The impact of a poor data cabling on your business

Data cabling is at the core of any well designed business network The push for digital transformation and the rise of the online economy require advanced network solutions for voice and data. These are necessary to meet the demands of technologies such as Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), complex and data-driven business applications and the use of cloud services.

But many network architectures weren’t originally designed to meet these increasing demands, forcing businesses to have to upgrade their operations to keep pace – or suffer the consequences of using a poorly performing voice or data network. This can obviously have a significant impact on a business.

Productivity Losses

Both for internal file sharing and the use of external resources such as databases, websites, or cloud services, a robust data network with fast transfer speeds and a generous bandwidth capacity is a must for hitch-free performance in any business.

Similarly, a voice network that provides clear and uninterrupted streams for audio calls, video conferencing and other functions made possible through digital telecommunications assures users of getting the most out of their voice telephony and business communications systems.

Waiting for files to download over a slow internet connection, or struggling to make out what’s being said over a sporadic and crackly phone line (for example), will both have a negative impact on the amount of work that business users can get done, in any given day. And both conditions may be directly attributed to a poorly configured or provisioned voice or data network.

In fact it’s been estimated in a recent study by Citrix that the cost of poor network performance is more than six days of lost productivity per employee, per year. For businesses at any level, this kind of productivity loss could have serious consequences.

Declining Customer Service

Voice communications play a crucial role in customer relations. A consumer’s initial contact with your business may typically come via a phone call, with follow-ups, transactions and support queries often using the same medium.

The call routing, presence, and message handling capabilities of VoIP telephony systems provided by organisations like LG Networks can empower your workers to better negotiate and handle all aspects of customer interaction and can contribute to the nurturing of existing relationships with clients, or the establishment of new ones.

But all of this becomes less viable if your voice network isn’t up to scratch. Dropped or missed calls, poor quality audio or video and an inability to handle large volumes of simultaneous contacts are just some of the symptoms of a poorly performing network infrastructure.

An associated data network that fails to provide the required support to customer-facing activities in the form of information transfer, transaction processing, and other business functions will also detract from your organisation’s ability to give customer satisfaction.

Damage to your Reputation

Under ideal network conditions, information travels fast in the digital economy. And among the fastest moving items are criticism – and with that, bad news about companies that don’t quite hit the mark, in the eyes of consumers.

Long waits or holding times for customer service calls, delays in providing information and assistance, or a simple failure to deliver products and services may all result from poor network performance. And if your lack of network availability or presence is consistent enough to attract bad press from sufficient numbers of disgruntled customers, this can paint your organisation in a negative light, and severely damage your reputation.

And remember, even one dissatisfied consumer speaking out on the right platform may be enough to accomplish this.

Losses in Revenue

The productivity losses associated with poor network performance will have a direct effect on your bottom line. Six lost days of productivity per employee can soon translate into significant annual losses – especially if each of your workers makes high volumes of sales in a given day, and / or you have a lot of employees.

If your voice or data network under-performs to such an extent that calls and messages are regularly missed or chances to make good on product or service delivery can’t be taken, this will incur financial losses as well – the so-called “opportunity costs” of not being able to do effective business.

And a failure to deliver customer service and satisfaction due to sub-par network performance may induce losses on two counts: from the failure to gain from each disappointed consumer, and from the knock-on effect of damage to your business reputation and good name.

Adavanced Network Solutions at 7 Cabling

To guard against all of the problems outlined above, businesses should turn to advanced network solutions for voice and data. In terms of their underlying infrastructure, hardware, and configuration, these systems are optimised to boost performance at all levels.

At the initial stage, advanced networks are designed and configured to reduce “hops” – points on the network where Ethernet switches and IP routers are in place. Data traffic typically queues up at these spots, and limiting their numbers minimises potential latency, or the amount of time it takes for voice packets to travel from speaker to listener. This helps to maximise voice performance.

To assure consistent and high voice quality, advanced network solutions will tag and give priority to voice data traffic, which can then be specially queued at each Ethernet switch or IP router along its path through the network. For voice and data network installation, testing, maintenance and upgrading, at LG Networks we also employ the latest techniques in structured cabling, fibre optics, and related technologies.

We will be on hand to give advice and assistance on the essential practice of monitoring your network and adjusting configuration settings to fine-tune performance.

LG Networks is the number one choice for advanced network solutions for voice and data in London and the South East of England.

If you have any questions about optimising your business network, or would like to know more about advanced network solutions for voice and data, get in touch with the experts at LG Networks.