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Although you've no doubt heard of broadband, the benefits for business have yet to be well communicated in the UK. With recent pushes from BT, other broadband providers and the Government, the message is starting to filter through.
The most obvious benefits are:
- You should use broadband because it's always on. There's no waiting for connections or costly investments in multiple modems.
- It has a fixed price per month, so you can budget accordingly.
- It's relatively easy to install (depending on how many PCs require broadband access).
- It won't tie-up your phone line, so you can talk and surf.
- It's exceptionally fast - up to 40 times faster than dial-up - and you can choose the broadband option best suited to your business.
But there's more to broadband than just time and money savings and simple technology. There are many broadband factors that have been proven to deliver benefits to small and medium-sized companies. Let's start with your staff, employees and workmates.
Your staff are happy (1). At home. Telecommuting as an idea has been with us for some time. With broadband solutions for office and home it's only now becoming a reality. US surveys estimate that telecommuting has risen 17% (Entrepreneur mag) in just one year to 2002, and the major reason for this is broadband. Telecommuting offers employees greater flexibility, a better work/life balance and the ability to work as effectively from home as they do at work. For the employer the benefits include lower fixed costs in the workplace, improved efficiency and a more loyal workforce.
Your staff are happier (2). Wherever they are. Just because your staff are on the road doesn't mean they're invisible. Broadband offers the ability for remote working as users can connect to the internal network via a web interface from their laptop using a wireless connection. And due to the large-scale investment in broadband terminals, business centres and access points in Government buildings, it's easy for staff to work remotely from fixed locations using freely available terminals and PCs.
Your staff are happier (3) because they are communicating more effectively with you, your providers, suppliers, customers and each other. In a recent survey Entrepreneur mag , over 80% of broadband-enabled businesses claimed that it had improved their internal processes.
Investment in broadband for small businesses makes financial sense. Firstly, it doesn't require extensive investment in infrastructure so long as existing telephone lines are in place, and that the local exchange is broadband-enabled. The maintenance costs are negligible and the price is fixed per month so there are no nasty hidden costs.
Although all businesses may have different drivers for moving to broadband, it's clear that once they have done so, productivity rises. In a survey of 500 small businesses with broadband DSL, research firm The Yankee Group reports that 68% of respondents believe they have already seen a positive return on investment thanks to the use of broadband connections, while 56% say that DSL access is indispensable to their business Reuters
You become a big company. No, really. Once you have a broadband connection you are treated like a big company by many service companies. For many years software and services companies offering electronic solutions focused their sales efforts and products on larger companies with higher revenues than smaller firms. Now with broadband, small companies can use expensive and complex software and services for a fraction of their purchase price by effectively renting them over broadband connections. This market for third party applications and hosted software solutions is giving small businesses a level playing field with larger competitors and it's broadband that's helped make the difference.
There are a host of less obvious benefits including reduced training costs and increased training and learning opportunities for your staff online. But if you still require any convincing, the fact that
the Government wants you to convert to broadband and is providing resources to encourage the process should do it.
The UK Government is committed to broadband Britain. As part of its UK Online plan it is committed to developing a UK Broadband taskforce which is already supporting a broadband procurement policy for small businesses and the public sector.
The commitment to broadband is unwavering. A recent UK action plan from the E-envoy's office claimed that the UK would have the most extensive and competitive broadband market in G7 by 2005. Help is already available for small businesses. The DTI has £30 million available to fund regional development agency plans aimed at extending broadband networks to a wider range of customers. BT continues to make its exchanges ADSL friendly so that more businesses can connect via broadband, and UK Online and Business Link centres are now providing free advice on broadband connectivity, usage and applications.
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