Compare Helpdesk discuss their 10 Help Desk Best Practices

http://www.comparehelpdesk.com/article/top-10-help-desk-best-practices/

Your Impact are also sharing 10 Tips for IT Helpdesk Training, Here are this weeks first Five IT Helpdesk Tips

http://myemail.constantcontact.com/Your-Impact-Ltd-Information-and-Tips.html?soid=1102452069728&aid=R0q0CR6DZvM

Next week we will be sharing with you our final five IT Helpdesk Tips

As we leave 2011 behind and make our New Year promises for 2012, wouldn’t it be great to make a resolution to ensure our corporate teams get the best chance to make 2012 a great success?

Your Impact! Ltd can help by being part of real improvements in your performance, in your management team skills, your call centres, or your IT support teams, your sales teams – the list goes on and on.

We offer a completely free consultation service, no obligation, so if you would like to hear about some of the amazing things we have done and could do to help you achieve more in 2012 then get in touch!

Happy New Year to all our Your Impact! Ltd customers – past – present and future.   sue.simmons@yourimpact.co.uk

David Cameron recently announced a further pledge of up to £250 million for a scheme of employer-led training.

Employers need to get bids in for a share of this investment.

In addition, the Growth and Innovation Fund (GIF) already exists to help employers develop their own innovative skills solutions which have the potential to transform growth for their businesses.

Your Impact! Ltd can help with skills development in many areas:

§ Presentation Skills – specific workshops for Bid preparation – this highly successful workshop has been used in fruitful bidding campaigns. See our testimonial from Sir Robert McAlpine PLC

§ Management Development

§ Coaching & Mentoring

§ Provide Creative Content for use in training courses

§ Support online learning programmes

For more information on how we can help your business to maximise Skills Development during 2012 go to www.yourimpact.co.uk or email sue.simmons@yourimpact.co.uk

I had a VERY interesting yet potentially costly conversation on a plane recently!

It was all around IP – Intellectual Property. I had been using a well-known time management diagram in a program I run and I naively believed as many of us do that if it is in the ‘public domain’ i.e. Can be found on the internet, and you say who created it – then it is freely available to be used as you see fit – this is NOT the case! There are many copyright myths – check them out!

If you as a trainer, training company, training department or as a presenter or a writer for example are using well-known models without express permission, I am afraid you are in breach of copyright and this can be a costly mistake as well as a criminal act!

The problem is creating something original – what is original thought?  What if I thought I had thought it up? I created my first time management model and called it getting things done, then I thought it sounded familiar and I not normally think so quickly on a Monday morning, so I searched for it on the internet – guess what? It’s a trademark name for a time management book! I will have to re-think!

So I urge you to check your materials and re-create, reinvent, come up with your own diagrams and models – then copyright and or trademark them and check all your other materials before you receive a ‘cease and desist order’ which is a request to halt an activity and not to take it up again later or else face legal action.

If you would like a copy of this article for your own use or to circulate please just email me and I will send it to you gladly! sue@yourimpact.co.uk

Look into copyleft and creative commons license – these allow you to share with anyone, although you have choices about the degree of sharing and modification if any – you choose your license type.

Surely this has to a better way to do business, sharing, giving, wanting best practice to be made available because this way we will all receive benefit, maybe not in IP fees but in knowledge, materials and maybe in business derived from the community you share with– there is much positive debate about the value to a business if IP is creative commons license – does this fit your business personality more? Businesses that use creative commons license are Flickr, GlaxoSmithKline, The White House are just some examples.

Here is a quick check list of things you may be doing in your training programs, wittingly or unwittingly J

• Using other peoples/companies models – i.e. Covey Time Management Matrix, (although you can use the Eisenhower Matrix – which was made famous by Mr. Covey) Personality types etc.
• Using video, film, music clips
• Using programme names that are copyrighted – i.e. 7 habits of highly effective people (you may have been creative and said 7 habits of highly effective managers or team players – all NOT allowed!)
• Using images, trademarks etc.

Here are some guidelines and also here is a link to a new self-management model that I am happy for you to use freely. If you feel desperately that you would like to donate – please send a cheque to dogsfriends  J I also highly recommend using Trainers Library for original, time saving and cost effective training materials and images.

Guidelines on use of Intellectual Property

Every business will have their own Intellectual Property also known as IP.

IP can be an invention, creation, design or brand and it can be owned legally.

An IP is likely to be a valuable asset to a business, it could be the written or artistic material they use, services they provide or even their brand name.

IP can usually not be used without the owner’s permission, and some people may refuse you permission to use their IP.

Permissions & Exceptions If you buy someone’s original Intellectual Property or a copy of it you need to remember buying this doesn’t give you permission to use it however you like.  It does not give you the right to make extra copies or to show them in public. Other uses of the IP such as scanning, photocopying or downloading it is also copying the IP and you will still need the permission from the owner

Other minor uses of the IP could fall within the scope of one of the exception of copyrighting however if you would like to use someone’s IP you will generally need to ask the owner if you can purchase it or negotiate a license for how you intend to use the material. There are no rules in copyright law governing what may be acceptable terms and conditions within a licensing contract, but other laws, such as competition law, might be relevant to license agreements.

Prosecutions If you make, use, sell, import or use a mark which is identical or similar to an already registered trade mark without permission you may be infringing the owner’s rights.

If you use a mark, which is identical or similar to a registered trade mark, without permission, you may be infringing the owner’s rights.

If you use someone else’s IP without permission this could be classed as IP crime and you could be prosecuted.

I hope you have found this useful.

If you would like a copy of this article for your own use or to circulate please just email me and I will send it to you gladly! sue@yourimpact.co.uk

Kind regards

Sue

Your Impact! are pleased to announce that the Learning & Performance Institute have awarded Gold Standard Accreditation as a Learning Provider for the second year running. 

Email Sue Gilkes or Sue Simmons to start to hear how we can help improve  your business.

We are also sharing with you the news and events from the  Learning Performance Institute Conference where Sue Gilkes, Your Impact Company Director, had a fantastic time and shares with us what she learnt at some of their workshops.

Take a look October Newsletter

email sue.simmons@yourimpact.co.uk

The CIPD reports that stress is now the overall biggest reason for long term absence. What are you doing in your business to ensure that your staff are less stressed because your managers are handling the tough conditions properly?

Your Impact! has a range of 2 day courses to help businesses with this – contact Sue Simmons at Your Impact! on 01454 854123