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TECH 360

ISSUE 02 | SPRING/SUMMER | 2021

A ROUND UP OF NEWS AND INSIGHTS IN THE WORLD OF CIRCULAR IT

HOT TOPIC: POST PANDEMIC: WHAT WILL BE THE NEW NORMAL? READ MORE

STONE CAN HELP YOU MANAGE MICROSOFT PRODUCTS & SERVICES AS A CLOUD SERVICE PROVIDER. READ MORE KEY THINGS TO LOOK FOR WHEN CHOOSING AN IT RECYCLING PARTNER. READ MORE

MORE THAN JUST FUN AND GAMES: ESPORTS IN EDUCATION.

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WELCOME TO TECH 360 Welcome to our new tech industry newsletter, giving you a round up of what's happening across the industry, in the world of circular IT. In each issue, we'll be rounding up

key insights, thought pieces and valuable resources to help you stay informed and get more out of your technology

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HOT TOPIC

POST PANDEMIC: WHAT WILL BE THE NEW NORMAL? Politicians and business leaders alike have stressed the need to get back to “normal”. “Normal” is defined as the pre-pandemic period: it was a world in which people commuted to work, regularly went out to get lunch, drove their cars to supermarkets, saw films in the cinema. It is possible, even likely, once lockdown finally ends that there will be a euphoric period in which people will go out as much as possible. But: was the prepandemic world all it was cracked up to be?

NEW TOOLS

Prior to the lockdown period, businesses generally wanted their staff to go to the office. Management theories suggested that good ideas and teamwork were best generated via conversations held in the same space. An entire infrastructure of goods and services supported this policy: everything from transport to the corner newsstand to the local coffee shop relied on office workers adhering to this model.

The routine of waking up before the dawn, the hastily drunk cup of coffee, the bleary-eyed drive to the train station car park, the hastily

However, tools like Microsoft Teams, Zoom, and Google’s G-Suite have shown that ideas, learning, and team bonding could be induced without the overheads associated with physical premises. Online project management tools provide transparency on tasks. Services like Microsoft Flow provide automation of jobs no matter where the requestor is located. Microsoft Autopilot allows a home worker or university researcher to receive a laptop that is already set up, ready to access private systems by simply switching it on.

Similarly, education establishments from primary schools through to universities relied on the idea that students should be together. Government relied on adequate premises to ensure productivity.

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consumed pastry on a train hurtling through the darkness all now seem unnecessary. Indeed, these routines may have negatively impacted job satisfaction and productivity; what was gained by being crammed into an overcrowded train every weekday morning and evening? Most jobs these days rely not only on skill, talent, and desire, but also a positive state of mind, which will encourage optimal performance.

HOT TOPIC ACCELERATED CHANGE Professor Scott Galloway of New York University recently stated that the pandemic didn’t create many of the changes which are now afoot, rather, it has acted as an accelerant. People were already moving more towards home working; the pandemic and lockdown has merely highlighted the folly of tying work to a place rather than linking it to an individual. The tethering of work to a location had been fraying for years; it began to dissolve the moment the Blackberry became available, and work emails landed in our pocket rather than solely on a screen at our desks.

Collaboration takes place regardless of time or distance: a colleague in Beijing is the same as one in the town next door. Education is similarly affected; children have had nearly a year of remote learning. Their lessons have followed them home, rather than been confined to a classroom. Public services were also swept up in this tide of change: call centres have been replaced with teams of remote workers fielding queries in their spare bedrooms. The result is a populace that is liberated from unnecessary daily routines and can work and study without constraint. The future challenge may be to re-impose a work-life balance on a society that has its work and home lives so deeply intertwined. Regardless, a forward-thinking organisation will look to a new tomorrow instead of yearning for a yesterday that has already disappeared.

ADAPTING TO CHANGE

A NEW TOMORROW There is no “return to normal”. The compass of our lives has changed: it used to be that we moved between different points on a map: work, school, shop, cinema, place of worship, and so on. Now, the home has condensed many of these points into one: it is the workplace, it is the cinema, it is the school, it is the shop. To adapt, the modern organisation will have to abandon old models. Instead of adhering to a concept of work being in a single physical place, rather, a new company is a social construct, united and able to collaborate thanks to technology. Ideas are free flowing; they can occur at 1 AM and left in a chat window for later discussion. Meetings happen when they need to occur and are less influenced by the idea of “punching the clock”; they are even liberated from the PC or phone and can be accessed via specialised hubs like the ThinkSmart View.

Charles Darwin stated, “It is not the strongest of the species that survives, not the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is the most adaptable to change”. The pandemic period has forced organisations to change more quickly than they may have anticipated. Stone is conscious of this; its mission since it began 30 years ago, has been to help manage technological change by providing best in class service and solutions. The new normal is here to stay; it is both daunting and exciting. Stone is ready to help you adapt to that change. As a trusted IT partner to public sector and education for over 30 years, and experienced provider to UK businesses, we are here to continue to assist our customers with flexible, affordable, and accessible solutions that make a positive difference to their endusers and the people they support. We have an extensive range of affordable new and refurbished technology, 1:1 device schemes and parent partnership programmes, payment plans and finance options, as well as value-added services such as training, software license, consultations, and advisory services. We can also help you access the range of government funding for solutions that can help your organisation bounce back from the pandemic and realise the value in your old tech with our sustainable IT recycling service.

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RESOURCES & INSIGHTS

COVID IT HELP CENTRE

DFE SCHOOLS FUNDING EXTENDED TO MARCH 2022

Visit our Covid Help Centre for advice, support and solutions for support and managing secure remote or hybrid working and laerning environments

The Department for Education has extended the funding deadline to implement a Digital Education Platform to March 2022. It is also a legal requirement for all schools and MATs in England to facilitate remote learning. Stone can help.