The Financial Conduct Authority has spent over £5 million to help staff with the transition to hybrid working, according to a Freedom of Information request.
The FOI request showed that between April 2021 and August 2021, the FCA bought 5,850 new laptops, 307 Samsung Phones and 39 iPhones to assist its employees.
In addition, the FCA procured 5,300 Microsoft licences for Office 365 in 2021, following on from 5,200 in 2020 and 5,500 in 2019. These licence purchases are estimated to have cost between £1m – £5m for each year.
Experts said the financial watchdog will need to ensure it has the right digital strategy and culture in place to make hybrid working a success.
Sridhar Iyengar, managing director of Zoho Europe, said: “Increased digitalisation is critical to any business operating today, but adapting to a flexible remote or hybrid work model requires more than just technology investment. Companies must ensure that staff are provided with the provisions, care, guidance and infrastructure to effectively adapt to new operational changes, no matter the size of business or whether they are private or public companies.
“As services become increasingly digitalised, it’s important that businesses equip themselves with the right tools and platform to ensure that they run as efficiently as when workers were office-based. The working model switch should not prove a hindrance to any aspect of performance. Organisations must also ensure they remain compliant with the regulations they are governed by in the same way they would need to with any working model.
“Leaders must take the time to assess whether the right digital strategy and culture is in place to serve them long-term. They must be prepared to be more adaptable, flexible and agile than ever before as this period has shown businesses need to be prepared for whatever the future may hold, and that can include completely unexpected factors.”
Security specialist Edward Blake, area vice president EMEA for Absolute Software added: “Remote working is evidently one of the favoured operational models for long term remote working, but organisations which opt for it must ensure that they are protecting the additional devices and users on a given network.
“Even the UK’s regulators aren’t safe from the onslaught of cyber crime aimed at newly remote workers, and it’s essential that IT decision makers have full visibility over their network of distributed devices. What’s more, adopting a Zero Trust approach to network data and application access is imperative to ensuring that malicious actors which will, or even already have, gained access are stopped in their tracks.”
