New research suggests that the majority of British businesses are not prepared for the "Olympic upheaval", reports The Chartered Institute for IT.

With the Games only months away, print solutions provider Lexmark has found that the majority of small and medium-sized businesses had not got a flexible or remote working policy in place, to enable employees to continue to do their jobs uninterrupted, despite the predicted disruption to transport and travel arrangements.

2,000 employees were asked about the provisions made by their employer for the Olympics, specifically what, if any, IT infrastructure had been put into place to allow remote or flexible working opportunities.

29 per cent of respondents said their employers had invested up to £10,000 to accommodate flexible working and one in five said their company had plans to introduce a policy prior to the Games.

However, according to Fresh Business Thinking, a "shocking" three quarters of businesses have confessed to having no system in place, such as remote access servers or cloud computing.

Commenting on the survey results, Lexmark UK and Ireland's country general manager, Gary Bourland said: "It is quite remarkable that with less than nine months to go until the Olympics, so many organisations have still not finalised a flexible working programme and the required IT infrastructure to support this.

"Having the correct IT systems in place," he added, "will help businesses boost output and cut costs associated with delayed meetings and absenteeism due to travel disruptions and time off to see these events."