IN THIS ISSUE 04 What’s New A selection of the best new products for home and office 07 Bulletin The changing world of work 11 Meetings What hybrid working means for office meeting spaces 12 Software Low code technology transforms waste collection in Chelsea and Kensington 14 Sustainability Tackling the e-waste problem through IT lifecycle management 17 Print How a next-generation print infrastructure can accelerate successful digital transformation 18 Managed Services What coronavirus means for office print 19 Records management Boxing clever with ibml 21 My workplace Rachel Forster of Hotbox lists the six things she couldn’t do her job without 24 Cyber security The role of Security Operations Centre-as-a-Service in the war on cyber-crime 26 IT security The 10 most common security mistakes and how to avoid them 27 Backup & recovery Haberdashers Monmouth schools survive £1 million ransomware demand 28 Cloud Moving to the cloud with Windows Virtual Desktop 30 Office design Flexible solutions for a hybrid workplace 32 Stationery New stationery products including a ‘test and trace’ logbook from ExaClair 34 The month in numbers What research tells us about the changing attitudes to the office and home working Editor: James Goulding 0780 308 7228 ·
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[email protected] Surveys are an understandably popular marketing tool – and not just for the column inches they garner. By crafting questions cleverly an experienced practitioner can get a desired outcome, or something very close to it, whatever opinion they hold on a topic. In fact, it is quite common for two surveys to reveal majorities for diametrically opposed positions. One notable aspect of the current pandemic has been the consistency of people’s attitudes to working from home revealed in a range surveys from organisations with very different starting points and interests. Office design companies, furniture manufacturers, IT solutions providers, catering companies – all point to a future in which people divide their time between working at home and in the office. As we report on page 30, so called hybrid working is potentially a win-win for employers and employees alike; it is how we operate at Kingswood Media and I would never want to work in any other way. However, organisations should be wary of making assumptions based on their experience of the two lockdowns. These proved that working from home en masse is possible, which was all that was required in such exceptional circumstances, but they also raised questions that were put to one side at the time and have not yet been resolved, particularly in relation to the young. WFH has obvious attractions for a forty-something with pets and children and a spare bedroom, but what about a twenty- something with a box-room in a shared flat? Surveys from Oktra and Soffos.ai, covered on page 34, highlight the extent to which younger people have struggled during lockdown. A hybrid working culture only partially addresses their concerns. It will give them the office life they crave, but what will it mean for their motivation, career development and ability to learn from more senior staff if older workers spend much of their time away from the office?What will the impact be on corporate culture if the only fifty-somethings in the office are there because they are scared of losing their jobs and intent on protecting their position from younger colleagues? Questions such as these are far from unanswerable, but they will need to be carefully considered if hybrid working is to work for everyone. James Goulding , Editor ,
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