The Business Benefits of Next Generation Access for Small and Medium Businesses
By Nigel Stagg, managing director, BT Business

The impact the internet has had on business over the last decade has been immense, and with faster speeds this impact will continue to grow.

In one of the largest surveys of UK small businesses in 2009, BT Business found that nearly two thirds (61%) of business owners believe that faster broadband speeds have had a positive impact on their business, and a quarter (25%) think it could make them even more competitive.
However, with BT due to start introducing super-fast broadband in some areas in the New Year, there remains some confusion as to what next generation access (NGA) is and, more importantly, what the everyday impact will be for SME's.

NGA refers to increased broadband speeds. One example is super-fast broadband which is due to be rolled out to some areas next year, and is likely to increase broadband speeds seven-fold and upwards. But what does this mean for small businesses?

NGA will support faster and smarter ways of working, and will bring specific benefits to a range of sectors. For a start, faster speeds will help businesses to collaborate and take advantage of the latest videoconferencing, videostreaming and audio-conferencing suites such as BT MeetMe - in short, it will equip businesses to send high-bandwidth information via the internet. In the age of flexible working, seamless remote access will help businesses increase productivity and staff retention by equipping staff to work just as effectively out of the office, whether that's from home or on the move.

Faster speeds will also have specific advantages for sectors that rely heavily on sharing data. Architects, for example, might use the increased capacity to discuss designs by video link between their offices; lawyers could take client briefings without having to meet in person; and medical professionals may be able to introduce remote diagnosis, and share data and specialist experience more easily between practices.

NGA will support new business applications, and new ways of marketing and communicating that will cut business costs and allow firms to better compete in the UK and overseas. BT's Tradespace service, the UK's first business social networking site, is a prime example of this. With NGA, businesses will be able to use social media tools like video hosting to boost SEO and give a more professional 'face' to their web presence.

In addition, with NGA a host of daily work tasks, like sharing large files, will be far easier, faster and more cost-effective. Likewise, NGA will make it possible for businesses to access information, services and applications in the cloud, which will remove huge infrastructure costs, making IT a far less daunting overhead. Whilst this has its benefits for businesses of all sizes, smaller companies and start-ups in particular will benefit from having access to the IT services they need at a fraction of the cost - which is only going to enhance the UK's creativity.

Commenting on how access to the cloud will help his IT training company, Bill Walker, commercial director at QA, said "At the moment, we have to configure more than 1,000 computer terminals every week and provide a lot of support for that. With faster, more robust broadband, we could provide much of this infrastructure through a single hub, accessing software 'in the cloud' on the internet to provide applications and software updates as they are needed. We wouldn't need to have all those individually-managed computers. They could in effect be replaced by dumb terminals that obtain their content and are managed and supported over the internet."

In short, when it comes to the web, NGA promises to level the playing field for businesses, so everyone can benefit from fast connections and high speeds - not just the larger corporations with dedicated lines and large IT budgets. And it will prove key to delivering on the government's Universal Service Commitment on internet access, as outlined in Lord Carter's Digital Britain Report earlier in the year.

In terms of the roll-out, BT recently unveiled plans to introduce speeds of up to 40Mbps to 40% of homes and businesses in the UK. And the success of current trials in Muswell Hill in north London, and Whitchurch in Wales, means that UK businesses will be seeing the benefits very soon.

Source: conferencingnews.com