Next Generation Access will usher in a new era of internet connections, offering high speeds for all, reaping business rewards across the board. No longer will it be just large corporations with big IT budgets that benefit. In the second of six reports, we examine the implications of much faster and stronger broadband — with its additional bandwidth giving far greater capacity — for small and medium-sized enterprises in the education and training sector. Bill Walker, commercial director at QA, Britain’s leading IT training company, believes that Next Generation Access (NGA) can transform his industry. “We’re terribly constrained by the speed and capacity of the internet at the moment,” he says. “A company like ours is completely dependent on the internet but we can’t do a lot of the things that we want to do at present, so we’re waiting for NGA to happen.”
QA, which employs 600 people at its headquarters in Slough and 26 UK training centres, provides IT, management and personal development training for customers including the AA, Royal Bank of Scotland, Microsoft and Zurich Financial Services, through both face-to-face sessions and e-learning. Last year, the company’s turnover was more than £60m and Mr Walker says the company, which is majority owned by private equity group Englefield Capital, is already four times larger than its nearest UK competitor. However, he believes that the introduction of NGA will help it grow even faster, serving customers more effectively and operating more efficiently. “At the moment, we have to configure more than 1,000 computer terminals every week and provide a lot of support for that,” he says. “With faster, more robust broadband, we could provide much of this infrastructure through a single hub, accessing software ‘in the cloud’ on the internet to provide applications and software updates as they are needed.
NGA will help smaller firms manage their operations much more efficiently
We wouldn’t need to have all those individually-managed computers. They could in effect be replaced by dumb terminals that obtain their content and are managed and supported over the internet.” The advent of NGA will also enable QA to improve its e-learning operations — where staff log in from home and undergo training — and to provide better linkages between its training centres, adds Mr Walker. “With training, you have to be very close to your people so it tends to be carried out face-to-face,” he says. “We already operate remote training between our centres, so that people can access courses that are currently only run at certain centres, wherever they are in the country. “But the speed or capacity does not exist at the moment to provide some of the things we want, such as high-speed video streaming.
If you want to look at something useful on YouTube or an online video, you’re going to sometimes hit the buffers and it’s often going to take longer than you want. “If you’re trying to do something live on the internet, such as training, people don’t want to wait. “It’s like the telephone. If you’re going to use it, it has to work well. To do these things in real time on the internet, we really need NGA as soon as possible.”
” There are also internal operational issues that Mr Walker believes can be greatly enhanced by the arrival of NGA. “From a business point of view, faster and more robust internet infrastructure will be fundamental for small and medium-sized firms,” he says. “They cannot afford to have all the infrastructure of large companies. I believe NGA will act as a great equaliser, helping smaller firms to manage their operations much more efficiently.”
“It will be possible for us to do more internal video-conferencing and, in general, we will be able to make the operation of our training a much more efficient experience for delegates. It’s tremendously exciting and a real business opportunity for us.”
Education will be open to everyone
Bill Murphy, managing director of BT Business, believes that education and training providers have much to gain from the arrival of Next Generation Access.
“Smaller businesses will be able to receive and deliver a better quality of online training and education,” he says. “I can also see this transforming how we educate the employees of tomorrow. I believe a greater proportion of degree courses will be delivered in an Open University-style format.
“At universities, lectures and homework assignments are already being put online and students are filing their essays online. Educational establishments will be able to offer both the physical experience of classroom tuition and digitally enhanced services online.
“You will see much more video adoption in universities. Education will be opened up to those who want it. If you have access to the internet, you’ll be able to be educated and you’re going to see more of that, especially for those people who are not in a position to travel.
“As NGA takes off, education will become more and more accessible to communities.” Education will be open to everyone NGA will help smaller firms manage their operations much more efficiently.”