Is your business connectivity earning its keep?
Having made some big investments to onboard new technologies in recent years, businesses are increasingly focussed on making sure they’re getting a return on their tech spending.
This focus is being fuelled in part by an uncertain economic outlook, as well as higher finance costs thanks to interest rate increases.
According to CPA Australia’s Business Technology Report 2022[1], “financial costs and low return on investment (ROI)” were the most significant barriers to technology adoption cited in its survey of businesses across Australia, New Zealand and Asia, with concerns about cost and ROI even more pronounced among smaller businesses.????
So how can businesses make sure their technology dollars are working hard and delivering real returns?
Connections built for business
Connectivity shouldn’t be a bottleneck that holds everything else back. It should be the enabler that drives everything forward.
I’ve previously written about businesses choosing networks that match their needs[2]. But as with the rest of their technology, organisations need to know that their investments in connectivity are also delivering real returns. Just as importantly, connectivity should be helping them extract the full value of the other systems in their tech stack.
Connectivity shouldn’t be a bottleneck that holds everything else back. It should be the enabler that drives everything forward.
Unlocking value with connectivity
Purpose-built business internet connections can offer several key ways to help make organisations more productive, efficient and effective, and deliver real business benefits.
Some of the most important include:
Productivity: Fast internet speeds mean faster data transfers, better video conferencing, and more efficient online collaboration. This is particularly important because the growth in cloud computing means more business data and applications are accessed via the internet.
Fast connections also help employees operate more effectively – helping avoid any frustration we’ve felt when we know our systems aren’t operating as they should because the connection is too slow.
Flexibility and ability to scale: Business-grade connections allow operations to scale more easily by accessing additional cloud-based resources.
For example, it might mean a business can have capacity to quickly scale up to meet seasonal and promotion-driven demand spikes, without the cost of keeping that capacity available all the time.
Thanks to cloud and software-as-a-service (SaaS), many smaller businesses can tap into the kind of scale and capability that 10 to 15 years ago was only available to much bigger organisations.
All of which helps give you the responsiveness and ability to move on new opportunities quickly, which is becoming even more critical in the digital age.
Better customer experience: Connectivity can lift customer experiences, particularly in sectors like retail and hospitality that rely heavily on digital interactions.
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Fast and reliable internet connections can transform customer journeys – speeding up online checkouts and enabling the hybrid experiences that bring digital and in-person together, building loyalty and brand value.
Iconic travel brand YHA Australia, for example, completely revamped its customer offer around the promise of better connectivity for guests.
Reliability and service: Business-grade internet can offer enhanced service and support options to help organisations get connected and up and running faster, cutting the time it takes for returns on investment to start flowing.*
Service reliability and fast restoration after unplanned outages are also key, because unplanned downtime can quickly eat away at returns. Atlassian, for example, says downtime can cost small businesses up to $US427 ($A630) per minute[2]. ?
nbn recently upgraded business Services to help deliver greater peace of mind around flexible appointment? times.
Fast business-grade connections also make it easier to leverage cloud-based back-up and redundancy services that make recovery from disasters simpler and faster.
An eye on the future
From where we sit today, automation and artificial intelligence will play an increasingly important role in business in the future.
The computing power needed to run these kinds of systems will be accessed via the cloud, making connections even more important as businesses continue to develop and evolve.
At business nbn, we’re providing solutions that are designed to meet the evolving connectivity needs of today’s businesses with the reassurance of business grade nbn Services.
By choosing business nbn, businesses can help themselves get better returns on their technology spending today, as well as position for growth and success in an increasingly technology-led economy.^
*Your experience, including speeds on the nbn network, depends on the?nbn access network technology and configuration over which services are delivered to your premises, whether you are using the internet during the busy period, and some factors outside?nbn’s control (like your equipment quality, software, broadband plan, signal reception and how your service provider designs its network). For business?nbn Enterprise Ethernet, if your provider has not selected Class of Service – High, the speeds you experience may be affected by contention on the?nbn network, particularly in busy periods.
^business nbn?Enterprise Ethernet is only available in the nbn?Fixed Line network footprint and at limited premises served by the nbn?Fixed Wireless and Satellite networks.
business nbn FTTP is not available on the nbn Fixed Wireless network. Not all providers offer plans based on the full range of wholesale business nbn products, product features and services. Availability of wholesale business nbn products, product features and services depends on your access technology and area. Ask your preferred provider if they offer plans based on these wholesale business nbn products, product features and services in your area.
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