Anywhere Working Week – what’s in it for the Enterprise CIO?

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Next week we will be providing online coverage of Anywhere Working Week and sharing relevant content for the senior Enterprise audience.

Anywhere Working Week is run by the Anywhere Working Consortium (see below) and aims to educate businesses and individuals about the significant advantages of flexible working. We’ll help you differentiate the more strategic vision of broader flexible working, from the more tactical question of working from home.

Mobility/flexible working/anywhere working – they’re pretty much the same thing – in real terms, what it allows your business to do is achieve great things:

  • Save money, office and time through home or distance working – especially during times of bad weather
  • Reduce travel expenses
  • Reduce your carbon footprint
  • Set free your workforce to work where they want, how they want.

As our very own Chief Envisioning Officer, Dave Coplin, articulated at Microsoft’s New Era Enterprise Briefing event last week: 

“Work must become a thing you do not a place you go to. This involves trusting people and, if necessary, letting them work flexibly”.

90 per cent of CIOs are already embracing cloud computing – and if you’re an IT decision maker in your organisation, you have to consider how this may potentially revolutionise your workforce and save money when looked at from a flexible working angle – not, as some recent news stories may suggest, mean your employees become less-productive while working from home.

About the Anywhere Working Consortium

The Anywhere Working Consortium was unveiled in November 2011 by Transport Minister, Norman Baker MP. Its purpose is to educate, promote and encourage participation in new flexible working practices. Founded by Microsoft and supported by organisations like the Department for Transport, Transport for London, Intel, Nokia and Vodafone, the Anywhere Working Consortium’s objectives include helping companies to increase productivity, improve quality of life, reduce impact on the environment and achieve cost savings.

All Consortium members contribute learnings and offerings that demonstrate the productivity benefits, cost, time and environmental savings of working flexibly. Microsoft understands that technology alone will not change behaviour , but unified communications tools, collaboration suites, productivity tools and cloud services offer a way for the vision of flexible working to be realised.  

For further information, please visit www.anywhereworking.org.

Posted by Howard

Content and Communities Manager, Microsoft Enterprise