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  • The Flexible Working Revolution

    Businesses in London across the UK are embracing the new trend that's helping them cut costs, attract talent and radically improve productivity.

    Technology has changed the way we communicate and it is currently changing the way we work. Gone are the days when office workers spent every working moment in a faceless cubicle, labouring in a vacuum. The rise of digital communication tools, collaboration apps and productivity suites, coupled with the benefits of the ‘always on’ nature of the web, has set the modern business free from its IT shackles.

    Flexible working is the natural evolution of work in this brave new digital world. Today, businesses large and small can operate anywhere, anytime.

    What do we mean by flexible working?

    Essentially, it means freeing up you and your colleagues or employees to work in the way that suits you best. That can mean mobile working via your smartphone; working from different locations thanks to remote access to the business network; holding meetings through video conferencing; home-working; and flexi-time, which allows staff to tweak their working hours - coming in at 6am and leaving at 2pm rather than the typical nine to five. Underpinning it all is the technology that helps your team work in the way that suits them best, from any location.

    Flexible working is not a new concept. A recent survey by workplace provider Regus shows that 83% of firms are already offering flexible working to staff. The concepts of hotdesking and video-conferencing have become common parlance in the language of business. Smartphones and laptops are ubiquitous. Once the province of start-ups only, new enterprise tools and software have ensured that even huge, international corporations with thousands of staff can embrace flexible working practices. In fact, more than 65% of the Fortune 100 are already deploying or piloting slate computers to help facilitate flexible working – and if it’s good enough for the top listed firms in the world, it could be good enough for business too.

    Flexibility is Key

    The world’s mobile worker population will grow to nearly 1.2 billion by 2013, more than a third of the world’s workforce. The benefits to business are manifold. By putting the technology and processes in place to facilitate flexible working, rigid and old-fashioned infrastructure can be overhauled, representing a significant cost saving – some 70% of IT budgets are currently spent on maintaining siloed and inflexible data centre equipment.


    Flexible working can also be invaluable in both staff recruitment and retention, especially for those with family commitments. It is a legal obligation to consider flexible working requests from parents with young families, and the government has considered extending the law to include a wider demographic. Beyond the legal requirements, however, research by WorkingMums.co.uk shows that expectant or new parents are more likely to stay in employment if their employer offers some home working or flexibility. Beyond parents, flexible working can help keep work/life balance in check for all employees, as they have the right systems and technologies in place to better

    By slashing the time your staff spend travelling and by giving them the tools they need to work on the go when they do travel, dead time is converted back into productive enterprise. Over time, these hours add up. And it’s not just businesses that benefit, but people too. The boost to morale and productivity generated by scrapping an employee’s commute or their endless travel to and from meetings cannot be underestimated.

    Are you ready to be flexible?

    A cultural shift towards greater work/life balance has created a genuine need for a new way of working. And companies are crying out for ways to boost productivity while cutting costs. Add this to the growing awareness of the environmental and financial impact of endless travel for work, and all the signs point in a single direction: that flexible working is the way of the future.

    Businesses can’t afford to stay rigidly in the past. The businesses that will thrive today and tomorrow are those that can be truly flexible.

    25/06/2012

  • Best apps for business

    From productivity to presentations, travel to time management, these apps for business are like the perfect PA - in your pocket. It’s now possible to run a small empire from your smartphone, from downloading documents to editing in Excel to holding a meeting via Skype in the back of a taxi. And there’s new apps released every day to help you squeeze more minutes out the day, find the best business travel deals and build a killer network.

    Best apps for productivity


    Dragon Dictation

    A voice recognition app, ideal for transcribing meetings. Dictations can be posted straight to social networking sites - though the accuracy is a bit suspect, so probably best check first. Free; iOS.


    Task

    Tasks keeps a note of your appointments, meetings, notes, to-do lists and other things more typically consigned to Post-It notes. £0.69; iOS.


    Astrid

    A personal assistant without the paycheck, Astrid is an organisation app with reminders, subtasks, lists, and widgets that synch across phones, tablets and Astrid.com. Free; iOS and Android.


    Locale

    Always forget to turn your phone off before meetings? Locale lets you set up quiet zones so that whenever your phone is in a certain location it automatically switches to silent - and turns the ringer back on as soon as you move on. Free; Android.


    Best apps for virtual meetings


    Google Voices

    Styled after Google’s Gmail service, Google Voices is a Skype-like system for PC-to-phone and PC-to-PC voice and video calling, which also lets you read voicemail as email. Free; iOS and Android.


    Skype

    Perfect for smooth business calls over wireless connection - cutting costs and letting you see the whites of your colleague’s eyes. Free; iOS and Android.


    Best apps for ideas on the go


    AK Notepad

    Text-based and supposedly “hassle-free” notepad and reminder system, which lets you jot down bright ideas in the pub - and send them to your boss via SMS. Free; Android.


    Evernote

    A multimedia scrapbook - lets you take down snippets of text, photos, voice memos, files or handwritten “ink” notes and organise them into files. Includes synchronisation and backup. Free; iOS and Android.


    Paper by fifty three

    Specially designed for the iPad, Paper is an intuitive use of the touchscreen interface to let you take notes, sketch diagrams and doodle - great for creative meetings (and dull ones). Free; iOS.


    Best apps for presentations and pitches


    Scatterslides

    Lets you view and control PowerPoint and Open Office slideshows from your phone, unshackling you from the projector. Free; iOS and Android.


    Keynote

    Lets you create presentations with easy-to-use tools and a range of effects using the touchscreen on an iPad or iPhone, then save and send them as PowerPoint files. £6.99; iOS.


    mbPointer

    No more frantic hand signals to get the next slide up - mbPointer turns your iPhone into a wireless remote control for a PowerPoint slide show. £1.99; iOS.


    Best apps for marketing


    Quicklytics
    Who’s watching you? Provides information on realtime data about the sites on your Google analytics account from your iPhone. You can check out visitor information for multiple websites in a matter of seconds. £2.99; iOS.


    Instagram

    Not just for Hipsters, major fashion and consumer brands are picking up this social photo app - now owned by Facebook - as a marketing channel. Free; iOS and Android.


    Twitter
    Not only for 140 character updates on what you’re reading or eating, Twitter is a bona fide newswire, recommendation service and marketing channel. Free; iOS and Android.


    Best apps for finance and business news


    Bloomberg Anywhere

    The gold standard in finance and business news, Bloomberg’s app gives subscribers access to breaking news, market data and tools that let you track your portfolio on the bus or in the limo. Free, iOS.


    XE currency converter

    One of the most popular currency converter sites in app form - gives access to live currency rates and charts, with a clever swipe-and-type interface that makes it easy to see how many pesos you get for your shilling. Free; iOS.


    CNBC PRO

    Capitalism to takeaway - the US TV channel has an app that pumps out real-time global stock quotes, currency data and market-moving headlines in brash primary colours before, during and after market hours. Free; iOS.


    Best apps for doing business on the go


    iTerminal

    Turns your iPhone into a credit card terminal, allowing you to take payments pretty much anywhere. While the app is free, there are pretty steep monthly and per-transaction fees. Free; iOS.

    21/05/2012

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