According to the Atlantic: WHY SO MANY COMPANIES ARE REVAMPING THEIR HEADQUARTERS
“When Expedia Group moved to its new headquarters in October of 2018, it said goodbye to its conventional office space in Bellevue, Washington, and entered a transformative corporate complex on Seattle’s waterfront. In making the move, the company joined a growing wave of major corporations like McDonald’s Corp and LinkedIn, in reimagining the corporate center — and making significant investments to do so.
New physical spaces such as Expedia’s signal a fundamental shift: a philosophical and strategic evolution in how companies conduct business in the 21st Century. According to Rita Gunther McGrath, a professor at Columbia Business School and a corporate strategy specialist, “The buildings symbolize what the company is going to achieve.”
Today, new headquarters are designed for functional collaboration and knowledge sharing—but without an immense bureaucracy or overhead.
In other words, compared to the compartmentalized and formal corporate structure of the last millennium, these reimagined company headquarters engender entrepreneurial spirit and collaboration. Key to this new work style is a mobile business office with the latest technology that allows different departments or even outsourced teams to be mobile and easily collaborate. In this kind of mobile office environment, employees will no longer be confined to the same desk or conference room. To ensure productivity and uninterrupted collaboration, a stable and strong WiFi service with high speed internet access is a basic requirement.
What is the impact of insufficient WiFi and network speed to the enterprise?
People assume that when their devices are connected by WiF in their office, they will have good network access. Unfortunately, it is not that simple. A sub-par WiFi service may be adequate for casual web browsing or sending/receiving emails, but it can negatively affect the operation of the company in several ways.
1. Inability to utilize high quality multimedia communication services
Today’s multimedia real time communication services such as Zoom, Skype or Teams, and Cloud PBX telephone services like EVOX require a stable, high speed WiFi connection. Without a reliable WiFi connection the voice or video will experience intermittent drop outs, which lead to unproductive meetings, a loss in office efficiency, and employee frustration.
2. Difficulty with bulk data transmission
When employees need to upload or download large amounts of data, the lack of a good WiFi connection will affect work efficiency or even cause data loss. Some companies resort to throttling internet service to select departments in order for urgent data transmissions to complete on time. This can lead to loss of productivity, disgruntled employees, and degradation to customer service.
3. Interference by neighboring WiFi
Since almost all companies now have their own WiFi service, competing radio signals will often overlap or interfere with each other. In multi-story commercial office buildings, this can be a case of “survival of the fittest.” If your company ’s WiFi signal is not strong enough, you will need to upgrade your network equipment to survive! Without good WiFi coverage, not only employees will suffer, it creates an unprofessional appearance to customers or business partners visiting your office. Good WiFi service has become a basic requirement for any professional office.
Before 5G becomes ubiquitous, upgrade your company's WiFi
The migration towards mobile office has accelerated because of two factors. Formerly the stuff of science fiction movies, technologies such as smartphones, smartwatches, or smart homes are now widely available. And, more importantly, employees and enterprises want to work when and where they are most productive and thus demand a more flexible and mobile work environment. For the mobile office to function properly, a good wireless network is a basic requirement.
Some people may ask: Why not wait for 5G? Yes, 5G will indeed be the future, but for most companies, the most efficient way to mobilize your office is to upgrade your WiFi network now and not wait for 5G to be in everyone's office corners.
The most common office WIFI problem and solution »
