Sortec has nearly a decade of experience developing systems for uPVC window and door manufacturers. With expertise gained providing systems and support to a fast-growing international producer it is no surprise that Sortec’s services were recently enlisted by a Barnsley based composite door manufacturer.

Drawing on the knowledge gained creating the software infrastructure of companies that spanned Europe Sortec will be delivering a highly specialised and automated web based application to this local company.

While manufacturing volumes are smaller this in itself brings challenges to the customer and to Sortec as the software vendor. The bespoke nature of nearly every door which passes through this new system means that a high level of sophistication is required to ensure that little manual intervention will be need to progress orders from enquiry, through quotation, into production and timely delivery to the client’s customers.

These savings in time and therefore money are a key element of this and other systems installed by Sortec Software development. Building on this powerful core access to the system will be extended out to customers to provide a seamless experience for the customers and employees of Sortec’s new client and thereby providing a compelling USP for their sales team – web based ordering and rapid quotation turn-around.

Sortec Software Development proudly announces the launch of its new website with a clearer layout and more information about this dynamic and experienced IT company.

Based between Sheffield and Rotherham Sortec are perfectly placed to cover the whole of the South Yorkshire Region and beyond. Customers range from local businesses requiring focussed, cost-effective systems on a limited budget to national and international organisations who demand the highest levels of sophistication and flexibility.

Working on multiple platforms including desktop, server, web and mobile devices Sortec provides a single point solution to the whole range of a business’s computing needs.

Snow Leopard

If you’re a Mac user you will not fail to have heard of Snow Leaopard AKA Mac OS X v10.6. In fact if you are not a Mac user we are pretty sure you will have heard of it.

If you want to find out more about it than the fact it has the coolest PR image of any operating system – the glorious beast in the top left of the post – you can find our more about Apple’s Snow Leopard here.

The seemingly never ending stream of updates from Microsoft may be regarded as a chore that you can do without. We all have busy schedules and updates to the operating system can seem like a bit of a waste of your valuable time.

It can’t be emphasised enough that updating your desktop PCs and servers when these updates become available is vitally important.

The consequences of leaving your system open to attach by hackers can be so costly as to bring a business to its knees.

If you are unsure as to how to apply the updates from Microsoft, or maybe don’t know how to check if they are available why not call us for advice.

This week highlighted again the need to keep up with the latest updates for your operating system. Microsoft have released patches for 5 critical security problems on their operating systems.

You may ask why after even Vista has been out in the field for such a long time there is still scope for security flaws to appear.

The problem is of course complexity. An operating system with 10 times the amount of code is 100 times more difficult to debug, enhance and maintain. And today’s operating systems contain millions of lines of code.

It’s a practical impossibility to check for every possible flaw in an operating system. The best we can hope for is that the underlying design of the operating system makes it difficult for hackers to write viruses and that when they do infect a system the damage they can do is limited.

We’ll never reach a Utopian position of invulnerable, bug-free operating systems. So grit your teeth and apply the updates today.

Sortec Software Development can help you ensure your system is up to date and secure. Give us a call to find out how.

Sys admins have to ensure that the security policies they adopt are sensible and strict without compromising the effectiveness of the business. It is pointless locking down everyone’s access rights too far because users will find ways round it by sharing passwords and work-rounds to avoid the restrictions.

With careful planning and communication with the user base you can create a secure and usable system that will safeguard the integrity of the system without choking a business to death.

System security is a big subject so I’ll take a small example to illustrate how a sensible approach can ensure everyone is (reasonably) happy, directory security.

It’s never been easier to create and share data securely on your network. In doing so it is easy to allow everyone full access to everything when your enterprise is small. As a business grows and the need to restrict access to data increases you can become acutely aware that planning for growth is something that needs to be done from the first time you add a user.

We would recommend:

• Share documents from a server, not between desktop PCs. On a PC they are difficult to back up, impossible to secure and can lead to the creation of multiple copies of documents far more easily than if the documents are stored on a server. Multiple copies of a document each slightly different waste time and money. Indeed if your company is subject to standards such as ISO9002 you may even put your certification in jeopardy.
• Do not let users share user Ids or tell each other their passwords. If a user needs to do a job ensure they have their own identity and password. This is particularly problematic when one user covers another when they take a holiday. Allowing them to share user Ids and passwords means you can not audit their actions with certainty.
• When allowing access to resources like shared files and folders set up groups appropriate to a department or administrative group’s needs. Then add the users to the group rather than giving the user access to the resource directly. When a user moves around or leaves the company you can then change their access by simply changing/removing the groups they belong to.

If you are unsure as to how to do this on your system why not give us a call or email us?