How innovative IT can help your business beat Mother Nature
10 February 2012
Gale force winds and wintery conditions have combined to present Scotland’s workforce with some major challenges in December and January. While many firms toiled and were forced to abandon travel plans, miss work or cancel meetings, some organisations were already one step ahead of the weather thanks to their forward-thinking and investment in IT
Making provision for IT can help operations run smoothly in such weather-affected scenarios, with the most obvious solution being allowing staff to work remotely in an efficient and reliable manner.
This is a challenge which NHS Lothian brought to us at Northgate Managed Services, off the back of our partnerships and extensive experience with more than 60 health organisations across the UK, including all 14 health boards in Scotland.
NHS Lothian employs around 27,000 staff in sites across Edinburgh, East Lothian, Mid Lothian and West Lothian, including 32 hospitals. The Health Board needs to be able to use key systems anytime from anywhere, as well as being able to access around 80,000 patient records from a selection of sites or on the move. Such demands are especially exasperated when the weather turns.
For NHS Lothian, if staff are required to work from home (or from another site) it's imperative they are able to carry out the tasks they normally do in their usual setting - whether it be viewing files, accessing documents, collaborating on projects or opening applications. One way we met this challenge was by running Microsoft OCS, which allows staff to work together in real time from disparate locations. This means the workforce can pull together on projects and share information from their laptops, with only an internet connection required.
This solution meant that distance was no longer an obstacle to efficiency, allowing projects to continue regardless of logistics. One of the problems employees can face if they are not able to make it into work is lack of access to contacts and personal files. With Microsoft OCS this is no longer a barrier to productivity as address books can be retrieved and stored files accessed.
Of paramount importance for NHS Lothian, as Scotland's second largest health care provider, is security. In the same way you wouldn't leave your door unlocked overnight, it would also be foolish to let people view private information through lax online protection. Being able to securely access records from a variety of locations is crucial, particularly when the weather takes a turn for the worse. This is something all businesses should take into account when developing IT solutions, as NHS Lothian did, since a data breach can cost so much more than the loss of an employee's labour for one day.
NHS Lothian, by adopting what is known as a Thin Client Solution, allows their employees to access central information databases quickly, cheaply and safely. With Thin Client devices there are no hard drives and very few internal moving parts so they have a much longer lifespan than your average desktop. Flexibility is increased when it comes to moving between locations but overall confidence in performance and security can always be assured.
Keeping a business firing on all cylinders when the weather decides to take a turn will always be a challenge but with some creative IT solutions both management and staff can have the confidence that a certain level of operational stability can remain.
Given Scotland's increasingly volatile weather this is an issue which many businesses will need to consider to enable them to continue to perform at their peak - regardless of the temperature.
James Turnbull is managing director of IT efficiency firm Northgate Managed Services.
www.northgate-managedservices.com
