For a small business, a basic Wi-Fi setup may provide all the performance needed for daily functions. But as your team grows, so does the demand on your network.
What may have once worked well for five employees may not perform as reliably when you have 10 or more employees connecting to the same network throughout the day. As your team grows, the number of devices, amount of data, and demand placed on your Wi-Fi will also grow. Video calls may become less reliable, file transfers can slow down, and employees may begin experiencing inconsistent connectivity.
This isn’t necessarily a problem with your internet provider or a sign that your Wi-Fi has failed. In many cases, it’s simply a matter of your network no longer being designed to support the number of users and devices relying on it.
When you think about adding a new employee, you might think you’re just adding a new computer. In reality, you’re probably adding far more than that.
For example, each employee might have:
A new employee can easily mean 3-5 new devices connecting to your network. Hiring 10-15 new employees can mean dozens.
Your Wi-Fi must keep track of all these devices and continuously send data back and forth. The more devices you add, the harder your network must work to keep up.
When more employees and more devices are relying on the same connection at the same time, there is greater demand for the available bandwidth.
Everyday activities like video conferencing, cloud applications, file transfers, software updates, and accessing shared files all use bandwidth. When multiple employees are doing these things at the same time, your connection may not have enough capacity to maintain the performance your team expects.
For a small business with very few employees, a basic Wi-Fi setup may be all that’s needed. But as your team grows, overall day-to-day work grows as well. It’s vital that your network grows alongside it.
If your Wi-Fi worked great with five people but struggles with 15, that’s not necessarily a sign that your Wi-Fi is unreliable. It’s a sign that your business has changed and your Wi-Fi must change along with it.
Having Wi-Fi problems in your office? Our IT support team can help identify whether the issue is bandwidth, wireless coverage, equipment, configuration, or network design while recommending the right solution.
