What a summer. Medals galore from our sporting heroes, a Diamond Jubilee and Andy Murray’s tears of despair in Wimbledon becoming tears of triumph just months later. And of course rain. Lots and lots of rain.

While this made great viewing (except for the months of getting soaked), all these events disrupted businesses across the UK in some way. Obviously the Jubilee and the summer’s sporting events were primarily an issue for businesses in London and Weymouth, but unexpected incidents such as the floods can hit anywhere.

To cope with these disruptions, businesses of all sizes need to be as flexible as possible, and the best way to do that is to let people use their own computers and mobile devices (also known as Bring Your Own Device or BYOD) when working. Thanks to new secure networks that can carry increased amounts of voice and data, working away from the office is within the grasp of everyone. But it does need planning.

We’re interested in seeing how other businesses coped with the summer’s various sporting and weather disruptions. That’s why we’re running a short poll to see what steps you took, whether your plans were needed and what plans you have for the future. It will only take a few minutes to complete and we’ll be putting the names of every respondent into a hat and pulling out a lucky winner – who will get three tickets to the Walking with Dinosaurs show at the O2 Arena.

Just because the summer’s winding down, doesn’t mean the disruptions will stop. Especially with winter, and all the gales, ice and snow it promises, just around the corner. Businesses need to start making sure they’re ready now.

Enabling your people to work remotely will mean business as usual – even when people can’t get in to work. Like when we closed the O2 head office for the day and everyone worked remotely. Now we’re using the lessons we learned to help other businesses ensure they’re ready for any disruption. We even have a suggestion for what to do with an empty office for a day.

If you would like to see how we’re helping organisations across all sectors ensure they’re business-ready, I’d love to hear from you, get in touch @O2nickmakin.

Journalists can contact the Virgin Media O2 press office on:
press@virginmediao2.co.uk 01753 565656
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