If you’ve checked out our latest blogs, you’re already aware that internet performance monitoring is an essential component for businesses looking to provide reliable, connected services for their employees. Once you have the monitoring system installed and ready to go, how do you translate the raw data that you collect into actionable information?

Let’s take a closer look at what your Wi-Fi performance metrics are really telling you.

What is Being Measured

  • How specific applications perform
  • The speed of the network
  • The amount of bandwidth available
  • The ability to stream video without interruption
  • The amount of time it takes to transfer a file from a device to the cloud and vice versa

Basically, you’re looking at how each application is impacted by the quality of service available, and how well the Wi-Fi performs when being used for different types of applications.

Why is This Information Important to Know?

Knowing and understanding what your Wi-Fi performance metrics are telling you is key to understanding and managing how services perform. Since your business operations are dependent on the successful use of applications, any bottlenecks or interruptions to connectivity would slow down your business.

Further, having quantifiable data helps in cases where employees complain about your company’s Wi-Fi performance. This data gives you an objective view that can help you support, or refute, their claims regarding service quality.

By opting to not monitor your Wi-Fi performance, you risk your business performance. This can be particularly costly if you’re providing connectivity services directly to customers or if your business relies on transactions delivered over your Wi-Fi network. If your Wi-Fi is not meeting the expected standard or your service provider is not delivering to their Service Level Agreement, you are not only paying for services you’re not receiving, but you’re also likely losing business advantage to your competition.

Establishing Benchmarks

Data becomes more insightful over time, especially once you establish benchmarks of performance. Benchmarks are used as a reference point to compare current data points to historical data sets; they are statistically valid and collected over a period of time; they can also help you determine if or where your Wi-Fi is over- or under-performing.

Final Thoughts

In business, it’s critical to be able to test and measure your Wi-Fi across different applications because a single metric or two may not paint the whole picture of the overall performance of service. A complete suite of internet performance measurement tests provides a variety of metrics like network quality, application use quality, and radio environment; capturing all three of these dimensions can help you manage your business, understand your relative performance, and provide you with a competitive advantage.