Good news for Lumison customers wanting to maximise the productivity of their mobile workers. The new iPass client software for users of Windows 7 is now available, meaning that the management of remote and mobile devices (and their connectivity) is now a great deal easier. Getting access to the web, working documents and all your emails – securely – from anywhere in the world is what remote working is all about.

The award-winning iPassConnect interface offers mobile users a unified and consistent login experience for PCs, Macs and PDAs across multiple connection technologies and locations.

If you are interested in finding out more about upgrading to the new version for Windows 7 or if you're wondering how remote working can work for your business, have a look at our site or call us on 0845 1199 911 for a conversation about your communication needs.

One of the things we are proudest of at Lumison are the efforts we go to in order to ensure we deliver the service and the speeds our customers pay for. Because make no mistake, in the world of internet service providers not all services are created equal.

Many businesses and consumers who pay a hefty price for speeds of 4Mb, 8Mb or 10Mb, for example, are often receiving far less than the advertised speed.

Where else would we accept that? If you only got two thirds of a pint at the bar you'd certainly request your glass be filled. The problem with internet speeds of course is that many people don't know what they are looking for, or don't know what to compare their service with in order to ascertain whether they are getting the advertised speed.

A good starting point though - and the source of much of the underperformance - is to find out whether the service is EFM or bonded DSL - ask your friends to check with their provider which they are getting. The former is fundamentally better than the latter, yet many providers offer the latter because it is cheaper and easier to set up.

Customers suffer however and are being kept in the dark.

At Lumison we have an EFM (Ethernet First Mile) product delivering true 5Mb and 10Mb. Bonded DSL however may simply pull together two 2Mb lines and call it a 4Mb service. But not only can the user not have a single data stream over 2Mb with this approach there is also likely some degradation from the point that they tap into the local loop, piggy-backing on BT's service.

It's a complicated discussion but an important one because some businesses in our industry have been set up in such a way that they will never be able to deliver the speeds they advertise to customers. We think that's wrong.

Chris has been with Lumison for several years and we're delighted to welcome him to the board of directors – here's a little bit about him:

Describe yourself in just three words
Friendly, loyal, approachable.

What's the best piece of advice you've been given?
Your children only grow up once, don’t miss it.

What is your biggest claim to fame?
I have a ball used by the Scotland team in the 1978 world cup; unfortunately, not the one Archie Gemmill scored “that” goal with!

Whom do you most admire?
Anyone who did not take the easy route but did what was correct.
If you could be anyone for the day, who would it be?
Lance Armstrong on the Tour de France stage that finishes at the top of Col du Tourmalet. An epic battle to get there, but what a feeling at the top!

Do you have an interesting fact about yourself you would like to share?
I ran for Scotland when I was younger.

What do you enjoy doing when you're not working?
Spending time with my family and spending time on my bike, cycling up and down hills.

What would your epitaph be?
Here lies Chris Shields, he died a happy and content old man.

With a General Election in the UK approaching there is a focus on policy nuances and what a change of government may mean. But there is also a lot going on with current legislation underway which will affect our industry - perhaps most notably the Carbon Reduction Commitment.

For this, Lumison is in very good shape, with enough energy-efficient optimisation already in place within our datacenters to make this a far from onerous piece of regulation. In fact, we welcome it because we, as any responsible business, believe it is up to all of us to mitigate growing energy use and its potentially harmful effects. We are also delighted to be able to help all of our customers through the process of reducing energy consumption – whether to save the planet or their utility bills.

We do however believe the UK can’t be an island of responsibility on this issue: any legislation of this nature needs to be Europe wide, launched simultaneously with the same levels of enforcement and education. We hope this can be realised. What we cannot risk is the UK stepping up and meeting all of its responsibilities, but resulting in business seeing opportunities elsewhere in Europe to bury bad carbon debts. It is the same with taxes, we want to encourage businesses to come and spend money in the UK but we will not achieve that if we are a comparatively far harder to place to do business.