01732 759725
IN THIS ISSUE
05
Agenda
A nation of smartphone addicts
12
Innovations
The month’s best new products
14
Cover Story
The growing appeal of Ricoh printers
17
Printers
Developments in office
printers and MFPs
29
Telephony
The enduring appeal of the office
deskphone
32
Websites
The seven deadly sins of mobile
website design
34
App Update
New apps for business and leisure
36
Office Environment
Smarter working at Societe Generale
38
Filing
Top trends in office storage
40
Furniture
What to look for when choosing
office seating
41
Communications
Email hell and how to avoid it
42
The Month in Numbers
Key findings from the latest
technology and workplace
research
Editor:
James Goulding
0780 308 7228 ·
Advertising Director:
EthanWhite
01732 759725 ·
Publishing Director:
Neil Trim
01732 759725 ·
Group Sales Manager:
Martin Jenner-Hall
07824 552116 ·
Social Media Manager:
John Peters
07711 204011 ·
Art Director:
Nick Pledge
07767 615983 ·
Editorial Assiatant:
Tayla Ansell
01962 843434 ·
Kingswood Media Ltd., Amherst House, 22 London Road, Sevenoaks TN13 2BT
Tel: 01732 759725 • Email:
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or online form. Business Info is available on subscription @ £40 p.a. to UK
companies or residents and @ £75 p.a. for non-UK subscribers.
The opinions expressed by contributors are not necessarily those of the publishers
who cannot accept responsibility for any errors or omissions.
No part of Business Info magazine can be reproduced without the prior permission
of the publisher. © Copyright 2015 Kingswood Media Ltd. ISSN 1464-8814
Design: Sandtiger Media –
FOR THE LATEST INDUSTRY NEWS VISIT:
“ ”
Are you a Permanent Non-Borrower (PNB), by which I mean
a business that has not used external finance in the last five
years or applied for it in the last 12 months? There is quite
a high chance that you are. According to the latest
SME
Finance Monitor
from the Business Finance Taskforce, half of
SMEs are now categorised as PNBs and in the second quarter
of this year only 36% were using external finance, down
from 46% in 2011.
There are many reasons why an SME might not want to borrow
– cheap labour, prudence, the benefits of experience, a still fragile
recovery, perhaps even a bad credit rating, although the success
rates of overdraft and loan applications have improved and now
stand at 84% and 69% respectively. Or you may simply have no
need for additional funding. According to the
SME Finance Monitor
,
four out of five SMEs made a profit in their last trading period, up
from 69% in Q2, 2013.
With PNBs slightly more likely to report a profit (81%) than
non-PNBs (76%), you might even claim that being a PNB makes
sound business sense.Were it not for the UK’s worryingly poor
workforce productivity, still stuck at 2007 levels. Businesses that
borrow to invest in more productive, efficient tools, machinery,
business equipment and even furniture may not be more profitable
than PNBs, but they are more ambitious and more confident.
According to the
SME Finance Monitor
, SMEs that make use of
external finance are more likely to be planning to grow in the next
12 months (49% vs 37%); more likely to have innovated (41% vs
29%); and more likely to be international (19% v 12%).
When you consider advances in office technology, it is easy to
see how investment in new equipment can enhance productivity
and innovation. A simple example is the appearance of two-
sided scanners on mid-level desktop MFPs, which save time and
minimise the risk of paper jams by scanning both sides of the page
in a single pass. There are plenty of other examples highlighted in
our printer feature on page 17. The latest deskphones – yes, people
still use them – also boast features that can help make employees
more efficient and productive, from tight integration with mobile
phones to HD voice quality, which has been shown to improve
concentration levels in conference calls. Being a PNB is desirable, as
long as it doesn’t stop you from investing in new technology that
can take your business forward.
James Goulding, Editor
,
Comment
BUSINESS INFO
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