Ensuring Business Continuity

Having a reliable internet connection is absolutely essential for any business these days, no two ways about it. And now, with MadChef in your corner, being online at all times is more important than ever. We recognize that we need to set you up for long-term success because, simply, we depend on it. So, here’s what we think are the necessary steps to getting your business internet awesome. 

First, we cannot stress enough that you choose an internet plan that provides high speeds, dedicated 24/7 customer support, and ideally a service-level agreement for uptime. What is that you ask? A service-level agreement essentially promises a certain network availability to a customer. For example, it might promise a network availability of 99.999% and allow the customer to reduce their payment by a given percentage if that is not achieved. For the mathematically disinclined, that works out to roughly 5 minutes of downtime per year, which is very impressive. It is by no means necessary, but it is nice to have that peace of mind. The monthly cost associated is usually very reasonable and the benefits are substantial. 

In addition to that internet plan, signing up for a good wireless plan for all your staff’s mobile devices will prove invaluable very quickly. But first, choosing the right wireless plan for your business starts with finding the provider that has the best coverage in both your area and in the areas you deliver. Here’s why: by default, your warehouse staff will be connected to the internet through your wi-fi network on any given day, just like you. But your delivery drivers on the road will only be connected to the internet through that wireless plan. So, reception on the delivery site will be vital. That is reason number one. Reason number two is that you should have cellular data as a fail-over solution. What do we mean by that? If your wi-fi happens to stop working, say for a few hours, you’ll still need to continue your operations without a hitch, for your sake and your customers’.

Let’s explain that a little further. You’ve probably noticed that when you’re at home or work your cell phone is connected to your wi-fi network as well as to the 5G (or 4G LTE) network. This allows you to essentially be on the internet and receive phone calls at the same time. However, those two wireless connections are distinct from one another. One is provided by your internet service provider (like Xfinity) and only offers data while the other is provided by your cell phone carrier (like AT&T or T-Mobile) and offers both voice and data. 

As a side note, your phone is designed to give priority to a wi-fi connection since there is no cost associated when transferring large amounts of data. However, once you’re on the move and outside the wi-fi range, your phone automatically switches to cellular data through 5G (or 4G LTE).

For the purposes of a software application like MadChef, both of these connections offer enough bandwidth for normal operations even where reception is not optimal. However, it is far less likely for your cellular connection to stop working altogether compared to your wi-fi connection. And this is due to the redundancy inherent in the cellular network. Cellular networks were designed to have overlapping tower coverage. If access to one cell tower is lost, there is a high probability of another tower taking over. 

Unfortunately, a traditional wi-fi network relies on a single node or gateway to function. Your devices will only be connected to the network for as long as that centralized connection point is live. The moment that connection point is down, your connection to the internet is lost—meaning no more Netflix or TikTok videos. Luckily, though, connections are now more reliable than ever, and uptime is guaranteed for the most part. But if that wi-fi connection goes down for some reason and you don’t have a backup one, your operations will be somewhat disrupted. So, here is where that amazing wireless plan that you purchased will come in handy and save the day. The warehouse staff will automatically be connected to the 5G (or 4G LTE) data network if no wi-fi is available, so that issue will be taken care of right away. As for everyone else in the office, simply turn your cell phone into a mobile hotspot, and you will be able to provide enough bandwidth for everyone’s laptop or desktop computer. And when your connection is restored, deactivate that hotspot and all your devices will automatically connect back to your wi-fi.

Now that we’ve broken things down for you, let’s examine the following scenarios of connection glitches so that you are better prepared when the unlikely happens.