Websites that take forever to load. Internet access that constantly drops off. Web applications that simply don’t respond. These connectivity issues are enough to make anyone want to scream into a blank screen and throw their keyboard out the window.
But the situation needn’t be so dire (nor the reaction so drastic). There’s a simple way many businesses can guarantee the sanity of their employees and the safety of their equipment. Simply: business-first connectivity.
Most of the big internet service providers (ISPs) tend to share their network load between consumer and business traffic. This means the performance of one network can be at the mercy of another. From a cost perspective, this makes it cheaper for everyone as it exploits an economy of scale. But from a service perspective, this means both parties are more prone to bandwidth throttling.
For consumers, this is mostly fine. A bit of buffering during a Netflix binge isn’t going to ruin an evening. However, for businesses, poor performance can directly impact the bottom line. Slow and unreliable internet impacts workers’ productivity. And as many small business owners know, it only takes a few minutes of downtime to result in revenue loss and customer service problems.
This is where business-only data services can help. The clue’s in the name: instead of sharing data traffic between consumer and business use, business-only lines are dedicated networks that prioritise business traffic. This means you benefit from reliably faster speeds, both for uploading and downloading, no matter what time of the day it is.
Greater reliability, less stress
Should the situation ever occur where everyone in the country happens to be streaming or downloading a programme at the same time, this will have no effect on your operations. Your employees can continue to surf the internet, use video conferencing software or share files via cloud applications like normal.
And it’s not just a better internet connection to look forward to. Dedicated business-grade data services can be used for all types of applications, be it data or voice traffic. Finding a provider that prioritises voice traffic on the network can ensure call quality and unlock the benefits IP based voice services can offer too – ensuring your workers and your customers stay happy.
As a small business owner, it’s likely you’re using a standard internet connection. But this is built with a small family or very small office in mind. Considering more work processes are being digitised and more applications are moving into the cloud, it’s likely that a standard consumer-grade network will be too limited for your needs. Make the switch to a business-first network today – and guarantee your infrastructure for tomorrow.
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