Productivity

Wireless LANs can improve the bottom line of your business by increasing individual employees' productivity up to 22% (NOP World - Technology, Fall 2001).

That's because uninterrupted access to the network means:

• More time is effective - 70 minutes extra each day, because wireless workers stay connected to the network for up to 1.75 hours longer
• Improved accuracy - 63% say it helps them perform everyday tasks better, and report accuracy improves by an average of 50%
• Job satisfaction - 87% of respondents believe Wireless LAN improves their quality of life, with 43% overall believing that this improvement is significant

Fast return on investment
Companies report an even faster return on their investment than expected (NOP World - Technology, Fall 2001, see chart). And this was without factoring in gains in productivity, accuracy and employee satisfaction.

Here's an example of how quickly your company could recoup its investment in a Cisco Aironet WLAN solution, based on a study by Sage Research Inc. The typical cost of deployment of the Cisco Aironet 350 Series for 100 employees would be (units in USD):

Cost of deployment	Amount
Hardware Cost 10 Access Points 100 Client Adapters	$7,490 $16,900
Subtotal of hardware cost Installation cost (30% of hardware cost)	$24,390 $7,317
Total cost	$31,707

Assuming WLAN saves each user 4 hours per week, and the average cost of employees is US$15 per hour, the saving will be:

Employee cost	Cost savings per week
4 hours x $15	$60 per employee
$60 per week x 100	$6,000 per 100 employees

So for this sample of 100 employees it will take little more than 5 weeks to break even on the cost of the investment:

Cost of deployment	÷ Savings per week	= Break even period
$32,000	÷ $6,000	= 5.33 weeks

After 5 weeks, the WLAN will continue to enhance productivity and boost the bottom line by US$6,000 per week, $24,000 per month, $288,000 per year, continuously. And the wider the deployment, the greater the return.