Author: Kerry Fawcett, Digital Director at Radius Payment Solutions
Does your business have a broadband supply that is speedy, cost effective, and most importantly, reliable? If not, now is the time to put that right. Online is king in this day and age, and no matter the size of your company, a good business broadband supply is vital to allowing staff to work as they need to. Here are some tips to find your organisation a business broadband package that fits it like a glove.
- You need to choose the right business broadband package
There are a number of reasons why your business might need a business broadband deal. Such reasons can include email which helps you stay in touch with customers and suppliers, social media access so that you can communicate with your customers and provide support, research and web browsing that your employees may need to do as part of their jobs, and general marketing tools which are nowadays more often than not web-based and require an Internet connection.
Also, let’s not forget that the people who want your products and services are online too—they use the Internet and search engines to find what they need. If this is your product or service and you do not have an online presence, their business will go to your competition.
That said, the decision on which broadband package to opt for is far more complex than simply choosing the deal with the fastest speed, or the cheapest price. Depending on the business, things to account for include data management, other services like email, and backup options.
With any package, however, it is important to look closely at the services being offered and whether they match up with what you are looking for. Also, check to make sure that they are built with business use in mind and have not been designed solely for consumer-grade activity.
To ensure your business chooses the right broadband package for its needs, make sure that you account for these three things. By doing so, you end up in a much better position to begin comparing options:
- Before choosing a broadband package, be sure to look at and understand how your business uses the data it is creating and storing. This will ensure that your broadband package can handle the data loads your business produces.
- Make sure to read and study service level agreements (SLAs). Every single half-decent business broadband package will have one of these—if they don’t, avoid the supplier—and looking closely at the clauses helps you avoid nasty surprises.
- Look for a broadband provider that has a bandwidth utilisation of below 50%. This will avoid bottlenecks and make your website and general broadband services a lot faster, enabling more data to be processed more quickly.
Price is certainly a factor, though. Whether comparing the price of business broadband, business mobile phone tariffs, or anything else, it makes solid business sense to make sure you are getting the best deal possible for your ideal product.
- Be aware – business broadband is not the same as home broadband
It is wrong to assume that business broadband is the same as the broadband that the vast majority of us have at home—it’s not. Business broadband packages include features that are specifically designed for business customers.
Generally speaking, a business broadband connection is set up and optimised to meet the increased demands of a business. Therefore, the features that are often found in a business broadband deal include prioritised customer support on-hand to provide immediate relief should something go wrong, faster upload and download speeds that can cope the bandwidth demands of a commercial office, better security features that protect your assets and data, and static IP addresses that allow you to run CCTV, host your own website, and authenticate intranet users.
What’s more, business broadband packages will usually come with generous—often unlimited—usage limits and competitive price points that aren’t too dissimilar to home broadband packages and plans.
- Explained: Business Broadband vs Home Broadband
For any readers still wondering about the most important differences between home and business broadband, here are four things that you don’t tend to get with a home broadband deal.
- Guaranteed service levels
Returning to the point made about SLAs, business broadband providers will offer customers a guarantee to keep the broadband service up and running, and to do all they can to bring it back online should things go wrong. If a situation occurs where a provider is unable to do this in a pre-agreed timeframe, your business will often be compensated.
It is rare for home broadband packages to come with such a guarantee.
- Prioritised traffic
Some of the best-known business broadband providers such as TalkTalk and BT prioritise traffic for their business customers over non-commercial home broadband customers.
This of course means that the speed and quality of your Internet connection will not be negatively affected by other customers’ usage patterns during peak times, such as when HD media and games are being streamed and played.
- Business-centric customer support
As a business, it is vital that your broadband connection is restored as soon as possible should it go offline. If you don’t, you run the risk of losing revenue and having your reputation harmed. Business broadband providers know this all too well, and for that reason they typically offer around-the-clock, UK-based customer support.
This is in contrast to home broadband where customer support operatives are only available at select times, usually during business hours.
- A static IP address
Most business broadband deals provide you with a static IP address. This type of IP address enables you to use your business broadband for some very useful business-critical operations, such as:
- The hosting of your own server (vital for CCTV, file transfers, client services);
- The hosting of your own website and domain name servers;
- Enabling remote connections by your employees to their work desktops; and
- Making available systems that require authentication, such as intranets.
Instead of a static IP address, home broadband packages include a dynamic IP address which changes each time a new connection to the Internet is established.
