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News Archive - 2009
| 22/10/09: |
 After 11 months with us, we bid a very fond
farewell to Harry yesterday. He has now gone to join other budding guide dogs for his advanced training.
By the time he left, Harry had grown into a very special young dog with a lovely character and will be sorely missed by the whole Netmetix team.
An example of his kind nature was demonstrated yesterday morning just before he left when Selina took him for a final trip into Nuneaton. Harry is
normally quite animated when anyone makes a fuss of him, but while he was out, he met a severely handicapped young girl in a wheelchair. As Harry walked
past her, she saw him and reached out her hand to him. Harry immediately stopped right next to her wheelchair and let her pat his head. The young girl
beamed with delight and Harry licked her hand before walking on. It was as if he recognised that there was something special about this girl that required
something different to his normal boisterous response.
We are confident that Harry will make the grade and become a loved and invaluable life companion to his
eventual visually impaired new master.
He goes with our love and best wishes.
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| 9/10/09: |
 After
extensive in-depth testing and evaluation, Aeroflex, a global leader in
test and measurement and communications technology with UK locations in
Stevenage and Melbourne, have selected Riverbed and Netmetix as their
chosen platform and partner for the optimisation and acceleration of
their wide area network.
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| 2/9/09: |
 Leading local Accountancy firm, Burgis & Bullock have implemented Riverbed technology in order to provide staff at their Nuneaton and Rugby offices
with access to centralised line of business applications at their Leamington head office.
This will ultimately allow Burgis & Bullock to provide a range of new
value added services to both new and existing clients.
Riverbed works by, amongst other things, drastically reducing the amount of traffic across a wide area network and tests at Burgis & Bullock show that
traffic between their three offices has been reduced by around 98%, which has had a huge positive impact on application performance.
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| 1/9/09: |
 Although we don't yet have a fixed date for when Harry will leave us, we do know that it is getting close. We were
expecting him to go later this month (September), but we were told that Guide Dogs have their full allocation for this month, so it is likely to be
October now.
Whilst Harry was very cute as a small puppy, he is actually more rewarding to have around the older he gets. His basic training is coming along
very well and he can generally be trusted to behave himself in most situations. He now has a blue coat with "guide Dog in Training" on it for when he
is out and about, which is intended to let people know that he is busy and shouldn't really be approached, but it actually seems to have the opposite
effect and draws attention to him like bees to honey.
The one thing that won't be missed though when he goes is the hairs. It is possibly the Retriever in him, but he is
moulting with a vengeance and leaves
hairs wherever he goes.
Although we will be very sad to see him go, we are very confident that he will make a superb guide dog and become an invaluable life companion for his
eventual visually impaired owner.
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| 28/7/09: |
 We are delighted to announce that Netmetix has been appointed as a Cisco Select Certified Partner and a Cisco SMB
Specialist.
These accreditations by Cisco, the global leader in unified IT communications, identify Netmetix as the area's
only certified specialist in these technologies.
Netmetix has met all requirements for achieving Cisco Select Certification and has demonstrated that it is
qualified to sell, install, and support Cisco solutions.
Cisco has a market leading range of integrated solutions covering network systems, collaboration, security, storage
and voice and video communications.
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| 19/6/09: |
It's been an eventful few weeks for Harry. Earlier this month he was booked into the vets for
neutering. All guide dogs are neutered apart from those earmarked for breeding, but they don't
then go on to become guide dogs. Harry was a bit sore and subdued for a few days, but he was
soon back to his former buoyant self and it doesn't appear to have changed his character at all,
in spite of our fears that it might.
As already mentioned, Harry is an "In Memory" dog, which means that someone has made a very generous
donation in order to name him and to pay for his upkeep and training during the
first year. Last week, Harry's sponsors got to meet him for the first time and it was a special
occasion as Harry is named after the sponsor's deceased father.
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| 8/5/09: |
Members of the Netmetix sales team have achieved the Riverbed Sales Accredited Professional
accreditation. This is a certification exam set by Riverbed to demonstrate the highest levels
of product knowledge by those who achieve it.
In addition to the Sales Professional accreditation, they have also achieved the Riverbed
Cascade Specialisation accreditation and were the first in the UK to do so. Cascade is Riverbed
Technology's advanced network and application performance analysis and reporting tool, which
provides fully detailed monitoring and analysis of end-to-end network traffic.
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| 8/4/09: |
Harry has just undergone his latest progress test by a Guide Dogs for
the Blind trainer, which involved a train journey and going up and down
in a lift, and passed comfortably. The only
comment being that he was a little too "stout", which will easily be
corrected before his next test.
Whilst for the most part, the basic
training for a Guide Dog is pretty much the same as for any well trained
dog, there are some subtle differences in preparation for his or her
intended duties.
Walking "to heel" generally requires the dog's
shoulder to be level with the owners leg. However, for a guide dog that
will be wearing a full harness, it needs to walk slightly further ahead
with the rear legs nearer to the owner's legs.
Most dogs are only too
keen to get their noses into their food bowls, often before it has even
touched the ground. However, for a Guide Dog, it must sit and wait
patiently until given the commend to eat. This is normally three short
"peeps" on a dog whistle. In fact, many pet dogs would benefit from this
particular discipline.
It is also required that a Guide Dog can wee
and poo on command. This helps ensure that it won't be distracted by a
call of nature whilst out with its owner.
Some of this may sound
rather complex and difficult to achieve, but in reality, is actually
pretty simple and straightforward and requires nothing more than a
little patience and a little help from the GDftB trainer. |
| 27/3/09: |
 Although Birmingham based Central Accident Management
Services Limited are, as their name suggests, specialists in accident management, they couldn't
afford any accidents when it came to implementing their new IT network. That was why they chose Netmetix to specify, implement and
support their IT systems.
Terry Ford, a Director at C.A.M.S. was adamant that the new
systems must not impact on their ability to support their clients:
“Central Accident Management strive to always make their customers happy, this is an ethos
we found prevalent at Netmetix. We are not an IT company and as such our IT knowledge is limited, we found Netmetix to be both
compassionate and educating to our needs.
IT can appear at times to be a minefield but with the clear navigational skills of its Management and staff, Netmetix always
steered us on the right course.
At no time did I ever feel compelled to opt for a more expensive item, I always felt I was purchasing the right equipment for
my needs.
We have also opted to have support as our infrastructure is paramount to us and our clients, We feel secure in the knowledge
that Netmetix will always keep our IT in tip top condition.” |
| 26/3/09: |
 Harry is starting to look less like a puppy and more like a dog now and is developing a real character
of his own.
Basic training is coming along very well and he can generally be
trusted to behave himself while out. We fenced off and slabbed a small
area of the garden for his "toilet" area, which he now uses without
prompting and he will also relieve himself when instructed to do so.
This gives us much more confidence that we aren't going to get a repeat
of the "Tesco incident" when we take him out. It also means that the
rest of the garden is kept clean.
Harry is a sponsored guide dog,
which means that someone has very generously paid for his full upkeep
for his first year and he is named after a departed family member. In
the coming few weeks we will be taking him to meet his sponsor and it
will be nice for them to see what their donation is doing. |
| 24/3/09: |
Leading local Accountancy firm, Burgis & Bullock have confirmed their ongoing relationship with Netmetix.
Burgis & Bullock Partner, Sean Farnell said:
“We appointed Netmetix last year to rebuild our existing servers and manage our network,
which incorporates regional offices as well as our head office. Having taken the decision to change
suppliers, I am delighted that since the move we have experienced a level of performance and reliability
that has been unsurpassed in our experience.
Netmetix not only provides day to day network administration, but also detailed advice and support in
planning our IT systems for the future. Our customers demand the highest levels of service from us and
we are able to rely on Netmetix to help ensure we fully meet our customers’ expectations. Netmetix have
proved to be knowledgeable and reliable and we trust them to liaise directly with our software suppliers
over any technical issues regarding installations and upgrades.
I wouldn’t hesitate in recommending Netmetix to any company, large or small, whether they were satisfied
or not with their current service provider.” |
| 20/3/09: |
We are very proud to announce that following rigorous testing, the first of our technical team have now
achieved the Chartered IT Professional accreditation.
Chartered IT Professional (CITP) is the hallmark of a true IT professional. Achieving Chartered IT Professional
status demonstrates that we practise the highest professional information technology standards.
CITP is a professional credential that demonstrates both competence and a commitment to keep pace with advancing
knowledge and the increasing expectations and requirements of the profession.
This further demonstrates our commitment to provide the highest levels of technical competence along with
continued improvement. |
| 30/1/09: |
Harry has now settled into his routine of coming into the office every day and is also getting a little more
freedom to walk around other areas of the building now that he can be pretty much relied on not to leave any "surprises".
He is growing so quickly and is now 4 times the size was when he first arrived as a 7 week old puppy.
General training is going very well and he now walks well "to heel".
One of the benefits of having a guide dog is that he can be taken
into places where dogs wouldn't normally be allowed, like shops,
restaurants, museums etc. However, you do need to be on constant alert on these occasions
because Harry isn't yet beyond the occasional indiscretion as Selina found to her embarrassment when she took him to a large local supermarket
and he left a "deposit", which had to be hurriedly cleaned up. One of the things you quickly learn, is that you should always
carry "poo" bags with you. |
| 28/1/09: |
Dytecna, a leading UK design innovation company for the military and industry have joined forces with Netmetix
to optimise the performance of the corporate wide area network through the deployment of Riverbed Steelhead appliances. |
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22/10/09:
Final Harry Update.
9/10/09:
Global technology manufacturer selects Riverbed after thorough testing.
2/9/09:
Local Accountants, Burgis & Bullock expand client services capability with Riverbed.
1/9/09:
Harry Update.
28/7/09:
Netmetix appointed as Cisco Select Partner and SMB Specialist.
19/6/09:
An eventful few weeks for Harry.
8/5/09:
Netmetix sales team become Riverbed Sales Accredited Professionals.
8/4/09:
Harry Update.
27/3/09:
A successful IT implementation is no accident, as Birmingham based Central Accident Management Services discovered.
26/3/09:
Harry Update.
24/3/09:
Leading local Accountancy practice reaffirms their commitment to Netmetix.
20/3/09:
Netmetix Engineers become Chartered.
30/1/09:
Harry Update.
28/1/09:
Leading military design innovation company team with Netmetix to optimise their WAN with Riverbed.
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