Understanding the Cost of Downtime

Downtime in the workplace is expensive. There is a lot of research on how much it can cost a company. Some small enterprises are unable to recover from downtime-related costs. This article discusses the many costs that a company can incur as a result of downtime.

What do we mean when we say “downtime“? There are numerous causes for a company’s IT to go down. Let’s say the internet goes down or there’s a power outage. Either scenario could result in a small-scale, short-term outage.

Worse, you could be the target of a cyberattack in which hackers encrypt your information. A data breach or malware infestation may necessitate taking systems offline to address the issue.

Tornadoes and hurricanes are examples of severe weather phenomena that might create downtime. Perhaps the building has a gas leak or a fire, and your company is unable to return to work right away. You may experience downtime if you don’t have cloud-based access to your applications.

It adds up every minute you are without your business technology. Consider the many costs that you might face.

Business revenue loss

Productivity suffers when employees are unable to access business systems or network apps. Your sales staff is unable to close deals, while your product development team is unable to view blueprints. Perhaps a client development representative is unable to attend their pitch presentation.

Costs of remediation

Fixing your company’s technology after it goes down involves more time and resources, which implies higher prices. You may have to pay overtime to the IT crew working around the clock to get you back up and running, or you may have to catch up on areas where you had to perform things manually. This reduces productivity and costs money.

Dissatisfaction among customers

How often do you hear someone apologizing for their slow computer? It’s a familiar frustration when you phone a customer support number. Imagine instead informing someone, “Our systems are down, and we are unable to assist you at this time.” You’ll be adding to the customer’s annoyance. They don’t want to wait till your downtime is over to fix their problem.

Customers will be concerned about personal data or proprietary information being compromised if there is a data breach.

Fees for legal and regulatory compliance

Your company could be in violation of the law and suffer legal consequences. For example, if you work in the healthcare field and your data is stolen, you could face stiff penalties for exposing personally-identifying information.

Brand awareness

Let’s say your payment processor is down and you can’t accept orders. Impatient clients will order from a competitor’s website. They may decide to work for that company indefinitely.

A common misunderstanding is that any press is good press. However, you do not want your company to make the news because of a cyberattack.

Employee motivation

Every business owner understands the value of maintaining motivated and skilled employees. Employees who are irritated by downtime may seek work elsewhere.

Morale and corporate culture may suffer. Turnover may increase. You’ll have to devote time to finding, training, and keeping new employees.

Important takeaway

Don’t rule out the possibility of business downtime. When it comes to technology, dangers are constantly changing. Updates and software upgrades should be kept up to date, and new dangers should be avoided.

Develop backup plans in collaboration with an MSP. To ensure mobile access, an IT Service Provider can assist with the migration of systems to the cloud. MSPs can also take the initiative. They assist you to reduce your cybersecurity risk by doing preventative maintenance.

We can’t guarantee that downtime won’t occur, but we can ensure that you’ll be more robust and able to recover more rapidly if issues develop. Call us right now at 262.912.6404