AS temperatures continue to plummet and severe weather warnings continue, an increasing number of businesses are struggling to keep their offices open – especially as the UK economy gears up for Christmas.

Small companies – there are over 4 million SMEs in the UK – are likely to be hit hardest by the loss of productivity – and with less ability to call on financial reserves, there are short-term cash flow issues to consider, too.

However, after the last snow snarl up, many SMEs are gearing up to enable remote working for their workers as the cost of the technology has started to fall believes Outsourcery, a provider of Cloud computing technology that enables staff to overcome the weather issues.

Piers Linney, joint CEO of Outsourcery which services 10,000 SMEs in the UK commented: “In our business work is something you do. It’s not where you go.”

Mr Linney continued: “The disruption caused by the recent snow has created immense problems for thousands of businesses across the UK with many employees not being able to make it into work. With more snow predicted, the current cold snap will only further underline how businesses need to find alternative ways to keep their company running regardless of the weather conditions.

“With large numbers of workers having to work away from the office in the harsh weather conditions, businesses are finding that they need more effective ways to stay in touch with important stakeholders in their businesses.”

Outsourcery believes that a significant driver of remote working is ‘Cloud computing’ and as it gains momentum and acceptance, SMEs now have access to professional business applications, through a subscription payment model which allows IT to be ‘rented’ from an IT specialist, on a per user per month basis.

This, says Mr Linney, turns it from a capital expenditure to an operating cost, making affordable for all sizes of organisations, and not just the large corporations as was in the past.

Mr Linney concluded: “Many firms are recognising the value that real time communications tools such as instant messaging, video conferencing and document sharing can bring to their businesses. Employers can see the availability of all their employees – whether they are talking on the phone, in a meeting or online – and contact them in most time-efficient way and the benefits are really brought into focus during the current weather conditions.”

Estimated cost of £1.2b a day in lost revenue