CASE STUDY Smart working pays off
Delivery mechanisms such as cloud computing and UC enable businesses to get more done more efficiently and more cost-effectively, with flexibility being the key to workforce productivity and efficiency gains. Here, we examine how Outsourcery talks the comms technology talk and follows a policy of distributed working.
to recruiting the best people. The individual’s location becomes less relevant as the employment catchment area is wider. “At Outsourcery we don’t mind if the work is done in the morning before the school run or at night after the children have gone to bed,” added Howitt. “We have found that flexibility hugely improves both our employee retention and attractiveness as an employer, and our team members live from as far afield as the south coast to north Yorkshire.”
Simon Howitt T
here are a number of advantages associated with a distributed working policy, but
many channel organisations have not implemented cloud computing and UC solutions for their own benefit. Outsourcery saw the light early on and has been operating a distributed working policy for some time, using IM, videoconferencing and presence. “We carry out meetings and presentations via Microsoft Office
Communicator (OCS), which has resulted in significant savings in time, less travelling and the associated expense, lowering environmental
impact, as well as increased productivity and efficiency through instant access and timely responses, all aided by knowing who is available and when, on a real-time basis,” said Simon Howitt, Channel Business Unit Director. “A good example of how this technology works well is with a distributed sales force. A one hour sales meeting takes just that when done over OCS, as opposed to traveling for half a day there and back as is still commonly done.”
The ability to work from anywhere has paid huge dividends to the organisation when it comes
Outsourcery has also cut operational costs with hot desking reducing the need for office space. Typically this could result in savings of £7,000 pa (per head) on overheads including property costs, and this can easily rise to more than £10,000 when considering central London offices. Of course this flexible approach brings other factors into play, and the most important of these is trust. “Essentially, a company must be able to trust its employees to do the job they should be doing, and with minimum supervision,” noted Howitt. “As well as employing the best people, Outsourcery has found it essential to have a sound HR policy that supports managers and remote workers. Put simply, it all comes down to setting clear objectives and measuring delivery against them on a
regular basis, which can be paraphrased as ‘We need you to deliver X by Y. We trust you to meet that deadline’. We find our employees respond to that trust.”
Of course, interacting via OCS does not replace physical face-to-face communication and personal development reviews. “But again this is down to having the appropriate support for managers in place, and we have introduced an IT code of conduct that clearly defines our expectations from employees,” added Howitt.
Case study
Dan Germain, Head of Hosting Infrastructure at Outsourcery, is based in Hayling Island, Hampshire. Germain has lived on the south coast for most of his working life. He lives on Hayling Island because the quality of life is an important factor to him and his family. When looking to develop his career he was attracted to Outsourcery but did not want to relocate to Manchester, Leicester or London. This imperative was not an issue for Outsourcery because access to the latest Microsoft technologies gives Germain adequate exposure to his team and the company environment.
He said: “Before applications such as Microsoft OCS,
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Lync and Exchange, the original collaborative tools of email and phones gave limited opportunity to extend communications beyond an office-based environment. With today’s high definition and full screen videoconferencing, and tools like IM and presence, I can interact quickly and effectively, almost as if I was in a face-to-face meeting. A HD video conference provides at least 75 per cent of what the interaction of a true face-to-face meeting would deliver. Face-to-face meetings won’t disappear completely, but the technology has enabled me to maintain an effective, flexible work-life balance, while working for a geographically distant, but forward thinking organisation.”
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Dan Germain
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