Member Article

Research from North East tech company Aspire paints positive picture of UK remote working

Research from award winning tech firm, Aspire Technology Solutions, has revealed that UK businesses are coping well within the new remote working environment as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

During March and April 2020, the managed IT services provider conducted a survey with decision makers from their large nationwide customer base to assess the impact of home working.

A key survey question asked businesses to rate out of ten how well they were operating in the remote working environment. Businesses responded favourably with 91% scoring seven or higher; evidencing that home working is a success for the overwhelming majority.

The survey highlighted the effective and rapid mobilisation of remote working solutions for UK businesses as only 25% of those surveyed considered they were ‘very prepared’ for home working in advance of the lockdown.

Chris Fraser, managing director at Aspire said “We surveyed decision makers from a wide range of sectors and the high number of businesses confirming that home working is now a success is very encouraging. It is testament to the rapid and effective adoption of home working technologies”.

As the fastest-growing managed IT services provider in the North of England, Gateshead-based Aspire offers North East businesses access to the fastest internet speeds on the market. Known as Ultrafast Dedicated Connections (UDC), the lines offer internet connectivity of up to a phenomenal 100 gigabit per second (Gb/s). In the past year, Aspire has invested £1.2m in the local infrastructure to launch its revolutionary full fibre network. The company have set ambitious plans for improving business connectivity across the North East region.

With the number of home workers skyrocketing across the UK, many are experiencing slower internet speeds as a result. The survey highlighted poor connectivity as having the greatest impact on the remote worker experience with 35% of businesses reporting internet performance causing instability issues for users.

Other headline results from the survey include:

25% of businesses only have up to 10% of their workforce working from home, whilst 42% of businesses confirmed that between 76-100% of their staff are home working.

For those non-home workers, 44% of businesses cited that staff were required on-site in order to perform their duties, while 27% of staff have been furloughed. Only 6% highlighted a technical issue preventing home working for staff.

94% of businesses who have implemented remote working have access to video calling technology and a stable platform for home workers to access.

When considering the remote working solution that businesses have adopted, 90% considered that it could continue long-term. This is reassuring considering the UK lockdown is now extended by at least another three weeks.

Chris continued, “We’ve seen a huge increase in the demand for remote working solutions and working with customers, we’ve enabled more than 10,000 new remote workers in a matter of weeks. It’s great to see technology coming to the rescue of companies and enabling them to function as close as possible to business as usual.

“The power of tech to allow us to connect and collaborate has never been more evident, nor more important as it is now. Tech plays a huge part in effective remote working but ultimately, company culture and the adaptability of staff are key to success. UK businesses should be immensely proud of how they have adapted to extremely challenging times. Despite the unprecedented change to all of our lives, business continues to get done.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Aspire Technology Solutions .