It’s the dream of many small businesses out there: to go from just one little shop to two little shops, and thus start the process of becoming a major firm with income accordingly. Yet as the number of little shops increases, so too do the numbers of problems. Investing in proper network management systems, meanwhile, can be a big help in managing those growing numbers of problems.
How Does Network Management Help Keep a Multi-Location Business Running?
Using network management tools serves several functions that businesses with more than one location operating.
Improved transparency. When you have to call each branch to learn how things went that day, that’s a lot of time taken up for less return than you need. Network management provides the basic flow of information that details just how things went.
Better standardization. When the whole office runs on the same systems, systems can become specialized. Instead of trying to fix one system in one branch and another in another, the same skills and expertise that fix things at one branch can fix the problems in all.
Extra emergency planning options. An office set up to work over a network can shift functions if need be. If something goes wrong in one branch, work can be temporarily reassigned to another branch while the first problems are fixed.
What Network Management Tools Help Build a Business?
Picking out just which tools should be used can be a challenge itself.
SD-WAN. Software-defined wide-area networking (SD-WAN) offers a way to more readily set up a WAN that allows for better connection between branch offices.
UC. Unified communications (UC) tools not only allow users to see who’s available when—using tools known as “presence” tools—but it also allows those users to communicate more effectively. That’s not only costs saved through time saved, but also improved chances at revenue via development and communications.
Managed Wi-Fi. Managed Wi-Fi systems help keep the internal functionality of the network—particularly the user-facing portions—up and running to their fullest, ensuring business can carry on.
Security tools. Security tools make every other tool worthwhile. Connecting branch offices makes for an opportunity for hackers, and the proper security helps keep all the information where it should be.
How Do I Get Started Building Proper Network Management into My Business?
Putting the right network management in place can be as easy as getting in touch with us at SimpleWAN. We’ve got a wide range of options when it comes to building out the wide-area networks (WANs) you need to make multi-location business happen. So just drop us a line—we’ve got several methods available from email to web chat—and let us help you get started.
