Four questions to test the efficiency of your business network

Every day, your employees log onto your network to accomplish their jobs.

To know whether your network performs at a level that helps them innovate and grow your business—rather than impede employees’ progress—ask these four questions and consider these recommendations to improve efficiency.

Building a better business network

1. What is the size of your IT staff? Is it a small team or is IT non-existent?

   Many businesses today rely on lean IT teams to manage their business networks. Others are forced to manage without an IT team, instead relying on employees without IT expertise to be “jacks of all trades,” or to depend on the services of IT vendors and consultants.

   Facing a range of day-to-day user, hardware, software, and support issues, small IT teams often lack the time to keep up with long-term IT planning. They are too busy supporting the operational needs of the business.

   Outsourcing day-to-day network management to a service provider that offers scale, expertise, infrastructure and dedicated customer service ensures that the expertise and assistance your business needs is always at hand. You gain 24/7 access to network management experts, while freeing up your internal IT budget and staff to help your company grow.

2. Is your business network reliable enough to serve both employees and clients?

   Inadequate bandwidth, high latency, downtime and overloaded networks can frustrate both employees and clients. Without a reliable, fast network, employees can’t get their jobs done. Without reliable, fast access to your website, applications or digital platforms, clients could abandon your business for the competition—and may never return. Partnering with an experienced network services provider will offer your business:

     • A secure and high-performing Internet connection backed by 24/7 monitoring and management to help ensure your staff remains productive and your customers easy access to your digital properties.

     • A reliable wide-area network (WAN) to connect all company locations across a single network.

     • A scalable solution that enables you to rapidly add bandwidth to support your company needs.

3. Is your business network adequately protected against security threats?

   Beyond time and a money, data breaches, viruses and denial-of-service attacks shake client confidence and hurt the reputation of your business. Even fortune 500 companies with large IT staffs have not been immune to security breaches.

   Outsourcing end-to-end network security services to an experienced provider takes security headaches out of your hands. For example, a managed unified threat management solution is an attractive option that can integrate a range of security capabilities, including an advanced firewall, antivirus/antispam tools, and other vulnerability management capabilities.

4. Are network maintenance issues forcing your IT staff to be reactive rather than proactive?

   If your IT staff spends the majority of its time dealing with day-to-day operations and maintenance, it has little time left to focus on the kind of long-term network planning that drives innovation and competitive differentiation.

   By offloading day-to day network duties to an experienced provider of managed network services, you’re able to free up your in-house IT staff to work on more strategic initiatives. In return, you can also leverage the scale, expertise, infrastructure and 24/7 monitoring and customer service support systems that a managed services provider offers.

    

Creating a business network to support innovation

By asking these four crucial questions before implementing a business network and by taking advantage of the expertise of an experienced provider of managed network services has to offer, your business can enjoy many benefits. To learn more, read this Q&A with FRONTEO COO David Wilner and CMO David Ahrens, discussing how their network boosts business performance.