How managed Wi-Fi services can support your business growth

Wi-Fi is something we almost take for granted these days, whether at home checking social media or at work accessing data from the cloud. But behind the scenes, there is a great deal of complexity involved in making sure people and devices can connect whenever they need. Managed Wi-Fi services can make these processes easier and ensure a seamless connection to Wi-Fi.

Below, we share why managed Wi-Fi services are invaluable for businesses today and how they can support business growth.

The Wi-Fi expectation

In today's digital world, high-quality connectivity has become an expectation rather than a hope. Whether we're at home, at work or college or even out shopping or in the gym, we expect to be able to get online via a fast and reliable Wi-Fi connection and move around the internet with ease.

For most businesses, having a high-quality Wi-Fi connection has become a necessity, not a luxury, with it being critical for much of their everyday activity. Companies need connectivity to send and receive data, monitor the performance of their assets or communicate with colleagues and customers.

With modern businesses being so digitally driven, a high-quality Wi-Fi connection enables better efficiency and productivity. Without it, operations are hindered, customers are unhappy, and profits can take a nosedive.

Today’s Wi-Fi challenges

The acceleration of network transformation has led to massive complexity in a business's connectivity needs. So many devices need to connect, meaning high traffic volumes are competing for bandwidth. The increased number of connections also makes a company vulnerable to cyber attacks, with data privacy at risk. Even knowledgeable IT departments can be challenged by these issues.

Managing your own Wi-Fi service involves purchasing the necessary hardware, maintaining the equipment, managing the network and troubleshooting any issues. It can be expensive and time-consuming. But there is another option.

What does a managed Wi-Fi service offer?

A managed Wi-Fi service is a subscription-based solution that takes care of the procurement and management of all the hardware needed and the processes required for your business to connect seamlessly and securely to the internet throughout your building or site. Often working remotely via cloud-based technology, a managed Wi-Fi service provider will ensure connections are reliable, fast and safe.

How managed Wi-Fi services can support your business growth

Managed Wi-Fi services are widely recognised for offering substantial value to businesses and organisations across various sectors. In most cases, the benefits these services can offer can significantly impact business activity and, therefore, its growth.

These benefits include:

Ensuring a reliable connection for uninterrupted activity or service

When you can't access social media at home, it's annoying. For businesses, not being able to connect to Wi-Fi can be mission-critical. For example, a poor or unreliable connection could hinder the customer experience, damage brand reputation, and impact sales.

For a utility company, not receiving real-time updates regarding an electrical fault on a line delays repairs, slows service resumption, and again damages brand reputation. Unreliable connectivity could leave doctors unable to access critical healthcare data or cause problems for logistics companies as products go astray due to a loss of tracking.

Offering full-time monitoring of your connections, a managed Wi-Fi service provider will be able to identify and resolve any issues fast and often without impacting your activity. Most problems can be fixed remotely, but any hardware issues can also be rectified quickly, with costs usually coming within your subscription plan.

Providing a cost-effective option

There are no hardware costs to pay upfront with a subscription-based managed Wi-Fi service. Furthermore, your business will not require full-time IT staff on the premises. Your managed Wi-Fi service provider will be available to ensure your Wi-Fi is always working effectively, taking care of software and hardware updates and rectifying any issues experienced. Therefore, for most businesses, a managed Wi-Fi service works out to be a more cost-effective option.

Supporting business scalability

As businesses grow, so do their connectivity needs. More staff are employed, more sites require connections, and more devices need access to Wi-Fi. With many managed Wi-Fi services delivering a cloud-based solution, scaling up connectivity to support business growth is straightforward. And with little to no investment in new hardware required, it is also cost-effective.

Taking care of security

Data security is a significant concern for companies, and, as they grow and require more connections, the chance of a cyberattack also increases. Cyberattacks can be hugely detrimental to a business, not only ceasing activity but also causing data breaches that could lead to serious consequences.

Managed Wi-Fi service providers are experts in their field and have access to the latest security measures and real-time user updates. With this knowledge and resource, they can provide your business with the best protection for keeping your network and data secure.

Offering analytics and reporting

Managed Wi-Fi services can provide you with the analytics to learn more about your users or customers. For businesses, such as retailers, this option is highly valuable, enabling tracking of behaviour and delivery of personalised content for better engagement.

Our approach to providing managed Wi-Fi services

At Hughes, we take a technology-agnostic approach to developing Wi-Fi solutions for businesses across many sectors. Beginning by collaborating closely with our clients to evaluate their exact needs and challenges, our team of network infrastructure planning experts then identify the best technology and create solutions that match their objectives.

As a managed services provider, we understand the benefits that a high-performing, reliable, and fast connection can offer your business, and we have the expertise and resources to ensure your Wi-Fi delivers them.

To learn more about how managed Wi-Fi services can support your business growth, please get in touch with our team.