No matter what type of business you are running, staying connected and using a reliable internet network is a must. If you are having problems with your current internet connection, you should seriously consider upgrading to a better option, one that will provide you with maximal stability.
Let’s take a look at a couple of reasons why bad internet speed can impede or even ruin your business.
Less productivity
The first thing that gets hit by slow internet speed is the overall business productivity. The majority of tasks within a business environment are now finished over the internet. No matter what company you are working for, your team certainly relies on a cloud solution that helps you more easily collaborate.
Slow internet means that you are going to struggle with upload and download times. Owing to the fact that all of the documentation is online, chances are that you are going to lose hours with the usual daily tasks, as syncing with the cloud will take more time.
The overall result? Drastically reduced productivity, as your team has to wait for the documentation to upload in order to continue working on the next task. Things get even more complicated if you are working with a remote employee over an unstable internet connection. Simple tasks that can take minutes unnecessarily turn into hours of work.
Missing deadlines
From the moment your business starts working with other clients, you will need to make promises that you will deliver your product or your service in a particular time frame. Meeting deadlines and respecting what you have promised is a powerful foundation for building a respectable, trustworthy and professional business. Building this reputation takes a lot of time, but if you are working with inadequate speed, you will start missing those deadlines.
This is why here at Summit Internet, we provide our clients with reliable and high speed internet solutions. To make sure that you are going to save as much time as possible, it is best to rely on internet connectivity that can deliver high bandwidth for your whole company.
With a bad internet connection, you are going to start missing your deadlines sooner or later, making your whole business untrustable. This will cause an increasing number of clients to get away from your company, and finding new ones will become much more challenging. In order to avoid this scenario from happening, it is best to rely on a high speed internet network that will help you easily transfer business data and also save time for your business.
Getting more done for the same amount of time is a principle that all companies try to respect, and a high speed internet network is one of the best ways to succeed.
Direct loss of revenue
There are specific cases in which having a reliable and fast internet connection are crucial for business growth. Many online stores choose to host their websites on a service provider server, but in order to have all of the control, sooner or later, this system needs to be transferred in-house. Simply take a look at Amazon, an online store that is one of the best server space providers globally.
These are the moments when it is absolutely necessary that you have a flawless internet connection, as having your website down for only a minute can cause thousands, if not millions lost in revenue, depending on the size of your business.
This is something that a business cannot afford, because not only does it lose sales, but the customers are also more likely to head over to the competition and continue doing business with them. Therefore, besides facing a direct financial loss, you are more likely to lose your customers as well.
Slow business growth
Gone are the times when creating a single business and running it was enough. In order to stay competitive in the market today, it is necessary to create a strategy that will allow you to grow every year and squeeze out your competition. The last thing you want to happen is a big business popping up in your town offering more competitive prices, simply because they scaled at the right time.
This whole process of business growth can be significantly slowed down by a slow internet connection. As already mentioned, the negative impact on team productivity, meeting deadlines and keeping customers is going to impact not only your growth rate, but also limit your potential for any growth at all.
Communication issues
Video conferencing can be used to effectively lower the expenses a business has. But, with an inadequate internet speed, this type of communication turns into a challenge and a waste of time.
Another part of communication revolves around customer support. Having a good internet connection allows you to flawlessly communicate with your customers, as you are able to immediately respond to their requests.
This is one of the business tasks where you really don’t want to be late, as other businesses will try to outperform you, making it easier for the customer to give their trust to someone else. Therefore, if you want your customer service to be able to respond to numerous challenges, having a high speed internet connection will help greatly.
All this shows how important a role a fast and reliable internet connection plays in all types of businesses. It is a foundation that enables company teams to remain relaxed, productive and efficient. Having a slow internet connection will directly affect the mood in your company, as employees are going to be nervous during their work hours, which is also going to impede their productivity.
Therefore, make sure that you are going to use a high speed internet connection from the moment you start your business. It will create a pleasant work environment in which employees are going to stay focused on doing the best work they can.
In business these days it’s necessary to have a reliable internet connection. Your business and its internet connection are complementary. The kind of internet connection you need depends on what kind of business you have.
It goes without saying that if you’re a one man band who does minimal online work a Fibre service of 100Mbps would be overkill. Conversely, running an online film editing company on a 4G service would be equally preposterous.
So what is the best kind of internet connection for your business?
ADSL2+ & NBN
Whilst ADSL & NBN are cost effective it can actually end up costing you a lot more than you bargained for in lost productivity and downtime.
Both of these services are deemed “consumer” and don’t carry the same level of service assurance that true business ethernet and fibre services come with.
What do we mean by service assurance?
Service Assurance relates to how quickly your service runs, how quickly will the provider respond in the event of a problem, how quickly will a problem be fixed and if you will receive a rebate if your service isn’t running properly or is down.
Will I get the full speed on ADSL and NBN?
Both ADSL and NBN are speeds “up to” services. This means that whilst you may order a 25/5Mbps NBN service, it may only perform at 18/3Mbps. Similarly, ADSL theoretical maximum is 24/1Mbps, but rarely performs at full speed. This is due to a number of factors, mainly, the underlying technology of the copper network, distance from the exchange or node and network contention ratios.
If you run a small team or a business where an “always on” internet connection isn’t important, then an ADSL or NBN service may be suitable for your business.
If the internet is super important to your business operations, a Fibre or Ethernet Internet service is more suitable.
Ethernet and Fibre Internet
This is the most common type of connection that we provide at Summit. Fibre and ethernet internet services scale from small businesses all the way up to large enterprises. If you use cloud services like Office 365 and Google Apps, have multiple offices with a VPN, do a lot of video conferencing, need a dedicated internet service to upload or store files on cloud-based storage services or just need guaranteed speeds, then Fibre is the service for you.
Ethernet and Fibre services also have “symmetrical” speeds, meaning they have the same download and upload rates. The other reason businesses choose Ethernet and Fibre services is that they aren’t “best effort.” They’re guaranteed to be stable at the given speed, so if you’re on the 100/100Mbps plan, then that is what you get – 100Mbps download and 100Mbps upload.
Business Fibre and Ethernet services also carry Business Service Level Agreements which guarantee performance, uptime and fault restoration. In the unlikely event of an issue, you may be eligible for a percentage of your monthly fee as a service level credit.
Fixed Wireless
Fixed Wireless is a service which uses microwave point-to-point wireless connections from the supplier tower or basestation to your premises. Some businesses, especially in remote areas, cannot always get a dedicated fibre service. In this instance, Fixed Wireless is a good solution because it is also a symmetrical service that allows you be on the same upload and download with no issues. Fixed Wireless is also a good option as a failover service as it can serve as a good backup to keep your business running smoothly if you have complications with your wired service.
Telstra 4G Mobile Broadband Data
Telstra 4G Mobile Broadband is great for businesses that are on the go or have staff that need network access when offsite. However, the service transmits through the Telstra 4G mobile towers, so there can be complications when users are not in mobile range. Most connections these days run through 4G technology that sometimes gets even better speeds than fixed services. This type of connection is useful for pop up shops, very small businesses who need a very small amount of data or as a contingency plan.
As you can see, there are benefits and drawbacks to each type of data service. If your business doesn’t rely heavily on the internet, a 100Mbps Ethernet connection would be of little use, while a slower connection would be a problem if you do a lot of teleconferencing. Determining why you need your data connection will help steer you in the right direction when it comes time to choose which type to go with.
More and more companies are moving to the cloud. With business applications being online and more accessible, how are you ensuring that your business is always online to avoid costly downtime?
Thinking about your business, what online applications are you using?
Accounting – Xero, Quickbooks, MYOB and Microsoft Dynamics
Email & Collaboration – Microsoft Office 365, Google Apps for Work, Skype for Business, Google Hangouts
Online Meetings – GoToMeeting, Webex, Zoom and Skype for Business
ERP – Pronto, Microsoft Dynamics, Netsuite, SAP Business One, Sage and MYOB EXO
How are you protecting your business connectivity from downtime? Many businesses I speak to have not thought about their connectivity to their core business systems. The cost of not having good connectivity for both a primary and backup could cost your business tens of thousands of dollars.
Having a 4G Internet Failover greatly reduces the impact on a business in the event of a primary failure and is a cost-effective way to maintain connectivity in the event of a failure.
If you’d like to get serious about your Business Internet Service then the Team at Summit Internet would love to help you design and deploy a fast and reliable data solution for your business.
As part of our ongoing commitment to our Customers, Resellers and Wholesale Partners, Summit has successfully completed the addition of a new Point of Presence at NextDC’s B1 Datacentre.
Using the latest in Cisco Routing and Extreme Networks Switching, we have capacity for over 100Gbps of network capacity in Queensland.
The addition of Brisbane takes Summit Internet to a total of 5 Datacentres on the East Coast of Australia. Two Melbourne Datacentres, NextDC M1 & Equinix ME1, and two Sydney Datacentres, NextDC S1 & Equinix SY3.
Queensland is a market which we are committed to servicing with our world-class MPLS network providing high-speed Fibre Internet, Secure Private Data Networks, Voice over IP and IP Transit.
Summit connects to all major carriers in Queensland including Telstra Wholesale, AAPT, TPG, Pipe Networks and Vocus as well as local carrier, Nexium, which gives us reach to services in Far North Queensland via the Nexium Fibre and Fixed Wireless network.
