The Importance of Adequate Bandwidth for Business Performance
A prudent businessperson knows the importance of saving money. You want to avoid spending unnecessarily if you can help it because it lends stability to your operation. As important as it is to be frugal, though, there are some areas where it pays to spend a little more — your Internet being one of them. The demand on your business’ bandwidth is rapidly increasing, and is only expected to grow. Failing to account for this can slow down your operations and cost you money.
Increasing Demands on Bandwidth
Depending on how long you have been in business, you may remember the days when you did not even need an Internet connection. Even once you did begin using emerging technologies, your bandwidth needs were probably not very intensive. Now, though, it is practically a necessity to be constantly connected and have the fastest speeds you can afford — and not just for watching cat videos.
The usage of online applications is skyrocketing, and for good reason. They provide a new level of reliability and accessibility never seen before. Services such as cloud backups, hosted storage like Google Drive or Dropbox and video conferencing are all becoming standard for businesses that want to leverage the best technologies out there.
The problem is, your old data package is probably not up to the challenge of this level of Internet usage. This becomes especially true when you consider that download speeds used to be the priority, with a very minor focus on upload speeds. Using cloud backups and Dropbox-type services quickly and effectively requires serious upload capabilities — something older data packages just do not have.
Money Now or Money Later
You want your employees and your business moving as quickly as it can while maintaining quality standards. If your Internet speed is not up to par, it makes efficiency impossible. This causes your entire system to bog down unnecessarily and will inevitably impact productivity. The increased cost of a more robust data package is worth it for any business that wants to stay competitive.
Homegrown Telecom: Business Internet MN
Near and far our toys and our cars are shipped and sold to us from out-of-State and out-of-Country. While this has been great for the consumer wishing to lower their overall spend, it isn’t great for the consumer who incurs problems and needs to get a hold of the manufacturer or have their issues solved in a timely fashion. Telecom, IT, and other technology facets, these days, seem to be no different; businesses big and small are working with carriers and vendors who are “housed” in another area.
Is this a problem?
Well, as these carriers grow and expand into uncharted territories, their appreciation and attentiveness for their clients depletes significantly. Calls being made by a client to their provider are being handled outside of the local sector and businesses are starting to experience extreme down-times as they wait for their connectivity issues and/or business needs to be handled – oftentimes incurring endless “on-hold” hours.
How can this be avoided?
Stay homegrown! Many businesses are beginning to turn back to their local providers and/or agents (such as business internet MN master-agent Integrated Communications) to handle their business’ services and voice and data needs. IT companies such as Velocity Tech Solutions are seeing the change and it’s becoming a huge factor for many local and multi-site businesses. Anne Tarantino of Velocity Tech Solutions (2013) notes, “Big businesses are competitive and are taking many local vendors out of the market; but, things are starting to shift back towards the use of local vendors as people realize the satisfaction, customer service, and timeliness with big businesses just isn’t there”.
If you are a business looking to ensure your needs are met and issues are being handled instantly, then you need to go homegrown. Integrated Communications has partnered with many local voice and data carriers, as well as phone and IT vendors to ensure your business has the proper resources just around the block. Call us at 763-443-7009 for questions regarding our homegrown style of business and the partners we love.
*Velocity Tech Solutions is a partner IT vendor of Integrated Communications – located out of Spring Lake Park, MN