M & A Rainmaker

I was reading something the other day about how this year’s volcanic eruption in Iceland had boosted video conferencing sales e.g.

http://www.i-cio.com/blog/july-2010/volcanic-cloud-boosts-videoconferencing

and thinking back to the snow that we had early in 2010 which I posted about here

http://mandarainmaker.co.uk/wordpress/2010/01/08/dorsets-global-production-defies-snow-with-asterisk-phone-system-and-microsoft-sbs/

which was of course prompted by the current weather conditions which I am sure you all know about and are suffering from.

The objective is to be able to continue working and communicating when traffic, weather, terrorists or volcano’s try to stop you !!

Fortunately as traffic has increased, weather conditions seemingly worsened, terrorist’s become more active and imaginative and volcano’s got more volatile, technology has improved and become easier to use and more affordable.

The Cisco FutureLine Hosted Voip and Video solution ( http://www.futureline.net.uk/ ) may be combined with various Microsoft products to give a comprehensive communications solution that allows people to continue to communicate even when they cannot get to work or to thier customer appointments.

There is no need to risk dangerous travel conditions or to stop communicating in a catastrophe.

Poundbury Systems is in the Cisco mentor programme and receives a regular monthly mentoring session from Cisco mentoring partner Channel Intellect.

The bad weather in January and various issues in December meant that the Channel Intellect representative John Shannon could not get down from the Wirral to Dorset.

In December the mentoring session was carried out using the telephone. During the session a number of critical areas were discussed such as the order forecast and the commitment to those orders being received and personal coaching. The mentor came off of the December update feeling that he had heard the words but needed to see the facial reactions and other body language that accompanied those words.

Given the appalling weather conditions in January it was decided that another remote review was required but this time Cisco Webex video conferencing would be used.

Cisco Webex is a low cost video conferencing solution that is suitable for small and medium sized businesses to use. ( ie suitable for Poundbury, Channel Intellect and Poundbury’s customers ).

When John came off the January remote review he was convinced that messages  were received, understood and committed to.

Cisco Webex video conferencing makes business sense for a  number of reasons: Reduced travel time and cost; reduced carbon emissions; business continuity and the ability to see the whites of peoples’ eyes !

Dorsets Global Production company IPP Joules defies the snow with an Asterisk based Phone System from Poundbury Systems and Microsoft Small Business Server

That was the news from Poundbury Systems this week. With most of Dorset (and the UK) hit by snow and ice, what was the impact on local businesses?

Poundbury Systems have long understood the benefits of flexible working solutions for their customers and this week the foresight in this approach showed its true value.

‘Many of our customers had issues in getting some or all of their staff to their offices. The solution was simple. The Microsoft Small Business Server based remote working facilities that we had set up allowed staff to use their home PC’s to have quick, easy and secure access to their work files. No time was wasted and no business was lost. The picture was completed by diverting the Asterisk based phones to home and mobile numbers, something that is quick and easy to do.’ commented Clare Jenkins, Director at PSL.

Bob Cottell of ipp agreed “At ipp, much of our work is time critical and, as we deal with our clients around the world, guess what – they don’t care what the weather is like in the UK and they expect us to have contingency plans in place. During the current weather, we are able to work equally well from home as we can in the office, thanks to PSL putting ‘remote access’ in place. We can access information and documents on our servers as normal, maintain email contact with clients and use ‘instant messenging’ as an effective way to maintain internal communication.

PSL has given us the flexibility to allow staff to work from home, delay coming into the office until the roads are less icy or even leave early to avoid congested roads. We are able to spend less time worrying about the weather and road conditions and more time maintaining service levels for your clients, during these chilly times.

Many thanks to PSL”

With more snow predicted, if you would like any advice on how you can minimise business disruption, contact Clare and her team on 01305 259849 or enquiries@poundbury.com.

For Global Production and Distribution Solutions contact IPP Joules at http://www.ippjoules.com/