A growing number of world governments are using surveillance techniques to gauge whether their citizens are heeding instructions to stay indoors and isolate amid the COVID-19 outbreak. Technologies designed to track and analyze terrorists, tourists, and public travel patterns are now being deployed in an effort to prevent the novel coronavirus from spreading further. Officials in Italy are making use of location data transmitted by cell phones to see how successfully lockdowns triggered by the virus are being observed. While tracking individuals is illegal in Europe, cell phone network operators are able to track people anonymously and supply aggregated data to the…
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Microsoft Teams now has 44 million daily active users. Microsoft is revealing new Teams features today to mark three years of the service just as it experiences unprecedented growth amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. Teams suffered an outage on Monday as demand for the communication and chat app surged worldwide with people working and learning from home. The software giant counted 32 million daily active users of Teams last week on March 11th, but this jumped by 12 million to 44 million daily active users yesterday. The nearly 40 percent increase in demand comes as many businesses adjust to remote work and…
As part of their response to the Covid-19 pandemic, the Government announced the introduction of the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme. With a view to answering common questions, Goldstein Legal will provide regular updates through this blog to help clarify the Scheme and its provisions. Readers are advised that the below information is accurate at the date of publication. It is our intention to keep this information as up to date as possible and revise as necessary when new information comes to light. What is the Scheme? The Job Retention Scheme is a government initiative designed to avoid redundancies. The Scheme…
During this very challenging time, we hope you’re staying safe. The rapidly developing news of the spread of the Coronavirus pandemic and how it is impacting on our families, friends and own lives is a huge concern for us all. Understandably, people are worried about the general economic outlook, and none more so than business owners who have seen their businesses brought to a halt. When we surface from this unprecedented time of confusion and economic shutdown, it is predicted by the Office for Budget Responsibility in figures released last week that the rapid economic downturn will be followed by…
Tips to maintaining a positive attitude. We’ve all been there once; especially coming up to summer and the winter hibernation pounds are still sticking like glue. Negativity has an immense impact on how we feel, work and even interact with others, so why do we let the dark cloud settle over us so much? Simple. It’s easier just to dwell on the bad around us and ‘deal with it’ instead of seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. In my opinion, washing the negativity from your life is the key to success. Why? Because everything will be in…
Our practical solution to the Coronavirus challenge Aspen Waite recognise these are worrying times, it is almost certain that all of us will be affected by the Coronavirus outbreak. This could be in a number of ways: staff sickness, reduced customer demand, payment worries, shortage of supplies and many more. Latest Guidance Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme – Guidance Support for the Self-Employed Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme VAT Payment Deferrals Welsh Businesses: £100m Loans Information Welsh Businesses: £500m Business Resilience Relief Fund Aspen Waite strives to ensure any guidance they provide is accurate, however, the information is based on their interpretation of what has been announced, is subject to…
Countries from around the world today joined the UK in pledging to give everyone equal access to new coronavirus vaccines and treatments around the world. UK is one of 20 countries and global organisations, like the WHO, to pledge to give the world access to new vaccines and treatments Pledge follows calls from the PM and UK Ministers for greater global co-operation in fight against coronavirus UK will also virtually co-host new Coronavirus Global Response Summit on 4 May 2020 Countries from around the world today (Friday, 24 April) joined the UK in pledging to give everyone equal access to…
Rolls-Royce has invited a group of leading companies to collaborate on Emer2gent, a new alliance of data analytics experts challenged with finding new, faster ways of supporting businesses and governments globally as they recover from the economic impacts of COVID-19. Early alliance members are Leeds Institute for Data Analytics, IBM, Google Cloud, The Data City, Truata, Rolls-Royce and ODI Leeds. The alliance will be facilitated and co-ordinated by innovation specialists, Whitespace. Together the initial wave of members brings all the key elements of open innovation; data publication, licensing, privacy, security; data analytics capability; and collaborative infrastructure, to kick off its…
Do you worry that your service or product isn’t good enough? Don’t worry it’s more common than you think, you are not alone. This is something I see a lot with start-up businesses and entrepreneurs. It even has a name.. Impostor Syndrome “Impostor syndrome is a term referring to high-achieving individuals marked by an inability to internalize their accomplishments and a persistent fear of being exposed as a “fraud”. Despite external evidence of their competence, those exhibiting the syndrome remain convinced that they are frauds and do not deserve the success they have achieved. Proof of success is dismissed as luck, timing, or…
Paul Holmes, managing director of PCH Business Support Ltd, has been awarded the contract to run one-to-one business support on behalf of OxLEP (local enterprise partnership) and the Oxfordshire Growth Hub as part of their response to the Covid19 pandemic. The business man from Swindon will be running virtual sessions with business owners needing help and guidance as a result of the current situation. He said: ““Having worked closely with the OxLEP Growth Hub team over the last six months I am absolutely delighted to be invited to deliver much needed support for business owners across the county. I love…