffed mainly by a team of volunteers which meets twice a week on a Tuesday and Thursday morning between 10am-12pm at the Appletree Centre, Princes Road, Romsey.

The use of the building is provided courtesy of Hampshire County Council but they receive no other funding. Sessions are kept free thanks to on-going fundraising.

Steve Drayson, MD at Allied Office Machines, commented: “We are always happy to support a local charity and give back to the local community. The Romsey Opportunity Group is one of the few special needs centres in Hampshire where they cater for the youngest age group, zero to five years”

Sue Fisher,  Trustee & Volunteer at Romsey Opportunity Group, added, “ Allied Office Machines have kindly donated a printer/scanner which will help us produce our newsletters and run the administration side of our charity more effectively”

Software speeds up invoicing and payments

Based in Portsmouth, Window Warehouse is the south coast’s leading manufacturer of quality uPVC and aluminium windows and doors to the domestic and commercial sectors.

Allied Office Machines have been a trusted technology supplier to Window Warehouse for many years. The partnership has started with Allied providing printers and copiers and grew into supplying software solutions and cybersecurity.

When their previous delivery notes scanning system was no longer supported Allied recommended a software replacement GlobalCapture. This solution has a flexible licencing model which is also more cost effective and highly scalable, so it can expand into other departments.

The delivery notes are created with a barcode from the main system and printed. Once they are signed by the customer, they are scanned back into the system which completes the electronic document trail for each job. This enables the company to resolve any queries quickly and efficiently and speeds up invoicing and payments.

GlobalCapture® is a software solution that automates manual tasks and transforms documents into business intelligence.

Andy Bulcock, IT Manager at Window Warehouse explained: “ On Allied’s recommendation we have selected GlobalCapture to update our delivery notes scanning process. The next stage is to automate this process even further and replicate it all electronically. The proof of delivery will be completed via the drivers’ mobiles where customers sign for the job. The confirmation will be sent automatically into the system which means the invoice can be raised even sooner ”

Steve Drayson, MD at Allied Office Solutions added: “We are very happy to assist Window Warehouse in their digital transformation and provide the business technology they need to support their growing company.

Picture: Andy Bulcock from Window Warehouse and Frankie Girardelli from Allied

20 years and counting

Hampshire based Allied Office Machines are proud to announce they have extended their sponsorship of Winchester Rugby Club.

Allied Office Machines at Winchester Rugby Club

Allied Office Machines have been supporting Winchester Rugby Football Club since 2003 by donating multifunctional printers to help run the administration of the club.

Steve Drayson, MD at Allied Office Machines, commented: “We sponsor Winchester Rugby Club as we feel sport plays an important role in the local community and encourages young people to be more active. Especially in this digital age, where everyone spends too much time indoors on their devices. We wish the Club the very best of luck in this season and beyond”

Winchester rugby club continues to progress and currently runs four senior men teams, a ladies team and over 600 boys and girls in the age grade teams. They are supported by 150 volunteers who help to provide rugby for the benefit of the community. The 1st XV secured promotion last season as did both the 2nd XV and 3rd XV highlighting the strength in depth that has been developed over recent seasons. The 1st XV are now playing in the Regional 2 South Central League and as they enter the second half of the season stand 2nd in the table.

Robbie Sanderson,  President at Winchester Rugby Club, added, “Winchester RFC are delighted to extend their twenty year partnership with Allied Office Machines. Allied provide the necessary printing equipment for our increasingly busy club office and making life easier for our back room team.”

Picture L-R: Robbie Sanderson (President WRFC), Steve Drayson (MD at Allied Office Machines), Steve Barrow (Chairman WRFC)

The Rainbow Centre selects Allied Office Machines as their office technology supplier

Martyn Pegram from Allied and the children from The Rainbow CentreBased in Fareham, The Rainbow Centre is a charity supporting children and adults with neurological conditions such as cerebral palsy, Parkinson’s, MS and stroke and their families.

The Rainbow Centre has awarded their copier contract to Allied Office Machines.

Inigo Churchill, Operations Director at The Rainbow Centre explained: “We were signed up to a long term contract which was expensive and difficult to terminate. Our main requirements were to maintain the same level of printing and scanning capabilities for less money and have a transparent and flexible contract. We went out to the market and selected Allied Office Machines. Dealing with them was very simple and easy. We liked the fact they were a small local company who provide a premium service.”

Steve Drayson, MD at Allied Office Machines added: “Allied Office Machines are an ethical family-run business where we pride ourselves on providing the best advice and solutions to all our customers. Our initial recommendation after reviewing the exiting contract was to  leave it to run a little longer, as there was a significant cost associated with terminating it. However, we are now delighted we can provide The Rainbow Centre the technology support they need so they can concentrate on helping their clients. Our consultant Martyn has even signed up to run the London marathon to raise funds for the Centre.”

Photo – Martyn Pegram from Allied Office Machines and the children from The Rainbow Centre

Allied Office Machines help WRES to automate their scanning process

Dorset based WRES is a privately owned company with a heritage spanning more than fifty years. They combine the established traditions of value, service and workmanship with today’s latest technologies to manufacture precision fabrications and sheet metal components.

 In the manufacturing process, hundreds of work orders and delivery notes are generated every week. In line with their ISO certification, these documents need to be signed by the operators on the shop floor during production and stored within their business system. This was a manual, labour intensive task where all documents had to be individually scanned and manually linked to a customer record on the system.

There was a team of people storing the paperwork using small scanners on their desks. This had to be completed as well as their other day to day duties which often lead to backlogs, at times up to three months’ worth.

 After a review, ControlSuite from Kofax together with a Ricoh IMC4500 multifunctional copier was proposed as a solution.

Westley Hamar, Director at WRES, commented: ” Prior to installing ControlSuite software our finance team spent hours each day scanning in signed work orders and delivery notes. Now the whole task takes minutes. They just scan the documents in a batch, the software reads the barcodes and stores it into our system. The team is delighted they no longer need to complete the old labourious manual process.”

 

Steve Drayson, MD at Allied Office Machines, added: ” At Allied, we always try to add value for our customers and offer a solution that really fits their needs and ultimately improve the efficiency of the way they work. After our consultant visited WRES it became clear that we would be able to automate part of their scanning routine, saving the company time and money whilst making their work order process more effective. We are very pleased with the result.”

Photo – Westley Hamar from WRES and Steve Drayson from Allied Office Machines

Allied Office Machines have been supporting Southampton Special Purpose Workshop for the last ten years

Southampton Special Purpose Workshop (SSPW, www.sspw.co.uk) is the longest established private and independent day service provider for adults with special needs in Southampton. It was founded in 1993 by Jim Parker as an alternative to the traditional day services. The main workshop in Portswood is divided into four areas: woodwork, garage, craft and a canteen. The group also includes a farm in Durley and a shop in Woolston. 

SSPW always tries to find meaningful, useful and enriching activities for their clients. To help with one of these activities, Allied Office Machines donate all their old photocopiers to SSPW. The clients take part in the whole process where they come and collect the copiers, load them onto a trailer and take them back to their workshop. Here the equipment is stripped down and all metal components are prepared for recycling while the clients learn about the different types of metal and copier parts. Once completed, all the metal parts are sold to a scrap yard. 

This generates an income for the recreational fund, which is used to fund trips to museums and other fun activities chosen by the service users.  

Sean Parker, Service Manager at Southampton Special Purpose Workshop, commented: “We have been proud to provide the day service for the last twenty-five years and many clients rely on us. It was very difficult with Covid where we had to close our doors. We still offered doorstep visits, phone calls and activity packs as our service is vital for some of our vulnerable clients. It is great to be fully open again and provide the full range of services which enhance our clients’ lives.” 

Steve Drayson, MD at Allied Office Machines, added: “We are very happy to donate our old equipment to SSPW. It’s reassuring to know that the old upgraded equipment is not only put to good use but is also fully recycled and helps to fund the worthwhile activities for the clients of SSPW.” 

Photo – Jamie Paulton from Allied Office Machines and SSPW team

Window Warehouse boosts their cybersecurity and protects their business from ransomware

Based in Portsmouth, Window Warehouse is the south coast’s leading manufacturer of quality uPVC and aluminium windows and doors to the domestic and commercial sectors.

Many large corporations spend millions on cybersecurity and still get attacked by cyber criminals, their private data encrypted, stolen and used for ransom. Experts agree that it is no longer a question of if, but when you get targeted. A business needs to take every precaution they can in building strong perimeter and end point defences, however, they also need to plan for when there is a breach and how to manage it. 

Andy Bulcock, IT Manager at Window Warehouse explained: “We are always looking at ways in which we can strengthen our cybersecurity defences. Since ransomware attacks have become more frequent across all business sectors, we knew we needed to invest in an effective solution which would neutralise this specific threat. As a business we have grown in size in the last few years and now have more users to protect. After extensive research we have selected RansomCare which was implemented by our technology partner Allied Office Machines.” 

RansomCare(RC) is a cost effective and easy to install solution from BullWall. It is an innovative, last line of defence software which protects your confidential data against ransomware attacks from any user on any device. It provides a complete 24/7 containment solution. 

Steve Drayson, MD at Allied Office Machines added: “Allied Office Machines have been working closely with Window Warehouse for the last ten years in supplying and maintaining their printers and copiers. We view our relationship with all our clients as a long-term partnership to understand the business and add value. Supplying another layer of protection to their cybersecurity will help to safeguard their company for the future.” 

Photo – Remi Cake from Window Warehouse and Martyn Pegram from Allied Office Machines