Winter is coming – and here at ACUTEC we are urging companies to prepare for the worst.

Some estimates suggest that the UK economy lost £1.2 billion per day during the big freeze in December 2010 because staff could not make it into the office or the factory.

ACUTEC believes that office-based companies can mitigate against the loss of productivity during bad weather but they need to start preparing for it now.

Chris Roche, the managing director of ACUTEC, said: “In this day and age, office-based companies should be able to limit the disruption that bad weather can bring because it has never been easier to connect from home or remotely.

“The technology is such that it’s not just your PC that can be connected to the office but also telephony too.

“Our advice to clients is, however, not to wait until the snow starts falling to prepare for winter but to start doing it now.

“Of course, the size and sector of the company will decide exactly what they should put into place but certainly all office-based companies can give staff access to files either through remote access or via the cloud.

“Security is of key importance but, when implemented correctly we can make sure that all access is secure to give business owners peace of mind.”

He added: “Working from home is becoming increasingly important in general – particularly as new technology can help to give the impression to the outside world that you are in the office.

“But we do see a spike in the number of requests to set-up remote working as the bad weather kicks in.

“We would prefer to begin setting that up now because that means office disruption for companies can be kept to an absolute minimum.”

A Nottinghamshire company, which helps connect firms across the UK and Europe, has invested in a communications upgrade of its own.

Long Eaton-based Webro called in Midlands IT and telecommunications specialists ACUTEC to carry out the upgrade to make sure its staff are always connected to the office.

Webro was established in 1980 and supplies cable, connectors and connectivity solutions – from fibre optics to copper coaxial and data cables – to installers right across the UK, Ireland and mainland Europe.

The firm supplies enough WF100 TV and Satellite coaxial cable each year that if laid end to end, it would stretch right around the world!

The company has just supplied over 800km of fibre optic cable to the South Yorkshire region for the broadband and telecommunication digital upgrade of the area passing business, schools, colleges, universities, hospitals and over a million homes in the process.

And because it is working all over the country and – indeed Europe – its staff need to be in close contact with the office at the touch of a button and the new system installed by ACUTEC allows that to happen.

Andy Watts, marketing director of Webro, said: “Being a major supplier of communication cables and connectors means we need to be up to date with our communications as well because clients now expect staff to be available on their email throughout the working day.”

Eight of its 27 staff are now kitted out with the latest mobile technology so they remain on top of their emails while they are out on the road as part of a full network update.

“The fact that we operate overseas as well as here in the UK means communication is key – that’s why this investment was so important,” said Andy.

“We are looking forward to a positive 2012 and this will further improve the speed with which we react to our customers requirements.”

He added: “ACUTEC have been very good at tailoring a system to suit our needs and we have been extremely impressed with the service.”

Coleshill-based ACUTEC works for a range of clients across the Midlands offering a range of IT services and support.

Managing director Chris Roche said: “More and more businesses are seeing the advantage of having staff linked to the office, even when they are out on the road.

“No two systems are the same and we have tailored this particular system to ensure Webro get the maximum benefit out of this upgrade so that staff are always in close contact with the office.”

Pictured: Helen Brewster from Acutec with Andy Watts (left) & Webro MD Roger Webster.

If Dolly Parton sat down today to pen one of her biggest hits, she would have to change the lyrics and the title.

The working day, say a Midlands IT firm, is no longer ‘9 to 5’ as Parton once sang – it’s more like 8am until 6pm for most businesses.

Coleshill-based ACUTEC has extended its office hours to meet the demand of its clients’ new, longer working day and also offers an out of hours service so there is always cover on hand.

And while ‘working eight til 6pm, with staff on call 24 hours a day, seven days a week’ would not have had quite the same ring to it for Parton’s hit record, it’s crucial in the new world of business, according to managing director Chris Roche.

He said: “The working day has certainly got longer. In fact, since the recession hit we’ve noticed a real increase in clients who are working from 8am until 6pm as a rule.

“Companies are having to work longer and harder for the same rewards as four or five years ago and, when you provide a service such as ours, you have to adapt to that.

“When a business owner and their staff arrive at work, if there is any issue with their IT, they want it to be resolved immediately. They don’t want to get in early and then find they cannot carry out the tasks they wanted to so we have to be on hand to service their need.

“As a company, we have always offered more than simply hardware and software because we know businesses are about people and we have to understand all of our clients’ needs.

“Of course, firms are increasingly working out of hours and weekends and we have to have an ‘on-call’ service so there is always one of our experts available to offer support.
“On top of that, we also offer clients a daily background check which can identify issues before they develop. That’s an ideal way to ensure that your crucial IT system continues to run smoothly so that businesses can get on with what they do best – satisfying their own clients and customers, whatever the time of day!”

ACUTEC has given a leading sports provider’s website a healthy new look.

The company has provided an upgrade to the Coventry Sports Trust website – www.coventrysports.co.uk – to make it more user-friendly and functional for the trust’s customers.

The Sports Trust – which operates the sports centre in Fairfax Street, Brandon Wood Golf Course, Foleshill Sports and Leisure Centre, Tile Hill Wood Sports Centre and Moat House Leisure and Neighbourhood Centre – needed an upgrade to its ‘tired’ site.

That meant making it much easier to navigate and giving pages a more consistent look and feel. It has also seen ACUTEC help drive traffic to the organisation’s social media feeds.

The work on the site has just entered its final phase but Abi O’Leary, of Coventry Sports Trust, said the improvements were already clear to see.

She said: “The website just didn’t function as it should and customers found it difficult to navigate. Also, it needed to be more uniform throughout and much more user-friendly.

“We got talking to ACUTEC at a networking event in December and told them about our problem. The fact that they were local and a fellow Coventry and Warwickshire Chamber member played a big part in our decision.

“They came in straight away and have worked with us by understanding what we wanted from the site rather than being prescriptive.

“As well as improving the website dramatically, they have also provided social media plug-ins and that is already boosting our Twitter following and our Facebook ‘likes’.”

Helen Brewster, client experience director at ACUTEC, said it was proving to be a healthy relationship with Coventry Sports Trust.

She said: “Of course, you have to get the technology right but it is about much more than that. We are big believers in networking and getting out and talking to people.

“That’s how this contract came about and we always approach our work with the people in mind rather than the technology.

“We got to grips with why people were struggling to use the website and why they were having to submit enquiries to the team at the trust rather than finding the information that was already there on the web.

“We then set about solving that problem in the most efficient and effective way and already the website is proving to be more popular and useful than ever for Coventry Sports Trust.”

Pictured: Steve Best, of ACUTEC, with Abi O’Leary, of Coventry Sports Trust

Link:  Midlands Business News

Telephony and IT is converging so quickly that businesses need a helping hand to make the most of the changes in technology. That was the message at a special event laid on by ACUTEC on the subject of telecoms.

The company is running a programme of events throughout the year to help clients and partners to keep up with the latest changes in IT and invited Wayne Liddle, of Avaya, to give a presentation on telecommunications.

Avaya is the number one supplier of telecoms to SMEs and Wayne pointed out the many ways in which companies can become more efficient by converging telephony with IT.

Navish Mistry, of Forte, attended and said: “I was very impressed with the event and the presentation was excellent.”

New advances in automated systems and facilities such as setting your phone so that you always appear to be ‘in the office’ were also discussed.

Only recently, ACUTEC bought telecoms company Chase Meadow Communications to help clients with the latest changes in technology and to help them integrate the two.

Steve Lines, of ACUTEC, said: “When it comes to telecoms and IT being integrated with the same company it makes sense.

“IT and telephony have converged over recent years and your mobile phone is now a mini PC – in many ways it’s more sophisticated.

“We have a system now where, via our PC network, we can transfer a call from the landline to a mobile. So you could take a call in the office, transfer it to your mobile, walk out of the door, get in your car, transfer it to Bluetooth and the client would never know anything had happened. It’s seamless.

“As with outsourcing any service, it’s not just about the expertise but the people you deal with. So finding a company that understands your business and what you require from your IT systems and telecoms is just as vital as them being able to implement it. That’s what we aim to do here.”