Not long to go until Christmas! Here at Gael, the Christmas tree lights are twinkling, tinsel has been wrapped around the PC screens and the anticipation is building for the Christmas party. Who can believe it’s almost 2007? Will it be as eventful as 2006?

2006 has certainly been a year to remember. We can't quite believe the year is reaching its conclusion. It's certainly been exciting, mostly due to the release of the new Q-Pulse and its associated challenges and achievements.

In this Review of the Year we are going to take a look at the key events of 2006 and what we have in store for Q-Pulse users next year.

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After the festivities of last Christmas and New Year, nobody at Gael had time to feel the usual January blues. Everyone started off the year feverishly working in order to complete the new Q-Pulse in time for its launch date, but we managed to fit in a User Group in Dubai in January.

The Dubai user group covered all the differences between Version 4.2 and 5 and attendees were from a cross section of industry and job roles. Companies represented included Emirates Airlines, Jumeirah International and Union National Bank.

In February and March we started Beta Testing, with the assistance of our customers. A big thanks must go to them, as we would have struggled to get the new Q-Pulse completed without their help. The Beta Testing allowed us to iron out any problems in Q-Pulse before the release date.

Prior to the release date, our new re-branded Q-Pulse website at www.qpulse.com was launched in April. Not only does it have a clean new look but it is easier to use, a recorded presentation facility, a discussion zone and an enhanced customer zone. Our in-house design and marketing team didn’t have time to be bothered by the April showers as they worked frantically to ensure that the new Q-Pulse website was easy to access and looked good at the same time.


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Within Gael, 2006 will undoubtedly be remembered for the new Q-Pulse launch. The release of the new product on the 16th of June saw the culmination of several years of hard work. We thank all of our customers for their patience and understanding whilst we put the finishing touches to the new Q-Pulse.

The blood, sweat and tears were all worth it though, when we released the new version of Q-Pulse. Since the new system arrived, we have been quite overwhelmed by all the positive feedback and support from customers all over the world.

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Since upgrading to the new system presented a significant challenge to users, Gael introduced some new faces to aid and enhance customer service. June was another busy month. Our support function was expanded, with longer opening hours, Monday - Thursday 08.30 – 17.30, Friday 08.30 – 17.00 (UK time), and with three new additional members of staff, Andrew Bryson, Ian McAlees and Steven Scott.

We also introduced a new key customer facing Upgrade team, including an Upgrade Manager, Gregor McCall, who joined us in June, and a dedicated Account Manager, Danielle Kelly who joined us in August. We are particularly pleased with the new Account Management service, which allows us to offer a proactive service that can envisage future problems and take steps to avoid them before they occur, instead of simply reacting to any problems.

We are also happy to welcome additional members of staff across Sales, Test and Development. Thomas Anderson, Wajid Bhatti, Fraser McMillan, Douglas Naismith, Hassen Shehzad and Angela Wands have all joined Gael since June.

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We also implemented a new suite of Professional Services for Q-Pulse in July. These include General courses, Administrator courses and courses for Advanced users and range from a Q-Pulse skills upgrade to Advanced Q-Pulse Administration Techniques and a Strategic Compliance Review.

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Why should we upgrade?

Some of our customers seemed to be asking this question about the upgrade process and we were aware of a certain amount of apprehension amongst our clients towards the process. It is always daunting upgrading to a new system so, to help customers get to grips with the upgrade process, we held a series of “Why Upgrade?” roadshows in September and October across the UK and Ireland in Bracknell, Coventry, Bolton, Central Scotland and Dublin and an online session was held for those further afield.

We, at Gael, feel that events like the roadshows help our customers to envisage the return they can get from their investment in Q-Pulse and offer an ideal opportunity for Gael to engage with customers. We were extremely pleased to see the high level of attendance, with over 250 organisations represented. This demonstrated the high level of commitment from customers to Q-Pulse and the new system.

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Gael managed service

The Gael managed upgrade service was introduced in October, in response to customer demand for assistance from the beginning of an upgrade project to its successful conclusion.

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Gael founder nominated for top award

November saw Donald Maciver, founder and Managing Director of Gael Ltd, nominated in the business category of the 2006 Glenfiddich Spirit of Scotland Business Awards. Donald was recognised for his positive impact on the Scottish business landscape. It was tremendous for Donald and Gael to be recognised on this country-wide stage and represents Gael’s recognition in the Scottish business arena.

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New Year’s resolutions

This has been an exciting time and a massive year of growth for all those involved with Gael. Next year the pace shows no sign of slowing down. Plans are already underway to double the office space of our current home, and to grow revenues by a massive 100%.

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Join us!

Are you an existing Q-Pulse user who really believes in the advantages the new Q-Pulse can bring to you and to other organisations? If so, there could be career opportunities at Gael, as we're actively expanding our Professional Services Team to include customer-partners. To find out more, take a look at our website at www.qpulse.com.

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Q-Pulse: what’s next

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10 for 10

Chairman's review of the year

2006 will without doubt go down as one of the warmest on record – the year you didn’t need to go abroad to top up your tan, due to the endless days of sunshine. Unless of course you happened to be a Q-Pulse developer! Three years of requirement gathering, specification, design, development and endless rounds of refinement finally came together with the release of the new generation of Q-Pulse in June. The Q-Pulse development team didn’t see much daylight or sunshine for much of the year and the final outcome has been a credit to their professionalism.

We are delighted with the great feedback we have received from literally hundreds of new and existing users since the release in June and we look forward to upgrading the rest of the user base as the remaining modules become available during 2007.

Whilst we will of course continue to develop Q-Pulse during 2007, our primary mission for next year is to help deliver the vision of managing compliance effectively and efficiently using Q-Pulse.

The product and associated professional services have all been designed to get people across the board to engage with the management system, to reduce the bureaucratic burden of managing compliance and, more importantly, to get value and payback for your efforts by helping you to identify ways of “doing the right things, right.”

We have purposely set up our Account Management function to facilitate this process. Their role is to ensure that each client gets the individual attention and assistance necessary to ensure that they get an instant return on their Q-Pulse investment. Significantly, the Account Management function primary key performance indicator (KPI) is not financial, but instead the number and quality of Q-Pulse reference sites they develop in the year.

We expect to grow to 70 staff and 20 associates by the end of 2007 and to this end we are in the process of recruiting for positions throughout the UK and also internationally. Please refer to www.qpulse.com for specifics. We are also currently in the planning stages of doubling our facilities in East Kilbride and expect building work to commence by the middle of the year.

Finally, I thank you again for your excellent support during 2006 and I hope you and yours have an excellent holiday season, whether or not you celebrate Christmas. Best wishes for 2007 from all of us at Gael Quality.

Donald Maciver

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And finally

We would like to take this opportunity to thank all of our customers for their continued support for Q-Pulse. We would also like to wish everyone a Merry Christmas, a Happy New Year and success in 2007.