The Advantage and Disadvantages of Serviced and Non-Serviced Offices

Serviced offices can greatly help businesses, especially small, start-up entrepreneurs. A service office comes with practically everything an entrepreneur needs without having to procure anything. Aside from a small office space, a serviced office comes with different types of amenities that will surely aid the entrepreneur in their business transactions. Services such as internet connection, a phone line with fax and a fully furnished office are only some of the amenities of a serviced office.

Although a serviced office is ideal for small businesses, it can be costly in the long run. It’s highly recommended for small businesses that requires temporary assistance for their office needs. The monthly cost of running a serviced office can be counter-productive especially when there’s a need for a permanent office.

While a serviced office is deal for short term office needs, a non-serviced office is ideal for businesses with a long term plan of operation in a specific location. Offices like these are usually larger and they require some time for set-up before they become useful. The disadvantage of non-serviced office is the need to procure and subscribe to certain products and services. Services such as phone lines and internet connection are not yet set-up in a non-serviced office.

The main advantage of a non-serviced office is the cost. A business with a non-serviced office is practically renting a room for an extended period of time. No additional payment is required especially when the non-serviced office will require some set-up. A non-serviced office is also cost effective because the rent is often lower in a long term deal.

Keyboard Positioning to Prevent and Reduce Arthritis

Office workers always face the risk of suffering from different types of physical pain because of improper posture while at work. This is largely related to the positioning of the office equipment. Your mouse, keyboard and monitor should all be at the correct positions. Productivity could come at a cost of suffering physical pain especially arthritis if you don't set up your equipment correctly.

Proper Posture as the Key

The best way to prevent arthritis while working in an office is to practice proper posture. Always sit up straight with your back comfortably leaning in the cushion. You don’t have to lean too much – your cushion should be there to support your back.

Your knees should be able to touch each other at will and your feet should comfortably lay flat in the floor. Your feet should be at a 90-degree angle and anything lesser than that could cause some muscle discomfort at the end of the day.

Hand Position in the Keyboard

The best way to determine if your hand is properly positioned for the keyboard and mouse is the angle of your arms. To prevent any muscle problems, your arms should have a 90-degree angle. The keyboard should be conveniently placed in front of your body easily reachable by your hands. The mouse should be placed beside the keyboard so that you don’t have to stretch your hand while working.

Periodic Breaks

While these positions can prevent arthritis, you should avoid staying in the same position for more than an hour. Stand up and walk for a minute or two so that your body could break the monotony of the position.

Opus Energy Ltd Features in Sunday Times Top Track 250

Opus Energy Ltd, established in 2002, is an independent supplier of electricity and gas to the UK business sector. The company provide a competitive source of power as well as a high standard of customer service.

Opus Energy Ltd currently provides power to more than 100,000 properties across the United Kingdom. It provides power to the retail industry, government sector and many housing associations. Opus also supplies household names with electricity including; Rushcliffe Homes, FirstGroup, Halfords and Lloyds Pharmacy.

Opus Energy has a supply agreement with International Power Plc. This enables them to provide a reliable source of low-priced power to their customers.

Opus was awarded the Independent Energy Suppliers of the Year in 2010 for their level of service. The Company has also recently been featured in The Sunday Times Top Track 250. The league table includes Britain's leading mid-market private companies. Opus Energy achieved a placement in the Top Track 250 due to a growth of 31% in sales figures last year compared to the year before.

Opus Energy currently employs 360 staff at its Oxford and Northampton sites. The company expects to create 100 new jobs for people in the local areas between now and December 2012. The company's Managing Director, Charlie Crossley Cooke has stated that the company is focused on the future and will be creating the new jobs to meet their continued level of growth.

Opus Energy offers 3 main businesses power options for corporate customers, these include;

Opus Evolution

A flexible power purchasing solution aimed at customers using more than 5GWh of electricity. The product enables corporate customers to dictate when and how they procure power. This offers some considerable benefits for their customers including direct access to the wholesale market.

Opus Extra

Opus Extra is aimed at small corporate customers using less than 5 GWhs of electricity. The product offers flexible purchasing normally only available to larger consuming corporate companies. Unlike fixed contract products the buyer can increase the amount of energy within a contract term in order to make up the total required amount.

Opus Fixed

Opus Fixed is a traditional fixed price product from the company. It offers a personalised account service and specialised business-to-business invoicing. Opus Energy's aim is to develop long-term contracts with customers by being open and honest in all forms of communication.

Opus Energy currently sponsor gold winning British gymnast Daniel Keatings. Recently Daniel  performed a routine on a farm with a newly installed wind turbine. The footage can be seen below;

Invensys creates Virtual Reality Training System to Help U.S. Department of Energy Advance Clean Coal Power

Invensys Operations Management, a global provider of software solutions, technology systems, and consulting services to the process and manufacturing sectors, announced today that the United States Department of Energy (DOE) will use the businesses innovative EYESim™ virtual reality training solution as the centerpiece of a new high-tech training center to support the development of new generation zero-emission IGCC (Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle) power plants with carbon capture.
The IGCC training center is part of the DOE’s initiative to develop new clean-coal power plants which produce environmentally friendly electric power through burning fuel more efficiently. Under the terms of the contract, Invensys will provide a high-fidelity, full-scope, concurrent dynamic simulator for a generic IGCC plant with carbon capture. The DOE’s National Energy Technology Laboratory will operate the simulator at both a satellite location at West Virginia University’s National Research Center and its Dynamic Simulator Training and Research Center in Morgantown, W.Va.
Tom Fiske, Ph.D., ARC Advisory Group stated; "Industry specialists agree that the age of clean near zero-emission coal power is here, and we deem that EYESim technology from Invensys is a scalable resource for the quickly emerging clean-coal industry. As a powerful training and design solution, it will develop a highly cost-efficient, safe training environment, as well as develop expertise in the operation, control, and analysis of commercial-scale IGCC plants."
In November 2008, Invensys was awarded a contract by the DOE to simulate the IGCC process using its SimSci-Esscor DYNSIM® process modeling software. The most recent contract includes a 3-D virtual reality experience within the simulation.
Maurizio Rovaglio, Ph.D. and head of innovation and emerging technologies for Invensys Operations Management commented; "Using the joint solution capabilities of our SimSci-Esscor EYESim and DYNSIM technologies, we will create a high-fidelity model of a generic coal-fired IGCC power plant that operators and designers can interact with in real-time. Comparable to an immersive 3-D computer game, this simulation is derived from complex software that exactly models the physics of the plant’s operations, and is not merely based on an artistic rendering."

HP TouchPad review

Almost every electronics manufacturer is creating their version of a tablet device since the tremendous successful of the iPad. Android-based devices running on Honeycomb (Android OS 3.0) are found in most retailers due to the operating system being free to use by all computer and mobile manufacturers. This has giving many companies a cheaper way to create their own powerful. Naturally, Apple’s iPad (now with iPad 2) is still the king of the super-size mobile devices.

HP is also pushing its own version of a tablet device but with a few twists. It’s a 9.7-inch mobile device that comes with a 1.2 GHz Snapdragon processor as well as 1G RAM. It’s a bit heavier that the iPad 2 and Galaxy Tab 10.1 and is a little bit thicker. The device comes with two cameras with the front facing camera able to do video conferencing. Cleverly HP gives customers Skype out of the box, which eases instant online communication without the additional configuration.

The most unique feature of HP Touchpad is its operating system. It doesn’t use iOS or Android but it comes with WebOS 3.0 which is an upgraded and retooled operating system compatible with HP’s tablet devices. The software is very impressive because of its intuitive response and multi-tasking. Although it’s not the most famous operating system many regard it as a leader in the field.

When it comes to pricing, the HP TouchPad is at a par with the market’s best. It’s only $499 for the 16GB version and $599 for the 32GB version. It’s a competitive device that will surely entice gadget users already familiar with Palm and HP’s mobile phone devices. We don’t think that the device will take Apple’s crown but it may be the next best device for consumers.