A charity golf day which combined sinking putts with raising funds has been hailed as a resounding success after it collected £3,000 for two worthy causes. The event, which took place under sunny skies day last week, saw 65 guests take to the fairways at Branston Golf Club after they were invited along by telecoms and IT firm Invictus Group, based in Melbourne, Derbyshire, and Nottingham-based Ryley Wealth Management. The companies organised the event to bring colleagues and customers together after the long lockdown while raising money for two good causes, the Rosie May Foundation and the 1% Matters Fund, both of which the firms have supported for a number of years. The Rosie May Foundation was set up in memory of 10-year-old Rosie May, from Sheffield, who was murdered by a neighbour in 2003 and whose family now use her memory to raise money to help improve the lives of women and girls living in the UK and overseas. Invictus’s managing director Jonny McPhee has raised around for the charity over the years, with the money helping to fund its project to buy a fleet of pink tuk-tuks to act as female-operated taxis in Sri Lanka. Representatives from the charity brought on of the tuk-tuks along to the golf club for the day, using it as a drinks-delivery service for golfers toiling in the hot sun in return for donations. Nottingham-based Ryley Wealth Management’s owner, David Ryley, meanwhile, launched the 1% Matters Fund in 2015 in response to cuts to local authority budgets and their impact on the funding offered to charities. It is operated via the Nottinghamshire Community Foundation (NCF) and encourages people to donate 1% of their salary, with the money shared out between various good causes across Nottingham and the wider county. Jonny said: “The less said about the standard of some of the golf the better, but we had a brilliant day, with brilliant weather and a great turn out, which ensured we raised a lot of money for two causes which are very close to both mine and David’s hearts. “We’re very grateful to Branston Golf Club for hosting the event and for everyone who came along to support us. It was brilliant seeing the pink tuk-tuk and it was certainly kept busy bringing out drinks to the players all day long.” This press release was issued by Penguin PR. To find out more, contact Simon Burch by emailing simon@penguinpr.co.uk or by ringing 07735 397888.

There is no doubt that Microsoft’s Teams came into its own in 2020, when it became for many companies the go-to app for making and hosting video-calls. It’s fair to say that although Teams had been around for a while, its functionality and ease of us was something of a revelation for users who had doubtless seen the little purple people logo within their Office 365 package but had never really used it or knew what it was for. Our IT partners certainly spent much of the year helping companies to use Teams after supplying them with the Office 365 package and now that it has stepped into centre-stage in day-to-day company life, users are looking at what else it has to offer if they aren’t already using its chat and screensharing functions. We know this because we are having a lot of conversations about Teams now. It is an excellent product, because it’s easy to build into your 365 package and you get some elements of its for free, but when you start to utilise Teams as a phone system, that’s when the problems start. First of all, compared to other products, it’s expensive and the hardware is expensive. There are also many standard features that you get with other telehony systems that don’t come as standard with Teams, so if you want a comprehensive phone system then you are going to struggle. For example … And that’s when it’s working. If a company’s phone system goes down, which can happen, it’s a massive problem. You need someone on a support desk who can be responsive 24/7 and 365 days a year and Microsoft don’t have that. Instead, they ask you to send them an email. If you’re trying to run a business that’s not good enough and, for saying Teams is such a market leader, this is surprising. I’m not saying that Teams isn’t on the wrong track, just that it has about four or five years to make up on the others and, as a result, we would currently recommend choosing another option and keep Teams to video-calling for now.

You may not have heard about it in amongst the COVID-19 and Brexit news headlines, but big changes are coming in the telecoms world, with the switch-off of the Public Switch Telephone Network (PSTN) network scheduled for 2025. Why is this so important? Because it represents one of the biggest events in the history of the UK telephone system, with the millions of miles of copper telephone wire criss-crossing the UK being made redundant and being replaced by the fibre-borne internet, affecting the way in which companies and homes across the country communicate. It means that the traditional analogue voice service that we all grew up with – pips, dialling tone and all – will be obsolete in just four years’ time, along with everything else that relies on the telephone system, with the internet taking over. Here are FIVE facts about the big switch-off – and why your business needs to get ready. 1. The PSTN forms a large proportion of the UK infrastructure and supports traditional voice calls on a rented line, ISDN (Integrated Services Digital Network) as well as broadband products, lifts, alarms and card payment machines. These network services are provided by OpenReach, which then sells them onto third party providers who buy them on behalf of their own clients. 2. The PSTN has been used since 1876 and comprises of 192 million kilometres of network cable, 110,000 kerbside cabinets, and 4.9m telephone poles and junction boxes across the UK. This is all becoming too expensive to maintain while many of its skilled technicians are retiring. Instead, OpenReach is upgrading the lines to digital fibre services, sending communications via the internet rather than electrical wires. 3. Firms are likely to be most affected through their ISDN usage, either through ISDN2 or ISDN30, which allows them to receive concurrent calls at the same time. Companies which do have an ISDN line through traditional means will have to switch over to VOIP (Voice Operated Internet Protocol), which requires an internet connection, by December 2025. 4. The alternatives to ISDN include SIP which stands for Session Initiation Protocol, which allows you to conduct voice calls between different numbers of people via your IP address. Other alternatives are Hybrid Phone System, Hosted Phone System, IP Phone System, all of which offer varying degrees of control on how and where you host your phone system. 5. Companies will not be able to buy extra ISDN lines from September 2023, so anyone planning to expand their business – and increase the number of phone lines they use - should look at the alternatives now. In fact, everyone should review their telephone systems now, or as soon as possible, because the switch-over is such a huge undertaking – not helped by the COVID crisis – that they could instead find themselves caught up in any delays to the programme. Invictus Group can help you too, of course, so don’t hesitate to get in touch. We can assess your needs and give you the best advice as to how you can get ready for the big switch-over in three years’ time.

Fast-growing and multi-award winning triathlon brand HUUB are among the latest companies to benefit from telephony services provided by Invictus Communications. HUUB continues to expand its international customer base for its top quality collection of specialist swim, cycle and run clothing and equipment which is backed by scientific research and sported by both amateurs and Olympic champions alike. As part of the company’s growth, HUUB were keen to update their telephony system at their Derby headquarters to improve communications with their customers and international distributors. HUUB and Invictus Communications have developed a relationship through joint sponsorship of the Hannells Darley Park Concert, Team HUUB/Wattbike track cycling team and more recently to support emerging athletes through the Derbyshire Institute of Sport. Through discussions, Invictus Communications introduced HUUB to the wide-ranging benefits of installing the latest VOIP hosted telephony technology that provides free local, national and mobile phone calls. As well as the impressive cost savings, the telephony system logs all calls to create an efficient and effective customer service environment. Incoming calls automatically go to another extension if they are not answered immediately by the first port of call – ensuring that no calls are missed. Furthermore, with international business being such a crucial part of HUUB’s operations, individual extensions can be diverted free of charge onto a mobile number. Alternatively, any inbound out of hours and particularly international calls are automatically logged on a dedicated voicemail with details recorded and forwarded on email so that they can either be dealt with immediately or first thing in the morning. Dean Jackson, founder and owner of HUUB, said: “Good telephony systems are vital to any growing business but this system has also enabled us to improve the way we communicate with our customers and distributors both in the UK and across multiple international time zones. “The management information enables us to scrutinise the efficiency of in-coming and out-going calls so that we can improve the effectiveness of our customer service environment. “And, because the system is hosted on a cloud system with full service back up and disaster recovery, we now have full peace of mind in the resilience of the system. “With Invictus Communications, there was no initial outlay, the installation was seamless and we have fixed monthly costs which enables better budgeting for the business.” Team HUUB has four decades worth of experience gained in the field of endurance sports - focusing wholly on the athlete and maximising performance and comfort. HUUB wetsuits, clothing, accessories and goggles are worn by sporting stars such as Rio 2016 medallists Jonathan and Alistair Brownlee and Richard Varga (fastest swimmer in ITU triathlon) as well as paratriathletes Joe Townsend and Olympic Champion Jetze Plat; female athletes twice World Champion Helen Jenkins MBE, Yvonne Van Vlerken, Jess Learmonth, Sophie Coldwell, Georgia Taylor Brown, and Hannah Cockroft. The company also supports Gareth Thomas, Professor Greg Whyte and the young inspirational Bailey Matthews.

Leedale employs 80 people and provides services to local authorities, multi-national companies, developers and construction contractors across the UK. Invictus Communications were installed the latest VOIP telephony and broadband system – migrating the system over out of office hours to ensure minimal disruption.