Bringing in offshore software developers to work alongside your IT department or development teams can be a highly cost-effective way to meet influxes of new orders, speed up your project turnaround times and cover resource shortages or staff absences.

But how can you be certain that developers supplied by an offshore provider will deliver high-quality code and will have the requisite skill sets and technical expertise to complete your business-critical projects or modules on time and to the highest standards?

When you book one of Systems Valley’s offshore developers to work on a software development project, you get guaranteed technical expertise, as we only supply highly-skilled, Microsoft Certified professionals who’ve proven their mastery of Microsoft technologies and platforms.

Our developers have a proven track record of producing high-quality code and delivering projects on time and within budget. And they can work at highly-cost effective rates, so when you partner with us on any project, you can bring down your operating costs and widen your profit margins without compromising on quality.

You can find out more here.

The Microsoft SharePoint Product Group have posted an informative article  that outlines the extensive features you can expect to see in SharePoint 2010.

According to the post, the new business collaboration platform will be rich in features that will make it even easier for users to find and share critical business information and collaborate across boundaries.

You can read the full post here.

Or to find out about Systems Valley’s SharePoint solutions and services or to book one of our experienced SharePoint developers, contact the Systems Valley team.

Employees in the UK enjoy one of the most generous statutory holiday allowances in the world, a new report  has shown.

The 2009 Worldwide Benefit and Employment Guidelines report , by Mercer, which is based on statutory entitlements for an employee working five days a week with 10 years' service, revealed that employees in Finland, Brazil and France are entitled to the greatest amount of statutory annual leave at 30 days a year, with UK employees following closely behind with 28 days of statutory holiday a year.

However, while clearly beneficial for staff, this generous statutory holiday allowance means more holiday administration and more time-consuming paperwork for UK employers, which is where a leave management system such as LeaveMaster  is invaluable.

By allowing employees and managers to book and authorise their time off using a fast, automated online system, LeaveMaster  eliminates paperwork and substantially reduces the amount of time you need to spend on holiday administration.

You can find out more here

As discussed in yesterday’s blog, leave management systems such as LeaveMaster are invaluable for managers who wish to reduce their absence rates, as they create a permanent, irrefutable record of sick leave for every employee.

But if you implement a leave management system such as LeaveMaster  in your organisation, as well as a powerful tool for tackling absenteeism, you can also enjoy an outstanding return on your investment.

By speeding up and streamlining your entire absence and leave management process, eliminating the costly admin errors that typically occur when you use a manual or a spreadsheet-based holiday booking system, and freeing up both your employees and managers to focus on improving your bottom line, leave management systems offer outstanding value for money.

You can find out more about LeaveMaster here.

One of our suppliers was recently discussing the problem of absenteeism in the public sector (link to: www.systemsvalley.com/blog/blog-post/2009/09/16/public-sector-absenteeism-costs-pound4-billion-a-year.html) with the manager of a high-profile public sector organisation. The manager admitted that while members of her team do take a high number of sick days, she finds it difficult to raise the issue with the employees concerned without any concrete proof that they’ve been feigning sickness.

This highlights an issue many organisations undoubtedly face. Absenteeism may cost UK employers an average of £692 per employee per year, but if managers only have a gut feeling that employees have been taking unwarranted sick days and have no statistical evidence to back up their belief, it can be almost impossible to address the situation.

The advantage of implementing a leave management system such as LeaveMaster in your organisation is that it creates a permanent, online record of sick leave for every member of staff. By revealing which employees have been taking “little but often” sick leaves, LeaveMaster provides proof of employee absenteeism and give you accurate, indisputable data that you can refer to while addressing the situation with the employee or that you can use should the issue go to a tribunal.

You can find out more here