Tuesday, September 11, 2012
Finance keeps pace despite Olympic dip
Research from technology consultancy Portal shows financial services firms constituted the highest-performing sector in London during the Olympic period.
According to the survey of 500 London based companies, carried out in August, 64% of finance businesses saw “little or no drop” in productivity while the games were on, with 86% allowing people to work from home. This is in marked contrast to other sectors, which saw productivity fall in over 40% of cases.
A major positive factor for financial services was pre-games planning, with 76% of firms saying they had dedicated time to it, and 27% having started six months early to ensure “business as usual”.
Portal reported a high incidence of IT planning , with 71% of those surveyed upgrading software and 33% upgrading hardware, allowing people to access e-mail, video conferencing and critical business systems.
Shamus Kelly, CEO of Portal, said: “At a time when the UK economy is struggling to shake off the recession, the productivity of our financial services sector is paramount and the Olympics could have been disastrous for businesses in the capital.
“Companies in this sector in particular heeded LOCOG’s advice and provided ways for employees to work remotely which has meant there has been very little impact on most businesses.”
DATED: 11.09.12
FEED: MF
