Snow Fallout Highlights Benefits of UC

Unified Communications (UC) technologies could help companies across the North East cope with the significant absenteeism being caused by snow-related travel chaos.

Statistics show that one in five people across the UK were unable to get to work last week because of heavy snowfall but it was business as usual for those that have embraced the UC phenomenon.

Business groups predict that lost productivity brought about by the worst winter weather to hit the UK in 30 years could cost the UK economy as much as £2 billion and as temperatures continue to struggle above freezing, businesses across the region are being encouraged to seriously consider Unified Communications in an attempt to cushion the blow and allow staff to work effectively from home.

Tim Price, MD of leading North East communications specialist Executel offers some valuable advice: “With snow and ice causing havoc across the country, the extreme conditions are putting pressure on businesses that are already hard pushed to survive during the current recession. The heavy snowfall that has hit our region over the past couple of weeks has left many businesses struggling to remain operational as staff are snowed in and left stranded by public transport disruptions.

“However, the bad weather should not mean that business grinds to a halt. UC technologies allow you to work from anywhere as if sitting at your desk, all you need is an internet connection. You can collaborate online in real-time, share documents with colleagues and hold face-to-face meetings using multi-party video conferencing without ever having to leave the house.

“There’s no denying that we have all been affected by the snow of late but it needn’t stop companies from functioning. We had several key members of our own Service team who were unable to travel to work last week but thankfully it didn’t cause us a problem, they simply accessed the corporate network remotely and continued to answer and log customer calls as they would on any other day.

“In today's technological world, it’s incredible to think that a sudden bout of bad weather can bring day-to-day business operations to a stand-still. The ability to work from anywhere should be a standard capability and yet, as can be seen by the predicted cost of the recent snow, the number of businesses that have invested in such technology seems to remain surprisingly low.

“Whilst I appreciate that this level of snowfall is both rare and generally short-lived, the cumulated impact on business performance can be significant and I would therefore urge local businesses to learn from the events of the last few weeks and consider the far-reaching benefits of developing a unified communications strategy.”