Inflation in the UK is soaring. Rising at the fastest rate since the 2008 financial crash, businesses in every sector are feeling the pinch with the price of everything from raw materials to transportation to staffing going up. Throw a hefty hike in energy prices into the mix – increases of almost 30% for gas and 20% for electricity during…
With some fundamental differences to domestic energy contracts and without the consumer protections offered to private customers, navigating the world of business energy contracts can be confusing at best, downright baffling at worst. With over three decades of business experience, let us try to demystify the world of commercial energy supply contracts for you. It’s all in the small print…
The annual cost of telephone fraud in the UK runs into the billions – £17 billion to be precise – each and every year according to Action Fraud. As scammers get more and more sophisticated, ruthless and cunning and consumers drop their guard and up their spending around Christmas, you and your customers could well be at risk of getting…
We’ve been wasting time travelling to and from meetings for too long, we’ve been putting up with difficult online signups, technical problems with audio, and tolerated bad picture quality. So now is the time to change all of that! Let us explain how your meetings just started looking a little more efficient, effortless, and productive… Are you currently handling some…
It’s a simple enough question, but did you know? If you didn’t, then we’re pretty sure that you’re not in the minority, but the truth is, it’s happening a little sooner than you may think! BT’s current plan is to cease the installation of ISDN lines nationally in 2023, but many areas are now “stop sell” where new copper lines can’t…
As a business you’ll want to be as productive as possible. A large part of that will be making sure that your staff members have the processes, procedures and systems in place in order to make that goal a reality. When it comes to communication your phone system is at the heart of it all; it allows you to communicate…
Challenges Keeping in touch with customers with a highly mobile workforce makes estate agencies one of the more challenging industries for business communications. Operations Director James Tiller explains, “Our clients expect to get hold of us quickly regardless of our location. Our previous hosted system simply wasn’t flexible enough and we were diverting calls to our mobiles when we were…
If you’re of a certain age, you’ll remember watching films on VHS. You’ll know the feeling of having a car stacked full of cassette tapes of your favourite music. A time when those tapes were most likely to be found inside a Golf GTI (for something small and sporty) and the Vauxhall Vectra (the saloon car of choice for the…
Peaking at 5.1 million in January 2021, there are still millions of staff across the UK that find themselves on the Government’s Furlough scheme. Currently being phased out, the system is set to come to an end in September 2021, at which point millions of workers will have to pick up where they left off. Office spaces are likely to…
Whether you call it flexible, remote, or hybrid working, there’s no denying that before 2020, it just wasn’t a realistic option for so many office staff across the UK. Not due to an absence of technology – the infrastructure for home working isn’t new – rather a workplace culture that didn’t believe teams were able to communicate effectively over distance,…
Having navigated an entire year of home schooling, zoom classes and self-isolation, it’s safe to say that schools are by now becoming well versed in dealing with change. However, as we approach the end of the summer holidays and schools from across the country prepare to welcome pupils back to classrooms once more, the ever-changing nature of a global pandemic…
Trying to compare the cost of your home telephone system or mobile phone deal is a minefield all on its own. Throw in the complexities of a business communications system and the extended playing field of providers at commercial level and it can be almost impossible to ascertain whether you’re paying too much for your business calls. In most cases,…
With the full easing of COVID-19 restrictions on 19th July came an official end to the governments’ ‘work from home’ directive. With a vast swathe of office staff working predominantly from home since the start of the first lockdown in March 2020, many businesses have seen the benefits of flexibility first-hand: happier, more engaged staff, healthier work life balances and…
Pretty much all businesses take their telephone communications systems for granted. Sometimes seen as a necessary evil, the office phone system doesn’t have the same sex appeal as the constantly evolving tech bubble of mobile phones, other devices and shiny new computers. Consequently, upgrading a phone system at regular intervals or even properly evaluating the current set up tends to…
Launched in the UK on 1st June 2021, UNIVERGE BLUE® is an innovative new cloud based communications system from industry leaders NEC. Equations Voice and Data Communications are delighted to be one of a select group of companies in the UK to offer the new platform which brings together all of the essential tools your business needs to communicate effectively: an…
Surgeries up and down the UK have experienced an extraordinary (some might say unprecedented) surge in call volume over the last 12 months. From concerned patients checking symptoms to worried family members wondering how to deal with COVID concerns to vaccination questions and that’s on top of the usual high level of calls and queries all surgeries receive in a…
With students easing back into the school environment, parents adjusting from home schooling back into the world of work and teachers juggling classroom teaching with ongoing staff absence, it is more important than ever that your school’s communication system is able to deal with whatever is thrown at it this year. You are likely to experience a higher than normal…
Even before the start of the Coronavirus pandemic, there was a worldwide shift starting towards working remotely or from home. Although COVID-19 has certainly accelerated the movement, with all of us having to shift our attitudes and working practices rapidly, it’s actually working out incredibly well for many employers and employees. Over 76% of people working from home surveyed recently…
We’re excited to be one of the first providers in the UK to offer an innovative new system that will help local businesses adapt to new working habits due to the pandemic. Equations Voice and Data Communications, based in North Devon and Somerset, will be offering the innovative NEC Univerge Blue system that launched at the end of March this…
If we’ve learnt anything from the challenges faces by surgeries throughout the Coronavirus pandemic it’s that having a robust, versatile, modern communications system is more than just a luxury. It’s an absolute necessity in maintaining the very best patient care as well as taking care of heavily burdened staff during a national emergency. We found that those surgeries who had…
The past 12 months have been hectic; there’s been highs, many lows and a lot of change. Things have often been done or carried out as an emergency response to events happening around us. However, with the vaccine rollout in full swing and the roadmap out of lockdown hitting its targets thus far, now may be the time to access…
If you go back just a few short years, many businesses would have been resistant to the idea of employees working predominantly from home. Fears that employees would feel disconnected from the company’s values, separated from colleagues and be less productive were understandable in a world where the majority of us commuted to work and carried it out in the…
Over the last 12 months, schools have really had to roll with the punches when it comes to adapting their working practices. This has meant embracing huge changes in the way they communicate with colleagues, parents and pupils, often using new technology to continue to teach and meet parental demands. Many schools may have already introduced a VoIP system to…
As we humans have battled with the changes the COVID-19 pandemic has thrown at us, so have pets across the world. Over the past year a surge in pet ownership, combined with spending more time at home with our furry loved ones has meant that veterinary surgeries throughout the UK are dealing with more and more calls from concerned owners,…
2020 was the year the country proved it could work remotely. With so many businesses big and small realising the benefits and the not insignificant cost savings of working more flexibly, it’s looking like 2021 will be the year thousands of companies further evolve and perfect their home working practices and processes to embrace this new normal. A key part…
With many schools across England looking set to join our neighbours in Wales and Scotland by starting to reopen in March, is your school ready? With two weeks to go, it’s likely that you’ll start to see a surge in calls from parents trying to get to grips with yet another new normal. The increase in call volume is likely…
Whether trying to manage staff absence through sickness or self-isolation, staying on top of the rollout of free school meals to children and young people in the community, monitoring pupil levels in school on a daily basis or communicating effectively with parents and pupils trying to learn and educate at home, there is no doubt that the Coronavirus pandemic is…
Even without the unique challenges of 2020’s global pandemic, call volumes to GP surgeries inevitably ramp during the winter months with the onset of a large number of seasonal illnesses. Of course, this year that volume is reaching unprecedented levels with heightened sickness in the community as well as increased staff absence due to Covid infection, self-isolation or shielding. So…
As 2020 progressed and the Coronavirus pandemic deepened, more and more staff were required to work from home regardless of industry, sector, geographical location or size. Throughout the year businesses demonstrated that by modernising working practices and embracing modern technology to its fullest extent, they were able to quickly and easily move to a flexible working arrangement without loss of…
In an unprecedented year, businesses have faced innumerable challenges to adapt how they work, sometimes simply to survive. One thing that has become clear is that early adopters of new technology and working practices have been able to weather the Coronavirus pandemic better than those who’ve had to play catch up. The key to communication success when it comes to…