As we emerge from the depths of this pandemic, organisations across the globe are re-evaluating the way they work.
As the potential of a second-wave start to ripple across Europe, how do businesses plan for a future that is fraught with uncertainty? Will more staff work from home; will office locations be closed—and what are the implications for business continuity?
We sat down with Pat Morley, GM Continental Europe at Sungard Availability Services, to talk about the launch of Serviced Workplace from Sungard AS.
1. What should businesses be thinking about first when attempting to bring office workers back?
For many businesses in the UK and beyond, there’s a real challenge on their hands about how and when you bring employees back into the office.
Thorough plans need to be developed on how the building can accommodate staff safely, cleaning cycles, installing additional sanitation stations, creating COVID signage to help staff to follow the new protocols, and if you need to accommodate more staff than the 2m distancing will allow, how and where to use Perspex screening between desks.
It’s a big undertaking for any office – and all of that needs to be addressed even before staff have thought about how, and if, they feel comfortable coming in to the office especially if they are reliant on public transport. Recent research conducted by IDC highlights that in the UK, over three quarters of employees (77%), expect to see a mixture of on-site and remote working to become the new norm.
2. How is Sungard AS helping businesses enable their employees to safely return to work?
We launched Serviced Workplace in response to growing demand from our customers to have a Production office purpose-built and tailored to individual customer requirements.
We can provide all the IT equipment, PC, telephones alongside dealing room turrets to help our customers be productive as possible. Each suite is self-contained and can include dedicated meeting rooms and canteen areas. All our buildings have hardened infrastructure with UPS and generators. We can also provision highly secure networks and high-speed internet. Recovery to an alternative location is built into the service.
With included access rights to any of our European facilities, our customers have the ability to work, rest and recover across multiple geographies.
3. Where are the Serviced Workplaces from Sungard AS based?
The service will initially be offered from seven of our strategic locations across the UK and Ireland: Central London, Docklands, Borehamwood, Elland & Livingston (Scotland).
It means for many employees, the idea for having to commute into a central city location via public transport can be a thing of the past.
4. How does a Sungard AS Serviced Workplace differ from other managed workplace solutions?
Unlike other managed workplace offerings, customers using our facilities have full-time access to the space they need, with a robust and secure infrastructure in resilient facilities that gives them the flexibility they need to navigate the business challenges of the post-pandemic world.
Service office providers like Regus tend to have a more open office layout with collaborative multi-tenanted areas. They don’t provide Networks or IT equipment and UPS and Generator are not normally supplied plus recovery to another site is extra.
Ultimately, customers want the safeguard and reassurance of working in a resilient and secure environment that only Sungard can provide.
5. How do you maintain social distancing within Serviced Workplaces?
We have applied strict Covid protocols and guidelines, clear signage, high cleaning standards and general improved hygiene across our locations to protect both our staff and customers. All staff have been trained and are available onsite to help ensure appropriate distancing is maintained.
We introduced Service Workplaces to free customers from the burden of the challenges we mentioned earlier about having to respect their own entire sites. We want to help customers, and ultimately businesses up and down the UK & Ireland to get on, and get ahead.
6. When are the facilities open for customers?
They’re open now! We’ve welcomed customer bookings for just over a month now and already seeing growing demand for the use of our flexible, secure, facilities.
7. Where do I go to find out more?
For all the information you need and to help you understand which of our offerings is best for you, find our more about Workplace Recovery Services.
