Professional services cover a huge range of disciplines, from architects to lawyers, accountants and other specialist roles, but whatever their field of expertise, they all use the internet in their businesses. The possibilities brought by Next Generation Access (NGA) are, therefore, manifold.
Architects might utilise the much greater capacity to discuss designs by video link between their offices; lawyers could take client briefings without having to meet in person; and other companies will find a host of daily work tasks easier, faster and more cost-effective.
Email is one example. Sue Burden, director of brand marketing and communications research at IFF Research, a London-based firm that researches business, marketing and public policy issues for government departments and other clients, says NGA will transform the transit of weighty files that are currently too large to be sent reliably as attachments.
IFF, which employs 60 staff and saw sales grow by 40pc to £8.7m last year, helps organisations, including the Central Office of Information, the Department of Health, Eurostar and Tui Travel, evaluate the impact of brand communications and the effectiveness of campaigns. “We send files and databases to clients that may contain months of work, and be 30MB 50MB in size,” says Ms Burden, “but a lot of clients have very much smaller limits on their email and cannot receive them. “We, therefore, have to use filesharing websites that involve us giving a log-on and password to clients who can access material on the internet — but it would be a lot faster if we could just email it direct. “People sometimes have trouble with passwords and access, so we have to go back and work out what’s wrong and it all takes time.
"With NGA, we will be able to just send the files directly and avoid that problem.” IFF also encounters problems sending media material, such as videos of TV adverts, to market research respondents before clients launch campaigns. The adverts often each take up 10-12MB, and six or seven might be required for each session. Ms Burden explains: “Because they’re so big, we have to decrease the resolution of those ads so respondents doing an online study can download them quickly and not have to wait too long. “If they have to wait too long, they get bored and quit the study, and then it all takes longer as we have to go to new people. “With NGA, we will be able to use the material in the high-resolution format in which it comes to us from clients. We will be able to turn around studies faster and pass on the cost savings to our clients.”
In a similar way, Ms Burden says "NGA will help IFF communicate much better with freelance researchers who carry out studies with respondents. “As well as online research, we also do a lot of research with hard-to-reach groups of people who don’t necessarily have an internet connection. So, we do this research via freelance researchers. “These people are based all over the country, and NGA will enable us to get the materials they need for doing their interviews to them faster and much more reliably. “We have to send stimulus materials around the world. Knowing that we can do that straightaway, no matter what the file size is, will make life a lot easier. “NGA will also allow us to use better-looking graphics in presentations and it could change the way we do videoconferencing. At the moment, we use external providers, but with NGA we would be able to possibly install our own videoconference facilities, rather than have to go around the corner.”
Time to ‘go plural’
Bill Murphy, managing director of BT Business, believes that NGA will change the way that people work in the professional services sector. “With professional services firms, one of the things we’re being asked about is flexible working. I’ve heard of organisations running their sales operations from Starbucks because they could get highspeed internet connections there,” he says. “There are huge shifts going on in terms of giving people more flexibility in how they work, and NGA will only enhance them. It will make business life easier, whether it is by video and voice communications, or getting access to the business online.”
Mr Murphy explains that NGA will strengthen the trend for professional services practitioners to work for themselves or to hold several roles. “It was [businessman] Allan Leighton who coined the expression ‘going plural’ — meaning having more than one job. I can see this being the trend in consulting-type roles. “Industry experts will be able to utilise better videoconferencing and online collaboration techniques. It will make individuals more effective and save businesses money.”