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Productivity and profitability have become of paramount importance for businesses today. Return on investment is one of the deciding factors in any business decision, and of equal importance is lowering the total cost of ownership. This is as true for investment in IT infrastructure as in any other area.
You may hear that wireless technology is the future, but these days it seems that revolutionary technologies are introduced almost on a weekly basis. Technical departments may get excited by the latest innovation, but you need to look at each decision you make from a point of view of solid business criteria.
So what are the advantages of wireless networking?
Stay connected:
Among the most significant results revealed by recent end user surveys is that using wireless LANs allows users to stay connected to their network for approximately one and three-quarter more hours each day. A user with a laptop and a wireless connection can roam their office building without losing their connection, or having to log in again on a new machine in a different location. This translates to a very real increase in productivity, as much as 22% for the average user.
Access to accurate information:
A further advantage of wireless Local Area Networks (revealed by a recent NOP study) was greater accuracy in everyday tasks. For respondents from healthcare organizations, 51 percent felt the improvement in accuracy was "significant." The "anytime, anywhere" aspect of wireless communications allows increased access to accurate information when it is needed most - with health care, this could mean the difference between a life or death decision.
Spaghetti free:
Perhaps the most obvious advantage comes from removing the need for extensive cabling and patching. Are you moving your enterprise to a new building? Do you need to set up a new office and add it to your existing network? Are you adding a new department in the same building or simply adding a few machines to your network? A wireless LAN makes all these tasks substantially easier. Of course this translates directly into return on your wireless networking investment.
ROI:
ROI - perhaps the overriding considration in IT spend. eAccording to the NOP study, wireless networking has a measurable impact on return on investment (ROI), with organizations saving an average of $164,000 annually on cabling costs and labour, more than 3.5 times the amount IT staff had anticipated. These savings did not include the financial benefits of increased productivity, which can increase an organization's return on their wireless LAN investment by even more substantial amounts.
Increased productivity:
Referencing the NOP study, Charles Giancarlo, Senior Vice President of Cisco Systems, had this to say: "Current economic conditions have made productivity and profitability the new benchmarks for business success. Wireless networking has been viewed as one of the technologies promising the greatest impact on productivity but, until now, no formal studies existed to substantiate the many benefits of wireless LANs. The results of this research show that wireless LANs can have a direct impact on productivity - and that the benefits are even more significant than they were assumed to be."
And more...
Wireless technology also has advantages which are not so easy to measure, but still have real benefit for businesses. Happy employees means a happier working environment which means a more productive working environment. 87 percent of respondents to the NOP study agreed that there is a discernible positive impact in their quality of life from wireless LAN use tied to increased flexibility, productivity and time savings. More can be accomplished in less time, leading to a better balance between work and life and a higher level of employee satisfaction. This translates to greater employee loyalty and productivity.
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