Businesses of all sizes depend on fast and reliable Internet access to be competitive in all industries today. Internet speed has a direct impact on productivity and bottom-line success. Traditional broadband cable or DSL service provides typical speeds between 10 and 30 Mbps (megabits per second). Fiber-based Internet service providers are able to provide speeds up to 1000 Mbps and beyond. Modern high-speed Internet access benefits business infrastructures, employee performance, and customer protection and satisfaction.
Here are 10 ways that a quality high-speed Internet connection improves business productivity.
1. Fast Internet Access Makes Employees More Productive
A substantial majority of employee positions involve daily Internet use. Many employees are more dependent on their Internet connection than they are on their phones in performing their daily tasks. Slow Internet speeds mean slow loading times for all applications that employees rely on to do their jobs. High-speed Internet also supports multi-tasking among several Internet applications at the same time.
Time that is wasted on delayed Internet research, customer service, email, chats, software-as-a-service (SaaS) applications all add up over the course of a day. Fast Internet allows employees to move quickly and seamlessly from task to task without losing steam and becoming distracted by downtime.
2. High-Speed Internet Access Reduces Costs
The initial added cost of high-speed Internet access is usually absorbed through the added efficiencies of established business processes. There are many other direct savings available with fast Internet speed.
High-speed Internet makes Voice over Internet Protocol (VOIP) telephone voice service an option that companies without fast speeds do not have. All companies rely on telephone service. Depending on the number of employees, phone numbers, and extensions a business uses, immediate savings over traditional landline phones can amount to thousands of dollars.
High-speed Internet access also supports moving or adding employees who are able to work remotely. In order to access company systems, remote workers rely on the quality of the business’s Internet access.
Fast and reliable Internet connections generally support scaling up cost-saving efficiencies throughout an organization and streamline processes while eliminating costly redundancies.
3. High-speed Internet Improves Cloud Access
Most current business applications require constant uploading and downloading that are associated with cloud access and remote data storage. Slow speeds significantly affect the performance of SaaS apps, customer relationship management (CRM) programs, and financial processing programs.
Lags in processing data through CRM programs cause customers to lose interest and confidence in a business’s ability to operate safely and efficiently. Slow load times involving any third-party user leads directly to dropped communications and losses due to inefficiency.
Poor Internet performance often acts as a complete barrier to businesses even entering into the market of cloud applications and opportunities. Virtually all new software products coming online currently are designed to rely on fast cloud access. High-speed Internet access is not only important to efficient use of software products, but it is also essential for accessing new products that can support business success.
4. High-Speed Internet Provides Consistent Broadband Efficiency Without Data Cap Losses
Traditional Internet Services lack the bandwidth capacity to handle video conferencing, VOIP services, large file transfers, and efficient use of cloud applications. As businesses struggle with low Internet speed to use necessary programs, data caps can also disastrously affect operations. Many Internet service providers supply a limited amount of their already limited-speed service.
When data caps are hit, a business often finds that many applications will no longer properly operate at all because of highly reduced speeds. High-Speed Internet service can provide consistent access to quality service without arbitrary cap limitations in addition to superior performance overall.
5. High-Speed Internet Supports Effective Collaboration
Remote working opportunities require fast Internet speeds. Remote employees and those who work while traveling and have high-speed access can share files, collaborate through sharing platforms, print documents remotely, and perform tasks as if they were physically present in the office. These remote efficiencies facilitate easier communication and sharing with clients, customers, and other partners.
High-speed Internet access also allows companies to invest in video conferencing and other teleconferencing products without sacrificing Internet performance for other essential company functions. Many businesses are enjoying the time and money savings associated with replacing in-person meetings with video conferencing when possible.
Collaborative platforms for marketing, sales, and training are also available when companies have sufficient bandwidth to support the many sharing and conferencing products available.
6. Reliable Service Supports Productivity
Any unexpected Internet outage can impose significant costs and losses on any business that relies on Internet access to get work done. High-speed Internet service, and especially fiber connectivity, uses hardware that is far superior to traditional cable and DSL connections. Weather conditions, electrical interference, and physical breakdowns are less likely to interfere with a high-speed provider’s service.
Increased bandwidth also prevents losses through slow load times or lost connections for customers. If a business’s pages load slowly or crash, customers lose confidence quickly and move along to a competitor’s site. The reliable performance also promotes customer loyalty and encourages repeat business.
7. Greater Security
High-speed Internet service is more physically resistant to hacking and other illegal access than traditional Internet service. Security breaches present a substantial risk to businesses in many ways and are always expensive to remediate. Prevention is the best cure for the risk of loss of customer information or any sensitive material. Agility is critical to any disaster response, and agility is entirely dependent on speed.
Most companies today use offsite resources to back up data for safety and disaster preparation. The amount of data that most businesses need to back up efficiently is continuously increasing. Slow Internet connections make effective backups difficult during working hours. Even overnight backups are often compromised because of slow connections.
8. Consistent Signal Strength
Traditional Internet service suffers signal loss as user interfaces are located further away from the service router. Companies with large campuses and buildings benefit from the consistent signal provided by modern high-speed Internet. Ethernet signal strength generally exceeds even the best WiFi signal and provides a more secure connection. High-speed Internet provides a more resilient and strong signal that helps avoid downtime, poor operation and lost productivity.
9. Symmetric Speed Provides More Effective Service
Traditional Internet service normally produces higher download speeds than upload speeds, although both are inferior to high-speed service. The organizational staff enjoys higher productivity with more equalized speeds in addition to the overall higher speed for both downloads and uploads.
Modern companies are more likely to rely on multiple applications that upload and download data simultaneously such as VOIP calls, video conferencing, and large data transfers. High-speed data connections provide smooth and efficient use of applications that require substantial uploads while maintaining simultaneous downloads.
10. High-speed Internet Reduces Losses From Latency
Latency refers to service delays that happen while data is being processed through an Internet connection. Traditional Internet service can suffer from latency issues, and especially while handling high-bandwidth material like VOIP calls and video data. High-speed Internet promotes greater productivity through improved VOIP quality, uninterrupted large data transfers, and more efficient use of cloud-based applications.
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