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At Ripped Orange we helped organisations across New Zealand get the most from their software systems. While doing this we have trained in some great locations, including: Gold Mines Coal Mines Lime Mines Gyms Abattoirs Prisons Dairy Factories Last week we moved from land based training to on the water training.  We were lucky enough to provide some personalised one on one coaching on board the MV Alucia, when she visited Auckland. She is equipped with two submarines and a helicopter everything you need for a serious but luxurious expedition…

This blog is designed to provide your with the information to register your own domain name and the steps your will need to make to register it. What is a domain name? A domain name is a unique global web address that people enter to visit your website or send an email.  E.g. www.rippedorange.com is the web address and info@rippedorange.com .  Is the email address. In this case rippedorange is the name and .co.nz is the domain prefix.  There has been a large number of domain prefixes added globally, so you can chose from .farm .co.nz .kiwi and more.  Once you have a domain name you can have multiple emails e.g. info@rippedorange.com, service@rippedorange.com and others. How do I find out what is available? There are many sites that you can go and search for your domain, just like you look for a personalized plate. www.discountdomains.co.nz is one we use, you pay a registration fee per year, and different domains have different prices. What now… The next step is redirecting your email so when someone sends you an email it comes to you.  Unfortunately this is a lot more complex than just putting a new personalized plate on the car or going to the post office.   First stop should be your internet service provider or the people that sold you the domain name, they should be able to talk you through the process. Basically you want any email sent to your old email address sent into your new one, then you can start telling everyone your new email address. Who manages your email is also worth considering, think of this as courier service there are many options. All internet providers offer a service to hold and forward email. This means they keep a copy in their server and send a copy to you.  This is useful as you can login to their website to check email. Another option is to consider having your email hosted by either Google, Microsoft or Apple.  They all have cloud based services that host and send email to you.  Some are free and others provide extra paid for features.   See. The video below on Office 365 as an example. By using one of these services you remove the reliance on email with the internet provider you use, allowing you to pick and choose the best offer for access w having to change email address. Ripped Orange can help you move your business to the cloud, contact us today to discuss how. #DomainNames

At Ripped Orange we think Oranges and Apples go together nicely.  Many others do also, in fact it’s one of the most popular fruit drinks. Our focus is helping organisations with their digital literacy needs, may they be complex ERP systems, analysing a spreadsheet or navigating the world of social media. To help our clients Ripped Orange has joined the Apple Consultants Network, with a focus on iOS. Not surprisingly we have also been receiving a lot of requests for iPhone and iPad training, as more people are using their devices in a wide variety of applications. We see mobile devices and tablets becoming an increasingly important tool for business. Ripped Orange have developed a “Getting to know your iPad” course, and run popular tips and tricks sessions on how to use an iPhone. #Ios

Business Overview: City Care is a leading provider of construction, maintenance and management services across New Zealand’s infrastructure and amenity assets, employing over 1,350 staff across 16 operational branches throughout the North and South Islands. Established in 1999, City Care has an annual turnover of approximately $354 million.  City Care is a Council Controlled Trading Organisation (CCTO) operating under the Local Government Act. Business Issue: Each year City Care responds to over 150 tenders and requests for information.  To manage this significant business development activity, City Care employs four tender writers who gather and collate information from within the business to complete a tender response. The tender team identified that they spent a lot of time formatting tender documents and there were inconsistencies in the brand and layout of the final document. Tenders documents can be very complex and large; often documents are over 100 pages and may have more than ten individual contributors to the document. “Responding to tenders can often be a high pressure task, with short deadlines and considerable detail needed to be provided.  Delays and time taken up in formatting and trying to ensure consistency was frustrating”, says Margot Hall, City Care Business Development Co-ordinator. Solution: City Care approached Ripped Orange to look at options.  One option considered was to provide advanced Microsoft Word training for staff who prepare tenders. After some consideration, it was recognised that this would not address the issue of brand and document consistency.  It was identified that the cost and time to train the users to a very advanced level would be considerable and outweigh the benefits. Instead, Ripped Orange proposed that templates were established and training provided to users on how to use these templates. Gill Mason from Ripped Orange commented, “Even with advanced users, the Smart Template approach works well as it ensures consistency and speed of document creation”. City Care commissioned Ripped Orange to undertake a scope of the style and functionality required; this resulted in a base template that included the City Care logo, fonts, icons, and graphic styles. From this, Ripped Orange then developed specific Smart Templates for tender covers, body copy and other components of a tender. “Smart templates are designed so users can follow a quick and easy process when inserting and managing the creation and layout of documents.  For example, call out boxes can be inserted with a click of an icon: The template also handles the time-consuming issues of applying text font, colour and size, headers and footers or switching from portrait to landscape with a click of an icon for the user,” commented Mason.Call out boxes can be made with a click of a button “The Smart Templates have allowed City Care to focus on the content in the template rather than worrying about the graphics and layout with the end result being a professional and consistent document”, commented Hall. #Casestudy #SmartTemplates #Word

As Published in Rural News Last month Xero released its plans for the farming sector at their annual Xero conference. Xero are the software darling of the NZX, with a share price that has been growing faster than the price of irrigated land in Mid Canterbury. To date, Xero has not provided much for farmers, instead focusing on small to medium businesses, of which 250,000 use their software globally. Xero has also spawned a large number of add in partners that provide very useful services for business in conjunction with Xero. Some popular ones include: include: Workflow Max;Time and job management software, Receipt Bank ; Just email or scan your receipt, it reads it and enters it into Xero, iPayroll ; Simple to use online timesheet and payroll There are over 100 apps that integrate with Xero, and like Xero they are all just a monthly cost with no commitment.  This is ideal for seasonal business allowing you to scale up and down throughout the year. You can watch the full Xero announcement below: So why should farmers consider Xero? Xero are positioning themselves as a full solution that will link in with banks, farm suppliers and others so they can all work together. If they can pull this off in the rural sector by linking with rural merchants and providing a useful service to manage livestock then they may be onto a winner. Here at Ripped Orange we use Xero, and love it not for all the flash features, but because at the end of the month accounts can be sorted very quickly giving me more time with the family. Xero for Farming will be launching later this year, talk to your farm advisor and accountant about it. Windows XP – End of life In other IT news, Windows XP that was released in 2001 with fairground rides in Times Square, and Madonna signing Ray of Light will be coming to an end in April 8, 2014. If you purchased your computer before 2010, then it’s likely you are running Windows XP, (look for the big green start button on the bottom left of the page) From April 8th, 2014 Microsoft will no longer support Windows XP, this means that they won’t release updates and fixes, and in particular security updates.  They are recommending that you upgrade to Windows 8.1 which may mean purchasing a new computer. So how will this impact you? If your computer is attached to the internet on a regular basis, you do run the risk of getting a virus which there is no updates of fixes to get rid of it. Hackers know that Microsoft XP won’t be supported so there is fear that they will target these computers, all 500 million of them globally! So will the sky fall in on April 8th?  Probably not, but if you run your farm business on a Windows XP computer, now would be a good time to think about alternatives. Next month we will focus some of these alternatives, form Office 365, Google Apps and other cloud based options.

We have been helping businesses get more from their computing systems since 2001, and while we have moved from installing software from floppy disks to configuring cloud based systems, the basics of good training have not changed.  It takes a skilled trainer to bridge the gap between your business needs, what the software can do, and what you know how to do. Ripped Orange are lucky to work with some of the best and most experienced trainers in New Zealand, they don’t just know the technology but they understand how to apply it to your business. With this in mind we have moved away from scheduled mixed classes, where there is little opportunity to personalise and focus on your individual needs. Instead we are focused on personalised training for business, with either individual coaching for one person or a private class for your team. Individual Coaching: With over 30 courses, developed with exercises and manuals we can tailor one or a few coaching sessions to meet your needs, may that be SharePoint or Pivot Tables in Excel.  You can view our full range of courses here: Private Classes With a mobile training suite, we can go anywhere from corporate boardroom, to gyms to factories. Private Courses allow us to pick and mix from our suite of course to put together a quality training session that meets your individual needs. We are confident that this approach works, and really proud of some of the feedback that we get including: SharePoint Training Lucy was fantastic, she explained everything well and I was able to produce the page that I was after (IAG) PowerPoint Training Thanks so much for introducing us to Karlene. We loved our training this morning, and our new knowledge will prove very useful in future (City Care) Excel Training Gave me confidence to be able to apply this in my every day work (Downer) To get started on a Private Course, request a copy of our course outline book which highlights all our training courses. Request Training Guide

Ripped Orange tried this and like it, however you really need an Office 365 account. Read more on our blog. April 1 – Clippy Returned Yes Microsoft do have a sense of humour; wish he would hang around… April 2 1 – Windows Phone Software Free for Phones and Small Tablets 2 – Windows Phone 8.1 -The Update is rolling out now 3 – The Start Menu is coming back 4 – “Siri” comes to the Windows Phone #Microsoft

At Ripped Orange we have been helping organisations get the most from computers and computer software for more than a decade. Over this time there have been significant technical advances, including the launch of smartphones, tablets, touch screens and the widespread adoption of cloud computing. Computer training methods have not advanced as quickly, with a strong reliance on classroom and some online learning. This will change today. Ripped Orange is pleased to announce computer training for computers. We realised that as much emphasis is needed to be put on the computer as the owner. A little like puppy training. Over the past years there has been too much focus on training users, and not enough on the actual computer. We would like to change this and now believe that computers are smart enough to respond and retain training interventions. Our first course is on computer behaviour and obedience. This is designed for a new computer and will focus on: When to run software upgrades at a time that is convenient for the owner How to save power Paying attention and not dropping wifi connections Playing nicely with projectors and headsets At Ripped Orange we are really proud of our new courses, and are confident that they will help improve the productivity of both computer owners and users. To celebrate the launch we have five courses to give away. Just email info@rippedorange.com before 12 noon April 1, 2014 with you and your computer’s name.