Remember that old familiar sound of your dial up modem? The clicks, buzzes and whirs meant that you were minutes away from having world at your fingertips. It also meant that you needed the patience of a saint as you went from site to site and page to page. Today we can navigate through the Internet at lightning speed. Moving between apps, websites and cloud based software is as easy and as quick as turning a page in a book; that is until your Internet connection goes out.
This common problem can quickly put the brakes on productivity for your business. Before we address the problem of maintaining or repairing your connection and Wi-Fi, let’s take a closer look at all of the elements of your business that it impacts.
If you have a T1 line, you can’t even pick up the phone and do business the “old fashioned way”. Any cloud-based software you use won’t work and if you have employees working remotely, they won’t have access to the files and programs that they need.
It is also important to consider that connectivity issues can present themselves in more than just an Internet outage. Slow speeds and intermittent connections can be just as troublesome. So why does the Internet go out and how can you improve your Wi-Fi connectivity?
- Check your router settings.
- Check the router’s firmware.
- Check with your ISP (Internet Service Provider)
- Check your Internet protocol settings.
Usually one or even a combination of these actions can alleviate your web woes. It can also reduce the amount of money that gets wasted in lost productivity. These numbers will change for each individual business, but for this example let’s assume you have four employees that earn $60,000 annually (including benefits costs). In a 40 hour work week, the business spends $28.85 each hour on each employee. If Internet outages and downtime cost them four hours of productivity each month that equals $462 in lost pay time every month. But that is only one cost feature. If each of these employees is responsible for $150,000 in annual revenue, then each employee contributes $72.12 in each hour of productivity. If they suffer from the same four hour monthly outage as mentioned above, that equals $1,154 in lost revenue, every month. Combine this with the lost pay and your poor Internet performance costs $1,616 a month, or $19,392 annually. Even if your employees are only 70% dependent on your business’ IT infrastructure, this still equates to over $13,500 each year.
The math speaks for itself and in spite of simply being frustrating, Wi-Fi connectivity can be downright expensive. AtlasOne Technologies helps local Baton Rouge business owners manage their technology needs. Their expertise in cloud solutions, data backup and managed IT services can affordably keep your business performing.
