Business telecommunications and IT systems

There is a now a little over five months until the Olympic Games get underway on 27 July. While the athletes are making their final preparations, it is worth making sure that your business is ready for the Olympics too. Even if your business is not based in London, or in any event locations, it is still important to be fully prepared.

The Cabinet Office has produced a report containing advice on creating a business continuity plan for the Olympic Games. The report advises businesses to consider the effects the games may have on issues such as IT or critical system failure, implementation of new services, staffing requirements and transport disruption.

The report suggests that many businesses should try to encourage flexible working, enabling staff to work at different times or locations. A flexible working plan can ease the strain on network services in heavily populated business areas and could reduce staff absence.

Many of the Olympic events will be available to watch on the internet. Web filtering hardware can be used to prevent excessive use of video streaming which uses large amounts of bandwidth and might lead to reduced connection speeds or even network failure for your business.

The Games might also cause delays with the provisioning of new lines or internet connections in areas where Olympic events are taking place or are being supported, such as team hotels, transport hubs and communications centres. Delays are anticipated due to increased demand for services and also due to heightened security around infrastructure, which might affect access to exchanges and network areas.

In towns and cities where exchanges are in secure areas du Pré’s suppliers have taken extra steps to test equipment. Many network providers have a supply of spare components at exchanges to reduce any possible delays in the case of a network fault or failure during the Olympic Games.

The mobile network is expected to become busy also, but it has been predicted it should be able to cope with the extra demand. Low-bandwidth activity such as telephone calls, text messages and low volume browsing should be unaffected, though some potential delays are expected when downloading large files or images during peak times.

Further information on how to prepare your business for the Olympic Games can be found in the Official Cabinet report. If you have any questions regarding implementation of home working, installation of new internet connections, telephone lines or web filtering hardware before the start of the 2012 Olympic Games, contact a member of the du Pré team to find out how we can help.