With business travel being such a luxury in the current climate, SME’s really do have to compare flights when overseas trips become inevitable.
Most small businesses can no longer afford business class travel and the benefits associated with the business cabin, such as the space and extra baggage allowance are not available to the average businessman particularly when travelling to short haul destinations.
Another saving inevitably is to lose the smartphones when renewing business contracts. The 3G roaming costs abroad can be prohibitive and for pure calls and texts there are some great deals to be had with simpler phones.
In order though to keep your workforce truly mobile and keep the all important morale buoyant in these tough times, a one-off investment in wifi tablets can solve some of those all important business tasks.
Lighter than a laptop and easier for typing and web surfing than a smartphone a tablet such as an iPad is easy to slip into hand luggage (and remove quickly for strict Border Agencies). If work en-route is required, whether on the plane or onward journeys by train or cab, a tablet is the ideal size for economy tables or just for holding like an inflight magazine.
The lightweight feel of the tablet does away with baggage weight restrictions and with the ability to download books, travel guides, magazines and papers, more room can be found for other important items.
Without the 3G connection, the tablet computers are safe to use during the flight and are easy to slip into seat back pockets during take-off and landing, without giving the passenger in front an uncomfortable few jabs in the back!
With free wifi a feature of many European airport hubs and business hotels, working online is smooth and easy and with the advent of ePrint services, from the likes of Google and HP printing can be emailed straight to any internet ready printer, including those back at the office.
Even with the iPad, which is not easily equipped with Microsoft Office there are a number of excellent apps, which allow docs to be shared easily. Added to this is the plethora of apps for travel tips, weather information, flight timetables, online check-in, translation and currency converters. The lack of ability with Flash products does worry some buyers but the app developers are on top of this and constantly building apps to bypass the problem.
Travelling on the roads, whether on the UK or on the continent, there are a number of sat-nav applications that make locating out of the way customers simple.
Tablets can be charged via a mains outlet with the right travel adaptor but battery life is impressive for all day conferences.
Prices of tablets are beginning to come down with rumours of £99 deals for a number of the newer entrants to the market and using cutting edge technology will also impress customers and colleagues and create a great first impression. So by all means save on those phone contracts and seek out those bargain flights, but invest in your workforce to give them the best opportunity for mobile flexibility with a tablet computer.
BIO
Linda Endersby spent 19 years in the airline industry enabling her to visit many beautiful places across the world. As well as writing about the places she loves, weekends as a bookseller offer her fabulous opportunities to research future destinations.
European Computer Telecoms, or ECT, a well-known vendor of value services in both the multimedia and voice domain, last year launched a great new platform for the use of ring back services with a startup RBT service. They called this product the ECT start-up Ring-back tone and it is specifically geared towards MVNOs and small carriers who wanted to offer ring back tones at a minimum cost and with no time to market.
It is a fixed price out of the box solution that includes installation in the price and offers all the most important features from the already established ECT ring back system. The new solution supports 20,000 subscribers once installed, and could be expanded if needed up to 150,000.
The commercial product manager for Ring back services at ECT, Victor del Razo says that the new platform is perfect for those companies who want to use ring back tones to generate revenue, while at the same time keeping their investment to a minimum until they saw results. He added that once the service had taken off, it offered attractive options for the company to move to the premium ring back solution.
In the months since this solution was launched, it has taken off in a big way and is now one of the best known and reliable start up platforms on the market. It comes with a basic set-up with additional options such as SIP support and redundancy, which can be added at any time once the clients business starts to evolve. All the features in the start-up solution are geared towards generating revenue.
Just like the premium ring back tone solution, the ECT start-up ring back tone supports providers of multiple content, has a content management system which is web based, and offers content provisioning via FTP. It also has the ECT SOAP based API which supports third party or multiple self-run storefronts that includes features like using ring back tones as gifts and copying ting back tones.
Also included is a reporting and statistics module so that clients can keep track of the performances of their ring back tones and thus use the data acquired as a basis for any future marketing strategies.
There is absolutely no difference at the front end between this solution and the Premium service, and users won’t even realise that it is running on a smaller scale. Clients have their personal inbox, are able to assign wildcards and groups, have schedule assignments and also have access to their playlists that are both random and sequential.
ECT delivers this ring back system efficiently and professionally with a set of basic interfaces which can be adapted to any corporate design by the either the client or assigned third party integrators.
A new guide has been published to make businesses aware of how the social network Twitter can benefit the. The guide, produced by Econsultancy, is essentially a best practice guide aimed at organisations who are considering joining Twitter, and also for those companies that are already using Twitter and want to optimize their activity on the site.
Entitled the ‘Twitter for Business’ report, the guide contains case studies from both B2B and B2C companies which use the sites for PR, marketing, increasing brand awareness, customer service, search engine optimization and a host of other business acumens.
Also included in the report are the results of a survey that Econsultancy carried out using the Toluna Quick Surveys site, which revealed that consumers are much more likely to be positive about brands they see on Twitter than negative. Although 26% of users have complained about brands they have seen on Twitter, a mighty 58% have praised companies on the micro-blogging site.
The research manager for Econsultancy, Alive Zaidi, has said that many companies signed up for Twitter without really comprehending why it was useful for them or why it was so important to have their presence known on the site. Zaidi added that while they were aware that Twitter did not suit all company’s they wanted to get across the message that the site can prove invaluable for some organisations, and helped to build customer relations.
Zaidi continued: “Consumers tend to use traditional feedback channels to make complaints or report customer issues, rather than for giving positive feedback. It’s far easier and quicker to send a message via Twitter which explains why a large proportion of users have praised brands on the site.”
Leading practitioners in the PR industry were also approached for this report, ensuring that the guide contains in-depth and expert guidance on how companies can make the most of Twitter.
Stephen Waddington, Managing Director of Speed Communications said: “There are plenty of reasons why brands should be on Twitter. The social network can be a powerful channel for organisations to take control of their brand. It allows brands to become their own media outlet, to interact with customers cost effectively, broadcast messages to a huge audience and engage with users on a one-to-one basis.”
Contributors to the report include Ged Caroll, Michelle Goodall, Kate Hartley, Rebecca Hirst, Katy Howell and Stephen Waddington.
The 90-page report aims to define best practice for using Twitter and includes sections on:
- Twitter statistics
- The business case for Twitter
- Getting started on Twitter
- The rules of engagement
- Twitter case studies
- Promoted trends and advertising
- Measurement and ROI
To ensure smooth running and successful venture of local businesses a fast and reliable broadband connection is essential. Mr Hunt a secretary of the Welsh government stated that the government proposes to finance in the region of £60 million in a bid to make high speed internet connections available for over 85 per cent of Wales.
Many rural areas and inaccessible parts of Wales have not been able to benefit from the advancements of available technology and Mr Hunt stated ‘‘those suffering from time consuming internet should campaign to the Assembly Members to introduce broadband connections’’.
Internet speeds of above 24 megabytes per second are defined as superfast. The private sector is predicted to provide around 70 per cent of the superfast internet to small businesses and households.
Following a new forum launch Devon business leaders are being encouraged to consider opportunities in low-carbon growth. The Exeter Sustainable Business Network (ESBN) brought together some those that are in the sustainability sector.
The Exeter Carbon Club was used as an example to build from after they were able to identify more than £500,000 in business savings. Ten workshops will be used to inform businesses about commercial opportunities and sustainability that arise from transitioning to a lower carbon economy.
The network will help make companies become more sustainable and commercially successful. Lloyds TSB Commercial sponsored the launch in Exeter at County Hall. Senior Manager Viv Hignell of Lloyds for sustainable development said climate change is a huge global challenge with significant risks and opportunities to lead.
The managing of environmental impacts has made great progress in recent years with Lloyds TSB and HBOS. And it is important that awareness is raised throughout the SME community and that will be helped through ESBN. She said the bank is happy to be working with the network because it can help members get on with it.
Mark Hodgson a partner at Zero2050 said better management of resource cost is a key driver for being a successful sustainable business. Adding that there is an increasing demand by consumer and businesses for low-carbon services and goods and reaching all businesses will the effect of the Carbon Reduction Commitment.
South West Water carbon manager David Rose said that they are constantly looking for suppliers that will help them achieve targets for low carbon and that includes those businesses that have engaged in the agenda and are making significant savings.
We recently published an article and broadcast outlining what IT industry leaders are saying can be achieved through the use of Cloud Computing – http://blwy.co.uk/uk-smbs-reach-for-the-clouds/
Here is a comment from Dominic Jones, Managing Director of Barton Technology.
Sir, Every time I speak to another IT support consultant, they tell me about the benefits of cloud computing. However, they rarely outline the drawbacks. And I do understand the advantages of the cloud; in fact I’m the first to champion its benefits for the right kind of company.
I would argue that small businesses and SMEs should think twice about the value they will get from having their information infrastructure, software and services hosted on the internet, rather than on their personal computers or network.
Business owners should ensure that they have the right IT infrastructure and broadband services in place to meet their information demands. Cost is clearly an issue, as is security. But the biggest problem is Internet access. If you don’t have sufficiently robust broadband, equipped with adequate bandwidth, it can limit your flexibility and even your creativity. Cloud computing can also restrict the software you can use on individual machines – and we can all agree that lack of flexibility is not an option for small businesses and SMEs for whom agility is often the key selling point.
Cloud computing can be revelatory for the right business, but failure to plan might make it difficult to find the silver lining in this particular cloud.
Syscap, one of the leading UK independent finance providers has said new figures indicate that HMRC is increasingly denying applications for deferred tax payments via the Time to Pay initiative.
New arrangements agreed by HMRC for the Time to Pay initiative dropped by 43% over the last year from just under 58,000 the first quarter of 2010 to under 33,000 in first quarter 2011. The tax payments deferred combined value dropped by 40% from £890m the first quarter 2010 to only £530 in first quarter 2011.
The proportion of rejected applications over the same period increased by 50% with over 1130 companies having their applications rejected each month in this year’s first quarter.
It is also becoming more stringent with payment terms. HMRC, in the first quarter 2010, offered 14% of the successful applicants a ten month to one year payment plan. But in 2011 in the first quarter, only 10% of the successful applicants were offered those terms. Today, payment schedules of three months or less represent over 60% of the Time to Pay agreements.
“Time to Pay” was designed by HM Revenue & Customs to allow viable businesses to defer tax payments during the downturn. It has been seen by many business organisations as one of the most effective of the programmes designed by the Government to stimulate the economy during the downturn.
The latest economic data shows that the economy grew by just 0.5% in the three months to the end of March, just making up for ground lost in the last quarter of 2010.
Philip White, Chief Executive of Syscap comments: “We may not technically be in recession, but if you look at the six month trend, growth is flat-lining, so we have to cross our fingers that a double-dip recession will be avoided.”
“These new figures show that HMRC is rapidly winding down the “Time to Pay” scheme at a time when companies are clearly still struggling.”
“HMRC is being far tougher about deferring tax payments – applicants that might previously have been successful are now being rejected.”
Philip White explains that as well as battling the sluggish economy, companies have also been put under pressure by the increase in VAT, which rose to 20% in January 2011 and has strained business cash-flow.
Philip White says: “Not only are companies faced with the rise in VAT, but unincorporated businesses such as partnerships and the self-employed also need to make sure that they have the cash available to make the six monthly tax payment due at the end of July.”
“Many of these kinds of businesses are now approaching us for funding because HMRC is making it more and more difficult to secure a tax deferral through the “Time to Pay” scheme.”
Syscap says that their customers have reported significant changes introduced by HMRC to the “Time to Pay” process, including asking businesses to apply for a bank loan or even make a tax payment with a credit card, incurring an extra card handling charge, before they become eligible for assistance through the scheme.
Philip White says: “HMRC may need to reconsider their decision to wind down the “Time to Pay” scheme. The economy remains sluggish and we have yet to feel the adverse impact of the public sector cuts, which only came into effect at the beginning of April.”
Uncertain economic conditions have brought about new business models which have fundamentally transformed the way that we do business, for employees and customers alike. With a heightened focus on speed and flexibility to perform everyday business tasks and swiftly meet customer demand, technology is uniquely positioned to help businesses adapt.
Agile and unrestricted unlike many larger players, SMBs have much to gain from technology, particularly cloud computing. The cloud has enormous potential for SMBs in terms of economics, management, productivity and business flexibility. By having the applications at your fingertips to do your job quickly and efficiently are a must in business.
Cloud computing can enable greater collaboration within business by enabling employees to work together regardless of location. By harnessing the power of such technologies, SMBs can enjoy great productivity and flexibility which can be the critical differentiator when competing for potential customers.
Joining Michael Wilson to dispense her top tips and talk about why small business owners should grasp the opportunities available to them via cloud computing and how to adapt and meet changing customer demand, as well as cater to the demands of their own computer savvy staff is Tanya Shirlow, Head of SMB Marketing at Microsoft.
For more information about the HP Business Answers blog, please visit: www.hp.com/uk/bablog
Ducati build motorbikes, Ducati build state of the art motorbikes, Ducati build very fast motorbikes, Ducati build some of the slickest road machines in the world, Ducati build the sort after motorbikes in the business, Ducati build the kind of big boy’s toys that speed-merchants crave, Ducati build dream-machines. Ducati are masters in the production of the ultimate in speed and style when it comes to the design and crafting of true superbikes.
There is no question that Ducati are world leaders in their chosen field. Unfortunately their innovation and design in the world of office equipment is somewhat lacking, in fact this is an area where Ducati has no skill whatsoever.
So it is pretty obvious that the frontrunner in the biking world needs to be partnered with the premier office equipment company in the world, Xerox, if they want to support their business needs.
So it was a simple marriage to partner the best bikes with the best office equipment to supply the office support that is needed to back up their first class bikes, and allow the company to function to the very best of its abilities in all areas of their business. So was born the Ducati Xerox World Superbike team, a winning combination of very fast motorbikes and super efficient office back-up.
Plagued by much criticism, Sub (StartUp Britain), a UK Entrepreneurial website launched last week. Much of the criticism is aimed at the fact that, although the website is touted as being aimed at UK firms and products, much of the promotion work seems to be in the favour of American firms and products. Another complaint is that the content on the site does not seem very useable for UK entrepreneurs at all.
Launched by some very successful entrepreneurs, Sub is a non-profit organization which, seemingly supported by the government, is aimed at the growth and success of the private sector in the country. However, for all the hype, some of the decisions made by the owners of the website seem to be out of place. Directing users to US based companies when there are plenty of perfectly good UK companies is a good example.
Industry experts seem to feel that the website has made a huge mistake in directing their users to US based companies instead of UK ones. This has effectively rendered the site useless for its intended purpose. Dot Design’s Gareth Coxon explains by saying the site is more a collection of links than a useful resource portal for start-up business and entrepreneurs.
However, all is not lost for the site. After receiving complaints the owners of the site seem to be taking the complaints of their users to heart. Already, a link to a US based company has been replaced with a link to a local company that performs the same functions.
Coxon says that the site is a good starting point but, unless some hard work is put in to make the site more true to is purported purpose, it will not be used and fail in its ultimate goal. Hopefully, Sub can work hand-in-hand with the other new business website, Better Business Finance (BBF), to fulfil the government’s hope to nurture Britain’s entrepreneurial talent and promote economic growth through growth in the private sector.
Plagued by much criticism, Sub (StartUp Britain), a UK Entrepreneurial website launched last week. Much of the criticism is aimed at the fact that, although the website is touted as being aimed at UK firms and products, much of the promotion work seems to be in the favour of American firms and products. Another complaint is that the content on the site does not seem very useable for UK entrepreneurs at all.