As your business grows, good communication between employees is needed. You can improve efficiency by sharing information such as common files, databases and business application software over a computer network.

With improvements in network capacity and the ability to work wirelessly or remotely, successful businesses should regularly re-evaluate their needs and their IT Infrastructure. Properly planned, an efficient network brings a wide range of benefits to a company.

You can improve communication by connecting your computers and working on standardised systems, so that:

·              staff, suppliers and customers are able to share information and get in touch more easily

·              sharing information can make your business more efficient – e.g. networked access to a common database can avoid the same data being keyed multiple times, which would waste time and could result in errors

·              staff are better equipped to deal with queries and deliver a better standard of service as a result of sharing customer data 

You can reduce costs and improve efficiency by storing information in one centralised database and streamlining working practices, so that:

·              staff can deal with more customers at the same time by accessing customer and product databases

·              network administration can be centralised, less IT support is required

·              costs are cut through sharing of peripherals such as printers, scanners, external discs, tape drives and Internet access

You can reduce errors and improve consistency by having all staff work from a single source of information, so that standard versions of manuals and directories can be made available, and data can be backed up from a single point on a scheduled basis, ensuring consistency.