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Rising cost of no mobile email

A lack of mobile email access is costing British business at least £7.345 billion a year claims vodafone UK in its latest Critical Response Time Index. The operator says that a tenth if businesses now expect a 30 minute turnaround on new business emails, while a third still expect a response within two hours. Vodafone computes that the average cost to a business of lost opportunities stands at £18,840 per business, per year.

The Index, which examines the changing attitudes of UK business to email behaviour, also indicates that the combination of pressure from quicker turnaround and potential financial loss is causing workplace anxiety: More than a third (36%) of UK workers are aware of occasions where lack of access to email, whilst on the move, has caused unnecessary stress and conflict in the workplace, rising to 48% for those working in London. Mark Bond, Enterprise Business Unit Director, Vodafone UK, commented. "This year we have seen mobile email access, more than ever before, become an essential piece of the business armoury. This survey clearly demonstrates that the way we approach our work is changing and businesses need to move to address that change."
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What Economic Crisis?

Friday, 04 July 2008 16:00 Andrew Scott, Vantis Plc - 01727 838255

Vantis Plc


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A whole new vocabulary seems to be emerging to express the economic crisis that much of the media is predicting: terms such as "sub-prime lending" and "credit crunch" were hardly common currency a year ago, yet we hear little else in the press nowadays.

But the effect of these, plus consumers failing to buy at the same levels as in previous years, falling house prices, and rising inflation, are having a real effect and forcing everyone to consider their next actions carefully.

Against a backdrop of rapidly falling levels of confidence, consumers are revising down their aspirations, and ultimately their expenditure, both over the long and short term. And without sales, the market shrinks. And in a shrinking market, lenders are less inclined to make loans; if they do, they will undoubtedly charge more to make up the shortfall in income because they are lending less. The whole thing turns into a vicious circle, if not a self fulfilling prophecy.

So, just when a much-needed injection of credit into the economy is required, the opposite happens, provoking the question: what happens next, and what should businesses be doing to ensure that they survive any downturn?

Top Ten Tips


Andrew Scott's tips to surviving the credit crunch:
  • First and foremost don't panic!
  • Carefully and diligently review your business plan. If you haven't got one, create one now, and stick to it unless you have very good justification not to.
  • Set short term objectives for, say, three-monthly intervals and keep them under review.
  • Review all expenditure and whether it is really necessary. Can any costs be cut or deferred?
  • Are there any costs that could be deemed an "investment" and if so, consider increasing the expenditure, i.e. some marketing expenditure may need to be increased rather than cut.
  • Review and improve business processes and put new processes in place where necessary. This will improve efficiencies and will drive down costs. If it doesn't, the process is faulty and needs to be reviewed.
  • Calculate any extra working capital requirement and work and negotiate with your bank, and perhaps your key creditors, before it is needed.
  • Review the whole process of how you deal with your customers. How can you accelerate payments from them? You may want to consider discounts, but beware of granting a reduction to anyone who doesn't actually ask for one.
  • Consider introducing non-cash rewards for your team. Perhaps there is an opportunity for senior employees to be offered share options, or would tailored incentives such as holidays or meals out be more of a motivator?
  • Check with a business adviser as to whether you are extracting your own "remuneration" from your business as tax efficiently as possible.
Finally, as a result of all of the above, list out all the opportunities that you can envisage in this difficult marketplace. Competitors may be falling by the wayside, key individuals may be unhappy with their current opportunities, potential new customers may be looking to change their suppliers - how can you best capitalise on any of these scenarios?


Reproduced with kind permission of:

Andrew Scott
Vantis Plc
St Albans - 01727 838255
Web Site Address: www.vantisplc.com
Email: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
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ROI in IT - Institute of Chartered Accountants

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RETURN ON INVESTMENT IN INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY ICAEW IT Faculty

IT Forward Round Table

The Institute's series of "IT Forward" Round Tables is designed to explore major aspects of harnessing information and communication technology to the benefit of business, the public sector and the economy.

The events are private seminars, hosted by the President of the Institute and promoted by the Institute's IT Faculty, on methods of determining data control and system management procedures in such a way as to optimise their effectiveness. The events are conducted under the "Chatham House" rule.
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Connectivity is crowned king

An exploding "Culture of Connectivity" is forcing enterprises around the world to change the way they do business faster than ever before, or risk the opportunities of hyperconnectivity passing them by.

That's according to a new global IDC study sponsored by Nortel, which found that not only is the speed of technology adoption accelerating (impacting business policy and IT investment), but the global workforce is increasingly expecting employers to provide similar levels of 'everywhere, all the time connectivity'.

The "hyperconnected" worker uses a minimum of seven devices for work and personal access plus at least nine applications like Instant Messaging, text messaging, Web Conferencing and social networks. The study predicts that hyperconnected business users will likely rise to 40% in five years.

The results of this study send a clear message to today's business... "the hyperconnected workforce is coming and you'd better be ready,"said John Gant, chief research officer and senior vice president at IDC.

"The study found that 16% of the global workforce is hyperconnected today, and will grow to 40% in just a few years. This means that the workforce isn't just migrating towards hyperconnectivity, it is stampeding to it"
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Phone Calls Cut Car Trips

Despite soaring fuel prices and readily available Conferencing technology, only 28% of drivers using cars on business say that all of their journeys are absolutely necessary, finds research by Unicom.

Our research aimed to discover whether people could have achieved the same result by making a phone call, commented Unicom's Tony Eagleton. It works out that 36% of business journeys by car could be replaced by a telephone call or conference call.
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