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A company dedicated to recording spectacular aerial footage through the use of aerial drones recently enlisted the website know-how of Cloud 9 Hosts to help promote their work.

Dominic Marsden and Steven Jones have spent years crafting award winning material for a large number of regional and international brands. Taking this experience, they’ve moved on to their next endeavour – Cloud 9 Film Company – which focuses on producing stunning aerial films for all types of clients. Recent projects have included gorge walking, white water rafting and Stately Homes.

The duo have so far uploaded a showreel of their recorded footage to Vimeo – but decided that to expand their online presence even further, they would require a dynamic website that would not only provide more information about themselves, but also reflect their brand values and ethos of their business. Cloud 9 Hosts were able to take all of their ideas from the supplied brief and put them into motion – developing a fully functional, full-width, mobile friendly web page.

A report released by Tom Tom has identified the all too familiar issues with rush hour and commuter traffic times. Rush hour travel times can be upto 70% longer than in standard travel times. We have all most probably noticed the duration of travel in the morning 7am – 9am and 3pm – 6pm in the region getting busier and longer. Maybe due to the economy picking up, more people travelling for business and generally employment rates are up.

TomTom Traffic vice-president Ralf-Peter Schaefer said:

”Road authorities and local governments can use traffic data to better manage traffic flow and businesses can plan smarter working hours, so their employees avoid travelling during the rush-hour.”

The solution of building more roads and rail links is regularly in the press but what are the alternatives? Technology is advancing at a fast pace but are businesses taking advantage of the potential for improved productivity, fresher and more focussed staff in the morning? Or offer different working conditions as an incentive?

Changing how we approach business structure and employee conditions is something Richard Branson is testing. Last year he changed the way his staff approached holidays following an article his daughter had read about Netflix the online streaming company. Netflix allowed staff to take as much holiday as they want when they want. No forms, no holiday charts – you just go.

“We should focus on what people get done, not how many hours or days worked. Just as we don’t have a nine to five day policy, we don’t need a vacation policy.”

This has meant Netflix employees are able to take as much holiday as they want and when they want as long as the job gets done and the managers know where people are and are ‘connected’.

Virgin have adopted this policy and something Richard Branson has instilled into his business empire. A flexible working ethic that seems to prove productive.

Many of us probably answer email in the evening, work on presentations and continually in work mode. This is down to technology and accessibility of shared resources, cloud computing and collaboration tools. All meaning we can work whenever and wherever.

Graham Saul is Managing Director of cloud computing business in Stockport, Cloud 9 Hosts. They provide remote working solutions for businesses and offer advice on evaluating feasibility and solutions to change the way businesses operate using cloud based services.

“At Cloud 9 Hosts we very much go along with the ‘Work is something I do not a place I go’ mantra and with the advances in technology and the every increasing opportunities to work from home or at different times, I’m amazed by the figures released this morning on commuter times.”

“We have many clients who have adopted technology and following a simple audit we can make some effective changes to the working day with no effect on productivity. In fact, we have found improvements in productivity in some cases.”

So, is the solution more flexible working conditions and taking advantage of the technology that is readily available. Innovative working methods could help reduce the early morning traffic jams and avoid the expense of new roads and rail developments.

Only time and technology will tell.

Find out more in this MarketingStockport article