Technology

Featured Article – Microsoft Teams User Numbers Up By 12 Million In A Week

Posted on by Andy Miller

Microsoft’s collaborative working platform ‘Teams’ is reported to have seen a massive 12 million user boost in one week as a result of remote-working through the coronavirus outbreak, and through Microsoft making the platform generally available through Office 365 from March 14.

What Is Teams?

Teams, announced in November 2016 and launched by Microsoft in 2017, is a platform designed to help collaborative working and combines features such as workplace chat, meetings, notes, and attachments. Described by Microsoft as a “complete chat and online meetings solution”, it normally integrates with the company’s Office 365 subscription office productivity suite. In July 2018, Microsoft introduced a free, basic features version of Teams which did not require an Office 365 account, in order to increase user numbers and tempt users away from competitor ‘Slack’.

Microsoft Teams is also the replacement for Skype for Business Online, the support for which will end on 31 July 2021, and all-new Microsoft 365 customers have been getting Microsoft Teams by default from 1 September 2019.

March 14

Microsoft Corp. announced on March 14 that Microsoft Teams would be generally available in Office 365 for business customers in 181 markets and 19 languages.

Increased To 44 Million Users

The move to make Teams generally available to businesses with Office 365, coupled with a mass move to remote working as a result of COVID-19 has resulted in 12 million new users joining the platform in a week, bringing users up from 32 million on 11 March to 44 million users a week later.  The number is likely to have increased significantly again since 18 March.

What Does Teams Offer?

Microsoft Teams offers threaded chat capabilities which Microsoft describes as “a modern conversations experience”, and built-in Office 365 apps like Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, SharePoint and Power BI.  Also, Teams offers users ad-hoc (and scheduled) voice and video meetings and has security and compliance capabilities built-in as it supports global standards, including SOC 1, SOC 2, EU Model Clauses, ISO27001 and HIPAA. Users are also able to benefit from the fact that workspaces can be customised for each team using tabs, connectors and bots from third-party partners and Microsoft tools e.g. Microsoft Planner and Visual Studio Team Services. Microsoft says that more than 150 integrations are available or coming soon to Teams.

New Features

Microsoft reports that it has added more than 100 new features to Teams since November 2019.  These include an enhanced meeting experience (with scheduling), mobile audio calling, video calling on Android (coming soon to iOS), and email integration.  Teams has also benefited from improvements to accessibility with support for screen readers, high contrast and keyboard-only navigation.

Walkie-Talkie Phone

In January, Microsoft announced that it was adding a “push-to-talk experience” to Teams that turns employee or company-owned smartphones and tablets into walkie-talkies.  The Walkie Talkie feature, which can be accessed in private preview in the first half of this year and will be available in the Teams mobile app, offers clear, instant and secure voice communication over the cloud.

Competition

There are, of course, other services in competition with Microsoft Teams. Slack, for example, is a cloud-based set of proprietary team collaboration tools and services.  Slack enables users (communities, groups, or teams) to join through a URL or invitation sent by a team admin or owner.  Although Slack was intended to be an organisational communication tool, it has morphed into a community platform i.e. it is a business technology that has crossed over into personal use.

That said, Slack reported in October last year that it had 12 million daily active users, which was a 2 million increase since January 2019.

Slack has stickiness and strong user engagement which help to attract businesses that want to get into using workstream collaboration software but, it faces challenges such as convincing big businesses that it is not just a chat app and that it is a worthy, paid-for alternative to its more well-known competitors like Microsoft’s Teams.

Like Teams, Slack has just introduced new features and has experienced a surge of growth in just over a month.

Another competitor to Microsoft’s Teams is Zoom, which is a platform for video and audio conferencing, chat, and webinars that is often used alongside Google’s G Suite and Slack.  It has been reported that Zoom is now top of the free downloaded apps in Apple’s app store, and Learnbonds.com reports that downloads for Zoom increased by 1,270 per cent between February 22 and March 22.

Real-Life Example – Teams

A real-life example from Microsoft of how Teams is being put to good use is by bicycle and cycling gear company Trek Bicycle.  Microsoft reports how Teams has become the project hub for the company where all staff know where to find the latest documents, notes, tasks relating to team conversations thereby making Teams a central part of the company’s “get-things-done-fast culture.”

Looking Forward

Many businesses are already using and gaining advantages from the speed and scope of communication, project context, and convenience of a cloud-based, accessible hub offered by collaborative working platforms like Teams.  The decision to make Teams generally available with Office 365 for business can only make the platform more popular and the need for companies to quickly set-up effective remote working has stimulated the market for these services and given users a crash-course in and a strong reminder of their strengths and benefits.

The hope by Microsoft and other collaborative working platform providers is that companies will go on using the platforms long after they technically need to in order to deal with COVID19 lockdown and that they will decide to use them going forward to keep improving the flexibility and productivity of their businesses, compete with other companies that are getting the best from them, and guard against excessive damage to the business from any future lockdown situations.

Viruses Killed By Robots

Posted on by Andy Miller

Robots armed with UV-C ultraviolet light beams that can effectively disinfect surfaces in a hospital room in 10-20 minutes are helping in the fight against COVID-19.

UVD Robots, Denmark

The robots, which are reported to have been shipped in considerable numbers to Wuhan in China, Asia, and parts of Europe are manufactured in Denmark’s third-largest city, Odense, by the UVD Robots company.  The manufacturers say that if used as part of a regular cleaning cycle, they could prevent and reduce the spread of infectious diseases, viruses, bacteria, as well as other types of harmful organic microorganisms.

Breaks Down DNA

These smart robots, which look a little like a printer on wheels with several light-sabres arranged vertically in a circle on top, can autonomously clean traces of viruses from a room by ‘burning’ them from surfaces using UV-Wavelength: 254NM (UV-C light) in a way that breaks down the DNA-structure of the virus.

Research and Testing

The UVD robots are the product of 6 years research, design, development, and testing by leading, reputable organisation Blue Ocean Robotics, and the Danish Healthcare Authority (supported by leading microbiologists and hygiene specialists from Odense University Hospital).

How?

The Ultraviolet germicidal irradiation (UVGI) method of disinfection, which has been in accepted use since the mid-20th century, involves using short-wavelength ultraviolet (UV-C) to disrupt the DNA of microorganisms so that they can no longer carry out cellular functions.

Features

The features of UVD’s cleaning robots include 360-degree disinfection coverage, a 3-hour battery charge, and software and sensor-based safety features.  The operating time per charge for the UV module is 2-2.5 hours (equal to 9-10 rooms).  It is claimed that these units can kill up to 99.99 per cent of bacteria.

HAIs

The primary purpose of the robots is to help and improve quality of care for hospitals and healthcare facilities around the world by providing an effective, low human risk, 24-hour available way to eradicate the kind of Hospital Acquired Infections (HAIs) which affect millions of patients (and kill several thousand) each year.

The COVID-19 outbreak which has led to many healthcare environments being overwhelmed with large numbers of patients has, therefore, made the need for this kind of cleaning/disinfecting system seem very attractive.

What Does This Mean For Your Business?

Now, more than ever in living memory, having a device that can simply, automatically, quickly and effectively get on with the cleaning of hospital rooms on-demand, without worrying about infection (as may be the case for human cleaners), and without putting more human resource demands on hospitals must be invaluable, and would account for the increase in orders internationally. Devices like these show how a combination of technologies can be combined to create real value and tackle a problem in an effective way that could benefit all of us.

Facebook Video Quality Reduced To Cope With Demand

Posted on by Andy Miller

Facebook and Instagram have reduced the quality of videos shared on their platforms in Europe as demand for streaming has increased due to self-isolation.

Lower Bitrate, Looks Similar

The announcement by Facebook that a lowering of the bit-rates for videos on Facebook and Instagram in Europe highlights the need to reduce network congestion, free-up more bandwidth, and make sure that users stay connected at a time where demand is reaching very high levels because of the COVID-19 pandemic.  The move could have a significant positive impact when you consider that Facebook has around 300 million daily users in Europe alone, and streaming video can account for as much as 60% of traffic on fixed and mobile networks.

Although a reduction in bit-rates for videos will, technically, reduce the quality, the likelihood is that the change will be virtually imperceptible to most users.

Many Other Platforms

Facebook is certainly not the only platform taking this step as Amazon, Apple TV+, Disney+ and Netflix have also made similar announcements.  For example, Netflix is reducing its back video bit rates while still claiming to allow customers to get HD and Ultra HD content (with lower image quality),  and Amazon Prime Video has started to reduce its streaming bitrates as has Apple’s streaming service.

Google’s YouTube is also switching all traffic in the EU to standard definition by default.

BT Say UK Networks Have The Capacity

BT’s Chief Technology and Information Officer, Howard Watson, has announced that the UK’s advanced digital economy means that it has overbuilt its networks to compensate for HD streaming content and that the UK’s fixed broadband network core has been built with the extra ‘headroom’ to support evening peaks of network traffic that high-bandwidth applications create. Mr Watson has also pointed out that since people started to work from home more this month, there has been a weekday daytime traffic increase of 35-60 per cent compared with similar days on the fixed network, peaking at 7.5Tb/s, which is still only half the average evening peak, and far short of the 17.5 Tb/s that the network is known to be able to handle.

What Does This Mean For Your Business?

For Amazon, Apple TV, Netflix, Facebook and others platforms, they are clearly facing a challenge to their service delivery in Europe but have been quick to take a step that will at least mean that there’s enough bandwidth for their services to be delivered with the trade-off being a fall in the level of viewing quality for customers.  Many customers, however, are likely not to be too critical about the move, given the many other big changes that have been made to their lives as a result of the COVID-19 outbreak and the attempts to reduce its impact.  Netflix has even pointed out the extra benefit that its European viewers are likely to use 25 per cent less data when watching films as a result of the bit rate changes. However, with online streaming services being one of the main pleasures that many people feel they have left to enjoy safely, the change in bit rate should be OK as long as the picture quality isn’t drastically reduced to the point of annoyance and distraction.

Cybercriminals Hijacking Netflix and Other Streaming Accounts

Posted on by Andy Miller

It has been reported that the surge in the use of streaming music and video services has been accompanied by a surge in the number of user accounts being taken over by cybercriminals.

Entertainment During Isolation

Self-isolation and the instruction to stay at home during the next few weeks in the COVID-19 crisis has meant that many people have turned to streaming services like Amazon Prime Video, Netflix, Spotify and Apple Music. In fact, the demand has been so high that many streaming and social media platforms have reduced the bit rate of videos in order to make sure that services can still be delivered without taking up too much bandwidth.

Stealing and Selling Your Credentials

Security company Proofpoint has now warned that cybercriminals are taking advantage of this increase in demand for streaming services by stealing the valid credentials of users and selling them online.  This means that someone else may be piggybacking off a user’s streaming account without them even knowing it.  When the account credentials are sold online (for a much lower price than normal accounts), the seller gives instructions to the buyer not to try and change the login details of the account.

How?

For cybercriminals to hijack streaming accounts, they first need to steal the legitimate credentials of existing users. Proofpoint has reported that this is achieved by using methods such as:

Keyloggers and information stealers – software that has been unwittingly downloaded, that is able to record keystrokes to discover logins and other valuable personal data.

Phishing attacks – convincing emails from bogus sources that have made users click on a link/ to re-direct, which has led to login credentials and financial information being stolen and/or malicious software being loaded onto their computer/device.

Credential stuffing – where logins are stolen in cyber-attacks on other sites/platforms and sold on to other cybercriminals are tried in other websites in the hope that a user has been password sharing (using the same login for multiple websites).

How Do You Know?

The ways to tell whether your streaming account is being piggybacked include checking the settings to view which devices are connected to the account, checking previous activity on the account and activating the options that notify you each time a new device connects to your account.

Protection

Since the ability to hijack a streaming account relies on the ability to steal login details, following basic data security and hygiene can dramatically reduce the risk to users. For example, using strong and unique passwords, not sharing passwords between different websites/platforms, using a good password manager, keeping anti-virus software and patches up to date, keeping systems and browsers up to date, and not clicking on links or attachments in emails may help protect against this and others similar crimes.

What Does This Mean For Your Business?

Cybercriminals are quick to take advantage of a crisis or a trend and are always keen to find easy, low-risk ways to get money and personal details.  In this case, adhering to relatively basic security best practice can prevent you from falling victim to this and many other cyber-crimes.

Sadly, this is not a new situation.  For example, a CordCutting.com report from last year suggested that around 20 per cent of people who watch a paid-for video streaming service are using someone else’s account.

Now that streaming services are experiencing a surge in users and are very much in the spotlight, it may be a good time for those services to tackle some of the long-running security concerns and to reassure users that they are taking some responsibility to make it much more difficult of others to piggyback accounts.

Featured Article – Maintaining Security During The COVID-19 Health Crisis

Posted on by Andy Miller

The current global health crisis may bring many different IT security challenges to businesses and organisations and this article highlights some of the ways that you can prepare to keep IT security covered as best you can at this difficult time.

Larger and Smaller Businesses – Some Different Challenges

Larger organisations may be at an advantage as they may already have policies, procedures, equipment and security arrangements in place for remote working, although they may find themselves more stretched as many more staff work from home than usual.

Smaller businesses and organisations, however, may be less well used to and equipped for suddenly having to send staff home to work. This means that they may have a lot more work to do now in order to prepare, and their IT personnel will find themselves needing to prioritise and be prepared to provide more on-demand support over the coming weeks.

Guide

Even though larger and smaller companies may have different challenges on a different scale, here is brief guide incorporating a list of suggestions that could help many businesses and organisations to stay secure while employees, contractors and other stakeholders are working remotely:

– Alert all staff to the possibility of email-borne threats and other social engineering attacks.  For example, over the last few weeks, cybercriminals have been sending COVID-19 related phishing emails e.g. bogus workplace policy emails, emails purporting to be from a doctor offering details of a vaccine/cure, emails with a promise of a tax refund and more.  The message to employees should be to not open unfamiliar emails and certainly don’t click on any attachments or links to external pages from any suspect emails.

– Make sure that any software and software-based protection used by employees working from home is secure and up to date.  For example, this could include making sure their devices have up to date operating systems and browsers, firewall software and anti-virus software is installed and up to date, and make sure that employees install any new updates as soon as possible.

– Ensure that any devices used by employees are managed, secure (have downloaded trusted security apps), have appropriate protection e.g. data loss protection, updated anti-malware, and a capacity to be centrally monitored if possible. Ensure that all devices, including employee mobiles (which can carry confidential information), are password-protected, and can encrypt data to prevent theft.

– Monitor the supply chain arrangements where possible.  If a supplier is geographically remote, for example, and if the Covid-19 crisis has left a supplier short of qualified IT and/or security staff, or if contract staff/cover staff, or unfamiliar staff members have been brought in to replace staff members e.g. particularly in accounts, this could present a security risk.  Taking the time to conduct at least basic checks on who you dealing with could prevent social engineering, phishing and other security threats, and exercising caution and offering your own known secure channel suggestions where suppliers may be short of  IT-security staff could help to maintain your company’s security posture.

– Although employees are likely to stay at home in the current situation, you will still need to make sure that they are made aware of your policy about accessing information on public or unsecured networks e.g. using a VPN on mobile devices to encrypt data.

– Make sure you have a 24-hour reporting procedure for any stolen or lost equipment/devices.

– Pay attention to user identity management. For example, have a user account for each employee, and give appropriate access to each employee.  This should help to prevent unauthorised access by other persons.  Also, control which programs and data each employee has access to, and which level of user rights they have on certain platforms.

– Make employees aware that they must use only strong, unique passwords to sign-in to your network, and that these details should be changed regularly e.g. every 3 months.  Also, make sure that multi-factor authentication is used by employees.

– Stay on top of managing the workforce and general daily operations.  For example, make sure that key IT staff are available at all times, communication channels and procedures are clear and functioning, handover procedures are covered, any sickness (which looks likely) can have cover planned, and that productivity targets can be met despite remote working.

– Remind employees that they still need to comply with GDPR while working remotely and ensure that help and advice are available for this where needed.

– Use this experience to keep the company’s disaster recovery and business continuity plans up to date.

– Schedule regular, virtual/online meetings with staff and ensure that all employees have the contact details of other relevant employees.

– If you’re not already using a collaborative working platform e.g. Teams or Slack, consider the possibility of introducing this kind of working to help deal with future, similar threats.

Looking Forward

At this point, the country, businesses, and many individuals are thinking more about survival strategies, but taking time to ensure that IT security is maintained is important in making companies less vulnerable at a time when operations don’t follow normal patterns and when many cybercriminals are looking to capitalise on any weaknesses caused by the COVID-19 health emergency.

Surge In Demand For Teleconference Apps and Platforms That Enable Home Working

Posted on by Andy Miller

The need for people to work from home during the Covid-19 outbreak is reported to have led to a huge increase in the downloads of business teleconferencing apps and in the use of popular cloud-based services like G Suite.

Surge In Downloads

Downloads of remote and collaborative working and communication apps such as Tencent Conference (https://intl.cloud.tencent.com/), WeChat Work (from China), Zoom, Microsoft Teams and Slack are reported to have risen by a massive fivefold since the beginning of the year, driven by the effects of the Covid-19 outbreak.

For example, services such as Rumii (a VR platform, normally $14.99 per month) and Spatial, which enable users to digital meetings in virtual rooms with 3D versions of their co-workers have seen a boost in the number of users, as has video communications app zoom.

Freemium Versions

Even though many of these apps have seen a surge in user numbers which could see users continuing to use them and recommending them in future if their experiences of the apps are good, the ‘freemium’ versions (the basic program for free and advanced features must be paid for) appear to account for most downloads.

Some companies, such as Rumii, have now started to offer services for free after noticing a rise in the number of downloads as Covid-19 spread in the United States.

G Suite

Google’s cloud-based G Suite service (Gmail, Docs, Drive, Hangouts, Sheets, Slides, Keep, Forms, Sites) is reported to have gone past the two billion monthly active users mark at the end of last year. It appears to have gained many active users due to people preparing to work from home following the Covid-19 outbreak.

Google has also offered parts of its enterprise service e.g. Hangouts Meet (video conferencing) for free to help businesses during the period when many employees will need to work from home.

Microsoft

Microsoft is also reported to be offering a free six-month trial for its collaborative working platform ‘Teams’, which surpassed the 20 million active user mark back in November.

Unfortunately, Microsoft Teams suffered a reported two-hour outage across Europe on Monday, just as many employees tried to log in as part of their first experience of working at home in what some commentators are now calling the new “post-office” era.

What Does This Mean For Your Business?

Cloud-based, collaborative and remote working and communications platforms are now providing a vital mitigating lifeline to many businesses and workers at the start of what is likely to be a difficult, disruptive, dangerous and stressful time.  Companies that can get the best out of these cloud-based tools, especially if they can be used effectively on a smartphone, may have a better chance of helping their businesses survive a global threat. Also, the fact that many companies and employees are forced to seek out and use cloud-based apps and platforms like these could see them continuing to make good use of them when the initial crisis is over and we could be witnessing the trigger of a longer-term change in working towards a post-office era where businesses make sure they can last out the effects of future similar threats.

Apple Announces The Closure Of All Stores Outside China Until March 27

Posted on by Andy Miller

Apple has announced that due to the global spread of COVID-19, it will be closing all of its retail stores outside of Greater China until March 27.

Flexible Working

A statement on the Apple website (Newsroom) highlighted how Apple is adopting “flexible work arrangements worldwide outside of Greater China”.

Apple also said that those staff members whose work still requires them to be on-site will be following guidance to maximize interpersonal space.  Also, the statement highlights the “extensive, deep cleaning” that is taking place on all of Apple’s sites, and the fact the Apple is rolling out health screenings and temperature checks.

Paid As Usual

The statement also makes it clear that despite the temporary closures, flexible and remote working, Apple’s staff will be paid as usual, and that the company’s leave policies have been expanded to take account of personal or family health circumstances created by COVID-19, such as recovering from illness, caring for a sick loved one, mandatory quarantining, or childcare challenges resulting from school closures.

Worldwide Developers Conference Online

Apple has recently announced that its annual Worldwide Developers Conference in June will be held entirely in an online format this year.  Despite this change in format, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing, Phil Schiller, is choosing to see it as an “opportunity” and as an “innovative way” to bring the global developer community together with “a new experience”.

New COVID-19 News Section

In an attempt to help its users avoid fake news about the global health crisis, and to boost its credibility as a trusted brand, Apple has also announced the launch of a new COVID-19 news section, where, it says that its users will find the “latest verified reporting from trusted news outlets”.

Trusted For The Election

Even though the world is in the midst of a health crisis, the US election is still likely to be happening in November.  Apple also has plans to establish itself as a trusted news source then through its own, curated Apple News coverage of the election where it will feature “reliable” news, information and data from multiple trusted news sources.

What Does This Mean For Your Business?

For Apple employees, the opportunity to work flexibly and more safely from home, still receive pay as normal and receive the benefits of more favourable company leave policies is likely to be very welcome. These moves by Apple also show the company in a very positive ethical and caring light, which many would see as being consistent with its public brand values.

Closing stores only until March 27 (just over a week from now), however, may be seen by some as a trifle optimistic, and could mean that employees in those stores may be very nervous about the thought of having to go back to any customer-facing roles when the illness still has a lot further to spread before it begins to slow down.  It remains to be seen whether Apple extends this date in the light of unfolding events.

Survey Reveals IR35 Tax Reforms Legal Action Risk For Private Sector Companies

Posted on by Andy Miller

A survey by ContractorCalculator has revealed that many private sector companies may be at risk of legal action through misinterpreting the new IR35 tax reforms.

What Is IR35?

The IR35 tax reform legislation, set to be introduced this April, is designed to stop tax avoidance from ‘disguised employment’, which occurs when self-employed contractors set up their own limited company to pay themselves through dividends (which are not subject to National Insurance).  IR35 will essentially mean that, from April 2020, medium-to-larger private sector organisations become responsible for determining whether the non-permanent contractors and freelancers should be taxed in the same way as permanent employees (inside IR35) or as off-payroll workers (outside IR35), based upon the work they do and how it is performed.

Also, the tax liability will transfer from the contractor to the fee-paying party i.e. the recruiter or the company that directly engages the contractor. HMRC hopes that the IR35 reforms will stop contractors from deliberately misclassifying themselves in order to reduce their employment tax liabilities.

The idea for the introduction of the legislation dates back to 1999 with Chancellor Gordon Brown and Chancellor Philip Hammond introduced IR35 for public bodies using contractors from April 2017.

National Insurance

One of the potential problem areas for private sector companies revealed by the ContractorCalculator questionnaire, answered by some 12,000 contractors, is that some may be unlawfully deducting employers’ national insurance contributions (NICs) from their contractors’ pay.  This means that they are effectively imposing double taxation on these contractors.

Given that 42% of contractors said they weren’t aware that such deductions were unlawful, the survey appears to show that although these companies have been acting unlawfully, it is likely to be because they have simply misinterpreted the new tax reforms given the complicated nature of the IR35.

Tribunal Threat

The survey also showed that 58% of survey participants are classified as ‘inside’ IR35 (taxed in the same way as permanent employees) said that they would consider taking their client to an employment tribunal because, if they have to pay the same amount of tax as a permanent employee, they feel that they should receive the same benefits as permanent employees e.g. sick pay and a pension.

Contractor Loses Case

On this subject, there was news this week that an IT contractor who had worked through his limited company Northern Light Solutions for Nationwide for several years and been treated as outside IR35 has lost an appeal to HMRC against a £70,000 tax demand whereby HMRC had argued, successfully, that he should have been categorised as inside IR35.

What Does This Mean For Your Business?

When the IR35 tax reforms were first announced, many business owners thought that the reforms appeared to be very complex and that not enough had been done by the government to raise awareness of the changes and to educate businesses and contractors about the implications and responsibilities.  This survey appears to support this and shows that this lack of knowledge and awareness of IR35 by businesses could be leaving them open to the risk of legal action.  Contactors and the companies that use their services need to learn quickly about the dangers of hiring freelance workers long-term and companies that use freelancers need to conduct correct due diligence in order to ensure that the business relationship they have with them complies with IR35.

Coronavirus Outbreak: Remote Working For Staff

Posted on by Andy Miller

With the whole of Italy’s 60 million population in lockdown and other countries taking drastic measures to control the coronavirus outbreak, the tech-giant companies are now asking their employees to work remotely.

Google

Due to fears of COVID-19 spreading through large numbers of staff, Google had already announced last week that it was temporarily closing its office in Dublin and asking the 8,000 employees to work from home.  Google has more than 70 offices in 50 countries and back at the end of January, Google also temporarily closed its offices in mainland China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan when the outbreak was still mainly based in China.

Amazon

Amazon, which restricted all nonessential travel in the U.S for employees as of last month has, after an employee tested positive for coronavirus, asked workers from its Seattle and Bellevue, Washington, offices to work from home until the end of the month.

Facebook

In addition to cancelling its annual developer conference which was due to be held on May 5 and 6 in San Jose, California (which attracted 5,000 people last year), Facebook has closed its Seattle office and asked all 5,000 of the office’s employees to work from home until the end of the month. Facebook has also closed its three London offices after an employee was diagnosed with COVID-19 and all 3,000 employees from those offices have been asked to work from home.

Slack

After an employee of Slack returned from travel and was suspected to have contracted COVID-19 (which turned out not to be the case), Slack closed its offices in San Francisco at the end of last week and a deep clean of the premises took place at the weekend.  Meanwhile, employees were encouraged to work from home.

Others

Microsoft has advised its Seattle and San Francisco employees that they can work from home until March 25th, Twitter has encouraged its employees to work from home, and Apple CEO Tim Cook has encouraged employees at several global offices to “work remotely from March 9th to 13th”.

One piece of positive news for Apple, however, is that all but four of Apple’s stores in mainland China, which is a vital market for Apple, have now reopened after being closed there during the main coronavirus outbreak.

Musk Sceptical

Some scepticism about closures and reactions to the coronavirus outbreak has been expressed by Elon Musk who tweeted that the “coronavirus panic is dumb”, a tweet that was liked by around 2 million people.

Pay

In the UK last week, prime minister Boris Johnson announced in parliament that new rules will mean that statutory sick pay (SSP) will come into force on the first day of absence in order to make those who feel they may have the virus and want to self-isolate, by staying at home rather than coming into the office and potentially infecting others.

Tech Industry, Work From Home

On the plus side, the nature of many tech industry jobs means that working from home is perhaps more possible than for many other industries, and for the UK as a whole, a 2019 CIPD Job Quality Index survey reported that 54% of the UK’s workforce works flexibly.

What Does This Mean For Your Business?

For those businesses that can’t easily allow employees to work home e.g. manufacturing, bricks and mortar retail, construction, events and entertainment, transport and logistics etc, the threat of a shutdown of work for what could be an unspecified period creates a real threat to the life of the business. The situation also presents a threat to many small businesses, sole traders, and self-employed people who may not have resources to last-out ‘lockdowns’, self-isolating, disruptions and complications caused by the spread of the coronavirus.

For companies that are forced to close offices, they now need to make sure that relevant staff can access company systems and intranets remotely, and that they have VPNs installed.

This situation is also a reminder of how business continuity planning and disaster recovery plans should have disease epidemic and pandemic scenarios built-in to them for the future, and this situation is likely to expose what work needs to be done by many companies in this areas of planning.

Featured Article – Coronavirus and Tech Shares

Posted on by Andy Miller

Coronavirus is firstly a threat to public health but the impact of the virus hitting the Chinese economy (a centre for tech goods), the threat of widescale illness among workers, the effects of measures to contain the virus and other factors have already had a serious effect on economies and tech share prices.

Biggest Hit Since 2008

The disruption and fear caused by the coronavirus (SARS-COV-12/COVID-19) outbreak meant that end of February saw the US stock markets suffering their worst falls since the 2008 global financial crisis with the three big US indexes ending 10% on the week before and with the UK markets following suit and the FTSE 100 index down 3.2% for the day.

The Governor of the Bank of England, Mark Carney, has also warned that the effects of coronavirus could lead to the UK’s growth prospects being downgraded.

Also, the US Federal Reserve has just slashed interest rates, to between 1% and 1.25%. That’s down from 1.5% to 1.75%, to protect America’s economy from the economic impact of the “evolving risks” of coronavirus.

Contributing Factors and Reactions

From seeing the first news from China to hearing about the rapid spread through Iran, Korea, Japan and Italy, many tech companies are seeing downward pressure on their share prices caused by the coronavirus outbreak and spread. There are many contributing factors and many reactions by tech companies to these factors that have fuelled the fall. These include:

– China, the country which the virus is thought to have come from, and which has seen whole cities and their industries and markets shut down and seriously disrupted is a major tech component manufacturing country for major tech companies e.g. the US. This has caused shortages in supply chains and other knock-on factors to other big economies and markets and the tech companies that operate within them. For example, Apple has major component supply companies in China, and Korea e.g. Samsung Electronics Co Ltd, LG Electronics Inc, and LG Innotek.  Both Samsung and LG Innotek have shut their factories due to a worker testing positive for coronavirus.  Apple is also supplied by STMicroelectronics (chipmakers) in Italy.

– Big tech companies are not attending important tech industry conferences and shows.  For example, Huawei is postponing the hosting of its February developer conference to the end of March, Alphabet (Google) has cancelled its I/O developers conference set for May 12-14, Facebook Inc has cancelled its annual developer conference which was due to be held on May 5 and 6 in San Jose, California (which attracted 5,000 people last year), and Microsoft won’t attend a games developer conference in March.

– Consumers and other tech stakeholders are changing their travelling habits and purchasing habits and are holding onto their money as they anticipate perhaps having to ride-out a work shutdown, store closures, transport cancellations and disruptions and more. Lower revised earnings warnings have been issued by tech companies that are already feeling the pinch and are anticipating a more drawn-out crisis than they had originally thought.  For example, Microsoft has revised its earnings due to fears over how the coronavirus could affect PC supply chains.

– Factory and workplace closures, not just of suppliers, but of the tech companies themselves are causing disruption.  For example, Tesla has postponed Model 3 deliveries due to a closed factory in Shanghai, Google has asked thousands of employees at its European headquarters in Dublin to work from home, Twitter is encouraging its 5,000 global staff to work from home, and cryptocurrency exchange platform Coinbase is asking some employees to start working from home.

– Store closures are also contributing to downward pressures on share prices.  For example, major tech companies have been temporarily shutting down retail stores across China, and in other affected countries and population centres.

Baidu in China

Chinese tech companies are also suffering.  For example, Baidu Inc, China’s biggest search engine company, has warned that its first-quarter revenue could drop by as much as 13% from a year earlier due to the effect of the coronavirus epidemic on economic activity and advertising.

Opportunity?

Whereas the downside of fall in share prices is being seen as a very bad event for the markets generally, some people, such as US CNBC’s ‘Mad Money’ presenter Jim Cramer have pointed out that tumbling stock values can mean that investors have an opportunity to buy tech stocks at a low price now that will grow in value soon.  With this in mind, and suggesting that those stocks that have little China exposure and work in a largely stay-at-home environment are the best options, Mr Cramer has recommended 10 stocks to buy now while the market is still affected by coronavirus.  These include the tech-related stocks of Adobe, Shopify, Square, Zoom Video Communications.

Expectations

Despite the initial huge fall in share/stock prices at the end of February, when panic was reaching its highest point, the news that central bankers from the world’s biggest economies have been speaking to Group of 7 Finance to discuss a response to the outbreak e.g. lowering of interest rates, fuelling expectations among investors that governments might go with a co-ordinated lowering interest rates has given a boost back up to many stocks and led to shares in Europe making somewhat of a recovery from the initial huge losses.

Looking Ahead

For those seeking information about coronavirus in the UK, the latest government information can be found here https://www.gov.uk/guidance/coronavirus-covid-19-information-for-the-public and the NHS advice and information can be found here https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/coronavirus-covid-19/.

The unknown nature of the immediate future as regards the spread (through clustering) and duration of the coronavirus outbreak, coupled with the many reduced growth forecasts, disruption in global supply chains, and many tech and other companies shutting offices and factories and recommending remote working where possible means that tech share prices are likely to be functioning well below expectations for some time yet.