Join me in the wayback machine. We’ll set the dial for 1980, the height of production of printed internal communications. There were magazines, newsletters, magapapers, newspapers. These communiques were produced by the corporation, business units, departments and teams. Memos flew through mailrooms and fax machines and photocopiers spewed a landfill’s worth of material.

Paper isn’t cheap—and it wasn’t cheap in 1980—but as the demand for paper-based communication increased, never did anybody put a halt to it, arguing that cost reduction efforts would require the company to reduce its use of paper. Even as recycling efforts began ramping up in recognition of the wastefulness associated with paper use, the need to document words and numbers simply required, in those pre-digital days, that paper be used.

Some of the communication was mission-critical. On the flip side, bulletins flew from copiers to let employees know about discount movie tickets, sporting events and concerts. And no matter what new publication was required, you never heard anybody say, “We’d really love to get that information out to employees, but we just don’t have any more paper.”

It’s no stretch to proclaim that bandwidth is the paper of the 21st century. Many companies have abandoned nearly all print in favor of intranets, email and other digital forms of inteernal communication. And yet organizations by-and-large have not acknowledged that bandwidth is the new paper.

As a case in point, look at Lockheed, which announced a week or so ago that it is blocking access to Pandora and other music streaming sites, online radio stations, and sites that stream sports and entertainment. According to an article in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram:

In an e-mail, Stout did say: “Like other companies, Lockheed Martin is taking steps to manage costs, productivity impacts, security risks and other factors related to employees’ use of the Internet in the workplace. Our policy of blocking some non-business oriented sites to limit bandwidth usage is a natural part of this effort.”

The case for blocking access to these non-work-related sites is easy, even as Lockheed officials expressed remorse at having to do so. The memo employees received noted that these sites account for 10% of Lockheed’s bandwidth capacity, while the company’s bandwidth use is increasing at something like 25% each year.

I’ve had conversations with IT representatives at hopsitals that have—with equal reluctance—opted to block Pandora and other non-work-related streaming sites, citing the impact on mission-critical activities, like moving x-rays through the network.

The reluctance is based on the recognition that morale, engagement and even productivity can improve when employees can listen to music or ballgames at their desks. According to Pierluigi Stella, chief technology officer of Houston-based Network Box USA, quoted in the Star-Telegram piece, “It’s a struggle between the needs of IT—not to spend money on bandwidth—and management’s desire to keep morale up.”

The part that bothers me is “the need not to spend money on bandwidth.”

If bandwidth is, indeed, the paper of the 21st century, companies need enough to accommodate all the various uses to which it will be put. And while I understand that IT, like every other department in an organization, is under pressure to reduce costs, bandwidth runs about $300-$400 per month for a T1 line running 1.5 megabits per second. Some existing companies have access to special offers to increase bandwidth by up to 9 Mbps for $125 per month per megabit.

I know that can add up—especially for a company Lockheed’s size—but certainly a business case can be made. My experience indicates companies don’t conduct cost-benefit analyses when it comes to bandwidth, comparing the expense associated with keeping up with bandwidth needs to the measurable benefit the organization will accrue based on the availability of that bandwidth. Actual dollar amounts can be associated with…

• Improved levels of employee engagement
• Recruiting benefits the company gains from being a preferred place to work
• Improved networking opportunities
• Available bandwidth to accommodate new or experimental services
• Faster response times

I’m sure you could add to the list.

In an era where networks have been the catalyst for eliminating print, being miserly with bandwidth just isn’t a smart business practice. Do the analysis, determine the benefit, and make the business case. “Not enough bandwidth” should never be an excuse.