Maps have reached the finals again in the 2010-11 National GO Awards for Excellence in Public Procurement – Best Service Award.

Following intense consideration from the GO Awards judging panel, the finalists in each category have been decided. With award categories covering Individual of the Year, Team of the Year, Sustainability Initiative of the Year, Collaborative Procurement Initiative of the Year, Best Service, Best Supplier Engagement Initiative, Corporate Social Responsibility and Community Benefit in Procurement, and Innovation or Initiative of the Year, competition has been fierce, and only the very best nominations have achieved finalist status.

The awards ceremony is being held on 15th June 2010 in London.

DORCAS (Direct Online Reporting of Claims And Sales) is the newly designed secure web portal provided by Maps Legal Assistance. The new design is part of our ongoing programme of improvements to our web based services. We hope it will make the site even easier to use and we will be rolling the new design out across all areas of our website in the coming weeks.

The female name of Dorcas is associated with a rather interesting story. James Tattersall, Managing Director of MAPS, has been researching his family tree for nearly 10 years and one of his ancestors children was called Dorcas Harriet Giles. Unfortunately she met with a rather nasty demise following a road traffic accident outside her house on 13th May 1863 in Reckleford Street, Yeovil, Somerset. She was accidentally killed by a wheel of a cart. At the inquest it was said there was a great deal of furious driving in the streets and that it would be well for the police to have their attention drawn to the fact!

MAPS Legal Assistance are supporting The International Tree Foundation (ITF), one of the oldest established forestry organisations in the UK who have been protecting and planting trees for over 80 years.

For every new account won or client retained MAPS will sponsor the planting of a new tree in the Lancashire area. Clients will be issued with their own E-Certificate in support of the protection and planting of new trees.

Christmas came early to MAPS as staff put on their glad rags and headed for Zeligs in Liverpool on Friday 11^th December for a festive meal and entertainment.

Staff were greeted by the sounds of Liverpool’s own Franki Sinatra and supporting swing band followed by a tasty three course meal!!

Secret Santa presents were also exchanged at the meal and the whole event was reported to be a success!!

Some of the Maps team enjoyed a day out at Go Ape in Delamere Forest, Cheshire on Sunday. Deirdre managed to complete the course despite a fear of heights. Mike followed us on the ground whilst taking photos.

Adam managed to snap his pulley wire on the first zip slide but fortunately he was saved by two additional clips.

The last stage ended in a 12m high and 212m long zip slide into a pile of wood chippings. Most us us ended up on our backs but Dan and Cheryl managed to stay on their feet.

Pudsey Juniors under 14’s travel to Holland in April 2010 to take on the might of Europe in the Netherlands Easter Trophy!

The team is coached by Nigel Beck of Kayes Solicitors, and, despite this, the lads have high hopes for the competition!

The squad are actively raising money to fund the tour and are arranging a number of events including penalty shoot-outs, bag packs, and sponsored walks.

One of the bright sparks in them team has calculated that the return trip to Holland is 920 km’s and sponsorship is invited at £10 per km.

All sponsors will have a link on the official tour website and, for donations of £250 or more, will receive a match shirt signed by all the players at the end of the tour.

Who knows……you could be sponsoring a future England captain!

Follow the lads progress at their website

Maps announced as a finalist in the National GO Awards for Excellence in Public Procurement – Best Small Business Award.

A record number of submissions entered into the GO Awards, from a broad cross-section of the UK public and private sectors. This makes the achievement of a finalist place even more significant, as the level of competition for these coveted Awards intensifies.

The awards ceremony is being held on 4th June 2009 in London.

Our website now lives on its own dedicated server at Rackspace – world leader in hosting – who guarantee 100% network and infrastructure uptime and many other business-critical support features.

Their customer service philosophy, Fanatical Support^® has won much industry recognition and they were recently voted with the best customer focus in the country, in the 2008 National Business Awards.

MAPS decision to select Rackspace was obvious – a like-minded organisation with very strong environmental credentials!

MAPS have significantly strengthened their market share in the Public Sector and are considered to be the fastest growing independent legal expenses provider. James Tattersall, Managing Director of MAPS, comments: “We continue to win new Public Sector accounts every month and existing clients are renewing with us under long terms agreements. We are probably the second biggest LEI/ULR provider in the Public Sector and remain an independent privately owned company”.

We currently act for 39% of all County Councils and 27% of all London Boroughs as well as a considerable number of other Public Bodies such as Police and Fire Authorities, Housing Associations and Local Councils.

Last month Brother asked local businesses in the North West to help them attempt to create the world’s largest classified advertisement to help celebrate the launch of the world’s first compact A3 multifunction inkjet printers.

The ad ran live until the 16^th November but the web pages, www.brother.co.uk/manchesterad, will continue until the end of December 2008.

Can you find our logo? It’s on the top line!