Does my company need Business ADSL broadband?

Sometimes success in business doesn’t hinge on the most effective marketing strategy or the perfect product, but instead on a company’s image. If your business involves customer interaction, keeping up with competitors can be about engaging with the customer effectively – and reliably. Business grade ADSL broadband can ensure smooth customer interaction, with an Internet connection devised to handle the added demand of a company with several employees.

Business ADSL vs. residential ADSL broadband

Given the advances in broadband, and the lightning speed of ADSL2+, you’d be forgiven for thinking that any broadband plan could handle the needs of a business with many employees. However, given a business’ extra demand – and need for minimal (or zero) disruption – business broadband caters specifically for the office environment.

The key differences between residential and business ADSL are:

• Static IP’s – most residential customers don’t have their own IP, rather its taken from a pool of IP’s at the time of each log on
• Tech Support – where residential customers may have to wait days or weeks to have a technician investigate issues, business plans often have same or next day support
• Data – providers recognise that businesses have higher data demands than residential customers, and usually have a much higher data allowance for a more reasonable cost.

In addition to core differences between business broadband and residential ADSL, there are further reasons why you may choose a business specific connection.

Reasons to choose business grade ADSL

If you’re weighing up the difference between residential ADSL and business ADSL and you’re not sure whether or not your business needs to step up to a professional broadband plan, key reasons to choose a business ADSL plan include:

• Extras – the extras available depend predominately on the provider. However these can included security monitoring for dangers like viruses key loggers, spam and Trojans
• Conferencing – some providers can facilitate video conferencing for online demonstrations, sales and other communication needs
• Flexibility – the flexibility of business plans allow you to increase or decrease your service as your situation changes. This is especially important while you grow your business’ online presence

Other key factors include the static IP on business broadband and business ADSL’s improved tech support. These issues can be a high priority for some businesses, so we focus on them in a bit more detail.

ADSL broadband with static IP

A static IP means that your business will continue to connect to the Internet using the same IP address each time. This is particularly important for businesses wishing to host their own web servers, email and Virtual Private Networks (VPN). These combined services give your business the most professional appearance possible and reduce reliance on third parties.

Business ADSL: Tech support

Tech support is one of the main reasons to choose business ADSL and many ISP’s provide 24 hour support hotlines. Instead of disappearing in a crowd of help requests, companies with a business ADSL plan can usually take advantage of a superior business support program. Ensuring that your enquiries are met faster, such programs can minimise disruption to your business and allow you to focus on what’s most important.