Business News

Silverback Law, a firm of Solicitors based in Redditch, are delighted to announce that they’re now expanding their offer to include family law as one of their services. Alison Rolf, a Consultant Chartered Legal Executive with over 25 years’ experience, has recently joined the firm from Messrs Davidson Mahon Solicitors in Warwickshire. Alison deals with all aspects of family law including divorce, financial matters, pre and post nuptial agreements, cohabitation and children. She offers a fixed fee initial hour-long appointment by a range of methods (face to face, telephone or virtual) so that you can discuss your case in more detail and decide whether you would like to proceed. Alison is a member of Resolution, a Professional organisation, who advocate dealing with matters as amicably as possible, and can guide you through the proceedings. Please visit the website www.silverbacklaw.co.uk or alternatively contact Alison direct on 07974 581696.

The latest Report on Jobs from KPMG and the REC suggested that we may now be past the peak of the post-pandemic hiring spree, but we are not yet seeing an increase in candidate availability. So with demand for talent still out-stripping supply, the cost of living crisis is driving candidate and employee behaviour and businesses are having to react. Over the last few years, many companies have had a focus on providing wellbeing benefits and additional more creative perks such as coffee machines or ‘birthday off’ to differentiate their employment offering in a crowded market. However, the cost of living crisis has meant that more than ever, it’s cold hard cash that employees want. We are seeing more candidates looking for a reduced commute to the office due to the cost of fuel. Working from home has been incredibly popular, but as the cost of heating our homes rises and the temperature drops, this cost will need to weigh-in against work-life-balance for many. So individuals who plumped for a remote role with a once-a-week schlep into the office are now rethinking this option and potentially looking for an employer with a local office they can get to easily and cost-effectively.

Laura Hewett, Director, Hewett Recruitment

At Hewett Recruitment, like some other local businesses, we have given a one-off “cost of living bonus” to assist our employees through this period. This is a popular method of meeting employees half way, without committing to unsustainable pay rises for years to come.

Knowing how the product is priced, who the suppliers are, who the customers are, how the product or service is created etc. can all be vital to the financial integrity of the business. There are four types of information: 1. Public information – this is information that is in the public domain and can be accessed on a non-confidential basis.

For example the information about your company that is filed with Companies

House – who your shareholders are, who your directors are, your annual accounts. You cannot generally protect this – its already out there for the world to know. 2. Knowledge and skill – this is information that a person picks up

“on the job” which is confidential but its in their head just by virtue of being used. For example an engineer uses a method of repairing a machine that is only known by your business but because they are regularly carrying out your process its in their head and they would naturally take it with them if they left. 3. Mere Confidential Information – this is confidential information which is more easily protected. Employees only have a duty to keep mere confidential

information, confidential during their employment so you should consider including specific confidentiality clauses in their contracts of employment so the information is protected post-employment too. 4. Trade Secrets – “Need to Know” “For your eyes only!” – the most confidential of confidential information. That is why it is very important to protect that information. There are some practical steps you ought to take such as password protecting confidential information, restricting access to only those who need to know, and actually marking it as “confidential”. All of these steps practically demonstrate you value the information and are serious about its protection. You would find it very difficult to argue that information should be classified as a Trade Secret if you leave it lying around the office (or server) for anyone to read, copy, access or take. The big danger areas arise when that information has to be shared. That is where contractual safeguards can assist. There is merit in having in place a non-disclosure agreement at the point that negotiations begin. It can be hard to evaluate whether a commercial relationship will work without sharing some information. The commercial relationship may generate information which needs to be protected, either because a consultant is advising and making recommendations or the research and development is identifying new product or service methodologies, new market data etc. It’s important therefore to also ensure that there are appropriate confidentiality protections in your terms and conditions. The timing of the protection can also be crucial. Most confidential information has a shelf life – marketing strategies or pricing information may become obsolete after 12 months. Other information may need to remain confidential forever – the secret recipe for KFC or Coca Cola for example. It’s important that any protections put in place, are in place for a sufficient period to provide the necessary protection. Our Commercial Team can assist you in protecting one of your most valuable assets. For more information contact Hannah Clark on 0345 20 73 72 8, email info@thursfields.co.uk or visit

UC&C is a collection of Unified

Collaboration solutions which are brought together and made available to use through one User Interface (UI) in order to improve connectivity and productivity.

UC&C integrates a diverse range of communication tools, including Voice, IP Telephony Calling, Instant Messaging, Desktop Sharing, Presence and Web Conferencing, Audio Conferencing and Video Conferencing which interact together in a virtually seamless way to provide near real-time collaboration.

As technology continues to evolve, we’ve entered an era where work is no longer refined to a specific desk, phone, or computer screen. Professionals have the freedom to share their skills and pursue new opportunities across the globe, requiring only the right device, and a cloud connection to perform their role.

With so many employees beginning to work remotely, companies need to find a way to serve users who don’t want be tethered by wires and physical locations. The result has been an influx of fantastic communication tools, designed for almost every touch point in the average business. The only problem? We’ve innovated so fast that the sheer number of communication tools available is enough to overwhelm any worker or IT team.

Combining communication and collaboration tools into one simple interface provides organisations with an array of benefits, including: Higher productivity:

Employees in different locations using different devices and mediums can work together in a unified environment.

Better performance:

Employees can both communicate and collaborate in an instant meaning that they can solve customers’ problems faster, improving the reputation of your business.

Reduced costs:

As UC systems operate on the cloud, they allow companies to move away from a Capex model, to an OpEx strategy which involves fewer initial costs.

Ability to access expertise from anywhere:

Due to their cloud-based nature, team collaboration tools mean that you can bring together the best talent from anywhere in the world to contribute to the same project at the same time.

Easier to track projects:

Online collaboration tools come with various capabilities that help team members to see the evolution of their projects over time making it much easier to manage a project and ensure that everyone stays on the same page. Easy document management and reporting:

Collaboration tools ensure that the same files are all stored in the same place meaning that information doesn’t get lost and everyone working on the same project can access the same information easily and many make reporting easier.

UC&C can, however, pose challenges to networks with old infrastructure as it has changed the nature of corporate network workloads. In a network with compute and storage separate, these dynamic workloads can cause congestion and latency. As UC&C and other dynamic workloads have increased, there has been an increase in the adoption of hyperconverged networks to deal with the consequent challenges.