The Hidden Costs of Prolonged Downtime

How much do you worry about the ever-present threat of downtime-causing disasters? The hardest issue to wrap your head around is that the disaster itself is only the start of your troubles; it’s the downtime immediately following the disaster that really layers on the pain. It’s a slow bleed on your network and your business, and it can cost your business thousands if not proactively addressed.

Consider This Downtime Incident

It’s Tuesday morning, and like clockwork, the Internet goes down, leaving your team without a way to do their work for a couple of hours.

Meanwhile, you have your entire staff, stuck at their desks, waiting for a fix that may or may not come. They can’t access the CRM, they can’t send emails, and they can’t process invoices. You’re literally paying them to sit there and do nothing; meanwhile, the costs of their salaries, benefits, and office rent remain the same, all while you’re bringing in zero revenue.

This is the hidden cost of unavailability we’re talking about with downtime, and it’s a business killer, especially in large quantities.

Defining Downtime

Simply put, downtime is any situation where your business cannot operate the way it should.

The causes of downtime are varied, but the most common by far include hardware and software-related issues. Other circumstances can also keep employees from doing their jobs, such as cybersecurity incidents, natural disasters, simple user error, or even a lack of training on how to perform a task. It doesn’t take a major incident to create downtime for your business, but this doesn’t lessen the severity of the issue.

Ideally, you prevent downtime from occurring, but how do you go about this somewhat daunting task? We have the solution: managed IT services.

How Managed Services Address Downtime

Managed IT works to build redundancy into your organization’s workflows using the following methods:

• Automated failovers - You have systems in place that can function as temporary fixes as needed (like a temporary 5G or cable connection when your fiber Internet goes out).
• Proactive monitoring - Take measures to preemptively address a disaster long before it shows itself. You can identify operational issues with servers and workstations, then address them before they become costlier, more expensive problems.
• Standardized workflows - If your team uses the same solutions, devices, and processes, it’ll be that much easier and faster to address their concerns.

You have more power than you think to stop downtime in its tracks, and it all starts by working with Direct Technology Group. We’ll look at your current systems and determine what more you can do to prevent downtime from slowly leeching your business dry. Learn more today by calling us at (954) 739-4700.