Why you should be making plans to implement remote working long-term

Remote working is by no means a new concept. In fact, before COVID-19, 54% of UK workers were already working flexibly in some way.

If you weren’t offering flexible working before, you may find remote working will be a key factor in retaining your employees post-COVID-19. Let us tell you why…

Better work-life balance

Let’s face it, we could all be better at this. The positives that can be drawn from COVID-19 include time gained for ourselves.

We’ve all discovered that we could be using the time we’ve previously spent stuck in traffic to be more productive in our personal lives. Whether that’s doing exercise, spending more time with family, walking the dog, tidying the house, or just catching up on well-deserved rest, we’re putting that time to good use and we’re all the better for it.

Remote working enhances wellbeing

The freedom to choose where and how we work has a significant impact on our happiness. By gaining more time at home, we have become more rested and less stressed. With a more positive approach to work, our days are spent productively.

Communication has improved

Believe it or not, remote working can encourage better communication and unite your workforce. People are making a conscious effort to check-in and support each other now more than ever. Colleagues are still greeting each other every morning on Microsoft Teams, and they’re jumping on video calls to talk things through with more purpose than they may have had in the office. Your employees are the foundation that will empower your business to bounce back fighting.

Technology that makes your business more powerful

It’s apparent there will be a strong demand for flexible working post-COVID-19, and a proactive response now, will not only help you retain your employees, but also strengthen your business. Now is the time to switch from reactive to proactive, and we’d love to help you come out fighting.

We can review your existing IT, and make recommendations that will facilitate remote working, strengthen your continuity plan, make your business more resilient, and improve efficiency throughout. If you’d like help exploring your options, please give us a call on 02392 333 365.

Continuity Checklist

Essentials to consider in your Continuity Plan

From free tools to rescheduling deliveries, this checklist will help you consider the essentials that you may have missed in your continuity plan.

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We’ve summarised some key considerations below…

Communication

If your employees have to work from home, they’ll need to be able to communicate with each other, your customers, and your suppliers. Consider what arrangements you’ll need to make to ensure your employees can continue to collaborate from different locations.

We’re able to provide you with free access to Microsoft Teams for 6 months if you already have Office 365. If you don’t have Office 365 and would like to talk to us about how your business could benefit from the solution, please give us a call on 02392 333 365.

Equipment

You’ll need to take stock of what portable equipment you already have access to, and what is crucial for your business. You should also consider what software and equipment your customer support teams will require to continue providing core services and support to your customers.

With more people working remotely during this outbreak, hackers are taking advantage of vulnerable systems. Make sure you understand the risks, and you have adequate measures in place to ensure you’re protected.

People

Work with your HR team to make sure you have all the essential policies in place, and you’ve considered all the risks to both your business, and your employees. Remember, it’s vital that you protect your employees too.

Processes

It’s difficult to cover everything, so you should utilise your key employees to help you capture fundamental points that may have slipped through the net. We’ve suggested some factors to bear in mind in our continuity checklist here which you may find helpful.

It’s important that you’re prepared for any scenario, and testing that your plan works is essential, so run a drill as soon as you can to highlight anything you may have missed.

Need advice?

We’re here to help, so if you’d like to chat with one of our experts, please give us a call on 02392 333 365.

Digital Transformation Of Social Housing – Top Five Trends

It is necessary for every business in every industry to adapt and change their business model to accommodate their customer’s changing behaviours and expectations, and housing associations are no exception. Digital technology is not only about conversions, transactions and growing revenue; it is vital for streamlining processes, optimisation and improving the customer experience.

As digital technologies take the world by storm, embracing these is vital for a housing association to grow and thrive. Some have already begun to tackle this challenge by transforming their IT infrastructures to keep up the high demands of today’s digital world.

Social housing is a rapidly changing industry with many housing associations struggling because of funding cuts, rent freezes and reduced investments. When it comes digitalisation, the social housing sector is not as far advanced as other industries, with many housing associations sceptical of investing in a digital transformation or not having the budget to do so.

However, this is slowly beginning to change as more and more housing associations are starting to see the benefits of going digital. Here are the top five trends we expect to see a rise with the digital transformation of social housing:

Five Digital Trends For Social Housing

 

1. A Remote Workforce

With the rise of cloud technologies, it is now possible for housing association teams to work remotely, allowing them to focus their time and energy on being out among their tenants. Having a digitally enabled and mobile workforce reduces the need for physical office locations within neighbourhoods.

Remote working allows workers to be more connected with those that need help the most. Less time will be spent on the mundane transactions, and more focus can be made on what really matters; enabling the organisation to become more human with greater face to face interactions.

2. Online Processes

Embracing advances in technology can reduce the amount of paperwork and manual processes required. Customer applications can be moved online which will not only provide a seamless and easy experience for customers but also reduce costs and response times compared with manual, offline applications.

Removing paperwork will free up resources for employees to focus their time and effort on other areas of the business. Moving transaction processes online also offers excellent cost savings for housing associations, with online payments being 20 times cheaper than phone transactions and an incredible 50 times cheaper than face to face.

3. Better Connected

The Internet of Things (IoT), connected devices and smart metres offer a great opportunity for housing associations to diversify their offerings. Embracing these innovative technologies within social housing can detect how people are using their accommodation and allow providers to alter services, such as heating, in real-time.

When used effectively, this technology can help housing associations to anticipate and handle issues faster, as well as be more proactive and strategic in commissioning repairs or replacements quicker in order to minimise costs and disruption.

4. Enhanced Customer Service

One of the most significant benefits that digitalisation has in the social housing sector is that customers will receive a better all-round service. Advice and help can be made available 24 hours a day, seven days a week with the help of a knowledge base and online account information that is always accessible.

The digital transformation of the housing industry will allow most actions to be completed online, meaning customers have no restrictions on when they can resolve their issues or speak with the correct department. Housing association workers will also be able to provide a better service to customers by spending more time out in their neighbourhoods offering a face to face service as opposed to stuck behind their computer screens.

5. Data Analysis and Record Keeping

In a world of GDPR, there are some real benefits to those within the social housing sector making a move to keep all customer data and records online as opposed to offline. A well planned online infrastructure can provide greater security for keeping online records safe and secure.

Utilising digital technologies for customer data is also an excellent opportunity for better data analysis and upkeep. Maintaining customer records online allows them to access and edit them as required, providing housing associations with current information that is easy and simple to manage.

How to embrace these digital trends

Embracing the digital transformation of social housing will bring significant efficiencies, financial stability and customer engagement. Currently, the social housing sector is being squeezed by reduced investments, funding cuts and rent freezes. At the same time, there is a growing demand from increasingly vulnerable and diverse citizens. Those housing associations that want to thrive rather than simply survive should be utilising and embracing digital solutions to transform their organisation for the better.

To help your housing organisation transform, speak to our IT specialists at Cyan Solutions. We can help your team to implement a digital strategy that can cut costs and increase the service experience.

Key Technology Trends Impacting the Energy Sector

The energy sector has been evolving rapidly in recent years thanks to new and upcoming technologies. 2018 is looking to be a milestone year for the energy industry, with the introduction of many new technology trends that are set to be revolutionary in the sector.

The rise of digital has affected many businesses over the years, and the electricity industry is no exception. With everything from artificial intelligence through to increased technological demands in the home, there are a number of technology trends set to impact the energy sector over the coming months and years.

Growing Cybercrime Threat

Cyber-attacks are increasing in every industry across the globe, and the energy sector is no different. Earlier this year the United States Department of Energy announced it was planning on setting up its own Office of Cybersecurity, Energy Security and Emergency Response to tackle the upcoming security challenges. There is also evidence that hackers have been targeting the energy and nuclear facilities for the last couple of years.

Cybersecurity concerns are one of the most pressing issues within the energy sector, and as companies introduce more complex technology systems, the risk and potential for an attack are increased. Many utilities are upgrading systems to provide a higher level of grid intelligence and better communication with customers devices, opening themselves up to more potential security threats.

The Rise in Artificial Intelligence

Artificial Intelligence (AI) has evolved rapidly in recent years and provided the energy sector with a variety of new capabilities such as machine learning, cognitive analytics, deep learning and robotics process automation. These advances in technology have led to powerful systems that can automate increasingly complex workloads and develop cognitive agents that can simulate human thinking and engagement.

AI can be used in the energy sector to streamline, automate and eliminate processes within customer interactions, taking customer experience to the next level. As well as customer service benefits, AI can also be an excellent tool for customer engagement by giving companies the ability to compute a customer’s smart metre data to develop invaluable insights into their consumption habits.

Blockchain

Blockchain has been on the cards for quite some time and is slowly growing in popularity across a variety of industries. While it is currently limited within the energy sector, the potential of this technology should definitely not be ruled out, in fact, it may end up being invaluable in the industry in coming years.

Blockchain offers a permanent and transparent solution that is entirely digital making it really easy to work with. Within the energy sector, blockchain could potentially be used for easily recording transactions and contacts in a transparent and searchable form. The energy sector involves a considerable amount of customer paperwork and blockchain could provide some significant operational benefits such as easily locating records, detecting fraud and clarifying bill disputes.

3D Printing and Smart Materials

In recent years there have been significant steps forward in 3D printing, particularly with print metals becoming significantly cheaper. This will likely be used widely in the energy sector for the creation and maintaining of equipment and systems.

An increased use of smart materials would also have a significant impact on the energy market, and the use of materials that can self-heal could potentially change the industry altogether.

Digital Transformation in Homes

It is no surprise that there is an increased demand for energy in homes across the world. With technology coming on in leaps and bounds in recent years, the amount of electricity being consumed today is very different from that of a few years ago. The introduction of smart technologies such as smart lightbulbs and smart metres has transformed the way consumers use their energy within their homes, and this is only set to become more complex and readily available in the coming years.

The uptake of smart energy products by consumers has been relatively minimal so far, and according to recent research, 72% of people are unlikely to introduce any form of smart home technology in the next five years. However, the individuals who already make use of smart devices have noticed a significant impact on the day to day running of their homes. Many believe the uptake has been slow as consumers are still sceptical of smart energy products, but the market is expected to accelerate rapidly once the popularity of the technology increases.

The energy sector is set for a rapid transformation for the rest of 2018 and the following years, and those within the industry should be preparing themselves or the upcoming changes and opportunities that these technology trends are sure to bring. Not embracing these new technologies will leave your business at risk of being left behind the curve. At Cyan we have experience of providing transformational technology infrastructures for growing businesses the energy sector. Talk to us today to see how we can help your business.

Microsoft Office 365: Discounts and Subscriptions for Charities

All charities need to be careful about their spending, especially when it comes to administration. For many, it’s a constant challenge to find areas where savings can be made while ensuring that everything works as it should and donations are maximised.

Getting it right means more cash available for the good cause that is being supported. Getting it wrong can quickly drain valuable resources.

One area where charities always look to make savings is on IT licences and supply. The good news is that cutting-edge packages like Microsoft 365 come with heavily discounted rates for charities in the UK

Microsoft Office 365 For Non-Profit Organisations

Microsoft has a pretty good track record of working with charities around the world, providing cut price IT solutions with superb functionality. It’s one of the reasons why Microsoft Office has long been the industry standard for all sorts of organisations. The vast improvement in technology with cloud-based services nowadays provides all users with an excellent range of highly useful tools that can be used absolutely anywhere.

Microsoft are currently offering either free or heavily discounted licences for non-profit organisations. There are two packages available for small and medium size charities:

  • Non-Profit Business Essentials: For charities that are simply looking for email provision, cloud storage and sharing facilities for files as well as excellent team working tools, the donation licence is free for up to 300 users. Staff are able to access Office 365 tools such as Word and Excel through web versions.
  • Non-Profit Business Premium: For charities that require desktop business applications such as Word and Excel as well as all the usability provided in the Essentials package, the premium business licence is just £1.50 per user per month. That’s a massive saving compared to the normal premium business package which is currently £9.40 per user per month.

For larger charities there are 3 different licences to choose from:

  • Non-Profit E1: Similar to the Business Essentials package, this is free, available for up to 2,000 users, and comes with web access for Word and Excel.
  • Non-Profit E3: This provides desktop Office applications as well as a host of useful elements such as web conferencing, work management tools as well as the chance to broadcast to over 10,000 people via the internet. The licence costs £4.00 per user per month and allows unlimited accounts.
  • Non-Profit E5: The top package is aimed at large charitable organisations that need better security such as data protection with DLP, higher level analytics and advanced eDiscovery tools. The licence is £8.00 per user per month.

The Benefits of Office 365 For Charities

Apart from the low cost of running Office 365 and all its elements for your charity, these licences come with a lot of other advantages that make them some of the most powerful IT packages on the market today.

Many charities have workers that are mobile and out in the field. Office 365 is cloud based technology which means that files and other information can be accessed on the go, wherever someone is located. Everything can be synched across multiple devices in real time, so an employee can update files any time they want. It makes communication much more fluid and team working highly efficient, independent of where staff are based.

Changing to a service like Office 365 is also highly cost effective. Cloud based tech means that you no longer need to have expensive hardware driving your IT system. It’s simple to migrate everything to the cloud and easy to maintain at a much lower cost. The other good news is that it’s also highly scalable – the service grows or even shrinks to meet your personal demands as a charity and adding more users couldn’t be simpler.

Of course, one thing that all organisations worry about, particularly charities, is the issue of security. Microsoft have a strong reputation for providing a highly secure environment for businesses and charities of all types to operate in. Not only will you have all the tools you need, you can be sure that your data is well protected with security systems regularly updated to handle all current risks.

Eligibility for Microsoft 365

To qualify for the non-profits discounts and free subscriptions you need to be registered as a charity in the UK. In England and Wales, this means you need to be registered with the UK Charity Commission. In Scotland it’s the Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator (OSCR) and, in Northern Ireland, you have to be registered Charity Commission for Northern Ireland (CCNI).

Other non-profits need to be registered with HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) as tax exempt.

Get a Free Audit Today

At Cyan Solutions we offer a comprehensive free audit to all charitable organisations. We’ll be able to look at your current provision and advise which licence plan is best for you. If you want to save money and streamline your IT, contact our team today to see how we can help.

Cyan delivers sustainable solutions and increases confidence in IT at Sands

About Sands

The Stillbirth and Neonatal Death Society provides bereavement support services to anyone affected by the death of a baby, as well as working closely with health care professionals to improve the quality of bereavement care and promoting research to reduce infant deaths.

Sands’ operations are multi-layered, and the charity’s strategic objectives are delivered by a team of full-time and part-time employees who are based across multiple locations, as well as a large network of volunteers.

Transforming perceptions of Sands’ IT

On joining the charity in 2015, Danyanne Quemper, Director of Finance and Resources at Sands, was challenged with improving the IT infrastructure

“60% of our staff work outside of London, many of whom work directly with our Group network of 106 local groups across the country” she says. “There was absolutely no confidence in our ability to drive IT centrally and frustrations had led to a lot of people losing faith in the technology. It was considered average to have downtime of at least 30 minutes a day.”

Danyanne contacted the Charity IT Association (CITA), a network of volunteers to help not-for-profit organisations improve their IT.

“They helped us run our procurement process and the approach from Cyan stood out in terms of value for money, coupled with a perfect fit for the careful, understanding approach we needed.”

Plan

Expert IT guidance with charity-specific knowledge

After reviewing the plethora of existing vendors and uptime issues, we began planning a more efficient, centralised solution that would increase control and resilience of the charity’s IT estate. We also secured software licensing discounts available for the charity sector which Sands had not previously been aware of.

“There were immediate cost-savings in the model that Cyan proposed,” says Danyanne. “It was clear that the team understood the industry and how charities work. By replacing our IT as an integrated piece of work, Cyan delivered real synergy.”

A series of meetings and observations with Sands’ staff ensured the team felt listened to – an important first step in rebuilding damaged confidence in technology.

“From the start Cyan took a measured approach to delivering an integrated IT solution for Sands; they instilled confidence in the process and the team was great at communicating with us to find the very best solution to every problem.” adds Danyanne

Create

Bringing disjointed IT into a centralised platform

We developed a bespoke cloud desktop solution for Sands, centralising all the information and applications needed – accessible from anywhere at any time. Using this cloud platform, the team at Sands could consistently access up-to-date information and tools.

“The solution does exactly what we need it to and the feedback from our staff has been fantastic,” says Danyanne. “We were also impressed by how effectively everything was implemented. Within 4 months of starting to look for ways to improve our IT we were up-and-running with a more flexible, secure and resilient system.”

We also helped Sands transform its telephony infrastructure – an area where technology was also fragmented and inefficient.

“We had a designated helpline, but it wasn’t connected to any other phones,” says Danyanne. “This sometimes resulted in staff having to redirect bereaved callers which undermined the wonderful work of our staff team. Cyan provided a new hosted infrastructure for our telephony, as well as the training and support our people needed to use it.”

Maintain

Knowledgeable support at every level

We have continued to support Sands with day-to-day helpdesk services as well as more complex projects, including an office relocation and migration to a new datacentre.

“What makes Cyan unique is how kind, patient and knowledgeable people are at every level of the business. I’ve had experiences where the further you walk into an organisation, the less you see of the quality and skill that is evident at CEO level. Every member of the team at Cyan talks and walks the same consistent customer values.”

Our role in technical support provides a diverse network of employees and volunteers with a single point of contact.

A partnership built on trust

Sands continues to work to achieve its aims with its former myriad of complex IT structures now streamlined through a bespoke cloud platform supported by our expert team.

“I would absolutely recommend Cyan. At Sands, we have this thing about ‘feeling like you’re being held within a process’ – that level of safety and reassurance. That’s how Cyan has made us feel.  It gives us added confidence when we face new challenges, like GDPR compliance, to know that we’re with a truly supportive team who understand our organisation.”

 

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