ict active and Commercial Property News

The Catalyst, York Science Park’s dynamic new space for Creative, IT, Digital and Media businesses, has passed the ICT Active scheme at the highest level possible; ‘Ready to Occupy Leading Edge’.

This accreditation recognises the premium standard of Information Communications Technology (ICT) that The Catalyst offers its resident businesses over and above the basic facilities expected in offices.

Front L to R - Mick Auker, Facilities Manager and Scott McKenzie, Facilities Assistant, York Science Park Ltd; Back L to R - Ali Shankland, Partnerships Manager, ICT Active and Tracey Smith, Managing Director, York Science Park Ltd.

ICT Active is the national standard for IT and Telecoms (ICT) facilities in office buildings developed with support from Yorkshire Forward. This is the second time that the Science Park has achieved the prestigious ICT Active ‘Leading Edge’ status; in 2009 the IT Centre passed the ICT Active scheme at the highest level, making York Science Park the first UK Science Park to have an ICT Active property on site.

York Science Park Managing Director Tracey Smith says, “I’m thrilled that York Science Park has once again achieved the highest level of ICT accreditation. Our latest development, The Catalyst, was planned and built with an extremely high-specification ICT infrastructure, which is reflected in it achieving this status. Being ICT Active contributes to us being one of the UK’s leading science parks and it certainly attracts new businesses to us.”

Liz Wallis, ICT Active Managing Director, says, “The Catalyst at York Science Park is exactly the kind of office building that ICT Active was designed to showcase; those that make the provision of IT and Telecoms a priority because they know it matters to their business customers – particularly those involved in the IT and creative industries sectors. The award of ‘Ready to Occupy Leading Edge’ reflects the attention to detail that has gone into the planning and implementation and the resulting flexibility and high quality of service that The Catalyst is able to provide.”

Justin Benn of film and video production company Vivo Media says, “Since I recently moved my business into The Catalyst I’ve been extremely impressed by the level of ICT support offered and in particular how swiftly any IT issues are dealt with.”

As York Science Park's IT partner, York Data Services Limited provided the super- fast fibre connectivity and ICT support for the buildings on York Science Park.

Mark Fordyce, York Data Services Managing Director, said, "We are delighted to have helped York Science Park achieve, for the second time, an ICT Active ‘Leading Edge’ status, this time for their latest building, The Catalyst. This ‘Leading Edge’ accreditation is further recognition of the high level of fibre connectivity and IT support we provide to York Science Park and its tenants."

Should you be offering homeworking as an option within your ICT facilities?

The big freeze paralysing much of Britain’s transport infrastructure has once again highlighted the value of modern ICT to provide an alternate way for office based workers to contribute, even when unable to reach the office!

According to the governments latest report on the future of broadband in Britain, over 70% of British households now have access to broadband services (see the report at: http://bit.ly/hO3WKi). A great number of these households will have occupants who spend their days working in an office, whether as employees in a company or as operators of small businesses. Either way, it's clear that with the current weather conditions affecting the UK and predictions for the conditions to hang on into the New Year, then many will be looking to stay at home and attempt to work from there.
Most businesses have access to broadband, but in general, only the larger business will have put in place the facilities needed to enable their employees to work from home. Now is the time to look at your ICT facilities and services and see how they could be adapted to make homeworking a reality for your employees, or in the case of Business Centres, for the tenants using the property. The good thing about homeworking is that it doesn't need to be expensive to set up and in fact, the core equipment needed to deliver a basic homeworking connection is usually already available where an office building already has a functioning broadband service and an internal cable distribution system (network).
Adding a secure homeworking service can add real value to a Business Centre and help a business keep costs down and productivity up, irrespective of the weather and its affect on employees.
There are numerous sites on the web that offer good advice on homeworking such as the one by Business Link. The webpage is devoted to setting up a homeworking system, that considers the advantages, disadvantages and the technical aspects.
It can be viewed at: http://bit.ly/hLCqi9
If you’re unsure about your office building and whether the ICT facilities you have are able to support homeworking, an ict active survey offers an easy way to assess the ICT capabilities of your property and offers independent advice and help in improving your ICT facilities. To book an assessment, find out more about how ict active could help you or for any other general enquiries, please contact us on 0845 111 4122, or fill in the form on the contact page.

We look at how current and future developments in broadband access and services are going to affect rural based businesses?

A spate of recent news article have highlighted the sudden interest in providing high-speed broadband connectivity to rural communities and as the trend to small, start-up businesses continues, often based in suburban or rural locations, we look at how this may impact the future viability of these businesses.
It has been announced that the government intends to use up to £830 million from the BBC’s licence fees to fund a roll out of BT’s fibre optic network into rural communities between now and 2017. This process has already started with the earlier announcement of a trial of super-fast broadband in the Highlands, North Yorkshire, Cumbria and Herefordshire through selected ISP’s as partners in the scheme. Part of this proposal also includes the release of additional radio spectrum to be used for wireless broadband services. Unfortunately for rural based businesses, the announcement is so far lacking on detail and the projected dates of 2017 for completion don’t suggest a quick turnaround for those businesses in desperate need of good broadband right now!
However, it is not all so dark as other announcements have pointed the way to high-speed broadband that is available now or in the next few months.
The most promising development for truly rural, isolated businesses is the move to Ka-Band for two-way satellite broadband services. These new frequency bands offer significant scope for increased capacity and performance, whilst reducing the costs and size of the terminal equipment needed by subscribers. Indeed, several operators have announced that they will be able to provide DSL type performance at prices comparable to existing DSL-type landline services! The UK will initially be served by two of these new satellite services, Hylas 1 from Avanti and KA-SAT from Eutelsat. Both are expected to be operational by early 2011. At very least, these new satellite services should offer a temporary solution until the later fibre-based broadband services become more wide-spread.
Another solution that is becoming more prevalent is the gathering of interested parties in small communities to install their own fibre-based broadband or wireless services. There are now several companies offering to help communities install these systems, some of whom are not-for-profit organisations dedicated to helping communities achieve their aimat an affordable price. As BT’s main fibre network expands, it is highly likely that these neighbourhood schemes will proliferate. An example of this is the 100Mbps fibre optic ( FTTH ) broadband network in the rural village of Ashby de la Launde in Lincolnshire. You can watch the BBC’s Click feature on this at:

http://nextgenus.blogspot.com/  or alternatively

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/click_online/default.stm

The broadband service at Ashby de la Launde is now so good, it is claimed to be the best in Europe!

Additionally, many of these community networks have excess capacity and are now finding they are in a position to sell the excess on to third parties of neighbouring communities or businesses.
So overall, it can be seen that with a little effort, any rural based business does not have to be in a so-called ‘NotSpot’ and in the very near future, high-speed broadband should be a reality for many, with the implication that being rural will no longer be a barrier to accessing the latest web based business servcies!
 

Lord Ronaldshay Receives the ict active Award for the Aske Estate.

Lord Ronaldshay was present on Wednesday 24th November to receive an ict active award on behalf of the Aske Estate from Steve Bacon, the Lead Assesor for the scheme.

The Aske Estate attained an award of Part-Fitted, Excellent reflecting the high standard of the refurbishment of the historic buildings for the implementation and operation of ICT facilities on site.

'Part-fitted' means that the office space available requires further fitting-out before it is ready to offer the full complement of active telephony and broadband services usually required by a modern business. For example, most part-fitted properties could need internal cabling or electricity points to be installed in the office space before ICT equipment can be used. In addition, tenants usually have to make their own arrangements for telephone and Internet services.

Unusually for a part-fitted property, the offices at the Aske Estate have already been fitted with either an underfloor distribution system, wall-mounted dado or floor-level trunking complete with data cabling and a high-speed leased line fibre optic broadband service, to offer a very good level of broadband service to current and future users. It also offers significant scope for expansion should higher bandwidth be needed.

This beautiful rural location is therefore an attractive proposition for those businesses looking for rural office accommodation, but worried about access to high-speed broadband services.

The site achieved an ict active award of Part-Fitted, Excellent to demonstrate the site's conformance with the national standard behind the ict active scheme and to show potential tenants that the property is capable of supporting modern ICT facilities necessary to operate a small business.

E-Factors new Enterprise Village was presented with an ict active award at the official opening ceremony.

The Enterprise Village was officially opened for business by Tim Campbell, winner of Series One of TV's The Apprentice, on Thursday, 18th November 2010. Also present was Steve Bacon, Lead Assessor of the ict active scheme to present the site's ict active award.

The Enterprise Village is a new development providing state of the art, modern office accommodation, with good car parking, in a location close to Grimsby town centre and the A180. This newly built, purpose-designed property offers a managed reception, access to meeting rooms, training rooms and on-site business support.

The ICT infrastructure and services were designed to offer a high level of features and signiifcant flexibility for the new businesses that will be based in the premises, to ensure that tenants have access to the features they need, but can expand beyond the limits of the included ICT services when required.

The site achieved an ict active award of Ready-To-Occupy, Accredited to demonstrate the site's conformance with the national standard behind the ict active scheme and show potential tenants that the ICT facilities are ready for a business to operate as soon as they move in.

Nearly a quarter (24 percent) of firms are using broadband packages aimed at home users, says Consumerchoices.co.uk.

"Our research indicates that a high percentage of businesses are operating on inferior consumer service level agreements in the mistaken belief that they're cheaper," said Simon Piper, head of business development, Consumerchoices.co.uk.

"If the internet is vital to the way you do business, you need to ensure that it's up and running as much as possible – and that if something does go wrong, you can get help quickly and easily. That's why it's important to choose business-grade services, with business-level support."

Research by the comparison website revealed many firms use consumer packages because they believe they are 'cheaper'.

However, they run the risk of breaching their ISP's terms and conditions, as well as end-up suffering from poor connection speeds and a lack of bandwidth to run business applications.

Residents of rural areas who are beyond the reach of conventional broadband connection could soon benefit from a new wireless technology that will enable them to get online more efficiently.

Previously the distance from the nearest exchange was often the primary limiting factor in enabling broadband for rural residents. Now, industry regulator Ofcom has announced details of how a new technology may offer relief for these customers. The new service 'white space technology' will draw on frequencies that have previously been reserved for TV, by exploiting 'white spaces' between TV channels to transmit and receive wireless signals. Like conventional Wi-Fi, it uses routers but also needs access to a list of databases. The router will describe its location and device characteristics to one of these databases, which, in turn, will describe which frequencies the router will be able to use.

The watchdog has launched a consultation that will determine the processes required to make this technology a commercial reality, Ofcom wants responses for this consultation by December 7. The next step is for the regulator to propose a draft Statutory Instrument to make white space devices licence exempt. Ofcom hopes that the by the end of next year, the technology and regulatory regime will be in place for white space services to be made available.

Professor William Webb, director of technology Resources at Ofcom, said: "The airwaves that wireless devices depend on are becoming increasingly congested. We need to think about more efficient ways of using this limited resource. Using the white spaces between TV channels is a good example of how we can both use spectrum more efficiently and provide opportunities for innovative new applications and services."

A survey by Brocade, an industry leader in data center networking solutions, says poor UK broadband hinders businesses.

British workers claim their network speed and reliability is critical in their productivity and competitiveness, according to research from Brocade. A survey of 100 business IT end users found the network to be hindering personal and corporate performance; 28% of those questioned named it their "pet hate."

Vince Cable comments on the vital contribution of small businesses to the future of the economic recovery.

Speaking at the HSBC’s 2010 Start-Up Stars awards presentation ceremony at London’s Dorchester Hotel, Cable likened the events of 2008 to “an economic heart attack” and applauded the resilience of many small firms throughout the difficult conditions.

Small businesses will be the drivers of economic recovery.

“The truth is that if the British economy is going to recover, which it will, it is the small-scale enterprises that will drive it,” he said. “And they have got to have access to credit in order to do so.”

Cable said. “One of the wisest things that anyone said to me was that the last thing a small business wants is to be small – they want to grow and become a big business.”

BT Openreach has named another wave of exchanges due to be upgraded to fibre optic broadband - enabling them to offer superfast services from BT or its ISP customers.

The 159 exchanges named in BT's latest announcement are due to be upgraded with fibre next year, between September and December, according to BT Openreach. The majority - about 70 per cent - will get fibre-to-the-cabinet (FTTC) technology, which enables download speeds of up to 40Mbps, with the rest getting both FTTC and fibre to the home (FTTH).

BT said it believes FTTC technology could potentially enable up to 60Mbps downloads in future, and also support uploads of up to 15Mbps - compared with up to 10Mbps for uploads currently. The FTTH will be capable of supporting downloads of up to 100Mbps, as announced last week. (see our previous news item for details).

To find out if your nearest BT exchange is set to be upgraded in this next wave, click

for the full list of 159 newly announced exchanges.