Modern Technology in Business

“Growers and Suppliers of nursery stock to local authorities, Architects and the Landscape Trade. Since 1910 Mahoods have been producing a top quality product, providing the fast efficient service required by today's plant buyers and specifiers”

The company is:

Mahood Brothers Limited
Burscough

Email: sales@mahoods.co.uk

http://www.mahoods.co.uk

Another is Acorn, not the Cambridge IT company but Acorn planting products Ltd. Their literature says, “Acorn manufactures two designs of tree and shrub shelter, the Shelterguard and the Spiral Shelter. There are also two designs of tree guard, the Spiral Guard and netting Treeguard, plus Voleguards and two types of Strimmer Guard.”

Acorn Planting Products Ltd

Little

Telephone: 01508 528763 / Fax: 01508 528775
E-mail: sales@acorn-p-p.co.uk

http://www.acorn-p-p.co.uk/

These are examples of very good private sector use of the web that was backed up by two public sector organisations who also helped me bring  the project to reality. They are The Forestry Commission of Great Britain that is the government department responsible for the protection and expansion of Britain's forests and woodlands. Found at:

http://www.forestry.gov.uk

And finally Mersey Forest.

Mersey Forest Company Ltd was set up in November 1999 to assist the continued development of The Mersey Forest. It is a charitable trust with the aimed at promoting for the benefit of the public generally any charitable purpose within the area of The Mersey Forest including to promote, provide and enhance woodland for the benefit of the public; Found at:

http://www.merseyforest.org.uk/

This is a great example of what can be achieved using modern technologies to deliver projects and products efficiently and in a cost effective manner for all concerned.

But quote from BBC News Online (14/01/02):

“The year 2001 was meant to be when the internet in the UK grew up. That was the dream shared by the telecoms industry and the government, but it did not happen. But 2002 looks set to be better and many net service providers are in optimistic mood. ‘2002 has to be the year of broadband Britain, especially as 2001 was so very disappointing,’ said Matt Peacock, spokesman for AOL – one of the UK’s biggest net connection firms. Since BT still controls over 80% of the copper wires that run into homes, no ASDL can be delivered without its cooperation.”

Long after the cloud of day to day events has dispersed, what we do with information technology and how we use it, will determine our success industrially and as a society for years to come.

We are doing well, but not well enough. Over the next few years we will invest, as a Government, £6bn in IT. We will radically alter access to IT facilities. But, we have yet to grasp the full scale of the opportunities that the information revolution presents. Business needs to see its application as a core management challenge. Public services need to see it as crucial to implementing public service reform. Government and people should make it the basis of forming relations between citizen and state. For all of that to happen, access needs to be universal not partial.

In particular, we must recognise that the greater economic stability we have achieved – lower inflation, low interest rates, low unemployment – is only a foundation. It is a necessary but insufficient condition for success. The key is to build on this - an economy based on knowledge, on the alliance between technology and human capital, so that we are continually developing more high value-added goods and services.

The IT battle for the future is to create a culture in which the worlds of education, academia, science, technology and business are engaged in a perpetual conversation and exchange of views. A conversation in which we are breaking new ground in scientific and technological advance, in which our schools and universities feel comfortable with its potential; in which business and society are naturally looking for ways of applying the advances made.

This is the modern industrial policy for any Government of the developed world. It is miles away from planning and picking winners. It has moved beyond the 1980s notion of "get Government out of it". It is a Government role that is enabling, creating the infrastructure of learning in our schools, universities, and in the wider community helping business access the technology, creating the environment in which new businesses can grow.

So how does this translate to practical policy?

In reaction to an unsustainable boom in stock market valuations, too many people wrote off the potential of new technology in the UK economy. We must take on the techno-sceptics but we must also recognise that technology alone is not the answer. Putting a PC on a desk does not itself boost efficiency. Establishing a broadband connection will not, alone, solve the productivity paradox. As economic research has shown, it is only when investment is combined with the right skills, with imaginative organisational change and rigorous managerial delivery that productivity gains come through.

Our ability to find and use information, to share ideas across geographic boundaries, is enhanced immensely by the revolution in communications and computing.

Advances in ICT will represent a major shift in the way we work. Many people have drawn parallels between the technological breakthroughs of the past; steam, electricity, the internal combustion engine. But electricity began as a source of power for the telegraph, it took years to revolutionise industry by powering machines on the production line. The opportunity for an ICT revolution is there, but only if we apply the technology in the same radical way in which electricity was applied some eighty to a hundred years ago.

And we must extend the opportunities of the information age to all. The networks of the digital age will be more powerful and more productive as the number of people and businesses connected increases. Digital transformation cannot be restricted to the few. Our success depends on extending it to the many.

In 1998, the Prime Minister set a target to make the UK ‘the best environment in the world for e-commerce by 2002’. We haven’t quite made it. A recent benchmarking study places us in second place behind the USA but we are the best in Europe and ahead of Japan. We have achieved more than many expected and laid the foundations for further improvement. We have made real progress in some key areas; a growing ICT sector, a strong venture capital market, among the world’s lowest prices for internet access and the highest penetration of digital TV in the world.

But we need to do more to convert progress into a real and positive impact on our economy. We plan to learn from around the world, whether it is the progress Canadahas made in creating attractive online government services or the effectiveness with which Sweden has encouraged take up of PCs.

I want to highlight one issue.

Broadband as a specific example. It is high speed and always-on. It makes using the Internet just like turning on a light. It enhances our ability to communicate, to exchange information and ideas. Some countries have chosen the planning route to drive up broadband numbers. We have deliberately chosen the competitive route. If we want broadband to work for businesses and consumers it has to be available at the right price on the basis of a world class service.

Prices are now falling to among the lowest in the world, spurred by the many different products in the market. Take up is now rising towards 30,000 a week, a rate of growth among the best of the world’s major economies.

I can announce today that the Government will provide funding to deliver broadband connections to every school by 2006.

Because education is the number one priority, and because we believe in opportunity for all, every Primary and every Secondary in the country will have high speed, always on access to the vast resources of the Internet. Rural areas could be revived

But for the public services, the real opportunity is to use information technology to help create fundamental improvement in the efficiency, convenience and quality of our services.

On the 1st of July 2002 many exchanges across the country were assigned "trigger levels" and potential customers were invited to register their interest with a number of different Internet Service Providers. When the exchange reaches the trigger level it will be upgraded to enable Broadband Internet.

You may be able to help drive up the interest within your own area, although some already have access.  It is in your best interest to see what can be achieved. Have a look at my web site for an example of how to help: http://www.andrew-miller-mp.com

There are many challenges for the public sector and business in the UK if we are to become a global knowledge economy leader:

·        To create an ICT literate workforce through schools, colleges, universities and our adult skills strategy.

·        To apply ICT systematically and effectively to spur productivity and innovation in businesses and public services.

·        To tackle the digital divide to ensure that all can contribute to, and benefit from, rising prosperity.

You should also be looking at teleworking.

There are many possible definitions of teleworking, which makes accurate assessment difficult.

The Labour Force Survey of Spring 2001 defines teleworkers as people who do some paid or unpaid work in their own home and could not do so without both a telephone and a computer. This found there were 2.2m teleworkers in the UK, of whom 43% were self-employed.Using the strictest definition of teleworkers, as home workers who work mainly from home in their main job using computer and telephone, there were 1.8m in Spring 2001.

The overall increase in the number of teleworkers in the UK between spring 1997 (when the question on telework was introduced into the LFS) and Spring 2001 is 70%, representing an average increase of 13% per year.

Current UK Government advice on telework issues is published in "Working Anywhere: exploring telework for individuals and organisations" 2nd edition; available from UK Online for business - infoline 0845 715 2000 or it can be downloaded from its website -http://www.ukonlineforbusiness.gov.uk/main/resources/publication-htm/working-anywhere.htm

This publication has been produced by DTI, in consultation with 13 other government departments and 24 industrial and representative organisations with an interest in telework.

A precise definition of teleworkers is essential in order to ensure that analyses of labour market effects, future developments and international comparisons are consistent and informative. The Labour Force Survey (LFS) defines teleworkers as people who do some paid or unpaid work in their own home and who use both a telephone and computer. It includes people who:

* mainly work from home in their main job, ‘teleworker homeworkers’;

* work from home in various locations but use their home as a base, ‘homebased teleworkers’; and

* do not usually work at home or use home as a base but did so for at least one day in the reference week, ‘occasional teleworkers’.

People in the above groups make up ‘all teleworkers’ and include those who could work without a telephone or computer.

Teleworking in the economy

A few researchers have attempted to estimate the future development of the role of teleworkers in the labour market. A report by the Institute of Employment Studies (IES) attempted to estimate the potential for teleworking in the economy.

These estimates were based on occupations considered suited to teleworking, for example managers, computing professionals, teaching professionals, writers and creative performing artists, and administrative associate professionals.

The IES estimates might be regarded possibly as overestimates. Not everybody in an occupation that is suitable for teleworking will necessarily take up the opportunity to do so. There are a number of drawbacks to teleworking such as the perceived risk of social isolation. Nevertheless, the study appears to demonstrate that the UK only uses 30 per cent of its teleworking potential.

Very high rates of teleworking are thought to be possible based on the existing ICT infrastructure. New technologies are expected to make it even easier to work remotely and will increase the number of occupations and industries which are able to offer teleworking opportunities.

There is some evidence that the growth rate has been higher in the USA than in Europe. Figures as high as 28 million, i.e. 21% of the US workforce, are teleworkers (Telework America Survey 2001).

So all of that is interesting, but why bother?

Let me just put two ideas in front of any employer here who doubts the case for finding better ways of meeting the challenge you all face.

Firstly, people talk about corporate responsibility lets look at a simple equation.

A car emits about 340 grammes of carbon per mile in the form of CO2.

For every 1,000 workers doing 2 days per week telworking with an average commute by car of 10 miles each way. In a working year they are saving an amazing 625.6 metric tonnes of carbon emissions to the atmosphere. (It’s not quite as simple as I have presented as there are suspected lifestyle changes which impact upon the calculation. However, if anyone doubts that calculation I will do it with you off-line!)

Secondly, as an employer or an employee just think of the time that that will save. Let us say, very generously, that the same ten-mile commute in London is travelled at an average speed of 15 miles per hour. If you spent 2 days a week teleworking, that equates to a working lifetime saving of more than six months! With a bit of smart organisation both parties could share in the potential productivity gain.

What’s happening across Europe?

The European Commission's "second stage consultation of the social partners on modernising and improving employment relations," published in March 2001, invited the social partners to begin negotiating an agreement on teleworking. The social partners are the European equivalent of CBI and TUC, plus public employers. Previous negotiations have produced framework agreements that have led to Directives, for example on Part-Time Workers and Parental Leave.

The social partners agreed to negotiate a non-legally binding agreement (i.e. the output is likely to be best practice guidelines or a code of practice) and negotiations began on October 12th 2001. Indications are that agreement has now been reached, subject to ratification by the social partners' governing bodies. An announcement is expected by the end of June. We are looking to establish Good Practice on teleworking in the UKworking with a stakeholders group including the TUC, CBI, TCA and DTI.

A European agreement will not be a legislative proposal, but a voluntary agreement between European level employers and union representatives, to be followed up by their national member federations. Telework will not create new jobs but has the potential to bring benefits in terms of work-life balance and family friendly policies and increasing participation in the labour market. It is important not to take action that could discourage teleworking within the EU. But there is value in establishing best practice in this fast-growing method of working.

Teleworkers should also be entitled to the same rights and protections as other analogous workers.

 I hope that I have given you a brief overview of what is happening both in the UK and in Europe and that you will all pick up the challenge to continually look for new ways of working.