Pipe & Piper has rebranded to PNP Digital

Control Tower

Pipe & Piper has rebranded to PNP Digital. Same people, same expertise, just a new name and a new look.

We originally formed in 2013 and our main focus then was working with small, local business. Ten years on we have undergone some significant progression and we are now at a stage where we want our brand and our message to target our existing and growing client base. We are now proudly working with many national and international organisations.

PNP Digital Logo

We are thrilled to announce a significant milestone in our journey – the rebranding of Pipe & Piper to PNP Digital. After much introspection, strategic planning, and a deep dive into our core values, we are excited to present a fresh and innovative face to the world that better reflects who we are and where we are headed.

Over the years, Pipe & Piper has evolved in tandem with the dynamic landscape of the software industry. Our commitment to innovation, client satisfaction, and pushing the boundaries of technological possibilities has driven us to continuously adapt and grow. As we reflect on our journey, we realise that our brand should not just be a symbol – it should be a representation of our identity, aspirations, and the unique value we bring to our clients. So, why the rebrand?

Reflecting our vision and values…

Our rebrand is a visual and conceptual expression of our core values, mission, and vision for the future. We believe in the transformative power of technology and its ability to shape a better world. Our new brand identity symbolises our commitment to pushing the limits of what is possible, fostering innovation, and delivering solutions that make a meaningful impact.

Evolving to meet changing needs…

The software industry is dynamic and ever-changing. To stay ahead and continue delivering exceptional value, we must evolve. Our rebrand is a strategic move to position ourselves as a leader in the next wave of technological advancements. It reflects our dedication to staying at the forefront of industry trends, embracing emerging technologies, and adapting to the evolving needs of our clients.

Strengthening our connection with you…

Our community – clients, partners, and employees – is at the heart of everything we do. The rebrand is a way for us to strengthen our connection with you. We want our brand to resonate with your experiences, expectations, and the trust you place in us. The new look and feel are designed to enhance your overall interaction with PNP Digital and create a more engaging and memorable experience.

Embracing a unified identity…

As we’ve expanded our offerings and entered new markets, we recognised the need for a more cohesive and unified brand identity. The rebrand brings all facets of our business under a single, harmonious umbrella, streamlining our messaging and making it easier for you to understand the breadth and depth of our capabilities.

Aesthetic and functional enhancements…

Beyond symbolism, our rebranding efforts include aesthetic and functional enhancements. The new visual identity is modern, sleek, and aligned with contemporary design trends. It not only communicates our forward-thinking approach but also enhances the usability and accessibility of our products and services.

How will it affect our clients?

In short it won’t, we have changed our web address, branding literature and contact emails.

We will continue to provide the same level of expert knowledge and commitment you are used to just under a new name. If you have any questions about the change please contact us and we will be happy to talk to you about the change. We are looking forward to the next ten years in our ever changing digital landscape.

What to expect next…

We are genuinely excited about this evolution, and we invite you to explore our new brand, engage with our updated website, and share in the enthusiasm for what lies ahead.

Thank you for being an integral part of our journey. Here’s to a future filled with innovation, collaboration, and success!

Understanding the human cloud

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Software Modernisation

The workforce of the future is rapidly evolving, with a digital, dynamic, and decentralised landscape taking centre stage.

At the heart of this transformation lies the human cloud, a phenomenon akin to the gig economy that is reshaping the way we work. As businesses look for innovative and cost-effective solutions to meet their workforce needs, the human cloud has appeared as a game-changing trend.

The human cloud is an online ecosystem that runs in a decentralised manner, connecting individuals or businesses needing specific tasks or skills with a vast global network of freelancers and independent professionals. Diverging from traditional employment models, the human cloud functions through digital platforms and marketplaces, offering an on-demand, scalable workforce.

How the human cloud works

Digital platforms: Online intermediaries like Upwork and Fiverr serve as bridges between employers and freelancers.

Matching: Algorithms on these platforms use criteria such as skills, availability, and pricing to match employers with suitable freelancers. Employers can evaluate freelancers’ profiles and earlier work to make informed hiring decisions.

Task execution: Once a matched, the worker undertakes the task remotely. These tasks span a wide spectrum, encompassing services like graphic design, web development, content creation, data entry, and even driving or delivery services.

Payment and review: Payment for completed work processed through the platform, ensuring secure transactions.

Benefits of embracing the human cloud

Access to a global talent pool: The human cloud allows businesses to access a diverse global talent pool, which is especially valuable for companies found in regions with limited access to skilled workers. It enables easy sourcing of highly specialised skills for specific projects.

Scalable operations: Businesses can swiftly adjust their workforce size to match demand, easing the handling of projects of any scale without incurring significant overheads. This flexibility is invaluable for seasonal or project-based work that needs temporary workers within a brief period.

Cost-effectiveness: By paying for work only when needed, businesses can reduce labour costs and minimise the expenses associated with physical office space.

Speed and efficiency: The human cloud accelerates project timelines, enabling employers to quickly find the right talent. Freelancers can also find work more easily, minimising downtime between projects.

Reduced administrative burden: Human cloud platforms supply an all-in-one solution, simplifying the administrative aspects of hiring and managing freelancers. These platforms manage everything from sourcing to payment and review.

Innovation and experimentation: new companies may use the human cloud to explore new business ideas, prototype concepts, or access specialised skills they may not have in-house.

How ChatGPT is changing the coding process

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ChatGPT

Traditionally, coding has been a meticulous and time-consuming task that required developers to possess a deep understanding of programming languages and syntax. However, ChatGPT has introduced a new level of simplicity and efficiency by providing developers with an intuitive and conversational interface to interact with their code.

Get a Helping Hand

One of the most significant advantages of ChatGPT is its ability to assist programmers in generating code snippets, solving programming problems, and offering suggestions. With a few simple prompts, developers can ask questions, seek guidance, and receive immediate responses from ChatGPT, which draws upon its vast knowledge base to offer relevant and accurate solutions. This feature not only saves time but also encourages collaborative problem-solving, as developers can engage in dynamic conversations with the AI model.

Furthermore, ChatGPT’s natural language processing capabilities enable it to understand and interpret code-related queries in plain English, making it more accessible to developers of all skill levels. It can break down complex concepts, explain intricate algorithms, and even assist in debugging code. This empowers novice programmers to overcome hurdles more easily and learn from experienced developers, as ChatGPT acts as a knowledgeable and patient mentor.

Not a Replacement For a Human

Whilst ChatGPT is a powerful tool, it requires an exact and well formed request to be asked to get the best results out of it. Even then, the ending result is likely not usable within an existing system as coding standards and methods will differ, and the code may not even compile/run. It is intended for more as a base, or aid when stuck on an issue as it will provide different solutions which a developer may not have considered.

Paired with an experienced and knowledgeable coder, ChatGPT can be leveraged to simplify a complex request and give the developer a new perspective on the problem which can allow them to reach the end result faster.

AI is no replacement for a human, it can’t deal with specific client requests, or interact with clients like a developer can. It may be able to generate small snippets of code, but it is unable to make anything bigger than a few lines of code. Meaning it is unable to generate entire complex systems at one request. Even if it could generate a base system, there would be no way it could mould it into what a client would want, and make a system which could be well maintained and built on for many years to come.

If you are in need of a CMS made by humans who care, and lovingly craft each system/app, then consider PNP.

How to find your Apple device’s UDID

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A UDID is an acronym used for Unique Device ID. It is a feature of Apple iPhones and their other devices. Each individual Apple device has their own ID that is being fetched by Apple servers. When testing a new mobile application on an Apple device we need a UDID from the iPhone, iPad or iPod.

Finding your UDID is a simple process, all you will need is an internet connection, and a few minutes.

UDID
  1. First, go to https://udid.tech on your device, then select the “Tap to find UDID” button located at the top of the screen.
  2. You will then be prompted to accept a configuration file. This file allows the site to read the device information from your phone, so you’ll want to allow this.
  3. Next go to the Settings application, and at the top a “Profile Downloaded” option should now have appeared.
  4. Go into the “Profile Downloaded” menu, and in the top right, press install and accept the prompt which appears.
  5. Once this is complete, you can then go back to https://get.udid.io/ and your UUID will appear. You then have the option to view all the information gathered, or the option to email it.

How to ‘hard refresh’ your browser

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Does your web page look out of sorts following a recent update? Or perhaps an old image is still showing despite the fact you’ve been told it has been updated?

A hard refresh may be needed.

Please take a look at the infographic below. This details how to do a hard refresh in the most common browsers – Chrome, Microsoft Edge, Firefox and Safari — on both Windows and Mac.

Browser caching is useful for web browsing in that it allows for page that you’ve visited previously to load much more quickly. Modern browsers like Chrome, Microsoft Edge, Firefox and Safari tend to cache front-end resources like JavaScript and style sheets (CSS) to increase web application and website performance.

While enhancing performance is usually a great thing, cached resources can cause problems when you have a major change to a web application’s JavaScript or style sheets.

Sometimes, the only way to see updates is by doing a hard refresh or by clearing the entire cache of the browser.

Coronavirus Warning & Business Plan

In light of the recent events surrounding COVID-19, we want to let you know that we are monitoring the unfolding situation and have taken preventive measures to ensure there is no down-time or impact to our service for existing ‘LIVE’ systems.

Our technology infrastructure and business continuity planning ensures we can work on your software and apps remotely with minimal or no interruption to normal service levels. Should any members of our team need to work remotely (e.g. through self-isolation or due to school closures) or should we decide to close our offices and switch to remote working we will be able to provide our usual maintenance service with only minor interruptions. We believe our business continuity model will provide a ‘business as usual’ approach to existing services in the event of needing to work remotely. This will cover minor bug fixes, resolution of technical issues and service support.

With regard to up time; all our software and servers are cloud based in a distributed environment designed to operate without interruption and to be effectively managed from anywhere. All of our staff have access to our monitoring system and business email for managing enquiries and issues being reported.

However, we do expect there to be delays for some clients where new development work is involved. We will inform those that we feel may be impacted independently, and keep you updated as the situation unfolds.

Please accept our sincerest apologies in advance if you or your business is impacted by these delays.

If you need to discuss any of this with us, please call our office on +44 (0)114 2555 855.

Goodbye Media House, Hello Control Tower!

Media House has been our home for over 10 years now and it will be missed, along with our friends and fellow residents in the building, some of which we’ve known since before P&P was even established. But, with us changing our structure (and where we live) Media House is no longer the best place for our HQ! We’ve been looking for new premises for some time but had little luck finding something that fits the bill!

Fortunately, Sheffield Business Park, host to Sheffield Business Centre (SBC) had the ideal office space for us. Formally Sheffield City Airport, the entire area has been transformed into Yorkshire’s largest business park and now accommodates businesses of all shapes and sizes.

Retaining it’s ‘airport quirkiness’ the now retired Runway Control Tower is a unique 3 story office space with 360-degree views over the entire area. Perfectly suited to become our new HQ! Over the coming weeks we’ll be moving equipment and staff over and should have fully relocated come March 2020. We look forward to developing mobile apps and bespoke Business Software from our new Sheffield offices.

Additionally, we’d also just like thank the staff over at SBC. They have been fantastic and accomodated all our questions and requests! We very much look forward to working from our new office and being part of the SBC community.

Our new responsive website goes live… about time too!

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Our old (and trusty) website was turned off today after serving us for almost 8 years (we know right!). It’s been long overdue an overhaul but with client commitments and new projects we’ve just not managed to find the time to really work on our own projects.

Today, we are pleased to unveil our new, fully responsive desktop and mobile website, designed and developed by us (with a little help from WordPress!), that highlights a new direction for Pipe & Piper Ltd. With our new logo and branding, we feel this better depicts the type of work we do and the people we work with.

Although it’s still not perfect and there’s a ton more tweaking and content to add we felt it just couldn’t wait any longer! We hope you like what you see!

Using mobile technology to improve the future of the NHS

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Working closely with the NHS Sheffield Teaching Hospitals, our mobile applications and cloud statistical systems are enabling better training and feedback for doctors and patients.

We have recently been tasked with designing and developing a cross-platform mobile application for use on smartphones and tablets that will enable doctors, nurses, surgeons, practitioners, GP’s and other administrative staff to quickly and accurately log all activity undertaken. Additionally the software will also be the basis for feedback and reporting during training sessions within STH for students training for their specialities.

The applications will also allow doctors to anomalously take patients email in order to forward on feedback surveys so the STH as a whole can obtain a full breakdown of how their medical staff are performing through the eyes of their patients.

Ultimately, the overall aim for the project over the coming years is to help the NHS understand what areas need improvement in order to provide a better and more efficient service for trainee doctors and patients alike.

We’ve just won a 5* certification award from the Educational App Store!

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Our work with the Xcite Education team on a project entitled Zapp2Learn has earned its right for a 5* certification award from the Education App Store.

Zapp2Learn is a project that was developed by us here at Pipe & Piper and Xcite Education that teaches phonics by guiding children through an easy to use app. It uses images and speech related to all phonics taught in the UK’s national curriculum for key stage 1.

The app utilises QR codes and provides and exciting platform of interaction for children of all ages. It teaches phonics in a fun new way, bringing the mobile app and traditional paper-based learning together for the first time in education. Zapp2Learn teaches phonics by guiding the child through an easy to use app, which has images and speech related to all phonics taught in the UK’s national curriculum for key stage 1. The child interacts with the app in a fun new way, by scanning printed documents called Zapp Sheets, creating a fun, unique experience for the child.

The Zapp2Learn project is still in its early stages but Josh Thompson at the Education App Store has high hopes;

“Who ever said “print is dead”?! Zapp2Learn app has revived the printed medium through the clever use of QR codes. Learners are required to scan the correct letters’ QR code to fill in the gap and correctly spell the word represented in the accompanying image. While this doesn’t sound like an exciting concept – trust me it is!”

“Although the QR code features make this a distinctive phonics app due to its increase in learn engagement, the real value within this software comes from its progress reporting features. Teachers and parents can log into the website to view each individual users reports, an outstanding feature for teachers to track their individual students progression and where their students may need additional support (reports can be viewed online or downloaded in the form of excel spreadsheet enabling teachers to document work undertaken).”

“Although the admin section found within the Zapp2Learn website leaves a little to be desired from an experience perspective, it is a great feature for one main admin to be able to login and see how everyone is using the app specifically when it comes to setting work outside the classroom. “The dog ate my homework” will become an excuse of the past. The app does have a few kinks that need ironing out, but the value and level of engagement this app provides is second to none.”

We will continue to work with the Xcite Education team to improve the Zapp2Learn app further and hope that it really does help shape the future of learning.