In line with coalition promises to “reduce the red tape burden” on businesses, the Health & Safety Executive (HSE) has confirmed that it is in agreement with Lord Young’s recommendation to relax rules in low-risk environments, which include homes. This removes what some companies had seen as a barrier to homeworking due to the cost and impracticality of conducting potentially hundreds of individual risk assessments at employees’ home addresses.
The announcement of a more sensible, pragmatic approach came as no surprise to SunGard Availability Services, which had been monitoring the HSE for the past 18 months as it developed its groundbreaking Recover AnywhereTM service. This gives SunGard customers the opportunity to create a recovery environment that seamlessly combines physical Workplace recovery and telephony with virtualised desktop and telephony, allowing employees to work anywhere equipped with just a PC and phone.
In much the same way that organisations realised savings by divesting themselves of expensive, underused office space and shifted towards mobile working, this development also strengthens the business case for operating with a reduced office estate.
According to the first Post-Recessional Workplaces Review* conducted by the British Institute of Facilities Managers, two thirds of organisations are trying to reduce their office space by working differently and using their premises more effectively.
Replacing the considerable costs of establishing and maintaining a fully equipped recovery site on standby with an on-demand recovery service from a third party provider means businesses pay only for what they actually use. The expense becomes an operational rather than capital cost and firms can leverage even greater value from the changed business model by exploiting other technological advances to create efficiency-savings.
A leading daily newspaper and major financial services organisation are currently trialling Recover Anywhere, which will give SunGard the opportunity to refine the service still further.
Click here to see how RECOVER ANYWHERE works
*Source: FM World – 11 November 2010