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Broadband solutions for SMEs

22nd March 2005 3

Contents

Until about five years ago, fulfilling SMEs’ datarequirements was relatively complex. You’d morethan likely have a website that acted as a cataloguefor your company, offering advice on yourproducts and how to obtain them. In addition,you’d probably have given your staff internetaccess from a dial-up connection. For your moreheavy duty communication needs, such as sendingand receiving business critical data in batchprocessing, etc, you’d probably have installed adedicated high-bandwidth leased line.

Such set-ups are still common at a lot ofcompanies like yours but their effectiveness is still open to question. Forexample, with a dial-up connection, how long does it take to performroutine tasks like downloading large files such as graphics, presentations orprograms? Such activities can, over the course of a normal day, add up.Also, with dial-up’s pay-as-you-use model, how can you accurately predictwhat the typical monthly costs of this will be? Can you guarantee thatsessions won’t be timed out at vital moments, when you are making atransaction?

If such issues are causes for concern in your company, then it is abouttime you investigated the benefits of a broadband internet connection.

With broadband, large files can be accessed in seconds – broadband willgive you more time to do more business. Yet broadband offers much morethan speedy internet connection; it can be an agent of change for yourcompany. Broadband is a platform, not merely an internet accessmechanism. With a broadband connection you can have internet and heavyduty data transfer on the same platform. Furthermore, the total bandwidthof a broadband internet connection can be sub-divided so that one portionhandles data while another is used to support something like voice data.Furthermore, broadband will support efficiently and cost-effectively flexibleand remote working and hosted online applications, such as remote storageand remote application usage, website/internet creation, net meeting anddocument sharing, and remote IT support services in general.

The many advantages to be gained from broadband can only beobtained, however, if you know exactly how to implement it cost effectivelywithin your business. You need to know the appropriate broadband accessmechanisms, the technical issues, the applications, the service issues, thelimits and the possibilities. Also, you need to know why and how broad-band can act as an agent of change for your business and what return oninvestment you should expect.

Highlighting all of these issues will be the aim of this supplement. Inessence, we aim to show how broadband will enable you to move fromadapting existing processes to transforming your business.

4Broadband access mechanismsRoss Bentley looks at the access mechanisms

you can use to acquire a broadband service. Whatare the key issues that you need to know?

6Business TransformationHow can broadband change your business for

the better? Shayla Bradshaw presents a real-lifecase study

8Broadband applications and servicesBroadband connections can support unique

applications and can also improve immeasurablythose used with dial-up. Cath Everett reports

10Technical issues with broadbandAntony Adshead examines the technical

issues associated with broadband. What will beyour likely minimum requirements?

12Broadband service issuesWhat are the main service issues that are

associated with implementing a broadbandsolution? Cath Everett reports

14Managing broadband networksSecurity, IT support and integration are all

keys issues that you should care about when goingbroadband. By Antony Adshead

16Broadband and wireless servicesHow does broadband work with the

plethora of wireless technologies available today?Gary Flood sees how you can roam free

18Flex your business from homeBroadband can be the bedrock for your

flexible working options. Lindsay Nicolle sees whatyou need to be aware of

20Broadband business issuesSally Flood assesses the advantages you

can get from broadband. How do they comparewith those gained from other technologies?

21The limits and future of broadbandGary Flood examines where broadband is

today – including its limitations – and paints apicture of the future for this growing technology

Printed in Great Britain for the proprietorReed Business Information, Quadrant House,The Quadrant, Sutton, Surrey SM2 5AS Origination by JJs Typographics, Southend-on-SeaPrinted by Cradley Print.© 2005 Reed Business Information Limited

Reed Business InformationPublishing director Leon Clifford

Editor Joe O’Halloran

Art editor Tim Parker

Production editor Adam Riches

Group business development manager Glen Sullivan 0208 652 8581 glen.sullivan@rbi.co.uk

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Get in the fast lane

22nd March 20054

Broadband access mechanisms

Ross Bentley looks at the various access mechanisms that you can use in order to acquire a broadband service. What are the key issues that you need to know in order to make sure that you get the broadband system right for your company?

It only seems like yesterday that theinternet arrived in a whirlwind ofdotcom launches and ebusiness

strategies. Bust followed boom, butbehind the headlines a quiet revolutionhas been going on as an increasingnumber of UK businesses sign up tobroadband. For many the slow down-load speeds associated with dial-upconnections are a thing of the past: UKplc has finally got the internet service itdeserves.

A recent study produced indepen-dently by Booz Allen Hamilton for theDepartment of Trade and Industry(DTI) shows that 69% of UK businessesare now using broadband and that DSL(digital subscriber line) connectionsincreased by 11% last year alone.

The report says the UK ranks thirdbehind Sweden and Ireland in its busi-ness adoption of ICT. UK businesses, itsays, are using the higher connectionspeeds and increased bandwidth broad-band on offer to enable the adoptionof new technologies such as voice overIP (VoIP) and desktop video confer-encing that allow a more sophisticatedinteraction with customers andsuppliers online.

“Broadband has become business-critical and is now the lifeblood ofmany UK companies,” says Allan Ryan,broadband channels director atEasynet.

The revolution look sets tocontinue. By the end of this year, BTsays it will have broadband-enabledover 4,000 of its exchanges andprovided some form of broadbandservice to 99.6% of the UK. At the sametime, it plans to start trialling a newform of ADSL (asymmetric digitalsubscriber line) that will offer connec-tion speeds of up to 18Mbs.

Broadband can be delivered viaxDSL, ethernet, cable, wireless or satel-lite, and is a term that is used inter-changeably with high-speed internetconnections. Various definitions ofbroadband assign a different minimumdata rate; however, it is generallyagreed that any technology offeringmore than 128Kps is a broadbandservice.

Broadband also removes the need forcontinual reconnection to the internet,allowing you to send and receive infor-mation 24 hours a day. Being perma-nently connected means corporateresources are available to remote usersaround the clock. Sean Stephenson,head of products at Pipex, says thedemand for broadband virtual privatenetworks (VPNs) to connect offices orremote workers is a major driver ofbroadband adoption in the UK.

Lance Spencer, director of productsat Tiscali, points to the low costsinvolved as another factor. Using VoIPand a DSL (digital subscriber line)connection it is now possible to installand maintain a remote worker withtheir own extension numberconnected to a corporate network forless than £1,000 a year. "The costsavings compared with a lease line aremaking remote working much morepossible," says Spencer.

High bandwidthThe vast majority of these broadbandconnections are delivered throughADSL technology. ADSL transmitsdigital information at a high bandwidthon existing phone lines to homes andbusinesses. Unlike the regular dial-upphone service, ADSL provides a contin-uously available connection and simul-taneously accommodates analog

(voice) information on the same line.ADSL is asymmetric in that it uses

most of the channel to transmit down-stream to the user and only a small partto receive information from the user. Itis generally offered at downstream datarates from 512Kbps to about 6Mbps.

Mike Galvin, director of networkoperations at BT, says ADSL wasdesigned specifically to exploit the one-way nature of most multimediacommunications where large amountsof information flow towards the userand only a small amount of interactivecontrol information is returned.

“The only information most busi-nesses send down the line is the oddemail and a request for a web page,”he says. “Users expect to click on a webaddress and have that informationavailable as soon as possible.” He saysthe ratio of downstream bandwidthcompared with upstream is abouteight to one.

Most standard ASDL business broad-band connections are set up withoutthe need for an engineer. You receivean ADSL box with a built-in routerthrough the post, complete withcolour-coded cable and voice-enabledinstallation CD that takes you throughthe set-up process.

“These are simple devices;self–provision is vital to the ease of set-up and the cost of the product," saysGalvin, who puts the ongoing costs atbetween £30 and £80 a month

fast lane

Like many law firms, Stewarts Solicitors requires a high bandwidth connection to send digital sound filessuch as dictations, briefings and legal statements between sites.

The IT manager at Stewarts, James Mead, has recently overseen the installation of an SDSL connectionto enable the transfer of such data between the company’s offices in Leeds and London.

SDSL offers significant bandwidth in both directions and is ideal for companies sending large amountsof data back and forth.

"While a normal ADSL line enabled us to use applications from head office using Citrix, SDSL isnecessary for sending files upstream," says Mead. "It is mission-critical to us and so far the performanceand speed have been more than adequate at half the cost of a leased line."

Case study: Stewarts Solicitors

Life in the

22nd March 2005 5

Broadband access mechanisms

spread as bandwidths grow. He alsoexpects to see business use of emailmoving from a standard POP3 server toa sharing, collaborative model in whichremote users access Outlook diaries,input into central appointment docu-ments and share folders.

Cut running costsYou can also receive broadband viacable. According to Lucy Green,director of product marketing at ntl’sbusiness division, there are self-installand engineer install packages,depending on how near your business isto the cable network and whether youalready have a cable connectioninstalled.

Many ADSL and cable boxes comewith a wireless hub station built in. PhilLunn, director of data and internet atTelewest, says using wireless technologyfor data, voice or CCTV applicationscan cut many of the running costs of

depending on the level of supportrequired.

Advancements in ADSL technologyare happening fast. Trials by BT of anew ADSL service, ADSL 2+, areexpected to start within the nextcouple of months. This will offer up to18Mbs – rates that experts say will seetechnologies like instant messagingand IP telephony take off big time.

Conleth McCallan, managingdirector at ISP Datanet, predicts theuse of secure business instantmessaging packages, such asMicrosoft’s Sharepoint, combined withvoice and video will become wide-

short-haul communication.Wireless solutions for communica-

tions between buildings use highperformance point-to-point and point-to-multi-point solutions. Systems useunlicensed spectrum operating at2.4Ghz with link ranges up to 16kmsoffering up to 6Mbs throughput,depending on the chosen technologyand application.

If your company requires significantbandwidth in both directions, SDSL(symmetric digital subscriber line) isbecoming increasingly available. BThas announced that 1,000 exchangeswill offer SDSL services by early 2006,reaching up to two-thirds of businessesin the UK.

While SDSL has limited consumermarket use, Chris Lindsay, manager ofnew broadband propositions at BT,says, "a small but vibrant number of UKbusinesses are making use of it". Hepoints to graphic designer businesseswith large graphic files to send downthe line or legal firms involved in swap-ping sound files between regionaloffices as the type of businessesembracing SDSL (see box). To useSDSL, you need a dedicated phone lineinstalled and the visit of an engineer totest that it is up and running.

A number of isolated communitiesnow receive their broadband service bysatellite. This, says Lindsay, happenswhen it is uneconomic to provide DSLover phone lines or when businessesare situated too far from an exchange.Currently, BT offers satellite services toareas of Northern Ireland and parts ofCornwall.

High-speed satellite broadbandconnections use a satellite to securelybeam data from a PC or network to afast internet connection point on theground and vice versa, enabling busi-nesses to connect to the internet wher-ever they are.

Users who like to take a sneakybreak from work to play Doom may befrustrated by satellite broadband as thetwo-way bandwidth offered does notallow users to play interactive games,but it provides a high-speed servicemore than adequate for email andaccess to internet files.

The initial installation of a satellitedish costs between £700 and £800, withongoing cost of about £70 a month,according to Galvin. He says in manycases business users in a remotecommunity will club to together tocover these costs.

But whether you are a business inSt Ives or John O’Groats, broadbandaccess is only the beginning.According to Lindsay, these fasterdata rates are set to take the revolu-tion to "email, online storage, e-distri-bution, e-supply chain, improvementsin lead time, online accountancy andtax returns services… the list isendless", he says. ■

The only information mostbusinesses send down the lineis the odd email and a requestfor a web page

With the onset of the high-speed communications revo-lution the internet has

become the preferred way to conductbusiness for many SMEs. After all, thefaster you can communicate withcustomers and partners, the quickeryou can do business.

Broadband offers a quicker serviceand a faster channel to a global market.It can get you closer to your customersand suppliers. You can use it to offercustomers around-the-clock access toaccount information, order status andproject details. Suppliers can respondquicker to your needs.

suppliers, and for selling to thosecustomers and suppliers; and forselling to customers who can’t make itto our shop.”

The company did not have internetaccess before broadband, but felt thatnarrowband would not meet its needsbecause it would tie up the phone lineand make costs forecasts difficultbecause of time-based charges.Broadband from BT offered the idealsolution. It is always-on and enables staffto use the phone and the internet onthe same line.

Permanent connection to theinternet opens up opportunities foryou to streamline your businessprocesses, and linking your back officesystems to your website can help you dobusiness more quickly and cut adminis-tration costs. Being online also enablesyou to automate certain tasks such astransactions, order tracking and stockordering.

In order to develop online tradingcapabilities, The Bean Shop also optedfor BT’s Internet Trader Pack, whichcontains everything you need todevelop a website, upload images andcatalogues and create an online store.It also allows you to accept paymentsecurely, which simplifies the orderingprocess. “We were surprised at how easyit was to develop the site from scratcheven though we had very little knowl-edge of computers,” says Suttie. “Moreimportantly, it is simple and intuitivefor our customers to use.”

As a result, The Bean Shop now sellsthroughout the UK and even in the US.It regularly updates its website with a‘coffee of the month’, a way of intro-ducing customers to more exoticblends and roasts. The Internet TraderPack makes this process simple byallowing staff to make changes them-selves.

The Bean Shop can now offer its fullrange of products to customers alongwith discounts and special offers,allowing it to provide the same level ofservice as it does in the shop. Becausethe online store is available globally,The Bean Shop has substantiallyincreased its customer base.

“We knew that broadband was theway to go but we have been verysurprised by the results," says Suttie.“We now have customers for our coffeeup and down the country and we’restarting to sell across the world.” Theinternet has allowed businesses like TheBean Shop to become fully signed upplayers in the global village. But it’s notenough to simply be online; you need tomatch or outperform your competitors.

If your business transfers a lot ofdata, needs flexibility and faster, moreefficient communications with yournetwork of suppliers, customers andstaff, you should not be asking if youcan afford broadband but if you canafford to be without it. ■

22nd March 20056

Wake upWhat are the fundamental benefits to be obtained from goingbroadband? Shayla Bradshaw presents a real-life case story of howbroadband changed a Scottish coffee shop and retailer – and evenmanaged to please the bean counters

and smell the coffee

When coffee roaster and teaspecialist The Bean Shop, based inPerth, Scotland, was looking for a newchannel to market and a way to differ-entiate itself from the competition, itlooked to broadband to boost itscustomer base. The company, whichwas founded in April 2003, was keen tocreate a national reach, so created awebsite that would allow it to sell itsown roast coffee and blended teasacross the UK.

Lorna Suttie, co-founder anddirector at The Bean Shop, says: “Weknew that the internet was essential fortaking our business forward, both forcommunication with customers and

Business transformation

22nd March 2005

For many businesses,the decision toupgrade from dial-up

to broadband is a ‘nobrainer’ – particularlynow that it’s set tobecome faster at no extracost, with increased speedand efficiency giving animmediate and tangiblereturn on the investment.

But while broadbandmight well be justified onthese grounds alone, theshrewdest businesses willbe making the most ofwhat they’ve bought byseeing what else it can dofor them, above andbeyond a faster internet

connection. Broadbandhas really been embracedby the suppliers of busi-ness services, meaningthat there are now amyriad of applicationsavailable to smaller busi-nesses – some of whichyou may not have consid-ered before.

Some might makethings easier, some mightsave you time, and somemight transform the wayyou operate. So what’s outthere for you once youhave taken the plungeinto broadband?

If, like most small busi-nesses, you’re spending

far more time than you would likedealing with red tape, you might wantto consider one of the business adminpackages that are available alongsidebusiness broadband services, puttingthe information you need to stay up-to-date with regulations at your fingertipsin a useful form. Compiled by expertsand constantly updated online, you canfind clear explanations of the regula-tions that affect your business, alongwith advice on implementation andcompliance.

Not far behind red tape in costingyou time you can ill afford is dealingwith IT problems. Few SMEs can justifythe cost of an in-house IT resource, butbroadband can deliver the next bestthing. For around a tenner a monthper PC, remote IT support packagesgive you a single point of contact for allPC hardware and software technicalqueries, and access to skilled ITsupport specialists who can securelytake control of your PC over the broad-band connection as if they were therewith you to diagnose problems.

Now most of us know that feelingwhen the past two hour's work is lostbecause the PC crashed before wesaved that file. But what would happenif we lost the whole PC and all of lastyear’s work? Or the sales records,personnel records and accounts? Itonly takes a hard-disk crash, acomputer virus, a stolen laptop, a fire –or human error. And it’s serious – 50%of companies that lose their data in adisaster never open their doors again1.You may have guessed by now thatbroadband applications can help heretoo. Running over broadband, onlinebackup services for PCs and servers cansave your files off-site – automatically, inthe background, securely encrypted sothat nobody can read them, and easilyand quickly recoverable.

Perhaps my personal favourite is theability to work effectively from home –not all the time, but on those occasionswhen I really need to. We all know thepain of having to be at home before theday’s work is truly done. Being able togo home from the office yet remainconnected to it (securely) has trans-formed my life – and my productivity.And teleworking packages now bringthis opportunity to smaller businesses.

Broadband already offers so muchmore than speed, and there’s still moreto come – with multimedia applicationslike voice over IP and conferencingnow being launched. So don’t just fit itand forget it. Make the most of it withapplications that could transform yourbusiness. Before long, like the 63% ofSBC’s customers2 who would rathergive up coffee than broadband, youmay wonder how you ever managedwithout them. ■

1 Source: University of Texas for research into Info systems2 http://www.cisco.com/warp/public/779/govtaffs/archive/eupdates/eUpdatev1i9.html

BT Sponsor’s Viewpoint

Mick Hegarty: ‘‘Runningover broadband, onlinebackup services for PCs andservers can save your filesoff-site – automatically, inthe background, securelyencrypted so that nobodycan read them”

By Mick Hegarty, general manager, Broadband, BT Business

So you’ve gotbroadband:what now?

7

As more customers start to iden-tify and buy products andservices online, the more impor-

tant it becomes for businesses to have afast, reliable means of internet access.

Consequently, an increasingnumber of small and medium-sizedenterprises (SMEs) are adopting broad-band to at least provide themselves witha web presence as a showcase to theoutside world, if not to sell their waresonline.

Leif Olaf-Wallin, an analyst at MetaGroup, explains: “Being hooked upand visible on the internet is becomingever more important and having goodquality email and an online presence isbecoming pressing for a lot of peoplefrom a competitive point of view. Ifyou’re not on the internet these days,it’s almost as if you don’t exist.”

At the very least, points out JerryThompson, business broadbanddirector at BT Retail, it enables smallercompanies “to appear much largerthan they actually are”, which can notonly help with credibility, but alsobroaden potential sales regions to anextent that would not be possible with apurely physical presence.

As a result, many SMEs payproviders a monthly fee to host awebsite for them. They then customiseit themselves with easy-to-use toolkits,

online data backup to ensure valuablebusiness information isn’t lost if theorganisation’s PCs or servers go down.

“The original phase of adoption wasvery simple,” says Thompson. “It wasabout having a fast, ‘always-on’ connec-tion. But what we’ve found is that manycustomers adapt the way they do busi-

22nd March 20058

such as the Website Creator in BT’sInternet Business Pack, to ensure itconforms to their company’s corporatelook.

“For many it’s not worth the hassleof setting up and running a dedicatedweb server themselves. They’ve not gotthe in-house skills, it’s cheaper andsomeone else is looking after the secu-rity aspect for them, so it makes sense,”Olaf-Wallin says.

Always-on connectivityMoreover, as supply chains arebecoming increasingly ‘disintermedi-ated’, contractors start to rely moreheavily on smaller sub-contractors.Olaf-Wallin adds: “SMEs need to beonline to obtain work orders andreport back. Depending on how youtransact business, you’re more or lessforced to be ‘always-on’.”

But, as Thompson indicates, manySMEs discover that once they havebroadband in place they have access to awhole new raft of applications andservices. These include security bundles,which incorporate firewalls, anti-virusand anti-spyware programs; and daily

Find out if you can get broadband in your area.Broadband isn’t available over the telephonenetwork everywhere in the UK.

Don’t make the mistake of thinking a broadbandpackage designed for the consumer market isthe most cost-effective for you in the long run.Business solutions often offer additionalservices, such as anti-virus protection and 24-hour technical support, which are worth theirweight in gold but are either unavailable toconsumers or carry additional cost.

With some broadband packages you are chargedby the amount of time you spend connected to

your broadband service. Bills can go up anddown, whereas good, business-class broadbandpackages offer regular monthly tariffs. Thismakes budgeting much easier.

Make sure your broadband package is ‘broad’enough and check what a supplier will call the‘contention ratios’. Broadband linesare shared between a certainnumber of other customers –anywhere between 20 to 100 othercustomers could be using the sameline as you. The more people orcompanies sharing your line, theslower your service may be at peak

business-usage times. For quick reference ‘20:1’means 19 other users, which is good for mostbusiness usage. Anything in excess of 50:1 (49other users) and you may want to consider abetter offer.

Look at the size of files you have to send andreceive. If you don’t rely on large datafiles, such as video, graphic design andaudio files, you may not need thewider, more expensive, bandwidths onoffer (such as those over 512 kbps).

If you do use large data files in yourbusiness, make sure the broadband

Seven tips for buying broadband

Broadband connections can support unique applications and can also improve immeasurably those used with dial-up.Cath Everett sees what applications that broadband willsupport and what opportunities they provide

If you’re not on the internetthese days, it’s almost as if you don’t exist

Broadband applications and services

Broadenyour horizons

tions such as finance or customer rela-tionship management (CRM) over thenext couple of years.

To do this you will need SDSL(symmetric digital subscriber line), anewer but pricier type of broadbandthan the currently ubiquitous ADSL(asymmetric digital subscriber line).SDSL costs £175 per month for a512Kbps line, compared with the mostexpensive ADSL equivalent of £100.But, unlike its cheaper cousin, thisprovides high-speed bandwidthwhether you upload or download datato and from the internet. An ADSLconnection, meanwhile, may providedownload speeds of 2Mb per second,but may then offer something like256Kb per second when uploading

ness when they see the possibilities - forexample, by enabling staff to work athome.”

Although it is still early days, BerntOstergaard, principal analyst atTelecom-Analysis, also expects to see anincreasing number of SMEs subscribeto hosted back end business applica-

22nd March 2005 9

information. “If all you want is to use broadband

for email and calendaring ADSL is fine.But if you want to use session or trans-action-based applications or you want ahigher quality connection for voice,you need the guarantee that the band-width will be available and that meansSDSL,” explains Ostergaard.

Mark Blowers, a senior researchanalyst at Butler Group, agrees that theability to outsource applications to thirdparty providers is likely to be of interestto the many SMEs that do not have theinternal IT expertise to support andmaintain their own packages in-house.While this was not possible in the pastdue to a lack of “decent, reasonablypriced connectivity” it is now relativelycheap, he says, and so is becoming“more of an option”.

Increasing adoption“Smaller businesses will find it appealingto use packages when they need themand not have to buy their own equip-ment upfront. It’s still early days, butwe’re likely to see increasing adoptionover the next year or so,” says Blowers.

But SDSL is also a necessity if yourcompany is keen to use voice over IP(VoIP) telephony services. This tech-nology, which runs over a broadbandline, is proving to be of particularinterest to organisations with geographi-cally dispersed offices or a number ofremote workers as it helps cut the cost ofinternal phone calls. As a result,Ostergaard describes VoIP as “the killerapplication for SME broadband”, andbelieves that it will take off in 2006/07.

“We all know the size of our voice billsand we’re all talking more and more, soit makes sense to move to IP,” he says.“Typically, we’re seeing SMEs with a two-to four-year-old PBX insert an IP card sothey retain local functionality. But whenthey dial out they do it across an IPconnection, which is much cheaper.”

Another appeal of IP-enabling thenetwork, indicates Blowers, is that youcan take advantage of such applicationsas unified messaging. These suitesprovide a single point of access to inte-grated communication and collabora-tion packages such as email, instantmessaging and voicemail. This meansyou can choose which device you wantto be contacted by, such as a PC or yourmobile phone, wherever you are.

“People can contact you using avariety of methods rather than have toleave messages and for that reason it’sreally handy for smaller companies toensure they don’t lose business oppor-tunities,” Blowers says.

While such applications may seemfuturistic, Ostergaard concludes: “Theworld is increasingly moving to web-based communications, and so beingconnected to the internet is becomingvital to the SME community as a keymeans of doing business.” ■

package you buy will be effective at sending these filesquickly to customers or business partners, not justeffective at ensuring you receive such files quickly. Ifyou do need to send large files you should consider aSDSL (symmetric digital subscriber line) solution, whichoffers fast upload and download speeds so yourcustomers aren’t kept waiting.

Many of the companies that offer broadband now offertrial periods – if you’re not sure what is right for yourbusiness, make the most of such offers to ensure youare getting the right broadband package before yousign a contract. Go for a low-speed connection (forexample 256 kbps) to start with and upgrade later ifyou need to.

Source: Tiscali

‘What we’ve found is thatmany customers adapt the waythey do business when they see the possibilities’

Broadband applications and services

The UK’s small and medium-sizedenterprises ( SMEs) are baffled bythe terminology surrounding

broadband. According to a survey bybroadband provider Tiscali, this hasresulted in nearly half of them relyingon consumer broadband solutions.

Also, nearly two-thirds of SMEssurveyed found it difficult to comparedifferent broadband solutions, andnearly half were not confident theywere using the best, most cost-effectivebroadband solution for their business.The survey shows that 38% are using aconsumer broadband solution – afigure that jumps to 49% among busi-nesses with fewer than 10 employees.

Nathan Francis, general manager ofTiscali Business Services, says:“Broadband offers many benefits toSMEs. However, if they aren’t gettingthe right broadband package tosupport their specific business needsbecause of confusing technical jargon,it is a bad thing for everybodyconcerned – the supplier, the carrier,

ideal for companies that need to send alot of electronic data over the internet,either internally or externally. SDSLoffers you the chance to have very highdata rates in both directions, but theservice is cost-effective; it does notrequire a fixed monthly fee and thereare no dial-up or call charges. Theservice provides flexible symmetricbandwidth for business applicationssuch as email, file transfer, webbrowsing, corporate intranet access, webhosting and remote LAN access.

With all the different packages onoffer, how do you determine whatbandwidth – up and down – your busi-

22nd March 200510

the UK economy – but most of all forthe small businesses.”

But what’s in it for the SME? If you’renot convinced about the need to takeup broadband, the distinction betweenconsumer and business solutions ispurely academic. There will always besome SMEs that won’t need fast internetand email, but for those that do, broad-band has significant benefits – digitalinformation can be sent much morequickly than with dial-up, modem-basedalternatives. Also, because larger filescan be downloaded or sent to clientscheaply, broadband can enable smallbusinesses to compete with larger rivalswhen it comes to speed of response ordelivery of large documents, images,video or music files.

Consolidate costsYour company can benefit from broad-band if you need rapid internet access,the ability to send and receive emailswith large attachments, or need toconsolidate network and communica-tions costs with new technology like voiceover IP. In the past, many SMEs havebeen tied to ISDN, but that’s all changedwith a range of DSL (digital subscriberline) packages to suit every budget.

Broadband currently comes in twoflavours: ADSL (asymmetric digitalsubscriber line) and SDSL (symmetricdigital subscriber line). ADSL has afaster download speed than the uploadspeed (which is generally 256Kbps).ADSL technology splits an existing BTphone line in two – one is used forvoice and the other for high-speed dataconnection. Subscribers can use theline for normal voice communicationand broadband access at the same time.This is useful for businesses that mayhave installed one telephone line forvoice communications and anotherpurely for internet access.

SDSL offers the same high speedsboth to and from the internet and is

SMEs confused by broadband jargon

Do you feel confused by the jargon and acronyms usedto describe types of telecoms and networks vendors andtheir services/solutions?

Yes 51%

No 47%

Do you find it difficult to compare and contrast differentvendors’ broadband solutions?

Yes 67%

No 29%

Are you confident that you can/have chosen the bestbroadband solution for your business in terms of overallcost-effectiveness?

Yes 52%

No 45%

Do you think access to broadband is: YesKey to the success of small businesses 26%Important to the success of small businesses 37%Of benefit to small businesses 23%Unnecessary for most small businesses 4%(250 SME respondents) Source: Tiscali

growTime to

Antony Adshead examines the technicalissues associated with broadband. What

will your likely minimum requirementsbe? What is meant by contention? And

what are the broadband myths?

Technical issues with broadband

sation’s website offers can also increasebandwidth requirement substantially.Large audio or video files, pages packedwith images and graphics and largedownloadable items are all bandwidth-hungry functions. Also, the volume andfrequency of hits that the company’swebsite receives is an important part ofthe equation,” says Stephenson.

Increase bandwidthIt is important that you talk to your ISPabout flexible broadband packages thatwill allow you to increase your band-width on demand, adds Stephenson. Soif your business expands quickly your

ness needs? When calculating band-width, the volume and nature ofincoming and outgoing email shouldbe considered, says Sean Stephenson,head of products at Pipex.

“Bandwidth becomes an issue whereemails are exchanging large files thatinclude graphics or databases. The typeof information and services an organi-

22nd March 2005 11

bandwidth can take the strain.One area where a lot of misunder-

standing rises is contention ratios. Thecontention ratio of a service is thenumber of people sharing yourconnection via the BT network – if thecontention ratio is 50:1, for example,you could be sharing the connectionwith up to 49 other people. Accordingto director of network operations at BT,Mike Galvin, many people think thatcontention means they are not gettingthe speed they have paid for, but theuse of contention by ISPs is the verything that makes these high speedsavailable at such a low cost.

“When accessing the web or email,your computer is not receiving aconstant stream of data – it onlyreceives ‘bursts’ of data as required,such as when you view a new web pageor open an email. It is therefore muchbetter to have an internet connectionwhich can receive small bursts of datavery quickly than it is to have one whichcan receive a consistent amount of datamore slowly,” says Galvin. “And this iswhere contention comes in. Imagine arestaurant where 50 diners are servingthemselves from a single buffet. Thesystem works because each diner onlytakes a short time to collect their food,and only needs to do so occasionally.There are usually no more than a fewpeople at the buffet at any given time,and it is extremely unlikely that all 50diners will suddenly need servingsimultaneously. DSL uses contention tosave you money in the same way. Ratherthan give each user the capability totransfer 512Kbps constantly – theequivalent of providing each diner withtheir own personal buffet table – thebandwidth is shared across many users.A contention ratio of 50:1, for example,means that 50 users are sharing thebandwidth, but you should still receiveyour bursts of data at full speed.”

But broadband means much morethan just internet access, says ChrisLindsay, manager, new broadbandpropositions at BT Business.

“Broadband is incredibly flexible,and can also be used to connect officesand branches together – for example,by creating a virtual private network(VPN), and allowing staff to work fromhome very easily… the types of thingscorporates have been doing for years.”

Pipex’s Stephenson agrees. “ManySMEs are using broadband to access aVPN rather than going down the moreexpensive leased line road. Many busi-nesses are also realising the advantagesof voice over IP technology, whichenables them to consolidate theircommunications and internet costs.Going wireless via ADSL or SDSL alsogets over geographical challenges andhelps to mobilise workers,” he says.

The message is clear: it’s time tofigure out what broadband solution willbest help your business grow. ■

Bandwidth becomes an issuewhere emails are exchanginglarge files that include graphicsor databases

Technical issues with broadband

As broadband technology becomesmore affordable and internetusage more ubiquitous, market

uptake has moved from the earlyadopter stage and into the mainstream.According to figures from BT, some30% of small and medium-sized enter-prises (SMEs), or the equivalent of500,000 businesses across the UK, arenow using broadband. Subscribernumbers have doubled in the past yearalone, with the trend set to continue.

According to Jerry Thompson, busi-ness broadband director at BT Retail,the first users were high-tech compa-nies, followed by those operating in thefinancial services, insurance and profes-sional services sectors, including lawyersand estate agents. But the third big wavehas been retail, with adoption ratesbeing more mixed in other sectors.

Leif Olaf-Wallin, an analyst at MetaGroup, explains: “If you’re looking at avery small business that’s not particu-larly internet-dependent, broadbandwon’t be of interest. But if organisa-tions use the web extensively and dolots of uploading and downloading [of]data, they’ll probably benefit from thefaster connection speeds.”

Moreover, he says, if companies areonline for more than an hour a day, itbecomes cheaper to have an ‘always-on’connection than to use a dial-up

month for the simplest package on asingle computer to £65 a month for anetwork of up to ten computersincluding a firewall and service levelagreement (SLA). SLAs guarantee thatshould there be any problems with the

22nd March 200512

What are the main service issues that are associated with implementinga broadband solution? Cath Everett finds what you can expect in termsof quality of service, service level and your basic options

“I didn’t feel like I had a business until I gotbroadband,” says Rhonda Shaw, managing directorof Angelic Au Pairs. “When I was looking atcompetitors a lot of them had a huge webpresence, so I felt it was vital for the business andwould improve convenience, not just for me, butfor my clients – they’d be able to accessinformation whenever it was easiest for them.”

Angelic Au Pairs is based in Harrogate and actsas a broker between prospective au pairs from atleast a dozen European countries and families inthe UK. The organisation, which is run solely byShaw, has also just become the main agent for theScandinavian Au Pair Centre. This has offices acrossEurope, the US and Canada, and means that Shawcan now place UK staff with families abroad.

“To access the Scandinavian Au Pair Centre’sdatabase, I need a DSL line because it enables me

to download information, refresh it and get newinformation updates in minutes, but I couldn’thave done that with dial-up,” she says.

The company opened for business in July lastyear and used a dial-up connection during thepreparatory and initial trading stages. But Shawdecided this was inadequate and opted for abusiness broadband connection from BT.

“As a small business starting up there were a lotof issues. I didn’t want to install two differentphone lines and looked at broadband for thatreason,” she says. “But when I went a bit further inI realised it would enable me to send larger files byemail, such as photos and information about theau pairs. It also made it quicker to download andupload things so it was about increasing efficiencyand saving time.”

But broadband likewise meant that Angelic Au

Case study Angelic Au Pairs

modem, due to the comparatively highcost of making calls over a phone line.

But another benefit of the tech-nology, says Olaf-Wallin is that itdoesn’t block your phone line. “Thismeans that you don’t have to haveanother one installed, so you can alsosave money there,” he says. “It’s notgood for business if clients can’t gethold of you because you’re down-loading email.” Consequently, he adds,broadband “is catching on, usually soSMEs can get a better and cheaperinternet connection”.

Level playing fieldMark Blowers, a senior research analystat the Butler Group, agrees. “In thepast, cost was a major inhibitor, but it’snow a lot more manageable for smallerbusinesses and this levels the playingfield.

“In the past, broadband was difficultto justify, but you can now accessvarious services at reasonable prices.”

For example, BT’s business broad-band prices range between £22 a

Move into the mainsteam

Some 30% of SMEs, or theequivalent of 500,000businesses across the UK, arenow using broadband

Broadband service issues

offices and you want to use voice overIP (VoIP) telephony services to reducethe cost of internal phone calls or toaccess hosted applications over theinternet. ADSL is unlikely to beadequate in these circumstances.

Despite the big disparity in pricing,Blowers advocates paying the extramoney and going with a businessconnection. “Cost is important,” hesays, “but you shouldn’t trim it down atthe expense of everything else if you’rerunning your business on it.

“It’s important to go for businessofferings because they’re more focusedon quality of service, security and avail-ability.”

24-hour supportWhile it will make little difference tothe average consumer if they lose theirconnection for a while, so long as theycan simply log on another time, “ifyou’re running a website, it might affectsales”, says Blowers. Therefore, businessbroadband services also come withhigher-level technical helpdesk support,which is available on a 24-hour basis tohelp with any issues as they arise.

But another benefit of such offeringsis speed, which is linked to so-calledcontention rates, or the number ofpeople that have signed up to use thesame broadband connection as you. Inthe case of consumer broadband, thismeans that should you have a 1Mb lineyou will potentially be sharing it with 50others, but you should still receive yourbursts of data at full speed. With busi-ness broadband, however, the numberof joint users falls to 20.

But going down this route alsoallows you to subscribe to additionalbusiness services. For example, for anadditional £5.95 per month per PC, BTwill back up your data over the internetso it can be recovered instantly shouldyour PC or server go down. Another£4.99 per month per PC will provideaccess to a raft of security services,while a further £5 per month will buy awebsite package and multiple emailaddresses.

As Olaf-Wallin says: “I don’t see anyreal inhibitors to broadband adoptionthese days. You can plug it into anoutlet yourself in 15 minutes or call ahelpdesk if you need help with some-thing and cost is no longer the issuethat it was.”

But he points out that many of theoperators have not been very good atdescribing the benefits of going for abusiness broadband connection and somany SMEs are reluctant to pay theextra money.

“It can be hard for an SME to under-stand why they should pay more for abusiness rather than a consumer lineand to see what the advantages are, butit really depends on the requirementsof each company and how it’s likely tobenefit them,” he concludes. ■

service costs £175 per month andcomes with SLAs and security, but iscurrently being targeted at specialisedusers that require high bandwidth butare unable to afford the dedicated andexpensive leased line services tradition-ally used by large corporates.

The key difference between the twoservices is that while ADSL provideshigh-speed bandwidth if users down-load data, the same does not apply ifthey are uploading it, for example, to awebsite.

As a result, while download speedsmay be 2Mb per second, upload speedscould be 256Kb per second. WithSDSL, however, both upload and down-load speeds are the same. This meansthat this technology is particularlyappealing to organisations in media,design, print, legal or pharmaceuticalindustries, that need to move large filesor videos around quickly and havetraditionally used expensive ISDN linesto do the job.

SDSL is also necessary if yourcompany has geographically dispersed

22nd March 2005 13

Pairs could react to demand more quickly.“There’s so much competition that speed isof the essence and I needed a way to getinformation to families and partneragencies abroad as quickly as possible,”Shaw explains.

Since setting up a website using BT’sBusiness Internet Pack the company hasalso seen family registrations leap from twoa week to two a day. “A lot more people arebecoming aware of Angelic Au Pairsbecause of my web presence. I could havehad a site without business broadband, butit would have been difficult to uploadinformation and maintain it, and it alsomeans I have access to 24-hour technicalsupport, which is critical as I am notparticularly computer-literate," she adds.

connection service will be resumedwithin an agreed timeframe, in BT’scase 24 hours, although it expects toincrease this to eight hours soon.

SDSL (symmetric digital subscriberline) is another option. This 512Kbps

Broadband service issues

The revolution in IT and theinternet has brought affordable,widely available technology to

small and medium-sized enterprises(SMEs), allowing them to compete withthe largest companies in terms of profileand productivity. With a website you cannow have a global presence and almostinstant communications 24 hours a day,no matter what size your business. Butan increasing reliance on IT createschallenges: namely, how to keep criticalsystems up and running, and how tosolve problems as quickly as possible.

Large corporations can afford tohave dedicated IT teams in-house,looking after critical areas of IT infra-structure such as networks, security andbusiness continuity. However, smallercompanies simply cannot afford toemploy full-time IT staff, and waitingfor a consultant to arrive can mean lostorders while they’re stuck in traffic. Sowhile there’s no doubt about the bene-fits broadband can bring to your busi-ness, you need to adopt very careful andeffective management of your network.What are the key things to consider?

Security is clearly a big issue forSMEs and large corporations alike. Butyou may not have the budget to employa dedicated security officer, whose soleresponsibility is maintaining thenetwork, according to Chris Lindsay,manager, new broadband propositionsat BT Business.

Firewall protection“Security needs to be taken seriously,”he says. “It is essential that companieshave firewall and virus protection andthat they are updated regularly. At itsmost simple, if you think of a broad-band connection as simply a communi-cation pipe, you have to control whatcomes in and what goes out.”

Sean Stephenson, head of productsat Pipex, agrees: “A firewall and anti-virus and spam solutions should beimplemented as a first step to helpkeep hackers, viruses and worms atbay,” he says. “Anti-virus solutions scanemail and quarantine infected items.These services are updated the instantviruses are identified.”

He adds: “Just as important as phys-ical IT security is staff education. Eachcompany should produce and imple-ment a computer-use policy, to ensurestaff understand the risks of openingsuspect emails or downloading materialfrom the internet.”

With broadband becoming central

with swiftly and effectively. Anti-virusand anti-spam products should beimplemented on top of a managed fire-wall to provide further protection.”

The growing maturity of the broad-band market has produced a variety ofsolutions for SMEs that mirror thoseused by much larger businesses.Getting broadband is not just a case ofgetting a fast connection in and out ofyour business – the availability of highbandwidth allows the remote provisionof all sorts of sophisticated security andother IT services.

Managed security supportHaving a broadband connection to amanaged backup and storage systemmeans you can be just as easilyprotected from unforeseen circum-stances due to loss of data as any well-equipped large corporate. And whilethe always-on nature of broadbandmeans you are more exposed tointernet security issues, ISPs areresponding by providing managed

22nd March 200514

to firms like yours, maximum uptimeand rapid fixes are essential. These areoften delivered by remotely managedsupport solutions offered by ISPs.Managed services take the hassle out ofrunning security programs on yourcompany’s network because the solu-tions are managed by the ISP and needno intervention from you. This allowsyou to focus on the day-to-day runningof your business, rather than having tospend your time checking whetheryour networks are being looked after.

Managed firewalls are one example.“These work in the same way as stan-dard firewalls,” says Pipex’sStephenson. “They prevent hackersfrom accessing a computer networkand damaging or stealing data, andusing the system to pollute or attackothers. They are managed remotely bya team of dedicated security expertswho work around the clock to ensuretheir customer’s firewall configurationis always up-to-date. This means anyattempted security breaches are dealt

Safe &soundThere are a number of things to consider when integrating broadbandinto your wider network. Resources need to be optimised and you need to take a good look at security. Antony Adshead reports

Each company should produceand implement a computer-usepolicy, to ensure that staffunderstand the risks of openingsuspect emails or downloadingmaterial from the internet

Managing broadband networks

as virtual private networks, teleworkingand voice over IP connections into headoffice private branch exchanges.”

You can also use broadband to main-tain your company’s website, but it isnot recommended to host it in-house.With DSL you get enough bandwidthto download what you need, but thereisn’t enough capacity to allow manyusers to access web servers in-house. Itis far better to use DSL to uploadwebsite content to servers hosted by anISP. There are a number of optionsavailable, such as co-location (wherecustomers bring their own servers intoan ISP’s data centre), shared hosting,dedicated hosting or a custom versionof all of these.

security support and features such ashardware firewalls, which can be builtinto a router.

With broadband offering relativelycheap high-bandwidth networking,some smaller users are beginning touse DSL (digital subscriber line)services as a medium for wide areanetworks. While big businesses have tospend big money buying or rentinghigh-speed leased lines, SMEs can useDSL to link parts of their businesses.With high-bandwidth network connec-tions available at reasonable, fixedmonthly costs, SMEs can use DSL tonetwork between their offices. But whatare the main considerations if you’rethinking of going down this road?

“Location makes a difference,” saysPipex’s Stephenson. “BT recentlyexpanded the SDSL [symmetric digitalsubscriber line] network, offering2Mbps, with 500 more exchanges acrossthe country. Really, 2Mbps is theminimum bandwidth a business needsbecause of the applications used, such

22nd March 2005 15

Many SMEs are starting to useremote IT support services from theirISP. Services offered often range from atelephone-based service to talk youthrough technical difficulties or,because of the high-bandwidth always-on capability of broadband, an ITsupport specialist can securely takecontrol of your PC to provide in-depthfail diagnosis and assistance.

One business that has gone downthis route is Whippy’s World of Tulips– a landscape and design business withan online store selling plants andbulbs. Its managing director, ChrisWhippe, relies heavily on IT both inthe field and to ensure customerorders are fulfilled.

Whippe knew that he needed a wayof ensuring his systems were workingwell and that any problems weresolved as quickly as possible. He choseBT Business IT Support Manager,which provides customers with a dedi-cated support team that can talk themthrough how to solve any problems oraccess their desktops remotely tochange settings. It also provides a firstline of defence in the form of an easy-to-use diagnostic tool, which allowsusers to solve simple problems.

Highly trained specialistsThe support team is made up of highlytrained IT specialists who can providesolutions to all software related queries,from setting up an Outlook emailaccount to application failure. Thiskind of service gives you access to thesame type of services as large corpo-rates, but at much less cost. You can payfor it either on a pay-per-use orsubscription basis.

“IT is critical for the success of thebusiness,” explains Whippe. “My laptopis an essential piece of kit for me whenI’m working at customer sites and forevery minute we’re offline we’re poten-tially losing customers. We don’t havethe IT skills in-house, as it’s just notcost-effective because of our size. ITSupport Manager is the ideal solution.”

Since subscribing to the service,Whippe has used IT Support Managerto set up a number of applications,including his wireless network. “Thewhole process only took 45 minutes,with the helpdesk engineer talking methrough exactly what I had to do, stepby step. I just didn’t have the knowl-edge to do it as quickly on my own so itsaved me time and I knew that it wasworking before I even put the phonedown,” says Whippe.

“I think we’re ahead of the gamewhen it comes to IT support. Shouldanything go wrong we have a virtualmember of staff we can call on to remedythe situation, rather than worrying aboutfinding someone when things goeswrong. An online business doesn’t keepto office hours, so we need to maximiseour uptime,” says Whippe. ■

Anti-virus products should be

implemented on top of a

managed firewall to provide

further protection

Managing broadband networks

Wireless working – the ability towork and transmit informa-tion while on the move – has

been one of the tech industry’s mosthyped concepts for the past five years.Yet fears over insecurity and wobblyconnections have soured the vision ofStar Trek-style communication power.But if you’re still a convinced wirelesssceptic, it may be time to change yourmind.

In one respect saying you’re againstwireless working is a bit like being KingCanute: this is a tide that’s just gettingstronger and stronger. In May 2004, TheEconomist Intelligence Unit producedresearch showing that 83% of workersbelieved wireless and mobile workingcreated a competitive advantage, while93% believed it allowed them toimprove customer service. The sameorganisation found that professionalswere spending more hours away fromtheir desks than ever; from around 25%of their time spent on the road two yearsago to an anticipated 42% by 2007.

While your employees are strainingat the leash to get out to see customersthere are other factors fuelling thewireless engine, including work/lifebalance and our changing workforce’sdemographics. The Department ofTrade and Industry (DTI) estimatesthat by 2013, 14 million people – halfthe national workforce – will beworking flexibly, either at home or inremote offices.

No wonder the technology industryis responding. IT analyst firm Gartnerhas estimated that over 50% of profes-sional notebooks will soon have WLAN(wireless LAN, or local area network)capability. This trend is being matchedby service providers, including BT andothers, that are offering Wi-Fi (forwhich read WLAN, but don’t get toobogged down with the jargon at thisstage) hotspots. These are sites, usually

in public areas, where you can beamdirectly on to the internet or corporatenetwork without a trailing nest ofcables.

Combined with the power of broad-band, whether on ADSL (asymmetricdigital subscriber line) or other high-bandwidth connection structures, wire-less working is becoming a cost-effec-tive way of getting your staff out of theoffice but still working. Another hugeadvantage is that it allows users to logon up to 10 times quicker than tradi-tional dial-up or existing mobile accessservices with broadband.

Openzone hotspots“Broadband hotspot services, such asBT Openzone, play the most use as partof a wider implementation of flexibleworking – which might include theability to access your office network viaADSL from home, dial-up from hotelsand Openzone hotspots while on theroad,” says Chris Clark, CEO of wirelessbroadband at BT Retail.

BT Openzone, launched in August2002, is the UK’s biggest example of Wi-Fi, with over 7,500 hotspots open so far.Locations include British Airways andbmi airport lounges, major railwaystations, service stations, McDonald’sflagship and drive-thru restaurants, cafes,PC World stores and leisure facilities plusHilton, Ramada Jarvis and Corus hotels.

22nd March 200516

RightGary Flood examines how best to integrate a broadbandsolution with the latest wireless technologies. What are thebenefits of using such services over broadband? And how doyou get the best from them

Inmarsat, a world leader in mobile satellite communications, has recently upgraded its flexible workingapproach with a wireless LAN from Aruba, which is helping its 400 staff in not only its main London HQbut in branch offices too.

While not new to wireless, the company’s move has helped boost productivity and cut downinterference from other wireless networks near its London base, close to the City.

Inmarsat has used 802.11b wireless technology since 1999. It is undertaking a system-wide migrationto a centralised architecture from Aruba to increase the performance, security and ongoingmanagement of its entire wireless network. Head of IT Peter Smith says: “The new system also allows usto more easily manage and better secure the network from a single physical location, providing a fullview and complete control over authenticated users, as well as guest, security and access policies.”

Case study Inmarsat

And through links with T-Mobile and thework of the Wireless BroadbandAlliance, BT Openzone customers cannow enjoy the benefits of Wi-Fi at up to20,000 hotspots across 12 countries.Users access the service by subscriptionon a pay-per-minute or capacity basis – to

to roam

Broadband and wireless services

wireless network technology),” saysClark. “So wireless doesn’t just meansurfing the web in a coffee shop.”

So how about using wireless to giveyou total flexibility when opening anew branch office? For instance,instead of cabling up all the seats, youcould install a secure WLAN facilitywith a range of up to 100m. This wouldoffer instant connectivity to howevermany employees really need it, and youcan expand or shrink the office asrequired.

find a location near you, visitwww.btopenzone.com/locations or senda text message with town or postcode to81041.

But how is Wi-Fi of use to companieslike yours? The answer has both a nega-tive and a positive side. “Public Wi-Fiwill be of growing interest because, likeit or not, we’re now much more of an‘always-on’ society,” explains Clark. “Ifcustomers start expecting to be able tobe in touch while on the move as partof their consumer or working lives,soon they’ll be expecting an equivalentlevel of service from you,” he warns.

“Wireless means different things ofcourse – it’s myriad technologies,ideally combining classic mobile tech-nologies like GSM, 3G and other newtechnologies like WiMax (metropolitan

22nd March 2005 17

Combine the technology that under-pins Openzone with today’s fastermobile communications options suchas 2.5G (GPRS) and 3G, says Clark, anda solid base for constant high-speed,high-throughput wireless access isalready there. The fact that only a fewsmall and medium-sized enterprises(SMEs) have embraced it is down to theindustry, he confesses. “We’ve confusedbusiness needlessly with all these tech-nologies and terms,” he says. “What thecustomer wants is one bit of kit thatdoes all wireless things, at a singleprice, and which takes away thecomplexity.”

Increase productivityWhile not quite there yet we closer thanever before, assures Mark Blowers,senior research analyst for UK ITanalyst firm Butler Group. “It’s startingto succeed and lots of the buildingblocks are in place. Companies of allsizes should be looking at wireless tohelp increase staff productivity,” he says.

“At the moment, it’s still largerplayers who may benefit the most, butthings are rapidly changing and it maybe best to look to your service providerto give you a managed solution thatcould limit your initial outlay. It’s advis-able to look for solutions that suit yourlevel of company, not sealed-downversions that can’t be changed orcustomised,” he adds.

And don’t skimp on security.Wireless technology has had negativepublicity because of security concerns.The reality is that if the security optionsare all turned on it is perfectly secure,but this is sometimes overlooked indeployment.

This is one of the main aspects ofthe products of Aruba WirelessNetworks. According to the company’sUK country manager, Bob Vickers, thecompany is starting to work with organ-isations like BT to increase customeracceptance of wireless benefits.

“It’s fair to say that people arestarting to do more than dip their toesin the water,” he says of the market.Even the smallest company, after all,tends to have people who need or wantto move around to do their jobs, and it’sa pain to have to constantly alter yourinfrastructure to accommodate that.

“Another aspect is that surprising ornot, more and more people are startingto have wireless technology in theirown home, and are asking why theycan’t have the same freedom in theworkplace,” he adds.

Put it all together and now seems aprime time to investigate the appro-priate wireless solution for yourcompany, whether it’s to take advan-tage of public Wi-Fi, explore more flex-ible internal communications, or some-thing else altogether. One thing’s forsure: very soon King Canute won’t needcables for the back of his laptop. ■

‘Look for solutions that suit yourlevel of company, not sealed-down versions that can’t bechanged or customised’

Broadband and wireless services

that broadband offers regarding flexi-bility. Broadband not only makes formore flexible working, but it can alsoenhance your business offering byenabling 24x7 access to suppliers andcustomers over rich and fast data links.Wherever possible, you would be wiseto seize this opportunity to re-thinkyour business processes to look forgreater efficiencies.

Simple changes can be very effec-tive. For example, emailing invoicesinstead of posting them, and sendingout timely marketing materials. Youcould also deploy videoconferencinginstead of holding costly and time-consuming face-to-face meetingsbetween staff, and with business part-ners and even customers.

Another welcome spin-off frommaking your business more efficientfrom using broadband is that it invari-ably creates a better work/life balancefor employees. For example, staff canwork flexibly around family commit-ments, and job sharing is much easier.

In addition, by removing the employ-ment barriers inherent in demandingthat people work 9am-5pm from one

22nd March 200518

businessBroadband enables homeworking, which in turn allows SMEs to be moreflexible in their business operations and processes. Lindsay Nicollereports on the implications for business efficiency and system security

Flex your

from home

The ability to work at home usingbroadband and still be as produc-tive as when in the office is one of

the most liberating business develop-ments of recent years.

The need to be more flexible andmobile in their business operations hasbecome increasingly important forsmall businesses in recent years, partlydue to the economic climate and partlybecause of the rise of globalisation.However, in the past it may well havebeen difficult for your firm to rise to thechallenge because it was reliant on

dial-up internet connections. Adoptingbroadband enables you to become asflexible and mobile in your operationsas your blue chip rivals, while enjoyingthe same efficiency savings.

But hand-in-hand with the joys ofhome working and greater businessflexibility delivered by an always-oninternet goes the need to maintain andimprove efficiency. So what do youneed to do to ensure you use yourbroadband resources efficiently andsecurely?

You have to seize the opportunities

Broadband and flexible working

set location, you can broaden yourlabour pool. This could potentiallyprovide access to more skilled staffwhose talents are currently going towaste because their personal circum-stances – having a young family or adisability, for example – prevent themfrom honouring traditional workcontracts which insist staff travel to bein one location for a set number ofhours a day.

Allowing staff flexibility in whereand how they work is proven toincrease employee satisfaction, whichin turn improves productivity. It alsoimproves staff retention – being moreflexible in work patterns enablespeople to create a less stressfullifestyle, which they are then keen tomaintain.

On the right trackFrom the employer’s perspective,enabling a more flexible workingarrangement need not mean that staffare ‘out of sight, out of control’.Appropriate management strategies,for example regular reporting and evenvirtual face-to-face meetings via video-conferencing, can ensure that individ-uals stay on the right track. It is impor-tant that staff who work from homestill feel part of a team of peopleworking towards the same end goal.

From the employee’s perspective,using broadband and the rich applica-tions it supports enables them to workfrom home just as if they were in theoffice, accessing all required data and incontact all of the time.

There are also additional benefitsthat stem from freeing staff from thetyranny of traipsing to a central officeevery day. It not only cuts downcommuting time and expenses, but italso saves on office space and runningcosts. Staff are less likely to call in sick –or pass on their germs to others –boosting staff availability. There areeven savings to be made fromremoving the temptation to steal officestationery or use the office telephonefor personal calls.

But the biggest benefit from broad-band-enabled flexible working is theefficiency of communications,according to Chris Lindsay, manager ofnew broadband propositions at BT. Hesays: “Customers cite not having thehome phone line tied up on theinternet, and having access to continualemail from home as a major benefit.”He adds: “I think we’re almost at thesecond stage of broadband adoptionnow, where SMEs are going to startexploiting broadband for collaborativeworking and tighter network integra-tion with work colleagues.” When thisnext stage of broadband adoptionreally starts to kick in, SMEs should seeeven greater benefits from the flexibleworking that the technology allows.

Flexible and team working is the

22nd March 2005 19

Homeworking used to mean taking reams of paper and files home, and being in touch with the officeonly by telephone and fax. But in today’s broadband world, home workers can be ‘virtually’ in the officeand access the same systems and documents as they can from their desks.

This is what James Cunningham, managing director of Coventry-based specialist multimedia agencyStreaming Wizard, has achieved. His two-year-old company provides live webcast services for UK andoverseas customers, including pop stars, corporates and industry membership organisations.

Working from his home office, Cunningham can not only offer the same level of service to customers,but he has also created a better work-life balance for himself.

“Despite my commute to the office being relatively short, I still wanted to work remotely,” saysCunningham. “There are very few things that I do in the office that I can’t do from home. ADSLbroadband has enabled me to make this a reality and opened up a world of possibilities.”

Cunningham chose a BT Business Broadband service, which he installed himself. He says: “It wassimple – just a case of connecting the router, loading the software and entering my details whenprompted. I installed some extra security – firewalls – and then I was up and running.”

Today, Cunningham works from home up to three days a week where he can cover all theadministrative aspects of Streaming Wizard’s business. The office telephones can be diverted to hishome, where he can access emails and documents on the company’s office servers. He can also keep intouch with suppliers and customers using instant messaging, high-quality videoconferencing and voiceover IP links.

“The 512Kbps business service is ideal for my home office needs, and allows me to be ‘in the office’even when I’m working from home,” says Cunningham. “It would definitely be a lot harder, more time-consuming and less profitable to operate without broadband.” He adds: “I can also offer 24x7 supportwithout having to man the office, so my life is a lot more leisurely. There’s actually no real necessity forme to be in the office a lot of the time, other than when I have to meet and greet people.”

Cunningham has this advice for other SMEs: “If any SME doesn’t have broadband now then theyshould get it, otherwise they are going to lose out to their competitors. For me, broadband means I canwork remotely and still compete on a level playing field with my blue chip rivals. I’m winning businessbecause of it.”

Case study: Streaming Wizard

norm where staff operate out of acentral office environment. However, ittakes a leap of faith to believe that thesame rapport and interaction betweenindividuals can be replicated when theyeach work remotely, however clever thecommunications.

Time managementNevertheless, large firms have provedthat effective collaborative working onprojects is possible when staff workfrom home, so long as the manage-ment of people’s time is tightly struc-tured. Just as in the office, there is nopoint scheduling an online meeting todiscuss documents which all can seeand work on simultaneously, forexample architectural designs, if indi-viduals are unable to manage theirtime effectively.

Any company that employs theservices of remote specialists whocould be based anywhere in the worldcan save substantial costs if thesecontacts ‘meet’ and collaborate online

rather than wasting time travelling tomeetings, or emailing/posting docu-ments in a round-robin fashion. Over84% of company directors say they haveboosted productivity thanks to using amore flexible internet connection,according to research carried out bySME membership organisation, theInstitute of Directors (IoD), and broad-band provider Nildram.

High productivity and fast responsetimes to customers are as important toSMEs as to large firms – if not more so,since it can be harder for firms likeyours to grow and retain a loyalcustomer base.

Of course the one bugbear to havingan always-on flexible internet connec-tion is that systems are more vulner-able to security risks.

“Flexible and remote working israpidly creating decentralised andpotentially insecure pools of data,”warns Miles Templeman, directorgeneral of the IoD.

But so long as you deploy firewalls atboth ends of their broadband connec-tion, install anti-virus software andenforce a good electronic securitypolicy among your workforce, the risksare small compared to the businessbenefits on offer.

With your business under pressureto be as flexible and agile in your busi-ness processes as your global competi-tors, being flexible in your working isessential. Broadband enables this flexi-bility.

The technology has arrived. It is up toyou to change your traditional workingculture to exploit it for previously unob-tainable business benefits. ■

Broadband and flexible working

When disability charity Scopeinvested in broadband tech-nology in 2004, high-speed

internet access was only the begin-ning. The charity also hoped thatbroadband would reduce costs, allowstaff to work from home and providesecure access to centralised emailsystems from remote offices.

“We used to have dozens of smallsites where one or two people workedusing dial-up internet access,” saysGurpreet Anand, Scope’s senior datacommunications analyst. “Nobodycould access our Exchange server orcentralised databases, and if there wereseveral people in an office all usingdial-up, the phone bills were huge.”

With broadband access those prob-lems have been overcome, says Anand.Staff can share an internet connection,and the charity has the reassurance ofknowing in advance what its monthlyinternet access will cost. Scope has alsoinstalled combined firewalls androuters to secure each broadbandconnection, and this has allowed staffto remotely access centralised emailand other applications.

“The router includes virtual privatenetworking (VPN) software, whichprovides a secure link from theemployee’s PC to our centralisedsystems,” says Anand. “It allows us toconnect to their computers andremotely administer an employee’sPC if they need technical support."

Using a combined router and VPNhas allowed Scope to deliver enor-mous benefits for relatively little cost.It paid around £100 for a dedicatedphone line at each office, plus amonthly access fee of around £50 peroffice. Additional routers and firewalldevices cost £130 per office, bringingthe total cost to less than £300. In mostcases this investment was recouped inless than 12 months through lower callcosts, although in some cases thesavings were more dramatic.

“At one site eight people who hadused dial-up connections moved to

to provide home working facilities foremployees. Research suggests that homeworkers are generally more productivethan office-based staff, and the companybenefits from lower office costs.

Some companies also don’t realisejust how much broadband could affectthe way they do business. “If you are adistribution company and you move tobroadband, suddenly you have the abilityto offer 24x7 customer service using webself-service or automated emailresponses,” says Choudrie. “However,many SMEs simply don’t know how to setup or run those kinds of services, and sodon’t see the full benefits of broadband.”

The advice from the experts is tospend time considering how broad-band will affect your business beforeinstalling the technology, advises BT’sChris Lindsay, manager of new broad-band propositions. For example, ifbroadband will allow you to offer moreonline customer sales and support,there are packages available designedspecifically to help you achieve this. BThas a business broadband package thatincludes simple-to-use web design andecommerce tools, which in addition tothe broadband connection cost from£5 per month each. If you want toconsolidate staff onto a single internetconnection, there are other packageswhich include multiple email addressesand accounts as standard. If you wantto take advantage of broadband toback-up files securely, BT has a backuptool that creates a secure, online copyof important files and data.

22nd March 200520

moneyMore for your

Sally Flood assesses the keybusiness issues associatedwith broadband. What arethe cost of ownership issuesand how do you construct areturn on investment? Whatare the hidden costs and thesavings that you can make?

broadband and saved us £5,000 in thefirst year,” says Anand.

A growing number of UK homes andbusinesses are realising the potential ofbroadband. According to TelecomMarkets’ Broadband SubscriberDatabase, more than 5 million peoplein the UK now have high-speed internetaccess, a figure that will reach 8 millionby the end of the year. Among busi-nesses adoption is growing rapidly – BTestimates that half of all small andmedium-sized enterprises (SMEs) arenow connected to broadband, and thecompany is signing up 3,000 new broad-band customers every month.

SMEs might be adopting broadbandenthusiastically, but some researchsuggests that not everyone knows howto get the maximum benefit from theirhigh-speed services. Researchers atBrunel University found that compa-nies in rural areas that were usingbroadband for the first time were notalways improving their efficiency.

Novice technology users“SMEs are not always aware of the fullpotential of broadband and so don’talways know how much more quicklycertain business activities can beachieved,” says Jyoti Choudrie, alecturer at Brunel University’s broad-band research centre.

In some cases, Choudrie believesthis is because SMEs are novice tech-nology users and may not be aware ofthe benefits offered by broadband.

For example, broadband can allowcompanies to take advantage of videoconferencing and internet telephonyservices, dramatically reducing traveland communication costs. For manysmall businesses, broadband makes itpossible to use a VPN, which can be used

We found that SMEsare not always awareof the full potential ofbroadband

Broadband business issues.

So you’ve made the big upgrade:you’ve chosen broadband. Allyour staff can now connect to the

internet at those impressive ADSL(asymmetric digital subscriber line)speeds. A turbo-charged businessfuture awaits as you roar down theinformation superhighway. Sorted.

Er, maybe not quite. The reality isthat enhancing your business commu-nications capacity like this doesn’talways mean you’ll have a big increasein quality. Broadband shouldn’t be theautomatic choice for companiesramping up their online capacities.

According to experts includingPeter Sealey, channel director of BT’sSME (small and medium-sized enter-prises) accounts team in its BT Businessarm, you may feel that now you’ve hadbroadband for a while you’re

outgrowing its capabilities and areunsure as to where to go next.

“Broadband is a very flexibleproduct, which suits the vast majority ofSMEs and is used by them for a widevariety of applications,” he says. “It canoffer excellent value for money. Butthere are, of course, situations in whichbroadband is not the most suitable plat-form, especially for the bigger orexpanding organisation. In fact, there’sbeen confusion over combining voiceand data on one line and business-strength transmission of voice and data,which isn’t helping.”

You may encounter problems withsecurity and protecting your companyonline when you move data aroundbetween employees and sites. Also,simple ADSL might not be the rightbasis for hosting your web servers and

This type of service is more expen-sive than straightforward consumerinternet access, but business servicesoffer guaranteed fix times if prob-lems occur, which can be vital. Youshould expect to pay between £20and £345 a month for broadbandservices (depending on the type ofpackage chosen), plus severalhundred pounds for routers and fire-walls where required. You can alsoopt to have your company’s broad-band installed by a BT engineer,which costs between £210–£260.

Lower call chargesThese costs need to be balancedagainst the likely benefits of broad-band to your business. The first savingmost businesses notice is lower callcharges and the reassurance of fixedmonthly fees, particularly where theypreviously relied on dial-up accounts.However, it’s also worth factoring inso-called ‘softer’ benefits, which canbe more difficult to measure, butwhich are equally important.

“With broadband you will enjoybetter reliability and security ofservice, your phone line is no longertied up when you’re using theinternet, and you can create anetwork in the office so that manypeople can share the same connec-tion,” says Lindsay. “All of thosethings mean that, as a business,you’re in a better position to serveyour customers, work with suppliersand grow the business.” ■

22nd March 2005 21

Take controlGary Flood examines where broadband is today and what its limits andalternatives are, and then paints the picture of broadband’s future

The limits and future of broadband

mounting your ecommerce initiatives.There’s also a question about howeffective basic ADSL is for basing thevirtual private network (VPN) you willalmost certainly want to help run youroperations.

But the good news is that organisa-tions of all sizes, and especially SMEs,have a perfectly good range of robusttechnology solutions to help them. Sobroadband isn’t bad for you – it’s morethat faster and better internet-basedcommunications are really what youneed.

Why? It’s partly the nature of ADSLitself. The technology was designedfrom the ground up to allow users toshare voice and data on one phoneline, and also to download information.But if you think about it – the clue’s inthe word ‘asymmetric’ – that means alot less can go up than down. This ismarvellous when as a consumer youwant to play games online or watch thelatest Britney video; but if as a businessperson you want your sales rep inSalford to be able to send back theirmulti-megabyte presentation for last-minute checking, it’s a potentialobstacle.

Actually, Britney might be more of aproblem than you think. “A lot ofcompanies feel they need to add lots ofextra bandwidth, only to find that theyneed it because their staff are listeningto music channels on the work PC,”says Sealey. “It’s just the same as phonemanagement, when we had to stop staffabusing phones by making too manypersonal calls in work hours. If we’renot careful the internet will go thesame way. So look at why you needbroadband – for real business reasonsor just because it’s ‘cheap’?”

In any case, unequal up-and-downstreams are a ground-level feature ofADSL-style broadband. The next issueis that if you go straight on to theinternet as a business without adequatesafeguards, you might as well turn offthe burglar alarms and open the shopdoors. Even at this stage in online pene-tration it’s worrying that so many busi-ness leaders don’t stop to think of thisrisk. Finally, even if you faced acompletely risk-free internet, ADSL is‘contended’ – you share what capacityis currently available (hence the tiredgag ‘the world-wide wait’). Your busi-ness may not always want to wait – norwill your customers.

22nd March 200522

Whatever; let’s explore how you canextend your business communicationsbeyond broadband. That doesn’t neces-sarily equate straightaway with newtechnologies like next-generationADSL, SDSL (symmetric digitalsubscriber line), though this is anoption we will look at shortly. Nor doesit mean sticking to the expensive leasedlines and other older technologies thatyou’ve been seeking to escape from tosave cost.

Instead, talk to your communicationssupplier about bolstering heavy filetransfer between company sites withprivate circuits that can offer greaterbandwidth than broadband. If yourorganisation relies on its website toprovide a lot of content or high levels ofservice availability, explore fixed uncon-tended connections as an alternative.Also, when building that all-importantVPN structure to keep your connectionssecure, look at alternative high-speedand high-data capacity technologies likeMPLS (multi-protocol label switching), aflexible, proven backbone technology.

“Making decisions based on price isunderstandable,” adds Sealey. “But ifyou link 50 sites over the internetwithout enough protection, that’s 50

points of ingress into your company.”Products you might want to investigatefrom BT include BT equIP, IP Clearand MetroVPN: all three take advan-tage of MPLS and are available asmanaged services (for more details seewww.btglobalservices.com/business).

It may also be time to think of thenext logical place to go with broad-band: SDSL. This offers data transferspeeds of up to three megabits(millions of bits) per second of infor-mation. With the right configurationan SDSL solution from BT can offerthroughput eight times that of ADSL,according to Chris Lindsay, manager,new broadband propositions, BTRetail.

SDSL is also a great foundation forapplications that take advantage ofbroadband’s flexibility and power, like‘broadband voice,’ he adds. “Thenumber of businesses using symmet-rical business broadband is increasing.It’s the ideal choice for companies thatare data intensive as it can send elec-tronic information at the same speed asit is received. It acts as a stepping stone,giving those companies that arelooking to create a VPN between satel-lite offices, allow staff to work remotelyor host their own websites and mailservers an easy, cost-effective solution,”he says.

SDSL is also worth considering as itcould be used to connect just as rapidlyto your VPN as to the internet, addsSealey. BT currently offers two SDSLproducts: BT Business BroadbandAdvanced and BT Enterprise Ethernet(see www.bt.com/business/advanced).

Market watchers confirm that broad-band is not just here to stay, but ofincreasing relevance to SMEs. “It opensup VoIP (voice over IP) along with lotsof other advanced communicationservices down one pipe and is startingto let users integrate these applicationsinto their main business processes,”says Mark Blowers, senior researchanalyst at UK analyst firm ButlerGroup. Blowers also welcomes the avail-ability of more and more hosted solu-tions offerings. “This cuts down theinitial cost significantly, which couldoffer a big advantage,” he adds.

So the verdict is clear: broadbandmeans many things and needs carefulunpacking. But it’s definitely theright direction; just make sure youend up with the safest, most appro-priate and efficient technology foryour organisation.

But don’t just trust us. “Ask yourpeers,” says Lindsay. “In your network,the chances are someone has this tech-nology. Talk to them about the realpluses and minuses, what issues theyhad. Then, and only then, look tosuppliers with credibility and a brandyou can trust.” Let’s get you safely onto the information superhighway, inother words. ■

The Workers’ Educational Association (WEA), the country’s largest voluntary provider of adult education,has cracked the issue of broadband as a business platform.

WEA has hooked up with BT’s Business Broadband Advanced service to save costs and increase servicelevels. By connecting to one major server in London critical data such as policy documents and studentfiles from nine UK regions, all of which need constantly updating, can be easily and safely managed, saysWEA’s IT manager, Russell Flemmer.

The broadband option is an upgrade to a more expensive private circuit network, which was costing£12,000 for a 1Mbyte leased line; this cost is now down to £2,000 per connection, at a 2Mbyte basicspeed. "I am very pleased with the performance so far," adds Flemmer.

Broadband services

The limits and future of broadband