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Editor:
James Goulding
0780 308 7228 [email protected]
Advertising Director :
EthanWhite
01474 824711 [email protected]
Publishing Director:
Neil Trim
07803 087229 [email protected]
Group Sales Manager :
Martin Hall
07824 552116 [email protected]
Kingswood Media Ltd.,
4 New Cottages, Green Farm Lane, Shorne,
Kent DA12 3HQ.
Tel: 01474 824711 Email [email protected]
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The opinions expressed by contributors are not necessarily those of the publishers
who cannot accept responsibility for any errors or omissions.
No part of Business Info magazine can be reproduced without the prior permission
of the publisher. © Copyright 2011 Kingswood Media Ltd. ISSN 1464-8814
Design: Sandtiger Media – www.sandtiger.co.uk
For the latest industry news visit: www.binfo.co.uk
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IN THIS ISSUE
05
Agenda
Why the Olympics is a missed
opportunity for mobile network
operators
11
Office Design
Plantronics walks the talk with a
new office design
14
Green Printing
Is it time to turn the spotlight on
end users?
16
Cover Story
From visionary to leader: Lexmark
goes from strength to strength in
managed print services
19
Innovations
The best new office products and services
29
Voice over IP
3CX and Spitfire show the way ahead
30
IT user groups
Martin Lewis explains how IT user groups give SMEs a stronger voice
32
Digital Signage
The easy way to catch a
customer’s eye
35
Ergonomics
How to keep staff fit and
healthy at work
41
Office Agenda
New interiors exhibitions, plus a
league table of office costs
magazine
The song remains the same
In our Voice over IP feature on page 29, 3CX
channel manager Steve Corrigan makes the
point that today’s economic climate is making
people open to new ways of doing things; and
that the need for economy and efficiency makes
managers and directors ‘more happy to take a
perceived risk’ on the new, whether that be VoIP
telephony, SIP trunks, cloud computing or social
media. The benefits of these technologies apply
to organisations of all sizes and are especially
valuable to entrepreneurs and smaller firms as
they make it easier and cheaper to set up a new
business and work in a flexible, responsive manner.
High unemployment levels, stretched household
budgets and the current preference for freelancers
(and cloud-based e-lancers) over permanent staff have
caused a big rise in the number of business start-ups
this year. According to Bibby Financial Services (see
page 5), this is part of a broader trend that will have
as great an effect on the business landscape as the
first industrial revolution of the late eighteenth and
nineteenth centuries. It is predicting a 20% increase in
the number of small businesses over the next decade
and much looser business ties, as the boundaries
between home and work continue to blur and people
hold multiple jobs.
Technology remains central to this vision, but it is not
the solutions of old that will be driving it – at least
not at the front end. Instead, agility will be provided
by smartphones, tablets and web-based services, all
of which depend on the existence of fast, reliable
broadband connectivity to achieve their potential.
Yet, so lamentable is the coverage of both fixed and
mobile broadband in this country that for many in
rural and even not so rural areas the aspect of Bibby
Financial Services’ vision that is most like the first
industrial revolution is the need to up sticks and move
to where the work is, i.e. to an area served by a fibre-
enabled exchange with FTTC and FTTP services.
James Goulding, Editor