New white paper / know-how for data center professionals / maximum value for deploying Automated Infrastructure Management (AIM) solution. Wetzikon, August 29, 2017. R&M, the global Swiss developer and provider of cabling systems for high-quality network infrastructures, today announced the availability of “The Maturity Model for Automated Infrastructure Management.” This
Emo Oil, one of the largest distributors of fuel and lubricants to homes farms and businesses around the UK has conducted a survey into the ability of British adults and their knowledge of how to carry out necessary household tasks. The survey asked 1,439 UK adults about their abilities when
A simplified rebate system and the inclusion of smaller developments from 40* plots upwards: the exclusive package agreed with the HBF, provides members with GTC’s reliable, high-speed UltraStream300 Fibre-to-the-Home (FTTH) on new-build sites at discounted rates. This new deal benefits housebuilders by widening the range of developments qualifying for the
London has seen a record number of requests to build new homes in 2017, analysis from the Fifty Thousand Homes campaign revealed today. Record number of planning applications gives London a shot at 50,000 homes target But challenge remains to convert applications into new front doors opening Fifty Thousand Homes
Scott, former bid director for the Group sales division at Capita, has a strong background in large-scale sales solutions. While at the five-billion-pound professional services organisation, Scott headed up the growth engine within Capita, and was responsible for securing new business contracts worth 50million pounds and above. Following a successful
Skanska has been awarded a contract by the City of London Corporation to carry out mechanical and electrical maintenance and look after the fabric of the Corporation’s buildings. The contract begins in July 2017 and lasts for five years, with the option to renew for a further two years. The
Specialist Surfacing has announced the completion of a contract that has seen the delivery of a new closed road circuit in Hull. The 1km circuit has been constructed to be used by cyclists in the area. The new track has cost £650,000 and can be found next to the Ennerdale
The project consultancy company, Trivandi Chanzo has managed to increase their team working on the site of the 5th Asian Indoor Martial Arts Games for more than 700 members. As the event gets closer, the project consultants have increased the size of their team, with more than 300 staff with
The UK’s fledgling Build to Rent sector has been dealt a blow with the announcement that large investors will not be exempt from a new extra stamp duty surcharge that is introduced in a few weeks’ time. From 01 April there will be an extra 3% stamp duty payable on
What do you do when one of your rockets explodes on the launch pad at Cape Canaveral, and when someone dies at the wheel of one of your company’s cars while it is set to self-driving mode? If your name is Elon Reeve Musk, you hardly miss a beat. Catastrophes
New white paper / know-how for data center professionals / maximum value for deploying Automated Infrastructure Management (AIM) solution. Wetzikon, August 29, 2017. R&M, the global Swiss developer and provider of cabling systems for high-quality network infrastructures, today announced the availability of “The Maturity Model for Automated Infrastructure Management.” This new white paper clearly outlines what data center professionals need to know to derive maximum value when deploying an automated infrastructure management (AIM) solution. Over the last several years, AIM has become a strategic investment for optimizing resource usage and cabling documentation in data centers. Automation benefits servers, storage and switches, but the cabling that interconnects it all largely remains a cumbersome, manual, error-prone management mess. As one of the primary driving forces behind the AIM industry, R&M was ideally positioned to create “The Maturity Model for Automated Infrastructure Management.” The white paper leads through the five levels of the Maturity Model for AIM and offers a guideline how to identify the current infrastructure’s status and how to proceed to the next level. “We have been providing leadership to the AIM industry for half a decade and have helped dozens of companies improve capacity management and cabling documentation in the data center,” said Dr. Thomas Wellinger, Market Manager Data Center at R&M. “Through this experience, we learned that data center professionals could benefit from a primer on how to get started with AIM. We wrote “The Maturity Model for Automated Infrastructure Management” to share our expertise of moving an organization towards automated data center operations.”
Emo Oil, one of the largest distributors of fuel and lubricants to homes farms and businesses around the UK has conducted a survey into the ability of British adults and their knowledge of how to carry out necessary household tasks. The survey asked 1,439 UK adults about their abilities when it comes to a range of household maintenance and discovered that 39% of the population can’t change a fuse. Of those involved in the survey, 41% said they were unsure of how to turn off their mains water, and 19% said that they weren’t able to safely change a lightbulb. Even for more menial tasks, Brits struggled, with 16% of those asked unsure of how to descale a kettle. All’s not lost however, as the internet is here to help. 67% of the participants have said that they searched online to work out how to do a job. In the past, tasks like this were passed on from generation to generation. In some instances, this is still the case, as 38% have admitted to asking parents how to fulfill a household task. 23% also reported that friends are a good source of information when unsure of how to complete jobs in the home. Slightly less popular as a font of wisdom, at 12%, were neighbours. Although it is apparent that technology is the favourable source of information, going back to people; whether that is family, friends or neighbours, is still a part of how adults in Britain learn new things. It is great that so much information is available online, but what if a problem arises and the internet is down? Google can’t help you then. Or what if you don’t have time to search for how to turn the mains water supply off? It is still vitally important for future generations to have some vital information passed down. Being able to pick up these skills and live independently, even from the internet.
A simplified rebate system and the inclusion of smaller developments from 40* plots upwards: the exclusive package agreed with the HBF, provides members with GTC’s reliable, high-speed UltraStream300 Fibre-to-the-Home (FTTH) on new-build sites at discounted rates. This new deal benefits housebuilders by widening the range of developments qualifying for the scheme and by further reducing the cost of installing the latest high-speed fibre for their customers. UltraStream300, available as standard to all HBF members, offers reliable, ultrafast speeds of 300Mbps, one of the UK’s fastest, and is future-ready to give 1Gbps when higher speeds are required. This is good news for housebuilders, with surveys showing that reliable broadband is a ‘must have’ for the majority of UK homebuyers, valued above highly-rated schools[1]. Significantly, new homes will be fibre-ready when their owners move in. New homeowners will also benefit from the widest-available choice of five independent service providers, offering an extensive range of broadband and phone packages. Discounted Sky TV packages are also available. This open-access fibre network is delivered as part of GTC’s multi-utility installation programme, ensuring that fibre is included in the live connection of all utilities prior to the new homeowner moving in. This multi-utility approach gives housebuilders a straightforward and reliable service for their utility requirements, simplifying the installation, co-ordination and management of networks via one provider. GTC’s track record as the trusted utility provider over many years and for many HBF members, is a further reassurance for housebuilders. Full details of the new HBF agreement and technical guides can be found on GTC’s website and on GTC’s customer portal, GTC Live. The offer incorporates unlimited free site assessments, dedicated site technical management and after-sales benefits which include product training, promotional marketing material and a complimentary sales-suite ultrafast broadband connection. Craig Ferrans, HBF technical director commented, ‘We are committed to working with service providers such that we can deliver the high-speed, future-proofed broadband that homeowners are looking for.’ Tom Brough, GTC’s Sales and Marketing Director said, ‘We are committed to offering HBF members, many of whom we have worked with for years, the best commercial terms that we can, combined with our market-leading FTTH product and the reliability of delivery for which GTC is known. With this new agreement, even more projects will be able to take advantage.’
London has seen a record number of requests to build new homes in 2017, analysis from the Fifty Thousand Homes campaign revealed today. Record number of planning applications gives London a shot at 50,000 homes target But challenge remains to convert applications into new front doors opening Fifty Thousand Homes campaign puts the ‘scores on the doors’ with detailed Ordnance Survey data Over 42,000 planning applications for housing have been submitted in the first six months of 2017, a 38% increase on the average rate since 2010 and the highest number of applications over this time1, giving London an opportunity to reverse decades of failing to build the number of homes the capital needs. But, with over one in three planning permissions falling by the wayside in 2016, London faces a huge challenge ahead to convert planning applications into new front doors opening. Jasmine Whitbread, Chief Executive of London First who launched the business-backed Fifty Thousand Homes campaign, said: “There is an appetite to build in London, but we need the Mayor, boroughs and developers to step up and make that ambition a reality. Nobody expects London’s housing crisis to be solved overnight, but 2017 is an opportunity for local authorities to grant more permissions than ever before and for record breaking levels of construction to begin. We must unlock the housebuilding hold ups that are forcing so many Londoners out of our capital.” The analysis, developed by Grant Thornton UK LLP who are part of the Fifty Thousand Homes campaign, found that London is currently building less than half the number of homes it needs, with construction over a full year peaking at 23,913 in 2015. But, with over 15,000 new homes already completed in 2017 and previous years seeing more homes completed in H2, London has an opportunity to deliver a bumper year for housebuilding, both in terms of permissions granted and new front doors opening. Central London appears to be building the overwhelming majority of properties, with boroughs in zones 1-3 building nearly 70% of all the capital’s new homes. But unless boroughs in zones 5 and 6 dramatically step up the pace, they will miss the housing targets for 2017 set out in the Mayor’s London Plan by over 50%. Ian Tasker, Director, Grant Thornton UK LLP, said: “We know there is a desperate need to boost housing supply across the capital and our analysis allows us to better understand the areas that hold the greatest opportunity but also the greatest challenge. “The uplift in the first half of 2017, in both applications and permissions, is encouraging but there is still more to be done. London’s status as a leading global city relies heavily on businesses being able to attract local and global talent and we need to find new ways of working collaboratively to tackle the ongoing housing pressures they face. We have the appetite, we now need to focus on how we convert this into homes.” London needs 50,000 homes a year to help keep up with its growing population. The Mayor has set out new planning rules to help speed up the building of more affordable housing and the government has committed £3.15bn to support new homes in the capital. Public land is also being identified that can be used to deliver new housing and the Mayor is already fast-tracking 75 sites, across 300 acres of TfL land, that could deliver up to 10,000 new homes for Londoners. But with net departures to places outside London totalling 93,000 in the year to mid-2016, up more than 80% from five years earlier2, there has to be a dramatic and sustainable increase in the number of homes being built to protect and enhance the capital’s competitiveness as a global city.
Scott, former bid director for the Group sales division at Capita, has a strong background in large-scale sales solutions. While at the five-billion-pound professional services organisation, Scott headed up the growth engine within Capita, and was responsible for securing new business contracts worth 50million pounds and above. Following a successful four years at Capita, Scott was headhunted by Servest, the leading integrated FM service provider, in a strategic move to upscale the business development and retention strategies, focussing on larger, complex opportunities. Scott, working closely with sales, operations and divisional managing directors will be involved in developing and implementing innovative solutions and streamlining processes, while enhancing Servest’s tailored offering to further meet and exceed client demand. “We are delighted to welcome Greg to the team,” said Andrew Sugars, Executive Director at Servest. “Greg’s arrival will enhance a more innovative, customer-centric and insight led approach. The experience that he brings to the team will no doubt be a contributing factor in our continued success.” Scott commented: “The opportunity presented to me by Servest was so compelling that I decided to make the jump. I’m excited about working with the teams to further develop how Servest goes to market and to introduce change that will help the growth and success of this organisation.” www.servest.co.uk
Skanska has been awarded a contract by the City of London Corporation to carry out mechanical and electrical maintenance and look after the fabric of the Corporation’s buildings. The contract begins in July 2017 and lasts for five years, with the option to renew for a further two years. The City Corporation is a unique public body, with a large and diverse portfolio of properties. Iconic infrastructure in the capital includes Mansion House, Tower Bridge, the Old Bailey, the Guildhall and the Barbican together with Smithfield and Spitalfields markets. The City Corporation’s estate spreads outside of London to include Epping Forest, Hampstead Heath, Tilbury Docks and Burnham Beeches. It has everything from schools and police stations to libraries and a large investment portfolio of commercial offices, retail and leisure. Pete Collinson, Operations Group Director at the City of London Corporation, said: “We’re pleased to appoint Skanska with the demanding task of delivering a quality maintenance service to our built environment and our heritage and green spaces. Providing continued maintenance and improvement to our property and facilities for the benefit of visitors and users is an ongoing priority.” Katy Dowding, Managing Director at Skanska, commented: “We are thrilled to have won this contract. We look forward to working with this prestigious new customer. We’ll be using lots of new ideas and innovations to deliver a first-class service.” www.skanska.co.uk
Specialist Surfacing has announced the completion of a contract that has seen the delivery of a new closed road circuit in Hull. The 1km circuit has been constructed to be used by cyclists in the area. The new track has cost £650,000 and can be found next to the Ennerdale Leisure Centre. The facility that has been created with the help of Specialist Surfacing is thought to be the only one of its kind in East Yorkshire. The new circuit will offer space for training to be used by experienced amateur road-racing cyclists as well as anyone wanting to try the sport out for the first time. The new all-weather track has been constructed on a site that has been used in the past for outdoor pitches, but was susceptible to flooding. The all-weather circuit now on the site next to the leisure centre features a number for loops and straights for cyclists to make the most of. PBS Construction has been appointed by the project funders, Hull City Council and British Cycling. The construction company then sought out Specialist Surfacing in order to carry out the bespoke surfacing work for the facility. The new cycle circuit required more than 2,500 tonnes of asphalt laid in three different layers, with the final width of the track put down in one run with the help of extension boxes on the paving machine. Carrying out the work in this way allows for a smooth surface without any joints. As with a number of road improvements that were made around Yorkshire in order to prepare for the opening stages of the Tour de France a few years ago, the surfaces for cyclists need to be precise, therefore when constructing the new Hull circuit, laser controls were used as well as tracers that followed piano wire in order to finish the job to the highest precision and specification possible.
The project consultancy company, Trivandi Chanzo has managed to increase their team working on the site of the 5th Asian Indoor Martial Arts Games for more than 700 members. As the event gets closer, the project consultants have increased the size of their team, with more than 300 staff with Games experience from 20 different countries have been mobilised to be involved with the preparation at Ashgabat over the course of the last year. The international experts have also been working recruit and train more than 400 national staff through the Ashgabat 2017 Games Academy in order to make sure that there is a human legacy of event professionals for Turkmenistan. Trivandi Chanzo Limited, the project consultancy company has been appointed as the Operator for the Games Planning and Delivery in June 2016. The combined international and national team working for Trivandi on this event is thought to be the largest ever outsourced solution used for a major event planning and operations. The 5th Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games will be help in the city of Ashgabat, in Turkmenistan. The event will take place in September and over 6,000 athletes and officials will take part in the events. The athletes will be travelling from 65 delegations in Asia and Oceania. The Martial Arts Games will consist of 351 medals events across 21 sports in 15 venues. In the past the project consultants have been involved with a number of high profile projects. Trivandi Chanzo, is a joint venture that was first founded by two of the former members of the London 2012 Organising Committee. Trivandi has been co-founded by former London 2012 Venues and Infrastructure Director, James Bully. Chanzo was founded by the HR and Workforce Director for London 2012, Jean Tomlin. Chanzo delivers the expertise in HR, Workforce, Volunteering and international recruitment that is required for major events such as the Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games.
The UK’s fledgling Build to Rent sector has been dealt a blow with the announcement that large investors will not be exempt from a new extra stamp duty surcharge that is introduced in a few weeks’ time. From 01 April there will be an extra 3% stamp duty payable on additional homes and it has been hoped that those investing in more than 15 properties would be exempt, and Chancellor George Osborne had indeed hinted at this. However, in his Budget announcement he confirmed that large scale investors in buy to let properties will pay the extra 3% which will apply equally to purchases by individuals and corporate investors. Melanie Leech, chief executive of the British Property Federation, said the move would hit the private rented sector. ‘The government’s decision to not include an exemption for investors who are purchasing large portfolios of properties for rent is extremely disappointing, and deals a huge blow to the build to rent sector,’ she pointed out. ‘This is going to be a significant deterrent to the institutional investment currently poised to settle in the purpose-built rented sector, which has the opportunity to deliver a significant number of new, quality affordable homes,’ she added. The failure to give relief from the additional stamp duty levy for large investors could inhibit the development of a much needed institutional private rented sector, according to Lucian Cook, Savills UK head of residential research. ‘While purchases of six or more residential properties can be treated as a non-residential transaction, the reform of stamp duty on commercial properties is likely mean greater entry costs for large scale residential investors one way or another. Our recent analysis suggests there will be demand for another one million private rented households in the next five years despite policies to boost home ownership,’ he explained. Investors could be put off, according to several experts, including Steve Sanham, development director at HUB. ‘A threshold on how many homes the stamp duty surcharge applies to is also crucial for institutional landlords and investors. The aim of delivering more homes will not be achieved if investors are put off from creating large developments of new homes to begin with,’ he said. Elizabeth Bradley, head of the corporate tax team at international law firm Berwin Leighton Paisner, also believes investors will be discouraged. ‘Much of the British property industry will be very disappointed with the Budget changes,’ she said. ‘The Chancellor has acknowledged the need to build more homes but the extension of the extra SDLT rate on buy to let to large investors will discourage investment in the private rented sector,’ she added. BOOKMARK THIS PAGE (What is this?) Source link
What do you do when one of your rockets explodes on the launch pad at Cape Canaveral, and when someone dies at the wheel of one of your company’s cars while it is set to self-driving mode? If your name is Elon Reeve Musk, you hardly miss a beat. Catastrophes that would derail lesser mortals seem to have barely registered with the South African-born technology entrepreneur, 45, who is head of electric car company Tesla Motors and private space company SpaceX, as well as chairman of solar power concern SolarCity. Mr Musk still resolutely claims that his driverless car technology is saving many more lives than it puts at risk. And this week he brushed aside the rocket setback to lay out his most improbable-sounding plan yet: putting humans on the surface of Mars by 2025. It is all in service of a higher purpose. To a man whose thought exercises can sound like science fiction, populating other planets is the only way to insure mankind’s future against the risk of an extinction-level disaster on earth. “To some extent we are life’s agents,” he mused when announcing the plan. “We can bring life as we know it and breathe life into Mars.” His self-appointed role as humanity’s saviour does not sit well with everyone. At a time of soaring Silicon Valley self-confidence, Mr Musk’s hubris looms as large as anyone’s. And the risks and long-term consequences of the technologies he is developing stir misgivings. “Elon Musk is a great visionary and a great inventor, and you have to admire his ambition and his moxie,” says Patrick Lin, philosophy professor and head of the emerging sciences group at California Polytechnic. “But it does seem he has a blind spot for ethical issues and their impact.” Putting humans on Mars, he adds, could spread our shortcomings through the solar system: “It sounds like we’re going to be exporting our problems to another rock.” The electric car and space travel entrepreneur is not the sort to be held back by such reservations. Like the late Steve Jobs, who was renowned for a “reality distortion field” that drew others into his vision of the possible, Mr Musk has a reputation for inspiring and driving his workers to achieve the improbable. “The key to Elon’s magic is he puts forward a very bold, clear objective,” says Peter Diamandis, a fellow space entrepreneur. “He has the wealth, if not to complete the project, then to get the ball rolling.” Will anything hold him back? “The only thing he checks is, is this constrained by the laws of physics?” says Mr Diamandis. “If it isn’t, he’ll do it.” It also helps to have a record that includes some of the most significant milestones in electric cars and private space flight, along with a personal fortune estimated at $12bn. Mr Musk is almost as famous for his complex personal life as for his wealth and ambition. His second wife, British actor Talulah Riley, this year filed for divorce for a second time, and he has five sons from his first marriage. He moved to Canada aged 18 and later took US citizenship. After two degrees, in physics and economics, he arrived in California in the mid-1990s to study for a PhD but dropped out within days to try the start-up world of the dotcom boom. Mr Musk soon hit it big as a founder of online payments company PayPal and his fortune from that company went into launching SpaceX in 2002, which has developed one of the main commercial launch systems. More recently, at Tesla, he has found other outlets for his techno-idealism. In pursuit of a post-carbon future, Mr Musk has opened the world’s biggest battery plant, to support the planned launch next year of what he hopes will be the first mass-market electric car. He is trying to merge SolarCity into Tesla to create the first alternative energy conglomerate, spanning solar panels with integrated electricity storage and the cars that consume the power. In all of this, Mr Musk has never hesitated to go against social and business convention. The SolarCity plan, for instance, has put him at odds with many on Wall Street, partly because investors are worried that the solar merger will distract him as he tries to overcome production glitches at Tesla. The grandiose goal for space will have detractors, concedes Mr Diamandis. “The populace will be critical about everything: why risk this in space when there are so many problems on earth to fix?” he says. But he argues Mr Musk will eventually win the backing he needs, if he is “very clear about the overwhelming value of this to humanity”. The car fatality raises another doubt. When Mr Musk released his driverless technology last year, others in the tech world were privately aghast: though not a fully autonomous system, it was still a riskier step than others have been prepared to take. In Mr Musk’s moral universe, however, bigger goals usually win, and they do not come bigger than hedging humanity’s future by putting down roots on Mars. In Lo and Behold, a film about technology by Werner Herzog, Mr Musk explains the thinking for his Mars mission and the director, caught up in the idea, offers to go, if necessary on a one-way ticket. The idea brings a considered pause. “I do think we’ll want to offer round trips,” Mr Musk says. “Because a lot more people would be willing to go if they think if they don’t like it, they can come back.” The writer is the FT’s San Francisco bureau chief. Additional reporting by Leslie Hook Source link