Be prepared
On 27 July the Olympics will kick off in London and at various venues around the south east. Sara Yirrell looks at some of the steps firms in the area have taken to ensure it is business as usual
Despite the weather being a bit of a let-down so far this year, one thing is guaranteed this summer for any firm based in London or the south east, and that is disruption caused by the Olympics.
Whether this is severe or mild remains to be seen, but as brilliant and exciting as the Games are, there is no escaping the fact that millions of extra people pouring into the capital every day for two, two-week periods (taking the Paralympic Games into account) is going to place unseen pressure on our transport and general infrastructure.
For those just trying to get to work it could cause a massive headache and end up being a logistical nightmare.
There is also the issue of employees actually wanting to watch the Olympics as well - sporting fans will be desperate to tally up the number of Gold medals won by athletes and will either spend hours checking websites or nipping down the pub to watch the action, unless employers are smart and put measures in place to ensure staff are kept up to date with the action.
Forward planning is key
Some savvy firms have been thinking about the Games for years, and with the help of canny channel partners, have invested in systems and applications that allow their employees to either work remotely and spend the hours wasted in travel being more productive or checking up on the Games, or change their hours slightly to avoid bottlenecks.
However, the worrying thing is that nobody really knows what the impact of the Games will be until they are actually upon us.
Simon Brealy, business manager of Channel Recruitment Solutions (CRS), said channel firms are some of the most unprepared.
“Despite being technically focused and selling these types of solutions to their customers, they rarely provide the services for their own staff. Many are still expecting their field sales people to be in the office regardless of where they live,” he said.
“From a personal point of view, we have Office 365 so none of us needs to be in the office, but there are plenty of firms based in London that have not even looked at their options. This is something that should have been addressed when we won the bid. The problem is that nobody knows what the impact is going to be, so no one can give a definite answer.”
Paul Sweeney, managing director of ANS, said his firm is prepared for the Olympics and has also been working closely with customers to ensure the minimum amount of disruption.
“We have been doing some work with Tower Hamlets council, making sure the staff there have the infrastructure to support remote working. It is an ongoing project.
“The problem is, a lot of people think they will just be able to carry on regardless, but clearly the council has some sort of insight and has taken early action.
“We at ANS are well provided for in terms of mobile working - all our London-based staff can work from home and will be able to adapt quickly to the situation.
“My only concern is that the Olympics will hamper customers’ ability to make decisions and sign off projects while the disruption is going on, or that we are going to be unable to deliver services that we have sold earlier in the year. However, whatever happens will be a short-term blip. We just need to ride out the storm and it will return to normal pretty quickly.”
Alison Wright, cloud partner lead at Microsoft, said it is something the vendor has been talking about with its partners.
“Partners are coming to us and saying customers are thinking about the impact of the Olympics. There have been a number of factors that are driving partners and customers into thinking more easily and readily around flexible working,” she said.
IT services specialist Esteem has also been working on a number of Olympics-fuelled business continuity projects, including a global remote access solution implementation at law firm Bird & Bird, which has 450 staff based in London.
By adopting a centralised management approach, Esteem can help Bird & Bird regain control of its IT and react more quickly to staff and client needs.
Alastair Kitching, sales and marketing director at Esteem, said the Olympic Games were just the tip of a large iceberg.
“It is not just about adopting a contingency plan for the Olympics; the ways in which people work are changing,” he said. “Employees want to work from anywhere at any time. Companies need to embrace this and implement a solution that both provides flexibility to their employees and meets the demands of their clients.”
Chris Dunning, managing director of managed services player TechQuarters, agreed that the Olympics was just the beginning, and said more customers are waking up to the benefits of having decent disaster recovery and remote working practice in place.
“Our disaster recovery service replicates one set of vendors’ services to a datacentre facility and spins them up into virtual services, which enables them to work from anywhere.
“If you cannot get to the office, but have an internet connection, it will work.
“After the Olympics I can see demand for this only increasing. Many businesses do not want to pay £50-plus per square foot for office space; they have flexible technology and will want more of their key workers to work from home to create more money for the business, while also cutting operational costs at the same time.”
Many SMBs still not ready for disruption
According to research carried out by Citrix, almost half of London’s SMEs (41 per cent) expect disruption, but only 21 per cent have business continuity plans in place.
Even more worrying, just 10 per cent of those questioned are adopting new working practices to minimise potential interruptions.
In total 58 per cent of SMBs questions are prepared to cope with the expected disruption, despite concerns about staff arriving late or not at all, distractions during working hours and meetings being cancelled. The vendor questioned more than 500 senior decision makers from London-based SMBs looking at the business impact of the forthcoming Olympics.
Andrew Millard, senior marketing director EMEA of Citrix’ Online Service Division, said: “Despite the fact that so many do not expect their businesses to escape the Olympics unscathed, it is worrying that almost 60 per cent of SMEs don’t think that any formal change to existing ways of working is either relevant or necessary. It is not just the road congestion that firms have to worry about, he explained. They need to factor in the cost of hotels which will be more expensive during the Games and the congestion around the London airports for example.
“Anything that can save employees having to come in every day, and allow for remote working will benefit businesses in the affected areas,” he said, adding it needn’t cost and arm and a leg.
“If you have a laptop and a web cam and an internet connection, you can do remote meetings from home,” he said. “There is not a huge amount a business will have to invest.”
“With London in the global spotlight it provides the ideal opportunity for UK businesses to show that it is possible to reap the benefits of hosting the Games and avoid the fall-out of any pressure on the transport network, by using collaboration technologies to ensure staff can work effectively wherever they are.”
Olympic disruption stats (source: Citrix)
- 87 per cent believe productivity will suffer. Problems are expected in several areas:
- 64 per cent believe that some staff will be late into work, with 27 per cent concerned that they won’t get in at all and will be unable to work
- 47 per cent expect to have to cancel or postpone meetings and 40 per cent anticipate that suppliers and other business contacts may be unavailable
- 34 per cent expect productivity to drop, as staff use the disruption as an excuse to avoid getting work done or are distracted by high-profile events during office hours
- 56 per cent of SMEs expect more staff to work from home and 21% that more meetings will be held online.
- Just 24 per cent said their business will implement a flexible working policy for the Olympics, while only 10 per cent are adopting new working practices.
- 82 per cent of senior directors and managers have at least one smart device, either work-supplied or personally-owned
- Although 61 per cent of directors and managers expect to be ‘chained to their desk as usual’, 28 per cent plan to use their smart phones and/or tablets to work at home or otherwise remotely
- 24 per cent expect to use their smart phone or tablet away from the office more than usual over the Olympic period