Snow’s the time to prepare your business

Ok, it’s a couple of weeks late. But the snow many of us hoped for over Christmas is set to land this weekend.

On the up-side, we can build snowmen. Go sledging. Or simply gaze dreamily out of the window with a mug of hot chocolate at the pretty scene looking back at us.

On the down-side, there’s Monday morning. And being snowed into the driveway. Having a car that won’t start. Trains cancelled. Or roads that are completely impassable.

Businesses have barely recovered from the disruptions caused by last summer’s big events, and now we’re facing it all over again.

If there was ever a time to put business readiness in place, it’s now – before the next big event or episode of bad weather comes along.

To cope with disruption, businesses of all sizes need to be as flexible as possible, and the best way to do that is to enable people to work wherever they are; one way of doing this that doesn’t require a big investment is to let people use their own computers and mobile devices (also known as Bring Your Own Device or BYOD) when working. Thanks to new secure networks that can carry increased amounts of voice and data, working away from the office is within the grasp of everyone.

There are some quick wins to be had too. Like group conferencing and equipping teams with broadband dongles – keeping them connected wherever they decide to work.

At O2, business readiness is something we take seriously – it’s why we carried out our own experiment to make sure we were prepared for the disruptions from the big events last summer.

Enabling your people to work remotely will mean business as usual – even when people can’t get into work. Now we’re using the lessons we learned from our experiment to help other businesses ensure they’re ready for any disruption. We even have a suggestion for what to do with an empty office for a day.

To find out more about business readiness and how to make sure your business is prepared for anything, call Matt Worth on 01235 433507 or visit http://www.o2.co.uk/enterprise/our-solutions/joined-up-people/business-readiness.