The post Covid-19 Could Cause Permanent Shift Towards Working From Home appeared first on Darryn Van Hout.
]]>Tech companies are set to make a kill as others face a myriad of challenges especially where employees refuse to report back to the office and lean more towards working from home.
Coronavirus, also known as the COVID-19, is quickly redefining workplace patterns with a working from home policy as companies are compelled by the risks of the disease’s outbreak to have their employees work remotely but chances are rife that employees may fail to return to their workstations once the current restrictions are lifted.
The abrupt idea of working from home is presenting opportunities and problems alike. On the one hand, startups like Zoom and Slack and successful giant tech companies like Google and Microsoft are availing their tech tools for free, with the hope that new users during this time of crisis could choose to continue using these tools even after things go back to normalcy.
Moreover, some systems are on the verge of creaking as more and more corporate networks, previously unaccustomed to relying on virtual private networks (VPNs), are now experiencing unprecedented quirks as internet service providers are compelled to lift their bandwidth caps so as to enable employees working remotely not to get cut off from their employers before completing their assignments.
But as it is now, the situation may never go back to how it used to be—as most employees for companies that asked staff to work from home question why they had to work from their offices anyway.
Some of the biggest companies across the globe were the first to make the leap to remote working for all staff, utilising pre-existing infrastructure like chat groups, remote access to critical tools and the advantage that most knowledge-based work can be done remotely.
First Companies To Work From Home
In Seattle, the epicentre of the first confirmed cases of the COVID-19, companies like Amazon, Microsoft, LinkedIn and Google asked their employees to stop coming to the offices immediately after the outbreak in late February. Earlier this month, Twitter “strongly advised” its employees globally to follow suit, and come Wednesday, it made it mandatory.
“We understand this is an unprecedented step, but these are unprecedented times,” Jennifer Christie, Twitter’s head of HR stated in a message to staff.
Christie added that the company would reimburse their workers including those working on an hourly basis, for all expenses incurred in setting up home offices including purchasing necessary equipment like desks, computer hardware and ergonomic chairs.
“Overall, working from home doesn’t change your day-to-day work, it just means you’ll be doing it from a different environment,” Christie added.
Another close business owner that I have known most of my life operates out of Seattle and he two has begun to adopt new technology to help drive his service based business through these difficult times.
It’s not impossible to adapt. Our network of clients have come to PTA Performance Physical Therapy Spokane for years now thanks to the level of professionalism and service that our team provides.
Louis Hurd – Managing Director of Spokane Sports Physical Therapy
These kinds of financial commitments have made many to wonder if companies that are turning to remote working during critical times could choose to continue with the status quo once normality is restored.
It can be tricky saying no to an employee who requests to work remotely especially if the HR already provided them with the required tools and it would make sense if this arrangement can become a long-term investment that would pay off in years to come.
Software That Helps With Working Remotely
That’s just what the industry that provides the remote work platform is hoping for. “We are fully prepared for this situation,” noted a spokesperson for Slack, a company which provides notable business chat software.
Just like Slack, Microsoft has enabled its cloud “productivity suite” to be freely available to small enterprises for the next six months. Google joined the club but chose to create its own business subscription, while its video conferencing service Zoom has removed limitations on its free tier, enabling users to chat for more than 40 minutes.
But not every company has experienced a smooth transition to remote working. Others like Facebook employees were restricted from accessing their corporate network for suspicious behavior by their takeaway service DoorDash.
Others experienced even more serious problems. In the UK, there were fears that home broadband networks would be overwhelmed by the weight of usage quashed by the UK service providers governed by the trade body ISPA, which noted that evenings were experiencing peak activity as most people settled down to stream Netflix and or play online video games, making this demand 10 times more than the normal daytime demand.
More worse is the fact that internet usage is generally increasing. Cloudflare, a company that provides online infrastructure which supports a vast swathe of the internet, confirmed it had been tracking this increase.
According to the company’s chief executive, Matthew Prince, “as more people work from home, peak traffic in impacted regions has increased, on average, approximately 10%. In Italy, which has imposed a nationwide quarantine, peak internet traffic is up 30%. Traffic patterns have also shifted so peak traffic is occurring earlier in the day in impacted regions.”
In Italy, internet usage via the national network has risen by more than two-thirds, not really because of employees working from home but as a result of housebound schoolchildren after following closure of schools in the country and have to log on to games like Fortnite, according to reports by Bloomberg News.
Surges in internet usage are likely to affect users who use bandwidth caps to pay for their internet, especially in the US and other countries that depend on mobile broadband. Various American ISPs like AT&T have started moving away from the practice in order to avoid any liability arising as a result of preventing people from working, though not many companies have done so.
Again, working from home isn’t for everyone. “I’ve worked 100% remote before,” said one tech industry worker who has been sent home, “and there comes a point where even an introvert would like to see another human.”
The Best Tools For Working From Home.
Slack
Slack, is a uber workplace management tool and a free-to-play business model that does not require users to sign up. Suitable for individual teams, desks and offices, users can start with the free tier and expand when they deem necessary. It’s therefore ideal for home workers who can easily recreate in-person chats just like in the office environment.
Zoom
This is an impressive video conferencing tool embraced by many thanks to its ability to iron out the strains in the often frustrating process. In response to the coronavirus crisis, the app removed the limit on free accounts and can now support up to 1,000 participants in one meeting.
Trello
Trello acts more like your boss moving around “just to check on how you’re doing”. The software which is designed for project management enables teams to schedule and assign tasks, track progress of projects and develop workflows for repetitive jobs.
Aircall
Aircall is an online telecommunication platform built off the back of modern voip (voice over internet protocol) technology. The platform integrates with most CRM systems and the online vendor portal is user friendly for technophobe’s. I personally like the API and have developed game changing plug and play tools that businesses can easily adopt for a seamless transition into cost effective communications.
Asana
Asana is one simple and cheap project management app that enables users to automate business process, whilst being task driven. To help you work well from home; the app allows you to create tasks lists, kanban boards and track time efficiently. The production line approach allows you to and your team to collaborate and communicate effectively.
Workplace
Workplace chat is a collaboration and communication platform where your employees can connect with each other via a social networking app. Companies use workplace to set up a private business like version of Facebook for their employees to manage different groups and companies, allowing them to create a network that is tailored to their specific needs such as goals and values. Businesses work better when everyone is on the same page.
Gravatar
Gravatar is the perfect platform to put a face to a name, a voice or a thought and is essential when implementing social distancing. Your Gravatar is a picture that follows you from website to website showing up alongside your name when you do things like comment or post on a blog page. Your Gravatar helps recognise your posts on websites, blogs and web forums or discussions.
The post Covid-19 Could Cause Permanent Shift Towards Working From Home appeared first on Darryn Van Hout.
]]>The post China’s Upcoming Carbon Trading Market | Darryn Van Hout appeared first on Darryn Van Hout.
]]>When one thinks of environmentally advanced and proactive countries, China isn’t among the first to jump to mind. In fact, many associate the nation with poor air quality, lax regulation and gargantuan amounts of carbon dioxide emissions from numerous coal fired power stations. However, all of this may change soon.
China’s National Carbon Market, which is set to roll out in 2016, will become the world’s largest by far, a giant compared to the European emissions trading system. China’s commitment to reduce its carbon emissions per of GDP to 40 to 45% below 2005 levels only four years after the launch of its program is an extraordinary goal that will require no small amount of effort. If it is successful in achieving its ambitious goal, the effect on the global environment will be noticeable.
The potential for mitigating climate change is real and significant with this new carbon market. China currently emits roughly 30% of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions. This cap and trade market would not only slow or stop the increase in emissions from the country, but also have the potential to decrease emissions slowly over time.
How will the carbon market work?
The Chinese government will dictate carbon dioxide emissions caps for different sources (such as electricity generators, manufacturers, etc.) and give businesses permits to emit their allocated amount of pollution. Polluters pay for the privilege of polluting in excess of what their permits allow by trading with other companies who do not require all of the permits they are allocated. This second group of companies are typically those who have invested in clean technology and showed reduction in their emissions.
Therefore environmentally avant-garde companies can trade their unused pollution permits with firms who would rather pollute and make a healthy profit. It’s a system that motivates firms to find creative ways to reduce their carbon emissions. When a carbon trading market is established, it suddenly makes business sense to become more environmentally responsible.
China has already implemented 5 pilot markets around the country to test compliance and effectiveness of the system. Since 2013, these pilots have produced good compliance results, although data secrecy and the tendency of allocating too large a number of permits made them not very effective in reducing carbon emissions.
In Shanghai alone, there are over 200 companies participating in the carbon trading scheme and these companies include steel mill Baosteel and hotel operator Jin Jang.
China isn’t the only Asian country rolling out an emissions trading market. South Korea’s carbon market is set to launch in January of 2015, while other nations such as Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam are making plans of their own for similar national schemes.
Carbon markets, if planned and enforced correctly, are proving to be an effective tool in combating climate change. Already we are seeing success from pilots projects around the world as well as established markets such as the European emissions trading system.
The post China’s Upcoming Carbon Trading Market | Darryn Van Hout appeared first on Darryn Van Hout.
]]>The post Coals future looks bleak while energy storage keeps upward streak appeared first on Darryn Van Hout.
]]>If no earth-shaking event happens within the next 10 years, the world will see renewable energy sources such as solar and wind jump to the top of the heap in global energy leaving coal at the bottom. This is the prediction of analysts from some of the major financial firms. Even the United States Energy Information Administration was not able to foresee the astonishing drop in coal consumption in that country. But Tim Flannery, the former head of Australian Climate Commission, and political activist had foreseen this coming in the last quarter of 2012.
“It should be said that many intelligent people, including friends of mine who are very serious advocates of climate change, think I’m wrong”, said Flannery, in October, 2012. “But I’m focused on markets,” he added.
“And solar is where the big movement is, where the prices are dropping fast. There‘s something akin to Moore’s Law – which says that computing power doubles, and halves in cost, roughly every 18 months – applying to solar now,” Flannery continued.
“It is a very comparable high-tech manufacture. It keeps on getting cheaper, and will keep on getting cheaper,” he concluded. In the last quarter of 2012, the cost of solar photovoltaic generation has fallen 50 per cent in 2011, and 75 per cent from 2009.
It is now the last quarter of 2014, and the bottoming in consumption of conventional energy sources like coal keeps on going down without any let up.
Coal Energy
The situation for coal at present rests on two things: a) can it really be made clean, through CCS (carbon capture and storage)? b) can the renewables be able to provide the base-load power that can guarantee its supply reliability?
The recent developments of these two industries provide the clear answer. Coal’s future is on the balance, while renewable energy sources seem to be gaining good ground. The improvements in energy storage from renewables are also helping the case of green energy.
Bloomberg New Energy Finance, through an article published in Renewable Energy World reflected on the future direction of how the world will produce and consume electricity.
In a similar manner, Tom Allard, National Affairs Editor of the Sydney Morning Herald expressed his reservations on Tony Abbott’s zeal for coal and obvious aversion to renewables, especially with Tesla’s projects, as well as the continuous progressive development of the renewables industry and the worldwide perception regarding climate change policy.
Tony Abbott weighs in on the discussion
Tesla’s Gigafactory, scheduled for completion by 2017 will definitely have a positive effect on the image of renewables. But Tony Abbott says renewables do not produce power when there is no wind and sun, and that their energy cannot be stored cheaply.
Although cheap energy storage is still a dream, it will be made more affordable with the economies of scale that Tesla’s Gigafactory hopes to demonstrate. In fact, UBS, HSBC and Citigroup is banking that battery costs will fall to the level where renewables will be cost-competitive compared to standard fossil fuels by the end of the decade.
The post Coals future looks bleak while energy storage keeps upward streak appeared first on Darryn Van Hout.
]]>The post Will Telecom Companies Kill Utilities? appeared first on Darryn Van Hout.
]]>The energy war is truly underway around the world, and there’s one word on everyone’s lips: storage, or more specifically, the solar-plus-storage revolution.
Solar-based generation has been available to the market for decades, but energy utilities have managed to keep their stronghold over the energy market. The downfall of solar power has been that it could not cater to nighttime electricity use — relying on the larger electricity grid to keep it going.
Enter solar-plus-storage, the game-changer that solved this issue overnight. Granted, solar-plus-storage technology has been years in the making, but the shock it is causing to traditional electricity suppliers is drastic. The power dynamic between solar, fossil fuels, the government and consumers is highly complex — and about to become even more so.
Telecommunications companies want in on the action — and they have money, consumers and huge market influence. Australian telecommunications company Telstra has announced plans to roll out home solar-plus-storage solutions to the millions of consumers it has around Australia. The corporation will offer entire-home connectivity packages including internet, phones and now solar, hopefully making the cost of solar panels in Australia more affordable.
Telstra’s entry into the energy market in Australia signals a huge change to the industry and what could create enormous growth in renewable energy usage around the country. Telstra’s head of new business, Cynthia Whelan, says, “Telstra is looking at the opportunities to help customers monitor and manage many different aspects of the home, including energy.”
“We see energy as relevant to our ‘Connected Home’ strategy, where more and more machines are connected in what is called the internet of things,” she said.
Telstra has identified enormous potential in an existing consumer base, which will be looking to make the move to solar in the near future. Predictably, other large telcos will follow suit when the adoption of solar-plus-storage increases, and everyone wants a piece of the pie. While companies like Telstra and their competitors are experts within their industry, this doesn’t mean traditional utilities like AGL, Ergon Energy and Origin Energy won’t go down without a fight. They have, after all, been doing this for a while.
The question is whether a long history in the energy industry will be an advantage or a disadvantage. The status quo is hard to change. This is where Telstra is seeing its opportunity.
The utilities’ weak spot
Consumer relationships matter. This may seem like a fairly obvious statement, but the history of energy companies and their consumer relationships does not reflect a strong focus on customer service. The traditional relationship between utility companies and their customers has long been a one-sided power dynamic, leaving utility companies with large amounts of control over energy prices.
In Australia, the reputation of energy retailers is considerably on the negative end, withjust 22 percent of Australians holding a positive view of the energy industry, according to a survey conducted by IPSOS-Mori in the U.K.
The reasons for Australians having a poor relationship with their energy suppliers are said to include gas supply issues, the controversial coal seam gas movement, and high electricity prices. In what was once an oligopoly over the energy industry, utilities have had little need to foster their relationships with customers.
But as the solar revolution is expanding and customer service experts like Telstra enter as competitors, electricity retailers could be starting to regret relying on a historical imbalance of power. A 2014 Fairfax Business Intelligence survey measuring customer service satisfaction showed that energy utilities ranked worst in terms of customer service.
Advisory body Accenture and the Australian Financial Review have released recommendations to the energy sector suggesting exactly that. Their suggestions highlight consumer relationships as the central factor to the success of energy utilities in the changing and increasingly competitive energy market.
“Energy providers need to understand that customers are irrational and that many consumers have a preference to interact through non-traditional channels. Energy companies should look to making better use of digital, personalization and user-centered design,” the report states.
This is something telecommunications companies have been doing for years. The nature of the telecommunications industry demanded a high level of customer service from telcos, giving them the advantage of positive consumer relations in their entry into the solar industry.
The Accenture report describes the energy market as going through a “reinvention that will forge the way to future prosperity in an environment where consumers can and will choose to move completely off the grid and take more control of their energy choices.”
Mark Coughlin, head of utilities at PwC, also emphasized customer service as one of the central factors that will determine industry success. “The traditional utility model where the company controls the ‘electrons’ and the consumer has little choice is 
on its last legs; this model is struggling to meet customer needs.”
The empowerment of the consumer is aligning with the enormous growth of the solar storage industry, and there’s no doubt that demand for self-sufficiency in energy consumption is high.
Leading consumer care organization Australian Solar Quotes has seen record numbers of solar quote inquiries this year as Australian consumers seek solutions that will protect them from exposure to high electricity prices, driven by the Australian utilities. It’s now only a matter of time until the shift in the way that we buy, store and consume electricity will be available to all Australian households, including the large rental and commercial market.
Like our article? Share it with your friends by clicking the social media links below!
The post Will Telecom Companies Kill Utilities? appeared first on Darryn Van Hout.
]]>The post The Age of Energy Storage appeared first on Darryn Van Hout.
]]>The combination of solar integrated storage solutions and efficient grid technology emerging has started the age of energy storage.
The battery storage sector’s rapidly progressing market over the last few years has stamped the beginning of a significant transition of how businesses, homeowners, utilities and government agencies use energy.
More affordable prices and a large increase in revenue have resulted in higher enthusiasm and public interest, and a growing number of companies of various sizes are planning on entering the market or increasing their already existing storage product range.
2015 has previously been called the ‘Year of the battery’, but the ‘Age of energy storage’ is now a better description due to a number of factors.
The shift of the mood surrounding energy storage can be demonstrated by the world’s excitement over the Tesla Powerwall.
The Powerwall announcement took the world by surprise, and it not only educated the public about the wonders of energy storage but it made it a topic of interest in mainstream media and financial outlets all over the world.
The residential battery storage system has been described by Tesla CEO Elon Musk as changing the “entire energy infrastructure of the world”.
Energy independence important in the Age of Energy Storage
Powerwall deliveries are now expected to hit Australia late this year, and the hype is huge, but in places such as Japan and Germany, storage solutions have been accessible for about 3 years now.
Although the volume is little because of large costs, the effect has been very impressive.
It is now mandatory for installers and distributors of residential systems to include storage in their portfolio of products.
The focus has moved from how much a system will cost to how energy independent it will be.
Large companies such as Panasonic, Tesla and LG releasing energy storage solutions and solar companies offering energy storage products shows the first glance of skyrocketing Australian and US residential storage markets.
There are many storage variations within the market, and it is clear there is no ‘one size fits all’ option available.
Already there are many potential and existing smart battery technology applications, and a huge number of companies involved.
This combined with the difficult method of calculating business case achieved using storage solutions (and thus difficult application of ROI) contributes to a focus change to energy independence, to the product and its technical features.
Australia’s market is encouraging
Australia is a great location for market growth, hence why it was selected for the first Powerwall deliveries.
According to a report by Energeia, battery storage systems could be being installed in Australian households at a huge rate of 55,000 per year within a decade.
Research on Australian solar power installation has revealed a dramatic increase in renewable energy utilisation over the past few years, and has made Australia the new world leader.
This as well as peak use periods generating high demand charges has resulted in the government being open to speed up the market of domestic storage.
It is clear the Australia market is a key player in the age of energy storage, and many large companies are eyeing it off.
The age of energy storage is just one part of the global renewable energy revolution, but it is exciting to see the continual advancements within the industry.
The post The Age of Energy Storage appeared first on Darryn Van Hout.
]]>