Superfast Broadband Business Projects

There are several funds and grants for businesses in Cornwall and the South West, to use superfast broadband to generate job and growth. Grants of up to £50,000 are available, but it is not always obvious what kind of projects can be done with superfast broadband to generate growth. Here are some examples of the kinds of projects that can be undertaken using superfast broadband for business.

What Sort of Projects Can Be Done?

Marketing: The technology that superfast broadband makes possible can help businesses access new markets, or provide them with a competitive advantage in terms of technology. Using superfast for certain technologies can require making changes to your website, and can therefore help cover the cost of upgrade or re-design.
A faster connection can allow lot of different types of content to be downloaded or accessed on your website, such as video, audio files, or brochures. Hosting a site on a superfast connection also has other advantages. Server speed is considered by search engines (such as Google, Bing, Yahoo) when ranking pages in search results. Having a superfast connection to your website might therefore give some advantage.

Website Systems: Superfast broadband can be used to speed up advanced functionality such as ecommerce platforms or booking systems. Superfast can also enable the use of better communications with customers, such as by means of instant messaging or chat features.

Business Systems: Superfast broadband enables businesses to move data and software to ‘the cloud’. The benefits of cloud technology are that it allows for remote access and working (more on this below), but it also enables businesses to speed up access to information. Employees can share data, and keep up to date with the latest version of files whilst avoiding duplication. The cloud functions that superfast makes possible include Google Docs, Google Apps for Business, Evernote, and Dropbox.

Business Structure: Superfast broadband basically allows more data to be uploaded to the internet more quickly. This means that businesses that typically deal with a lot of data, or large files, can work much more quickly.
Some of the other benefits of superfast broadband relate to the actual structure of businesses using it. A superfast business is more flexible, in that a superfast connection can promote remote and flexible working. If files and data are easily accessible, then employees can more easily work whilst away from the office or at any time of the day or night.

Communications: Superfast broadband can be used to help businesses communicate better. Employees can communicate better between themselves; with suppliers and with customers. The kinds of communication systems that superfast allows are video conferencing (such as skype, or Google+ hangouts), or internet telephone systems (VoIP systems).

Our Experience: We have helped our customers gain superfast business funding for projects that have added cloud functionality to their websites, and so enabled them to undertake a redesign/build.

Resources: More information on the types of projects that can be covered by superfast business funding can be found at Superfast Cornwall or Superfast Business.