Connected Workplace Allows Dell Employee to Train for Commonwealth Games

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The Commonwealth Games is an international, multi-sport event involving 71 teams of athletes from the Commonwealth of Nations. The event was first held in 1930 and takes place every four years. Glasgow 2014 will be held from 23 July to 3 August. It will feature 17 sports in 11 days of competition with 250 medal events on show.

As the Official IT Hardware and Data Centre Supporter, Dell will be helping to power Glasgow 2014 with 1,500 desktops, 200 laptops and 60 servers and storage solutions, across 40 competition and noncompetition venues. In addition to our athlete ambassadors, one of Dell’s own interns, Stacey Francis, plays Goal Defence for England Netball. Below she shares how she balances work and training.

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Profile photo of Stacey FrancisThe end of 2013 was hectic to say the least. I competed in two test series against South Africa (one home/one away,) a tournament in New Zealand called Fast 5, and made a day trip to Sydney to represent England Netball at the announcement for the  2015 World Netball Cup. To top this off, England Netball where named The Sunday Times and Sky Sports Team of the Year!

As a part of my usual weekly schedule I train with my England Podium team mates in Bath from Sunday-Tuesday full-time. The rest of the week we have time set aside to work/study with our training commitments taking place at the top (6:30 a.m.) and tail (7:30 p.m.) of the day. As a member of the UK Dell Team I am able to balance my career aspirations alongside my heavy training load through our ‘Connected Workplace’ initiative.

On Wednesday, Thursday and Friday I am able to pretend, for a few hours at least, that I am a member of the working world. The flexibility of the scheme allows me to live near my training environment whilst managing my work load in a way that most jobs would not allow. More often than not the life of an international athlete involves travel. To be able to take my ‘office’ with me whilst I have been away so much in recent months has meant that I have been able to offer Dell the continuity that is required for any job, however, disappointingly it does mean I miss some press events and activities.

In netball we always talk about the ‘what ifs?’ and our most recent International Tri-Series was certainly one of those. Our second test was meant to take place at the Copper Box but due to an event prior to ours there was irreparable damage to the floor meaning we got moved to a closed International at Crystal Palace. The following day we were meant to play Jamaica again, however the morning of the test series they pulled out due to injuries. Although our preparations for 2014 have not started off as ideal as we would have liked in the build up to Glasgow, we will certainly be one of the best prepared teams there!

For more information, visit www.dell.co.uk/glasgow2014

Continue to follow my journey on Twitter: @StcyJyneFrancis and follow the conversation online: @thecgf, @delluk, @glasgow2014.

Here is a closer look in to how Dell is powering the IT for Glasgow 2014.

About the Author: Laura Pevehouse

Laura Pevehouse was profiled as one of five “social media mavens” in the March 2009 issue of Austin Woman Magazine and named an AdWeek’s TweetFreak Five to Follow. She has been part of the Dell organization for more than 15 years in various corporate communications, employee communications, public relations, community affairs, marketing, branding, social media and online communication roles. From 2014-2018, Laura was Chief Blogger/Editor-in-Chief for Direct2DellEMC and Direct2Dell, Dell’s official corporate blog that she help launch in 2007. She is now a member of the Dell Technologies Chairman Communications team. Earlier in her Dell career she focused on Global Commercial Channels and US Small and Medium Business public relations as part of the Global Communications team. Prior to that, she was responsible for global strategy in social media and community management, as well as marcom landing pages, as a member of Dell’s Global SMB Marketing, Brand and Creative team. When she was part of Dell’s Global Online group, Laura provided internal consulting that integrated online and social media opportunities with a focus on Corporate Communications and Investor Relations. She managed the home page of Dell.com, one of the top 500 global web sites in Alexa traffic rank, and first brought web feeds and podcasts to the ecommerce site. In her spare time she led Dell into the metaverse with the creation of Dell Island in the virtual world Second Life. Laura has earned the designation of Accredited Business Communicator from the International Association of Business Communicators, and received her Bachelor of Arts in Journalism from Louisiana State University. Before joining Dell Financial Services in 2000, she worked at the Texas Workforce Commission and PepsiCo Food Systems Worldwide.
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