In case you have just woken up from a 7 year coma and somehow this is one of the first things to fall in front of your eyes before you look at any news or other media, then you may be interested to know that the Olympics are coming, to London, this year (2012). That’s:

• 10,000 athletes
• 37,000 members of the press
• 800,000 spectators per day
• At 37 venues (27 in London)

All this will be on your doorstep demanding extra products or services which in turn will put extra pressure on your business operations and IT systems.

The Problems

The main issues it is expected to bring include:

• Absenteeism – This could be caused through holiday requests, sick leave and travel issues.
• Disrupted Supply Chain – A ridiculous amount of people and traffic are going to hit London, meaning that your normal logistical practices may be restricted, in a way that will affect your productivity.
• IT Issues – Internet may be slower, key IT staff may be absent and mobile networks may become overloaded.

Any one of these can be a real problem that affects your business, but the Olympics threaten to bring all three at once. So what can you do to prepare for them?

The Solutions

As long as you plan ahead, you should be able to lay out a plan (HR policy) that will help maintain your business despite all these issues. Here are our suggestions:

Absenteeism – Prepare a flexible working policy that allows staff to work from home, to change their schedule if transport is an issue and if possible, create a quota system so that productivity sees a varying degree of change as opposed to a solid dip.

It is important if this is how you plan to go ahead, to provide your staff with appropriate IT facilities, software and training so that they can do their job without any technical issues.

Disrupted Supply Chain – The best advice is to either stock up in advance, or to change your product or services during this period to shift the focus of your business briefly to things that are less affected by your logistics operations.

IT Issues –

This is the area in which we can offer the most guidance. It will be vital to have a well managed, optimised IT Infrastructure in place in order to cope with the increased levels of activity brought by this countrywide event.

Right now is the perfect time to outsource your IT operations since one of the busiest business periods ever to hit Britain is just around the corner; and you need your systems to be running at maximum efficiency. A Managed IT Service from Computrad will hold you in good stead for not just the Olympic period, but for the time beyond the games, where your business will be streamlined owing to an IT Infrastructure with zero downtime and pro-active fixes for issues that haven’t even occurred yet.

If you have key IT staff that will be absent you should provide IT support for anyone that is going to be working from home.

Getting in touch with your internet service provider to ensure your service is optimised and will be able to cope during the games should also be a priority.

Hopefully this information should prove helpful as the countdown gets ever closer to the opening ceremony.

Did you miss news on the: SOPA and PIPA blackout? When Jerry Yang resigned? When they announced details of the iPhone 6? What do you mean you missed it…what blogs aren’t you reading?

Love being a Techie

One of the best things about being a techie in 2012 is that there is an abundance of new and exciting things happening all the time, and compared with a decade or so ago. Stories have never been so well covered around the world and with technophiles spending an inordinate amount of time online there is a huge audience.

You know for instance that if you follow the right people on Twitter, you could get the latest news before it even appears on any actual news sites, and that it will be well researched, well written, and not just a demonstration of the journalist’s extensive knowledge of jargon and acronyms.

To help you stay in touch better, or just to highlight ones that you might have missed, here are 5 of the best tech blogs at the moment:

Gadgets – Gizmodo + Engadget

You know you love them…gadgets that is. I’m sure you even have one or two on you at the moment. But when you want to find out the latest news you can’t go wrong with Gizmodo or Endaget. Their journalists are usually at all the main shows, including the recent CES (Consumer Electronics Show) in Las Vegas and you can expect objective reviews of the newest tablets, phones, laptops and more.

Java – The Server Side

This is one of the busiest and most highly recommended developer blogs, featuring everything current and controversial in the world of Java aimed at architects and developers. It has a great selection of interviews, forums, design patterns and up to the minute Java news.

Digital Culture – Mashable

Mashable is a tremendously popular site that covers tech news and culture, focusing on social media and general technology. It is a hive of activity at all times (check out their Twitter feed when you get a chance) so if you want a blog that you can get in a debate on, then this is it.

IT – ZDNet

This business technology news blog has been around for more than 20 years and covers a range of business software, OS, hardware and vendor topics. It even has different versions for different countries and covers everything from Wikipedia’ SOPA blackout to UX design jobs in Berkshire.

PHP – PHP Architect

While Planet PHP is perhaps more comprehensive, as it is an amalgamation of a bunch of other PHP blogs, it can be just a bit too much to handle. PHP Architect on the other hand is just as good technically and is very well written. Alternatively you could just scour Plant PHP and note down all the bloggers you like and follow them separately.

Computrad Europe

Including our own blog on this list is simply a testament to how much we believe in our knowledge of the IT industry. We provide up to date views on the industry as a whole and in depth accounts of the everchanging world of Managed IT Services and IT Outsourcing.