Poor Connectivity Impacting Australian Business Growth: Cradlepoint

Cradlepoint, the global enabler in cloud-delivered LTE and 5G wireless network edge solutions, has published the findings from its global The State of Connectivity survey in cooperation with Censuswide.

According to the report, over 86% of Australian organisations have been negatively impacted by the loss of connectivity in the last year (including financial,
reputational and talent loss), which is no surprise, given that over 50% of businesses experienced as much as 1-2 hours of downtime per week in that period.

Businesses across the globe have experienced significant changes that have required business leaders to quickly adapt and become more resilient; from a global pandemic to inflationary pressures, supply chain disruptions and climate change.

Business leaders are looking for improvements in connectivity to address these unexpected changes and navigate this new environment. Survey respondents agree, with 88% believing that good connectivity
would make their company more resilient to future unexpected changes.

This highlights how connectivity is paramount to business resilience, as well as how key decision makers are placing it as a high priority for the modern enterprise.

Adequate connectivity isn’t just crucial for an organisation’s resilience. Respondents also believe in connectivity as a fundamental element in addressing access inequalities across Australia’s industries and varied geographies.

The State of Connectivity survey found that more than 83% of organisations feel that rural areas are being left behind in medical innovation due to poor connectivity. Furthermore, over 85% of organisations in the education sector believe that poor connectivity is holding back students from developing the skills they need to succeed in a modern economy.

Lastly, sustainability is high on the agenda for Australians and Australian organisations. This was evident in the survey results, with 68% of business leaders saying that poor connectivity held back their sustainability projects in the last 12 months. This number was even higher for some industries, with 75% of public transport and supply chain/ logistics organisations saying that poor connectivity was holding back organisational sustainability projects. Nearly 85% of respondents agreed that the current energy crisis had increased the need for smart buildings and over 82% are considering using IoT devices to make workplaces more energy efficient.

In response to the survey, Nathan McGregor, senior vice president Asia Pacific at Cradlepoint, said, “The findings from this survey highlight how crucial adequate connectivity is for many aspects of life and business in Australia today. Enterprises desire to be agile and withstand unexpected changes, to innovate and reduce their environmental impact and to eliminate unplanned downtime, which has come at a significant business cost to many of them.”

Other interesting survey findings:

>81% of businesses trust their network to reliably and securely share sensitive data

Nearly 90% of businesses agree that network security is important to their business

>1/3 of businesses operate more than half their day-to-day business in the cloud

Nearly 90% of businesses agree that the Australian government should do more (funding grants/ incentives) to support innovation (similar to the previous 5G Innovation Initiative) locally

>63% of businesses agree that 5G is more secure than broadband

>56% of businesses believe that cellular/ mobile networks are more complex to manage than fixed wire networks. FACT: Cloud-based, remotely managed Wireless WAN (WWAN) networks are simple to manage centrally, from a single pane of glass.

>50% of businesses believe that they need to rip and replace when upgrading their network.
FACT: Cellular WWAN can work together with legacy solutions businesses already have in place.

State of Connectivity is based on the findings of Censuswide research of over 5,000 respondents across the UK, France, Germany, The Netherlands, Spain, Italy, Mexico, Canada, and Australia. Australia only data is based on a sample size of 500. Respondents were business owners, C-level executives, or senior managers at businesses with over 250 employees; all were technology decision-makers.

Vertical sectors polled in this report included: Building, Arts & Culture, Education, Finance, Healthcare, HR, IT & Telecoms, Legal, Manufacturing & Utilities, Retail, Catering & Leisure, Travel and Transport, Government, First Responders, Public Transportation, Automotive, Building Management, Supply Chain & Logistics, Maritime, and Agriculture.