A recent client had this to say about Vic's service:
Thank you very much for your help yesterday. You are always so efficient pleasant and professional. It is also so helpful receiving the letter itemising what has been done.
Best wishes
Vic Marden - vic@plumplanet.co.uk who has joined our network to support the SE19 area which will include: Beckenham, Bromely, Crystal Palace, Anerley, Dulwich, South Norwood. Email or Phone Vic with all your computer training or support needs. Telephone 07970 434765.
I use the tried and tested training methods developed by Plumplanet over 17 years. I have over 20 years experience in IT myself and my tutorials run at a pace that suits YOU. Too many IT training courses try to pack in as much as they can and the trainee comes out of it forgetting 70% of what they have been taught - at Plumplanet, our unique methods ensure that YOU have the best possible opportunity to retain your new-found knowledge. We specialise in training complete beginners and those who consider themselves non-computer literate, so don't be shy!
My first ever experience with computers was in 1978, when I was introduced at South Bank Polytechnic to a mainframe computer the size of a large room, which used punch cards for its instructions and subsequent results. I considered computing a black art until 1986, when I bought my first Psion Organiser. I was struck by the way a pocket computer could store and quickly find the information I wanted and how it could do virtually anything I wanted with my information, as long as I knew what I was doing!
I soon moved on to PCs in the days of MS-DOS and Windows 3.1, when I needed to configure the start-up files in various different ways in order to get certain memory-hungry games to work! The introduction of Windows 95 was something of a revelation at the time, as I no longer needed to spend so much time working with a command line interface and some of Window's memory constraints were freed.
I gradually started to use computers (and later versions of the trusty Psion Organiser!) more and more at work, and I was typing out my own letters and using spreadsheets before the demise of the Typing Pool became a reality.
I also started to experiment with MS Access 95 soon after it came out, and I began to assemble my first database of clients' and suppliers' contact details. This later became a Service Management application upon which the maintenance departments of two of the firms I worked for depended day to day. It was used to log service calls, produce purchase orders, schedule visits, log equipment and site details and, in later years, to produce invoices also.
I needed to train others how to use this database and I started to become an unofficial IT consultant (my day job was in heating and ventilation sales and project management!). This continued through 3 different companies as I became the person to ask when someone had a problem with word processing, spreadsheets, their computer running slowly or their printer not working, to name a few examples. My first "paid" instance of training was 10 years ago when I was regularly invited to my boss's house to teach him how to use his new computer for the price of 4 or 5 home-cooked meals!
In 2011, I decided to give up my day job and work for myself as I had had enough of the rat race by then. I did not work in IT initially, but when the opportunity with the Plumplanet franchise came up it seemed tailor-made for me, and here I am! Find out more: www.vicmarden.co.uk
