Tuesday 23 March 2010

What to do when the roof caves in?

Just when we think spring's on the way, it decides to rain and rain and rain. Then it got through the ceiling of the office above and eventually it comes through our ceiling and the ceiling collapses on us!

Having cleaned off the wet plaster and dusted down the keyboards, we've had to make a temporary relocation to try to manage. The main telephone line of 01482 - 863172 remains operational - if anyone has previously used any of our extension numbers (475195, 475196 etc), these will not work for much longer, so please continue to use the main number.

E-mail and text services remain intact, but for a couple of weeks, speeds might be slower than usual, so please bear with us. A new Post Office Box (P.O. Box) number will be soon used for correspondence and we will announce any other changes via the web site as they occur.

Thanks to the person who offered us the use of their delapidated barn! We're very touched.

Further news on it's way as and when we know it.

Linda and Stephen

Thursday 11 March 2010

ARE WE THERE YET?

Changing things for the better and making improvements are usually best described as being a "process" rather than an "event".

When we decided, eighteen months ago to completetly change our way of working and to create an interactive web site for locums and clients to use, we had no idea how much of a job we were letting ourselves in for.

To have reached the point where we are at today, which is not yet near finishing what we started, our simple idea has taken on a life of it's own and reached a dizzying level of complexity.

We've often said that when something works well and easily, it's because a lot of hard work has gone ito making it look easy. If anyone would have asked us 18 months back, did we expect to be getting 60 000 hits on the web site every month, we'd have thought that they were mad. What's more surprising now, looking back, is that 60 000 plus hits a month and rising steadily has not caused the whole thing to crash! If you wonder what I mean, 60 000 hits means there have been 60 000 occasions in a month when people have looked at our web site.

That's a lot of looks, for something that is still under development and has so much more yet to be added! Still, even now, locums can log in and add their own availability to increase their chances of picking up work, check out enquiries for work in their area on any given day and even be able to e-mail into us from the web site about any vacancy which interests them.

With the best yet to come, it will be interesting to see what other interest is attracted. Advertising will certainly follow, and before long we hope to have the "Private Members Area" up and running, where registered users will be able to log in and access a much wider range of features and services.

If there is anything you would like to see on there, please get in touch and keep us informed. It may be that advice on accountancy would be helpful, or maybe educational features. What about a "Swap shop" where you can exchange goods or unwanted items, or for excess stock from your pharmacy to be turned to profitable use by exchanging with another pharmacy? All ideas are up for consideration, so why not let us know what you think would be good? With so many people coming to the site now, there must be a lot of scope for us to offer you what you want or need.

It's not often you get something for nothing in this life, is it?