Ekahau Report
Impact on business caused by unreliable Wi-Fi connectivity.

The digital acceleration brought upon us since the beginning of the COVID-19 global epidemic
has affected virtually every aspect of our lives and impacted most businesses. In a time where
interconnectivity has never been so crucial, most organizations have found themselves relying
even more on Wi-Fi networks.

Ekahau’s 2021 report on the Global State of Business Wi-Fi points out that over 70% of
enterprises across all industries deal with “poor performance” from their wireless network. Of
these respondents, a whopping 90% reported needing wireless troubleshooting.

Problems in wireless network architecture come with expensive consequences: Gartner
estimates that, at the enterprise level, a single hour of network downtime can cost up to
$540,000. According to Ekahau, major complaints include employee connectivity and
productivity disruptions (52%); negative customer experience (22%); trouble with Wi-Fi-
connected hardware or software manufacturing malfunctions (13%); IT is criticized (13%). This
proves that the lack of a reliable wireless network design is bound to impact all aspects of
businesses from behind-the-scenes operations to customer service and satisfaction.

Ensuring a dependable wireless network architecture is all the more vital now that thousands
of businesses worldwide have been pushed towards a hybrid or remote-first working model. Not for nothing, 82% of survey respondents find that the pandemic inspired decision-makers to
become more aware of their connectivity needs.

How is the New Normal impacting the healthcare sector?

Much like many other industries, the healthcare sector has recently become even more reliant
on Wi-Fi. Compliance with Health & Safety rules such as shelter-in-place orders and social
distancing has resulted in the acceleration of telehealth and an increased need for healthcare
mobility. What’s more, these changes are not likely to disappear once the pandemic resolves.
On the contrary, a 2017 collaborative study on Wireless Communication Technology In
Healthcare expects a healthy compound annual growth rate of wireless technology in the
healthcare business between 2019-2025. By 2025, The Internet of Medical Things (IoMT)
alone is expected to generate a whopping $6.2 trillion in revenue. Similarly, telemedicine is
projected to continue to grow well beyond the current COVID-19 epidemic.

There is no shortage of reasons to invest in wireless technology for healthcare. Having the
right Wi-Fi tools at your disposal will ensure your ability to rapidly adapt to an ever-changing
healthcare environment. Much like all things in life, strategic and upfront planning, assessment,
and designing of your wireless network architecture are paramount to your strategy.

Wi-Fi best practices encompass all stages of the creation and maintenance of healthy wireless
network architecture:

Design: The identification of areas of improvement for the creation of a strong network for your
business.

Validation: Aimed at testing the applied changes against the existing environment and
objectives.

Optimization: Designed to maintain high levels of Wi-Fi performance.

Troubleshooting: The remediation of specific connectivity problems.

Troubleshooting is arguably the most important element of the Wi-Fi lifecycle in the short term.
In the report, 37% of respondents blame wireless quality for their connectivity problems, against 33% of problems attributed to channel interference and an 8% to an incorrect number of AP or APs locations. As for the long run, design and validation are almost unanimously considered tobe the most impactful stages of the Wi-Fi lifecycle.

Pre-deployment site surveys are also key to a successful Wi-Fi strategy: 30% of the Wi-Fi
professionals in the Ekahau report recommend a monthly site survey during times of healthy
network to increase on an on-need basis.

Interested to know more? Click here to read the 2021 Ekahau on the Global State of Business
Wi-Fi report now.

For more information about Clinical Mobility’s Lifecycle-based wireless engineering services,