HOW TO PREPARE YOUR BUSINESS FOR A WIRELESS SURVEY

Would you like to have better, more reliable, and consistent coverage in your business?

If you're experiencing poor connectivity and spotty Wi-Fi coverage, then it might be time to upgrade your business’s wireless network entirely. One of the first and foremost crucial steps to gauging your current Wi-Fi performance is to have a meticulous survey conducted on your business. If you’re considering enhancing your business’s wireless network, or already have a wireless survey scheduled, here are a few tips to help ensure the survey runs smoothly.

What Is a Wireless Survey? A wireless site survey is an extensive assessment of your business’s existing wireless local area network (WLAN). A wireless survey is an excellent way to measure how your current wireless network performs. After all, it's not always easy identifying where coverage lacks and what needs improvement without being able to see what you're working with firsthand. The survey is able to provide a clear picture of how your current wireless network is performing because it measures signal strength, traffic, interference, along with other key information. These metrics about your current IT network are important as they indicate where improvements can be made. Your IT network is a key component in supporting your business’s success. It should be reliable, secure and efficient enough to enable all the technological needs of today's modern enterprise without slowing down or hampering its progress in any way. And It should have enough power to accommodate your growing workforce. Should you hire more employees, your network needs to be able to support the increasing amount of daily use. When you’re experiencing slow internet speeds or dropped connections, it may mean your network can't keep up with the demands of everyday life, and it’s time for a network upgrade – as these issues can stem from poor hardware. The new network will offer optimal performance after deployment resulting in fewer problems and more satisfaction from everything you do online! A wireless survey is typically performed by an expert from an IT services company, like iDeploy, with assistance of specialized diagnostic software. During a wireless survey, a technician will examine the inside and outside of your building, gathering important network data to then analyze and provide you with a thorough and comprehensive evaluation of what needs replacing or upgrading. In essence, a wireless survey is a snapshot of how your current network performs so your new network provides you with the connectivity and coverage you need. “What Should I Do Before A Wireless Site Survey?” Here are 3 easy ways to prepare, as a business owner, before the day of your wireless survey. Following these tips will help make certain the survey process goes smoothly & without interruption. Inform Your Staff of the Survey The best way to avoid any disruption in daily operations is with clear and concise communication to your employees. This way there won't be any unwelcome surprises. To ensure that there are no interruptions of business during the day, you can schedule your survey after hours. Alternatively, you could have staff members work remotely for the day. Choosing either of these options above will help guarantee our technician completes their survey without negatively impacting your productivity! Clear Cabling Access Points The technician may need to access your business’s network cabling, depending on the survey. If so, you will want to make those access points easy to find. It’s helpful to move all furniture or other obstacles out of the way, and to know ahead of time if there are any access points located in closets. Knowing the location of access points for your business is extremely important, especially if your business spans multiple buildings. Review the SLA of the Survey A Service-Level Agreement (SLA) defines the scope of your survey, and can detail what areas will be included in the survey itself. Sometimes, less used or accessed areas like stairwells and elevators are excluded from a survey’s SLA. If you've reviewed your service level agreement and found that some parts have been left out of the wireless survey which should have been included in accordance with what was agreed upon then it's important to discuss this issue directly with those performing the work. “Why Is It Important To Prepare Before A Survey?” The survey is a necessary evil, but it doesn't have to be an absolute pain in the neck. By preparing ahead of time you can make sure there are minimal interruptions to your employees’ workflow, allowing the day to be seamless. The expert technician may need to set up diagnostic devices around your office or temporary wireless access points. In order to get an accurate reading on how your company is doing, it's important that the equipment isn't moved or affected in any way during testing. The technician will share the results of your survey with you and walk through how they came to their conclusion. The survey is designed to measure your current network's performance in regards to the coverage, traffic and connectivity that you receive. With these measurements and results, we can design a new network infrastructure that will operate at higher levels than your current one. Trust the Experts for Wireless Surveys The iDeploy team specializes in performing comprehensive wireless site surveys that capture all the most crucial data points businesses need to know for network improvement. From there, we’ll design a new network layout that will provide the best performance and support for your day-to-day business operations and future growth.