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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Bolton-based IT services provider, Imerja has successfully completed a project to implement a flexible working strategy for Warrington Borough Council.

The work, carried out in partnership with Virgin Media Business, involved installation of encryption technology on all laptops and USB devices as welll as providing secure remote access allowing people to work either from home or other mobile sites. It was introduced alongside new remote working policies to ensure that mobile working is properly policed.

Ian Jackson, Managing Director of Imerja, commented: “Most councils now understand the necessity of high-capacity network access and data security, and we are delighted to have been able to supply the solutions that Warrington required. The council is now benefiting from increased resilience, capacity and functionality, meaning that services can be delivered in a more efficient manner.”

Ian Hawkins, service design & delivery manager at Warrington Borough Council, said: “This project has been extremely successful for the council and we are quickly reaping the benefits of a more flexible workforce.”

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Due to the harsh weather conditions that hit Britain on Monday of this week, approximately 20 per cent of the British workforce did not make it into the office. With so many people unable to work, The Federation of Small Business announced that British business has lost £1.2 billion and this figure could rise if the disruption continues for more than one day.

During the whole of this week as the bad weather has contiued Juniper Networks UK has experienced a steep rise in inbound calls from customers wishing to increase the user license count on their Juniper remote access solution, Secure Access.

“With the weather expected to worsen again at the end of this week, now is the time for businesses to urgently review their remote working strategies to mitigate future loss of business where possible, without compromising network security.  It is very important to ensure that the remote access solution offers fast, reliable and secure access to avoid employee frustration at slow connections whilst minimising the risk of security breaches,” said Dr. Anton Grashion, EMEA Security Strategist, Juniper Networks.

Juniper ICE – In Case of Emergency

Fire, flood, bad weather or traffic chaos – all these events can have a damaging impact to your business. But with the proper infrastructure in place, and a bit of forward planning, you can protect against productivity losses and maintain your competitive edge.

Juniper Networks Secure Access SSL VPN ICE solution provides a quick resolution when the unexpected happens, providing users with secure remote access to your corporate resources and delivering the ability to handle extreme peak demands when needed. The ICE license enables you to continue your business operations when disaster strikes, maintaining productivity, sustaining partnerships and delivering continued services to customers. ICE also enables you to meet compliance objectives for ensuring continuity of operations in the event of a disaster or pandemic event.

Juniper Networks Secure Access ICE offers flexibility and scalability to help organisations of all sizes effectively balance the costs and the risks inherent in preparing for and coping with cases of emergency.

But it’s not just about protecting productivity when an emergency or unexpected crisis occurs that the ICE license can be used. With up to 56 of days of license ‘burst’ available in a 12 month period, an ICE license offers you flexibility to introduce regular working from home days into the business, offering employees added benefit at no cost.

For example, once a month on a given day you could burst your license to allow employees to work from home, enabling them to arrange a dentist appointment, furniture delivery or other personal event at a time to suit them, and without disrupting their working day or requiring them to book leave. Even something as simple as enabling a busy parent to do the school run when they are usually commuting will be seen as a positive benefit.

To find out more how SSL VPN solutions from Juniper can benefit and add value to your organisation call Imerja on 0870 861 1488 or email [email protected]