Extreme weather, tube strikes, G20 protests, postal disruption: recent events have highlighted the need for all small businesses to be able to work away from the office. Imerja’s Mark Evans looks back at an eventful year for small firms.

Driving down cost is at the centre of most business decisions these days. Innovative firms have looked to implement flexible benefits to replace bonuses and help retain key employees. At the same time, a recent catalogue of man-made and natural crises has seen the mobile working revolution gather momentum. Businesses are increasingly recognising tangible benefits from working away from the office and have begun to see it as an essential part of an overall business continuity strategy.

A YouGov survey revealed that the recent extreme weather affected over 70% of workers in the UK and over a hundred million working hours have been lost by staff not being able to make it into the office or having a much longer commute than normal. The recent heavy snow has merely served to highlight the need for businesses to have flexible working in place; many events last year also demonstrated this very same point.

Anyone using the UK motorway infrastructure on a regular basis will have experienced gridlock, and probably frustration at being unproductive for long periods as the chaos clears. Although we may reluctantly accept the daily inconvenience of travel disruption and delay as part of working life, there is a direct cost to business.

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Creating the right image

Since it was founded in 2004, Imerja has sought to develop a brand in the market recognised for quality, trust and professionalism.

Imerja has grown rapidly and established a solid reputation in the market in just three years, by working closely with our customers and partners to create a sustainable foundation on which we can build.

In recognition of the evolving needs of the business as we enter the next phase of growth, Imerja is pleased to report the appointment of MC2 as our marketing consultancy partner. MC2 is a Manchester based marketing and PR agency that has been recognised as having the best team in the north for the past three years by EN magazine. The agency works with leading organisations and brands such as Deloitte, NCC Group, HSBC, Kenco, Philadelphia and Phones 4U.

MC2 recently won the 2007 SWOT award for marketing excellence in promotional strategy including the Chairman’s award for best overall company amongst this year’s winners.

“We are excited to be working with the team to ensure that this growth continues through building the profile of Imerja and its people, and ultimately achieving the vision set out by the company”

Mike Perls
Managing Director MC2

E-government is about the integration and interconnection of local authorities and public bodies in order to provide better services for citizens. However, this interconnection brings with it significant implications for critical services to IT related risks and cyber crime.

Ian Jackson of Imerja, in his capacity as Technical Design Manager for Government Connect, was invited to join an expert panel for a TV programme discussing key issues surrounding the current wave of government modernisation. Entitled Securing eGovernment, Building a Secure Infrastructure the programme looked at the tools and technologies that can be employed to protect operations and systems, and discussed where responsibility for ensuring security would lie.

Chaired by John Thornton, the select panel of experts included: Roger Cumming, Director, NISCC; Ian Jackson, Technical Design Manager, Government Connect; Stephen Lawrence, Director Solutions Team, eDelivery Team, eGovernment Unit; Steve Pennant, Chief Executive, London Connects; Andrew Swaffer, Director, GSI, Cable & Wireless.

“…as we move into the next wave of modernisation we need to be able to securely transmit communications across boundaries…..and we need to be able to do that in a reliable and secure faction. Government Connect is all about providing that infrastructure.” – Ian Jackson (Imerja), Technical Design Manager, Government Connect

The panel discussion looked at how local government, central government and suppliers (the third sector) can put in place a secure infrastructure that is flexible and accessible enough to deliver these new services and operations, and at the same time is robust enough to protect individual authorities and the other public bodies to which they are increasingly connected.

The programme was originally broadcast in December 2005.

About LocalGov TV

The programme was produced and broadcast by LocalGov TV, a free to-air dedicated web-cast television channel for senior executives across all public sector organisations. It is available free to an unlimited audience at anytime, at any location via the internet. Using the web-medium it is able to provide the exceptionally broad range of content essential to help senior executives understand and address the many challenges they face in transitioning their organisations to e-government. For more on LocalGov TV click here.