As the CIO or IT manager of any business, complaints about the quality of your company’s Wi-Fi are probably the last thing you want to hear. Negative feedback is not only easier to express because of social media and sites like tripadvisor and Yelp, but consequently more disruptive to retention and overall business growth.
Everyone expects fast, reliable and secure wireless access, no matter where they are, what time of day it is, or what type of device they’re using. However, delivering this type of experience is difficult to accomplish for a few main reasons.
- It’s expensive
- It’s difficult to continuously keep your system up to date
- And technical expertise is not cheap or hard to find
Wireless is a fundamental requirement across all industries, but with so many challenges standing in the way, how can your business purchase, deploy and manage the system it needs to ensure its end-users are both happy and productive?
The solution is through Wi-Fi as a Service.
To better understand how Wi-Fi as a Service can help, we’ve outlined three valuable benefits WaaS has to offer.
WaaS guarantees you have the latest system
Technology has a shelf life.
A lot of businesses run into trouble because they think they can get away with a network that is five, six, even seven years old.
Wireless systems, like other technologies, start to break down and become ineffective once they’ve gone past a certain point, in this case three to four years.
It’s this type of thinking that leads to terrible wifi performance and ultimately, upset and unproductive end-users.
In order to achieve the best results, wireless systems need to be designed for the types of technology and/or devices they are supporting. In other words, your network infrastructure has to match the technology.
Mobile devices have a lifecycle of 12-18 months, at which point a new version or update in the technology is released. After just two cycles the technology will have completely changed, meaning your network will also need to change.
Using a subscription model, Wi-Fi as a Service allows you to keep your network infrastructure up to date as technology changes over-time.
At the start of the last year of your subscription we’ll begin working on the design and implementation process for your brand-new wireless system.
This strategy allows you to transition seamlessly from your network that’s aging-out, to your new system, keeping performance at its peak and your end-users happier than ever.
WaaS relieves the financial burden
Purchasing a wireless network has historically been thought of as a capital expense. However, with technology and even your environment changing so rapidly today, continuing to rely on the capital purchasing model doesn’t make the most financial sense.
As we mentioned earlier, you can expect your wireless network to last for 3-4 years, max. Yes, you might own your network in the other scenario, but at the end of four years all you own is a network that’s basically worthless.
Wi-Fi as a Service gives you the option to purchase the network infrastructure (as well as managed services) you need as an operational expense.
With more manageable monthly payments, you’re not having to spend your entire budget on your network, which enables your business to invest that capital back into other mission-critical projects and the success of your end-users.
WaaS is all about empowering businesses to budget over-time exactly what it takes to deliver the best class of service for their end-users over a specific period of time.
WaaS simplifies networking
Wireless is a very specific skill-set that takes a lot of time and money to be properly certified. Not to mention it also requires a great deal of experience to fully understand how to analyze, design, deploy and support a wireless system in any industry and in any environment.
The problem is most businesses just don’t have someone on staff that can fill this role. Engineers that meet the advanced requirements needed are hard to find and usually in high-demand, making them very expensive.
Businesses also don’t have the time or money typically to train someone to get to the necessary levels either, it’s a very big hurdle to figure out how to properly support your network’s changing needs.
With Wi-Fi as a Service simplifies networking by providing your business with the technical expertise and experience from design, installation, engineering and support.
Closing thoughts
Wireless has become a utility, like power and every business requires Wi-Fi to operate. If it goes down or under performs everything comes to a stop.
Whether it’s your employees, guests or customers, their expectations are all the same, they don’t care how it works they just need it to be fast, reliable and secure.
Wi-Fi as a Service provides service level agreements (SLAs) to ensure your end-users are always getting the performance and user experience they want and need.
Wi-Fi is not a "nice to have" anymore, it’s a must-have.
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