product spotlight

The Blackberry Curve 8900

The Blackberry Curve 8900 is the thinnest and lightest full-QWERTY smartphone packed with the latest features.

The striking 480 x 360 - pixel screen offers crisp-on-the-go video, images, text, maps and more. With a sleek new twist on a classic style, the Blackberry Curve 8900 smartphone is an easy-to-use device that delivers expanded functionality and […]

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Interesting stories on remote working from aroud the web.

Vaillant, a leading manufacturer of gas and solid fuel domestic heating appliance boilers, called for Interchange’s help to install the latest GPRS mobile technology to enhance and develop its service and support business even further.
The solution helped out the company’s national service organisation Heatcall, which provides after sales support through it team of 100 engineers.
Under […]

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Find out more about remote working, whether you are about to embark on a remote working operation or are looking for new techniques and technology to improve your existing virtual business

November 2008

Pros and cons of flexible working

Karen Bartlett in TimesOnline talked to a number of people with contrasting experiences of flexible working.

 

For one woman, working school hours suited her and allowed her boss to reduce costs without losing anyone from the team. The feature also cites the case of digger manufacturer JCB, who offered its workforce a four-day week rather than redundancy.

 

Two other women interviewed have transformed their lives by working flexibly. One asked for flexible hours to spend extra days working for a charity, another wanted to study and now spends three days a week in the office and two days writing her PhD.

 

Her conclusion sums up the Interchange philosophy perfectly: “Modern thinking is about getting the best performance out of someone and focusing on the end result - not how labour-intensive it was to get there.”

 

 

 

 

Any time, anywhere, any place technology

There’s a useful series of articles for IT, telecoms and FMs who are putting together an electronic infrastructure for remote working. Companies invest heavily in their IT infrastructure, largely focusing on main corporate offices. But as more and more people are working remotely, different technology needs to be used.

 

 

 

Customise your talent management techniques

In uncertain economic times, employers need to focus on improving the work experience and motivation of their staff: that was one of the findings of a new survey by Accenture published in Management Issues.

One of the most popular ways for employers to help employees, it emerged from the research, was to change working patterns. Around a quarter of the managers surveyed favoured policies such as remote working, flexible schedules, four-day work weeks, telecommuting and travel subsidies to help staff cope with the weak economy. Continue reading…

Flexible working shouldn’t make you nervous

As the Government considers whether or not to extend flexible working rights beyond the existing groups – those with dependants either under six years old or disabled – The Guardian suggests that many small businesses may be getting nervous. It’s nothing new, businesses large and small will always be apprehensive about letting their workforce go out of their immediate control. Yes, the technology may be daunting, but working with the right business partner, who has the experience to select the right technology and equipment – it will vary depending upon all sorts of criteria – there is no reason why any type of organization of any size, shouldn’t run a totally flexible workforce equally, if not more efficiently than the traditional office based nine to five operation. James Caan (Dragon’s Den) uses a Blackberry, which may not suit everyone, but it’s exactly the sort of technology to keep flexible or remote workers in touch with each other.

 

Harrow leads the way

The London Borough of Harrow is taking a lead in mobile working, according to the Harrow Times.

Harrow Council hopes to save around £300,000 by ditching its housing department offices and investing in laptops and scanners to allow council officers to work on the road. The new way of working is being phased in and, if it proves successful, could be rolled out across all council departments.

The Harrow Times itself is following a similar path, equipping all its journalists with laptops, mobile phones and digital cameras, so they can be based outside the office.