The world of networking is growing ever more complex. At the same time, businesses are more dependent on their networks than ever before. Connectivity is the lifeblood of the organization. Without it, it becomes impossible to be productive, service customers, or generate revenue. How long has it been since your network had a checkup? Like your own body, over time problems can crop up that, left unaddressed, can lead to disaster. A network assessment utilizes sophisticated tools and expertise to determine the vitality of your network, as well as to make sure your networking technology is poised to carry your business into the future. How can you tell if you need a network assessment? Here are several times when one is called for.
1. Your Current Network is Underperforming
Are critical applications lagging? Are customers complaining because it takes workers too long to respond to their concerns? If your network isn’t living up to expectations, or if you’re about to expand and the current network is barely managing capacity as it is, it’s time for a network assessment. As long as their network audit checklist includes everything it needs to, experts will give you a thorough report, detailing what the current network is capable of managing and, and make recommendations to optimize performance.
2. You’re Undergoing a Renovation or Expansion
Any time that your business is expanding — whether that means the physical infrastructure or the number of workers or both — it’s time to evaluate what the network needs to keep up. The number of access points and other critical infrastructural considerations will change if the layout of the building, concentration of workers, or even the number of applications running on the network changes. A network assessment will let you know exactly what expanding your network to meet growing demands will entail.
3. Your Users are Complaining or Employee Morale is Low
Wasted time is wasted money. Are your workers losing valuable productive hours to a network that’s down all the time, or lags too badly? An assessment can help you identify what’s causing the problems and get the network performance back where it’s supposed to be.
User experience, or UX, is everything in today’s networks. A poorly performing network can mean the loss of customers, a loss of well-trained and experienced workers, or both. As the office configurations change, this can affect network performance. Cloud-based applications and databases, an increase in networked devices, and other issues can cause a previously perfect network to slow down and result in user complaints. Fixing your network is inevitably much cheaper than paying all your help desk workers to field complaints about slow response times, and in the end, you’ll end up with much happier users and IT personnel.
4. The Old Network Closet is a Disaster
Has your networking equipment started looking like a bird’s nest? Over time, networking cables become a gnarled mess that Ernő Rubik couldn’t get straight. A network assessment is a good time to discuss how to clean up that networking closet, get the patch cords color coded, help find and fix single points of failure, and get the network right-sized for your current needs, and identify limitations of the copper and fiber.
5. You Need to Add Support to Outdoor Areas
More businesses are offering outdoor areas for employees or visitors to relax (and possibly for smokers to get their fix without affecting the health of the employees at large). But in today’s connected world, workers can’t even do 15 or 20 minutes without access to their email or the Internet. Unfortunately, adding Wi-Fi access outdoors isn’t always as simple as tacking on a wireless router and calling it a day. A network assessment will let you know how to provide reliable, secure wireless access to your outdoor lounging areas.
Do any of these situations fit your business? Turn-key Technologies can help. Get a free network assessment today.
