Product Standards are an increasingly important subject for both consumers and businesses. Not meeting standards could cause harm to the consumer and ruin the reputation of a business. Because there is an endless list of product standards Catalysts are developing a Website to assist all groups to evaluate safety standards, in an easier and more efficient way, but covering a reduced range of products. The website is aimed initially at manufacturers, importers, distributors and retailers as well as the consumers of these products.

The products covered will be those principally of interest to consumers such as household and similar electrical appliances. For consumers there will be news items about dangerous products, products under recall and other Health & Safety issues. By offering such a service consumers can be instantly warned or made aware about the product safety. The stories will be categorised so that users can refine their search areas accordingly. Searching for subjects of particular interest will be easy and the website will also offer search on or between specific dates.

For businesses the news items will focus on Standards and associated subjects – gathered from a wide range of sources. The website will provide a link to a Standards body website which will enable users to access, and if required, purchase the relevant Standards. A major benefit for business access will be the ability to learn about amendments and alterations to existing standards and thus ensure full commercial compliance.

Over time additional features will be added as suggested by a Special Interest Group – such as ‘Ask an Expert’ service (with Experts drawn from some of the product testing businesses), an ‘Alert Me’ service, a Forum for sharing information with other users and others.

News of the website launch will be posted on our website www.catalysts-ltd.com .

Our brand new commerce management system SINDROMI will be live on a Catalysts’ information portal site next month! Before it is in active use – here are some points that you might like to know about it.

Firstly what is it?

SINDROMI combines a cloud based self-service commerce management system and an online Card and Direct Debit payment system.

How is it priced?

Implementing SINDROMI will incur a set-up fee that will be quoted dependent on what is involved based on an hourly rate and then thereafter the running costs are linked to the number of transactions that you use it for.

Who is it for?

Everyone who wants to do their business online!

SINDROMI has been designed to satisfy the needs of people in all kinds of business. For example Publishers, Membership clubs, Gyms, Grocery shops and even Ladies’ Shoe shops!

However you want your system to work we are here to make IT possible. If your business expects one-off orders, repeat orders or subscriptions SINDROMI can handle it all! We can customise the software so it can exclusively fit your needs.

And what can it do for your clients?

It allows your customers to self-serve themselves – first registering on line, setting up their accounts, selecting the products and/or subscriptions that they wish to purchase and then paying for them.

What about you?

It also of course allows you, the website owner, to set up your products and prices online as well as to automate reminders and send out marketing messages.

SINDROMI has been kept as simple as possible to keep its price down. New custom functions can be added but will each be developed for you at your cost and will not be added to the base system – so you will only pay for what you need, not for what you will never use. It’s all about being different and being cost conscious – we can make IT happen!

An article in the Business section of the Daily Telegraph on May 8^th by Allister Heath, Editor of City A.M. lists some amazing examples of what can now be done with 3D printing – a transplantable kidney and cakes.

What the article is focused on is the wonderful outlook for the regeneration of small scale manufacturing in the UK and the repatriation of a proportion that has been lost to the low cost developing world.

Just what this country needs right now. An opportunity for smart young people with skills and ideas to start their own businesses for a relatively low cost and to become self- sufficient rather than risk years of unemployment.

What the article does not focus on is the inevitable expansion of ecommerce as these new young businesses set up their own websites and sell their products online taking payment by card and direct debit.

Catalysts is ready for just such an expansion with our Sindromi cloud based subscription management and online payment system.

The weather is finally getting better and yesterday we had the chance to enjoy a sunny spell on a boat on the Thames after work. We attended an event that gave us the opportunity to mingle with a lot of people as well as break out of the usual daily routine.

It was so beautiful and different on the boat that we have decided to organize an event there in early July to launch one of our new information services – BioscienceInfo4U. It will be a unique experience with a breath-taking view of the Thames and the London skyline.

We will be inviting a number of people, ones that have a particular interest in the subject area the site will cover so if you would like to be considered please do not hesitate to send us an e-mail.

Are you tired of searching for ages to find what you are looking for? Don’t you sometimes feel like throwing your computer out of the window because it just doesn’t get you there?

Well we’ve found an effective way to deal with all the searching issues that we have!

It is an easy and quick method that will save you heaps of time and mean no more downloads of numerous files before you find that one thing that you are looking for. No more dreading that you won’t meet your deadlines since with this little secret I am about to reveal you will have more than enough time as well as saving the business money and, as we all know, time = money.

Please take a look at the screencast below – it shows how it can be done. (The screencast takes a few seconds to download – but it’s worth the wait!).

http://www.documill.com/screencasts/DocumillVisualSearch_Sharepoint.htm

This shows it working with SharePoint but it will also work with just about every search engine and as Implementation Partners we can help you with detailed information and support.

If you would like to find out more than don’t hesitate – call us or e-mail us now!

+ 44 207 960 6286 or nataliag@catalysts-ltd.com

It’s finally time for a long weekend! A much needed one with the cold weather that has been with us for the past few months. It’s time to have a break from work and spend some time with family and friends. Let’s not forget that you can also eat lots and lots of chocolate and blame it on the holidays!

Show off your artistic side by painting eggs, and don’t forget to hide them around the garden for the Easter hunt! That was my favourite activity during Easter. It is time for bunnies, eggs and chocolate – what is there not to like? No Monday morning alarm buzz, just long mornings in bed!

We have found some fun games that might help you keep the family busy – press the egg below:

We would like to wish you all a happy Easter full of fun and adventure and hopefully good weather. And remember Catalysts can make IT happen.

We have been exceptionally busy lately with meetings with clients old and new. From these meetings we have collected valuable information on what different sectors want and need.

We have also formed some new partnerships which will enable us to enter different sectors as well as help you, our customers, to save time and money.

In the next month or so we will be able to reveal some of these new alliances in more depth. Our goals are set high in order to provide you with the best possible service and software that is out there.

We want to save you time an money as well as make your life easier. So have no doubt – we can make IT happen.

Imagine how wonderfully different it would be if, when you are looking for items of information somewhere in a mass of long documents, you could quickly and easily look at all the pages without downloading the documents and as a result quickly find what you were looking for.

Magic? Well, no it is not. It is precisely what Documill Visual Search can do for you.

The benefits are so well proven that Visual Search is being used in combination with SharePoint, Fast ESP, IBM Omnifind, Lucene, Solr, Autonomy and others. Visual Search is even being used by Google.

It is in use in the following markets:

•          Government
•          Manufacturing
•          Technology
•          Law
•          and many others

Documill have signed up Catalysts as a Reseller and Implementation Partner, so if you would like to consider realising your imagination and gaining the benefits of time saving and increased search accuracy please contact us.

Next week is our business lunch week! A time when all the team meet in person to discuss the progress of the company and all our projects. Every month we meet in Oxfordshire since this is where most of the team live and work. This time though it will be a bit different since everybody was swamped at the beginning of the year – so it is our Christmas lunch! Well at least the weather hasn’t improved much since then so it might feel a bit Christmassy!

It is also time to prepare the launching of our first portal (BiotechInfo4U) and Sindromi our new subscription management system. It’s a very important step for the company as we will then have a wider range of products and services for multiple sectors.

But do not worry, it doesn’t mean that because we are busy we don’t have time for you! We always have time for you!

Catalysts Contact                                                                  Catalysts Ltd

Natalia Georgiadou                                                                10 Greycoat Place

+44 207 960 6286 and +44 7429 509 995                              London

nataliag@catalysts-ltd.com                                                    SW1P 1SB

www.catalysts-ltd.com

Declining birth rates and longer life expectancy in many countries of the developed world puts pressure on welfare and acts as a drag on the economy.  In Japan, for example the average age has risen from 22 in 1950 to 45 today and is expected to reach 53 by 2050.

In a difficult time like this with the economic crisis still with us, a large number of graduates are unemployed. So there is a division between youth and experience. Many companies state that they will hire graduates but when it comes to advertising the position they state a minimum of three years’ experience is needed.

Searching for young people with a lot of experience has always been unrealistic, but there is a way, we think, that can provide a solution. Why not use your more experienced workers to work with and share their experience with new young employees.

We for example, along with a partner company, are creating a cooperative group to pool all our projects and consequent need for resources so that between us we can employ some “bright young things”. We have the work and the project management and by pooling the projects we can afford to take on the young and share the costs.