Marketing of broadband in the UK has tended to focus on its superior speed and ‘always on’ availability. Whilst these two factors are inarguably important, it does paint a rather narrow picture of what you can do with a high-speed broadband internet connection.
In this section, we take a look at how businesses of all sizes can benefit from broadband by becoming more productive, efficient and cost-cutting.
Email
Instead of dialling-in, hoping not to get an engaged signal and waiting for your computer to shake hands with a burly door bouncer authentication server, broadband lets you check your inbox in a flash. In fact, it’s so fast popping your email inbox that when you’re new to broadband you’re not sure if anything has actually happened. What used to take minutes now takes seconds. And that includes downloading email with attachments.
It stands to reason, then, that even something as simple as being able to check email regularly and swiftly will turbo-boost your business. For the early bird catches the worm. A customer who receives a fast reply to their email is infinitely more likely to place an order as the rapid response shows that your company is efficient and takes customer service and communications seriously.
Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP)
As you will already appreciate, being able to be online without going incommunicado to phone callers is a real boon. It can also usually mean cutting back on the number of landlines you need. But phone savings need not be confined to line rental. It’s possible to go even further and make substantial cost cuts in call charges as well.
By routing voice calls over the internet by broadband, companies and consumers are making free and low cost phone calls to landlines and mobiles all over the world. All you need is a microphone headset or VoIP handset.
One of the best known free internet call companies is Skype. Their free software download enables users to place free phone calls to other Skype users anywhere in the world. To make Skype calls to landlines or mobile numbers, users purchase low cost call credits online. At the time of writing, international calls to 46 countries were being charged at 1.1p per minute.
Supposing your company had offices in Inverness, Wick and Lerwick, it would be perfectly feasible for staff to make free internal calls. For a relatively modest outlay on headsets or VoIP handsets, the savings in inter-office phone calls would soon mount up to a tidy sum.
To accelerate uptake of VoIP, the latest generation of handsets are dual function, switching effortlessly between voice calls over the internet and landline calls.
Data back ups
The loss of business-critical data is a constant worry for companies. Estimates put it at 90 per cent the number of companies that go out of business within two years of a catastrophic data loss.
While the majority of businesses now take steps to back up data every night, there still remain chinks in the armour. Most back up solutions rely on a degree of human intervention to initiate the process, which is, even with the best will in the world, not 100 per cent foolproof.
Furthermore, once backed up where is the data stored? Nine times out of ten, it is on-site and still at risk in the event of fire, flood or theft.
A much cleaner and altogether safer option is automatic data back ups to a remote server sitting in an off-site data centre. These data centres are purpose-built high-security facilities containing powerful storage computers to which clients’ data is uploaded via a secure internet link.
At the end of the day, or at set periods, automatic back up software kicks in, creates the secure link to the data centre and sends a copy of all the data away for storage. The data centre could be thought of as an external hard disk, only much, much further away than the next desk.
As peaces of mind go in business, the automatic data back up by broadband looks hard to beat.
Web site updating
Over the last few years, there has been a distinct shift away from developers to web site owners carrying out site updates. Much of this was driven by frustration at not being able to do simple updates in-house and having to rely on an external contractor. As well as cost implications, patience was also a virtue while web site owners waited for the developer to fit in an update around their already busy schedule.
Various content management systems emerged but these were either too limited in scope or too ponderous to work over a dial up connection. With the advent of broadband that has now all changed, releasing control and management of web site content into the hands of owners. Broadband has at last made it practical and time-efficient for web site owners to edit and create web pages as easily as working in MS Office or any other text editing software. What has changed isn’t the ease of use or functionality of the content management system, but the speed with which site updating can be accomplished. Without the world wide wait of dial up, refreshing a web page with your latest news or product offering is as quick as sending an email.
E-learning
Staff, we are frequently told, are a company’s best asset. To keep that adage meaningful training is a necessary if expensive on-going process.
Broadband is now making in-roads into the learning market too, its bandwidth speed bringing online training alive with multi-media presentations that until now would have been impractical to deliver. With many tailor-made or off-the-shelf training packages to choose from, reducing training costs is no longer a pipe dream.
Instead of sending staff away on a course, with the associated expense that entails, the course comes to the company via any broadband-enabled computer. Training can now be arranged to suit the business at a time and location of their choosing.
Video conferencing
How much time is wasted sitting in trains, planes and traffic jams while on company business? More than you probably would wish to calculate.
Add this loss of productivity to the expense of business travel and the answer will most likely make most companies wince.
Unless there is a compelling reason for physically being in the same room as the person you’re meeting, video conferencing is both a time saver and a cost saver. Sure, there are times when you need to be present to sign an important document or a new client wishes to see you face-to-face. But, as often as not, a business meeting is with someone you’ve known for ages and met a million times before. So why not do you both a favour and set up a video conference?
Thanks to broadband technology, the sound and vision of an encrypted video conference link is now near broadcast quality. The VC, as they say, is now A1, and has come on in leaps and bounds from the days of jerky movement and time-lagged sound. Once the meeting gets underway, you today quickly forget you’re talking to a TV screen and concentrate on the issues at hand without the stress of travel and timetables.
Business centres and public sector organisations usually hire out their video conferencing facilities, which is useful if you wish to try out the technology before investing or have an infrequent need for meetings involving more than two people. For routine one to one meetings there are many software packages available that work well with a standard digital camera on web cam mode. The latest version of Skype and MSN Messenger enable video conferencing between two people, and it won’t be long before video phone handsets become much more mainstream too. Another option is web-based applications, such as Netviewer, which are aimed at enterprises and offer better levels of security.
Remote working
Being out of the office can, if you wish, disappear from view. Whether you wish to work from home, employ remote workers or are a road warrior who needs to be in the loop, broadband opens up a host of possibilities.
Applications like PCAnywhere and GotomyPC enable users to access securely their desktop machine from any broadband-enabled computer anywhere in the world. For single users who need to see the contents of their office computer when out on the road, this type of software is far safer and less troublesome than lugging a laptop around.
For bigger organisations that require outside workers to have access to company networks there is a whole spectrum of different solutions available. These differ on cost and scale, but ultimately allow highly secure external logins to company computer systems from the internet.
At the other end of the scale, the speed of broadband simply makes working at home an option when file transfers are in seconds rather than minutes and email is almost in real time.
Being able to keep in touch with the office and get access to vital business information wherever you happen to be is a crucial advantage in today’s competitive business environment. Never has the phrase "knowledge is power" been more apt.