According to accountancy firm Price Bailey, who analysed figures from the Office of National Statistics, Norfolk saw a 21% increase in digital businesses between 2013 and 2017, from 995 to 1200, compared to Cambridgeshire (which had a 19% increase) and Suffolk which increased its number of digital businesses by 13%.

 

Norwich partner Aaron Widdows compared Norwich to Cambridge, and said that Norwich was developing as a digital hub thanks to good transport links and a lot of graduate talent, and especially because of the lower cost of living compared to Cambridge and London. 

 

It isn’t just Norwich which is benefiting within Norfolk, and in fact the number of digital businesses in many rural parts of Norfolk has increased considerably faster than Norwich since 2013. The number of digital enterprises in Norwich increased by 18%, compared to 26% in Kings Lynn and West Norfolk and Breckland. South Norfolk saw a 25% increase from 200 to 250.

 

Aaron said: “Cambridge remains the leading digital hub in East Anglia but office costs in Cambridge and the surrounding science parks tend to be substantially higher than the equivalent in Norwich. Cambridge is a major draw for large, international occupiers, which landlords tend to favour.

“This means that smaller businesses tend to look further afield. The digital economy in Norwich is still relatively small but as more businesses locate here, we are starting to see a snowball effect.

 

“Norfolk is one of the most rural counties in the UK and still predominantly agricultural. Improvements in Norfolk’s broadband infrastructure are making it easier for digital businesses to locate in the county.

 

“Remote working is critically important for the growth of Norfolk’s digital economy, and fast broadband and 5G networks will play a key role in the future growth of the digital sector.

 

“Our corporate tax team in Norwich is dealing with an increasing number of Research and Development (R&D) tax credit claims for our clients. This is where there are enhanced tax deductions for qualifying expenditure on R&D projects. The majority of the claims we work on for clients have some form of software or other IT development in the projects, backing up the growth in the digital economy in Norfolk evidenced by these data.

 

“Digital start-ups are increasingly able to take advantage of virtual office solutions. The increasing availability of fast broadband means that it is very easy to operate from outside Norwich while using a virtual office service located in the city.

 

“Rural areas also offer lower office and housing costs, which can be critical advantages during the early stages of a business.”

 

Source: Eastern Daily Press

 

______________

 

 

As Aaron has identified, Norfolk is benefitting hugely from people’s ability to work remotely. It gives people the opportunity to work in an exciting industry while living in more rural areas where these sorts of companies would not set up physical premises. 

 

Setting up a virtual office is also very useful for employers, as they allow smaller businesses to have a presence in higher-status areas as well as reducing costs due to not needing building maintenance or insurance. They also make it very easy to expand and contract without worrying about rent leases. 

 

This style of working is on the rise in popularity, as part of a move away from rigid 9 – 5 working hours and towards hours more suitable for the individual employees. The main reason that people ask to switch to a flexible working pattern is in order to make it possible or easier to balance their family commitments, particularly if they have children, elderly parents or other dependants.

 

Managing remote workers is always a concern to business who are considering switching to this working style, since it is not as easy to measure their productivity or punctuality as it would be in the same building. 

 

Here at Time and Attendance South East, we can offer concerned companies a web-based application to help them manage their remote attendance. It is called the Self Service Module and it allows remote employees to clock themselves in and out at the start and end of the day, and to request holidays. 

 

A record of their clock-ins and outs can be exported or printed if the company would like a copy in those formats, but the supervisor has full access to all the employees’ data on the app anyway, and can run reports if they need to. 

 

There is also a Self Service Module mobile app, and the main advantage of this over using a browser is that clock-ins via the phone are transferred with the GPS location. This confirms the phone’s location at the time of clocking-in, and a manager can view employee movements on a map. 

If the employees go into an area of bad signal, the mobile app can cache the information onto the phone and transfer it as soon as connectivity is restored. 

 

Both staff and managers can book visitor appointments remotely, meaning that unnecessary phone calls or car journeys are eliminated.