Press Release: London, 17 December 2009 • As government and business increasingly run operations over the internet, PeoplePerHour.com asks if the UK is moving towards an entirely virtual future.
In last week’s pre-budget report, the Chancellor claimed that the government would save £360 million next year by running virtual court cases’ in which trials will be conducted entirely online.
Similarly, according to findings from PeoplePerHour.com’s ongoing Small Business Survey of its 45,000 users, the number of businesses cutting overheads by adopting virtual working practices is expected to increase significantly over the next decade. One of the key findings from this survey is that businesses can save an average of 23 percent of their total staff costs by employing remote ad hoc freelancers. In addition to savings on staff costs, virtual businesses cut out the other major cost entirely: office rental.
With the government facing a huge budget deficit and businesses increasingly under pressure to minimise overheads, PeoplePerHour.com founder Xenios Thrasyvoulou sees the next decade being characterised by an increase in the levels of virtual interaction in all areas of British life.
“Everyone knows the government is looking to make savings wherever it can,” says Thrasyvoulou. “Broadband technology has made virtual court cases’ a viable option and, no doubt, they will look at ways of applying this principle to other public sector services. School classes taught online may sound outlandish, but I don’t think it’s an unrealistic prospect given the potentially huge cost savings associated with this approach.”
Recently, Price Waterhouse Cooper calculated that if the UK’s ten million digitally excluded’ (individuals who haven’t yet used the internet) made one transaction with government services every month, the annual cost saving to the tax payer would be £900 million. In a separate report, the government’s digital inclusion champion Martha Lane Fox found that the overall economic benefit of getting everyone in the UK online was £22 billion.
“There’s a huge economic incentive to go virtual’ • both for the public and private sectors,” says Thrasyvoulou. “It seems inevitable therefore that increasing numbers of services will be delivered online.”
For further information, photos, interviews and case studies, please contact:
Sami McCabe
t: +44 (0) 20 3393 8277
m: +44 (0) 7789 777 440
e: sami@ubiquitycomms.com
PeoplePerHour.com Background Information
PeoplePerHour.com connects businesses with skilled individuals to get work done remotely.
The site serves the small business sector and has over 45,000 registered users growing at 15% per month, of whom 70% are micro-businesses (five or less employees) and 20% are between five and 20 employees.
The company started in 2007 and has been grown consistently, unabated by the recession. This growth has been fuelled by companies’ need to drive down costs and find more innovative, cost-effective and flexible ways of getting jobs done.
Main service categories on the site are IT& Web, Graphic Design, Telesales, Marketing and PR, Copywriting and Translation services.
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