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February 2006

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A Great Start to 2006

Last year we did not send a January Newsletter (following feedback from our partners that there is more than enough for them to do in January!) and this year we have followed suit. Just as we reported last year we have begun the year with a strong January. Usage was up and despite the large number of accountants tied up with the Tax Return season we signed a number of new partners onto the Online50 service. We have also seen sustained growth in terms of users and usage from our partners and we are delighted that our clients are winning business on the back of the Online50 service. (See Online50 Partner wins US Outsourcing Contract)

We have now completed our office move and continue to scale up the service. We are adding more capacity and more applications, so that we can provide our partners and their clients with more tools to grow their businesses. We look forward to working with all of our partners, and with many new ones, in the coming year.

In This Issue:

100th Partner Welcomed to Online50
Accountants Invited to Lead The Way In Software Licence Adherance
ITIO Achieves Microsoft Gold Certification
ITIO Joins LINX
Case Study: Online50 Partner wins US Outsourcing Contract
Practices Host Iris with Online50

ITIO Achieves Microsoft Gold Certification

ITIO is now a Microsoft Gold Certified partner. As part of the certification process we have had to demonstrate our technical abilities and provide customer references. Thank you to all of our customers that provided references and agreed to take part in the customer satisfaction surveys conducted by Microsoft.

We have been recognised for our abilities with Hosting and Network infrastructure solutions. As a Gold Certified Partner we have access to the highest levels of support from Microsoft. Our customers can be confident that our solution has been proven in live commercial operation with the Online50 platform operational since April 2001.

This certification is another indication of the robustness of our platform, and is an assurance to our users of the quality of the service provided. We are currently supporting users worldwide with online access to their business software.

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ITIO Joins LINX

We have continued to expand our technical infrastructure, and have now joined The London Internet Exchange (LINX). LINX is an Internet Exchange Point where ISPs and content providers (such as the BBC) agree to interconnect their networks. This allows information to pass freely between the connected networks, enabling the 'shortest path' between end users and the information they want to retrieve. Linx is one of the largest Internet Exchange points in the world, measured both in terms of the traffic carried by the Linx network and the number of routes available on the peering network.

Other networks that connect to the Linx include BT, Bulldog, Claranet, Easynet, Pipex, Telewest, UUnet and many others.

We now have two 100 MBps connections to the LINX peering network which allows us greater connectivity with our customers. Because we can interconnect our network with other networks we are able to cut out intermediate networks for many of our users. For example an end user with a Telewest Internet connection will be able to connect directly into our network via the Linx peering point, providing the fastest possible responses. We can easily add more bandwidth to scale up the service as required.

The PDSL service we recently announced will also benefit users who have a heavily used Internet connection, or who suffer from 'contention' where several connections compete for the available bandwidth. Coupled with our peering connections at Linx we can confidently assure our most demanding users that the levels of service they require can be met and comfortably surpassed.

This is another indication of how we are providing additional capacity to support the growth of our systems. Our partners can be confident that as they add additional clients to the service our systems will grow with them.

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Case Study: Online50 Partner wins US Outsourcing Contract

Online50 partners Artaius, the Stevenage-based outsourcing specialists, recently chalked up a notable success � taking over the accounts department of the New York parent of one of Artaius� UK manufacturing clients.

Alfred Levy, Managing Director of Artaius says: �Artaius had been preparing management accounts for the UK subsidiary for several years to the complete satisfaction of the client. When they lost their staff member in New York we spotted an opportunity to help them overcome their gap by taking over the finance function�.

Under the new contract, the UK staff at the client�s Wigan subsidiary will do the sales and purchase order processing and stock control for their own company and the US parent using Online50. Artaius will deal with the remainder of the accounting entries and complete the monthly management accounts for both entities, reporting the results to the US parent and acting as Financial Controller for them. Staff at the US parent have a login to the Online50 platform to allow them to run their own reports and have instant visibility of the performance of the UK and US companies.

Levy comments: �This contract win illustrates the power of hosted software to give us success in a market we would otherwise have been highly unlikely to enter. We have effectively won an outsourcing contract against accountancy practices in New York State. We are now looking forward to expanding our presence further within the client and, using this example, to win work from the foreign parents of other UK clients of ours.�

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Practices Host Iris with Online50

Newtonabbey-based Donnelly & Co have become the first partner to entrust hosting of Iris Accounts Preparation and Practice Management to Online50.

After testing the operation of Iris software on our platform we were recognised by Iris for third-party hosting of their software in January. The software is still provided under licence directly from Iris. As Donnelly & Co continue paying their license fees as usual to Iris the marginal cost of adding this additional software is zero. As all Donnelly & Co staff are existing Online<>50 users, access to our servers is included in their monthly hosting charge already. Consequently they do not pay any incremental charges to enjoy the benefits of using our infrastructure to run Iris as well as Line 50.

The benefits of hosting Iris will vary from practice to practice, but here are some of the benefits our partners have told us they expect to achieve:

Work from anywhere - including your clients' premises
No need for an Iris 'Laptop license'
Share work between offices
Management of Iris updates etc.
Easy migration to new Iris SQL version

If you are an Iris user and you would like to discuss having your Iris software hosted, please contact your account manager or call the Sales Desk on 0800 195 0835.

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100th Partner Welcomed to Online50

In January we welcomed a number of new partners into the Online50 community. One of those, Definitive Accounts, is the 100th partner to have joined the service. Online50 partners range from sole practitioners through to national networks, such as Tenon, all of whom enjoy access to the same quality of infrastructure and service. The delivery of online accounting solutions to a wide range of client profiles is supported.

We are committed to our partners, with over 95% of our customers reselling our service. As part of this commitment we apply standard prices to all our partners. The smallest practice has open access to the same monthly wholesale prices as the largest, and all partners and their clients share in the same quality of hosting support and service delivery.

Thank you to all of our partners who continue to make Online50 the largest and fastest growing hosted accounting solution in the UK. We look forward to helping all of you to grow your businesses over the coming year, and to working with the next 100 Partners!

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Accountants Invited to Lead The Way In Software Licence Adherance

In a recent Accountancy Age news article it was revealed that the number of businesses using illegal software rose by 25% last year.

The Business Software Alliance found that the accountancy sector had among the least reported cases of software misuse. Siobhan Carroll, regional manager northern europe for BSA comments 'Accountants are in a strong position to manage software licensing. They must understand that it's a significant asset and it should climb up the business agenda.'

Paul Booth, technical manager at the ICAEW IT faculty, said that accountants often have broader responsibilities within a business to manage risks relating to IT and highlighted that inadequately licensed software could lead to its author suing the company.

We covered software licensing implications for hosted software in more detail in the February 2005 Newsletter. By subscribing to software online our users can ensure that all software we provide is properly licensed by the vendors, and that we have approved mechanisms in place for reporting and paying for software licence usage.

Links (all open in a new window)

Article at Accountancy Age

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Disclaimer

Every effort is made to ensure the accuracy of the information presented in this document, however we cannot warrant that the information is free from errors. There may be omissions or inaccuracies in the information and it is provided to you on an "as is" basis without warranties of any kind. We assume no responsibility for the consequences of any errors or omissions in the content or otherwise relating to the information.

Copyright and all other intellectual property rights subsisting in the information presented in this document is owned by us or by the providers of such information and is protected by Copyright Law.

The Online50 service is provided by Online50 Limited, a Microsoft Gold Certified partner and Sage Authorised Application Service Partner. We are also independently audited and accredited to the ISO 27001:2005 standard for Information Security and the ISO 9001:2008 Quality standard. We are a private company, and independent of the software vendors whose applications we host. Online50 Limited is registered in England Number 3144276. Registered Office: Ternion Court, 264-268 Upper Fourth Street, Central Milton Keynes, Bucks. MK9 1DP. Correspondence Address: Unit 57 Skylines Village, Limeharbour, London E14 9TS.

Fireworks

As the Online50 service continues to grow
we welcome our 100th Partner

Growing Usage

Periodically we give updates to the usage of our platform in the newsletter. January usage was high, in keeping with what we have seen in previous years, with 50% more logins than December (although December was slightly quiet due to the holiday season). In total we provided more than 28,400 processing hours to users in January.

For those of you interested in such things, if one user had used all of this resource it would have taken them 1,184 days to complete the processing (over three years and two months) assuming they do not take any breaks. If they had been watching Eastenders instead they would have had to watch 56,800 episodes, which at 4 episodes a week (leaving aside the omnibus edition and any 'specials') would take 273 years and 4 weeks. I wonder if the Queen Vic will have called last orders by then?

Marginz of Error

A number of our partners are kind enough to forward material to us that references the Online50 service. This includes a number of emails that present incorrect information about our service, and particularly the pricing of the service.

It seems that the confusion has arisen because some parties still confuse us with software vendors. They also seem to mix and match online and offline prices for software, which clearly is not appropriate.

As an independant company we can provide access to software from a range of vendors subject to suitable licensing terms being in place. This may mean that a monthly subscription licence is available, or it may mean that the vendor approves the use of a standard 'desktop' licence. We don't provide access to unlicensed software, and we don't charge you for software that you don't need as you only pay for the software that you license.

If you would like to clarify our pricing or to discuss your software needs further please call your Account Manager, or speak to the Sales Desk on 0800 195 0835

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Sage Authorised Application Service Partner

• Sales Desk 0800 195 0835 • Help Desk 0871 384 3511 •