Over 50s slowly coming round to new technology

Giving your staff new technologies such as access to remote systems and business apps on smartphone can make the process of teleworking easier and save your firm thousands of points in energy and server space.

But you may find that older staff members are the most unreceptive when it comes to finding new ways of working. This is largely because a lot of people are stuck in their ways and do not adapt well to change even if it is for the good of the firm in the long run.

But according to Dominic Sunnebo, global consumer insight director at Kantar Worldpanel ComTech, a large number of people aged over 50 are now becoming more tech savvy and adopting the flexibility offered by devices such as smartphones with open arms.

"I think one of the key things is really how reliant everyone is becoming on the internet. There are very, very few people in the UK now who don't have internet access and obviously it's been the 50-plus market who've been the latest to take that up,” he explained.

“Now I think they're becoming far more accustomed to using the internet at home - email, internet browsing, searching the web. They're now getting to the stage where they want that same level of access on their mobile phone."

He added that over 50s haven’t taken to using the mobile devices in the same way at home though, with just 37 per cent in the age group playing games on them compared to an average of 60 per cent.

Darren Clare, head of IP (internet protocol) services at Zycko recently stated that effective use of modern technologies, such as smartphones, VoIP and cloud computing, can reduce the amount of money firms spend on energy by 20 to 40 per cent each year.

Breaking news from ihotdesk, Green IT Solutions in London

Posted by Louise Tate