40 A Smarter City
How poor connectivity could be affecting your business
by Dominic Scarr
Constant connection fails, slow wi-fi, loyalty apps that won’ t open and CCTV that disconnects might all be frustrating errors that you create workarounds to address. However, those‘ little’ annoyances might indicate longer term issues that are already costing you more than you realise.
From lost revenue to stunted growth and possible fines, here are seven ways poor connectivity could be affecting your business without you even knowing.
1. Customer experience
Three quarters of consumers say customer experience influences their spending choices. Studies show that 86 per cent of buyers will pay more for a better experience.
Those slow tills, faulty loyalty apps or poor mobile signal might seem like small frustrations, but they could be driving customers away, with a third of customers leaving after a single bad experience.
2. Productivity
Reliance on connectivity for trading and operational activities has increased among businesses in the last five years, with the cost of missed sales, lost productivity and other disruptions due to downtime rising by 400 per cent.
More than 50 million hours of work time is lost each year due to internet failures and lost working, costing £ 3.7 billion in the UK.
Rebooting the system and workarounds are not without cost implications. They leave staff unable to work and customers struggling to buy.
3. Health and safety
Poor connectivity doesn’ t just affect profit it can also leave businesses vulnerable to health and safety risks.
The HSE recently added guidance for lone workers to encourage employers to implement robust communication methods for ensuring workers can stay in contact and summon help.
Mobile signal dead spots, intermittent failures and poor connectivity all pose a risk to the safety of lone workers and could result in hefty fines for employers.
4. Competitiveness in the market
Technology is moving fast across all industries with 94 per cent of organisations adopting greater technological solutions. From the digitalisation of retail spaces to more automated warehouses and construction sites, companies are increasing productivity, capability and efficiency through advanced AI and robotic systems.
What these technologies have in common is the need for connectivity to power their use with 58 per cent of companies facing weekly disruptions due to flaws in their legacy systems.
Latency delays, overloaded networks and failing network devices all slow down how technology operates so you can have the cleverest tech in the business but without the connectivity to back it up you will fail to unlock its true potential.
5. Security threats
Increased digitalisation brings increased risk of cyber threats. Strong, reliable cybersecurity is imperative to keep operations working.
This means understanding the interconnectivity of devices and where weaknesses in systems make the network most vulnerable. Private 5G reduces the risk of cyber threats and build added security avenues.
6. Operational demands
Workplaces are changing, operations are much more digitalised with robotics and AI tech helping to streamline efficiencies in everything from manufacturing to construction sites.
Self-driving machinery and AI powered tools or drones are all delivering greater efficiencies but need robust networks to power them.
7. Sales potential
Three quarters of customers expect personalised experiences. Loyalty apps and bespoke offers are being used to track customer spend and encourage new revenue opportunities by personalising advertising.
This advanced marketing relies on customers being able to access their apps with systems able to keep up with demand.
Dynamic pricing is also hitting our shelves with electronic shelving labels connecting to remote systems that allow pricing to be changed instantly.
Connectivity is crucial to modernise workspaces
Technology is only as good as the connectivity system in place to power it. As the world continues to embrace more advanced tech across all sectors the need for faster, more reliable networks only grows.
Legacy systems weren’ t built to provide the resilience currently being demanded and now struggle to deliver the speed and reliability needed for the multitude of competing applications.
Dominic Scarr is managing director of TrellisWorks
www. trellisworks. co. uk