Business Internet communications are where the rubber meets the road for many companies. When an Internet connection is lost, suddenly emails aren’t collected, chat conversations abruptly end, and for seconds, minutes, or hours, the company seemingly disappears.
Even if the website is hosted elsewhere, the work of many employees will grind to a halt, and customers will be inconvenienced. Here are four factors to consider when thinking about Internet communications for business.
Faster business Internet access can improve productivity
Slow Internet can be the bugbear of employees trying to video call a potential client, complete a 4K Livestream, send a batch of promotional emails from the company’s server, or download large media files. When sharing files between colleagues at different locations or trying to collaborate online with multiple users editing a single file in real-time, e.g., Google Sheets, one user having a slower Internet can cause editing conflicts. Faster Internet is important to get more done in less time. But it also prevents employees from experiencing additional hassles due to their bottleneck. To learn more, this is why high-speed internet makes your business better.
Remote worker access
Companies are now seeing employees either work entirely at home, a few days per week, or going in for the occasional day to attend a meeting. Because of this, business communications now extend to residential areas too. Internet communication is a factor for remote workers who struggle to get work completed when hampered by residential Internet speeds.
Furthermore, the less their employer is properly set up for remote workers, the greater struggle they will have. Whether uploading a video presentation to the company’s server or keeping in touch with colleagues, Internet speeds either make that easier or harder. Stalled upload activities necessitating repeated attempts cost remote workers time that is better spent elsewhere.
4G and 5G on the move
Employees and remote workers will also be out and about. They may be running personal errands, enjoy a flexible schedule, or just like to stay contactable. Either way, reliable 4G and 5G cellular communications are vital to enable this. However, even with good upload and download speeds on cellular connections, employees are let down when companies are not set up for mobile use.
Also interesting: How 5G Adoption Will Improve Hyperconnectivity in Smart Cities
For instance, when using a company’s internal app, it must not time out during activities just because the user’s Internet access dropped temporarily down to 3G speeds. Ultimately, all communication requirements must be tested for cellular networks at varying speeds. High speeds can only be assured at the office; testing must reflect that reality.
Maximum security as a standard
Strong security is required to keep company information protected. Security implementations can falter and subsequently fail when Internet communications are interrupted for a few seconds or slow to a crawl. Looping security validation processes caused by a user timing out and needing to log in again is unacceptable. All security measures must still be operable at different Internet speeds. This avoids employees being locked out because they’re in a poor coverage area.
Business Internet communications need to be fully functional across different locations, work situations, and throughput speeds. Conditions vary and are less predictable now, so the speed must be made to not always be a significant factor for productivity or access. If you’re wondering how business Internet access is different from normal residential Internet access you can check out the video below.
YouTube: Business Internet vs Home Internet: What’s the Difference?
Photo credit: The feature image has been done by Catherine Costa. The photo in the body of the article was shot by FLY:D.
Source: Integrated Communications / Quora / Babu Jackson, Sabine Neschke (Bipartisan Policy Center)
