According to a study done by Dunn and Bradstreet, 59% of 500 companies surveyed were found to experience not less than 1.6 hours of downtime in a week. Well, system downtimes are common and they can occur due to poor connectivity, hardware breakdown, malicious attacks, software failure, or disasters such as fire and flood. They can be the downfall of your business; especially if you provide products and services to your customers through online systems. Let us look more into how system downtimes can affect your business.
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Less productivity
If you use an online platform for communication and service in your business, then downtime will halt all your operations. For example, if you own an online boutique where your customers order their clothes online, system downtime will stop critical online business activities. If employees in your business collaborate on projects through file-sharing and collaboration tools, then a system failure will draw their work to a standstill. Say you use cloud storage for your documents. In case of a system failure, you will not access your documents.
If your business relies on manufacturing, a system downtime means that the production line and personnel have to stay idle as they wait for the system uptime. All in all, system downtime lowers productivity, which leads to lower ROIs. Remember, you still have to incur expenses like rent, transport, and wages for no work.
Loss of Data
Data loss is a plight that can have a long-lasting impact on business financial health and continuity. Instances like a server crash may lead to damage and loss of data. When the systems are down, your data is more vulnerable to corruption and infection with malware. They can present loopholes for cybercriminals to steal, corrupt or damage your business data.
In case your customer data is compromised, you will likely lose their trust and loyalty. It is a competitive business world and you don’t want to lose your customers to competitors. That is why it is advisable to seek around the clock IT expertise from the right managed service provider (MSP). An MSP with qualified IT professionals and resources will offer IT solutions to protect your data. They will bring your business up and running faster in case of a breach.
Loss of opportunities
If you meet clients, communicate with them, and sell your products online, a system downtime will make you lose loads of business opportunities. According to research by Kissmetrices, 47% of customers anticipate a site to load in not more than 2 seconds. 40% of the customers will leave a page if it takes more than 3 seconds to load.
Another study by Amazon found that a 1-second delay on their page would result in a loss of $1.6 billion in sales in a year. System failure will make the connection between you and your clients implausible. Again, clients are likely to leave your site for a one with better site performance. Thus, your business will lose revenue opportunities.
Reputation Damage
System downtimes and especially those that impact your customers, may damage the reputation of your business. In this digital era where information is accessible and travels fast, a single negative review by your customers may damage your business reputation. A bad reputation will drive your current and potential customers away. Your business may never get on its feet again. That customer trust and loyalty will be quite hard to rebuild.
Possible legal ramifications
They can also lead to lawsuits, legal action, and fines. System downtime can halt productivity and business continuity. Well, your business shareholders may sue your business for being unable to perform duties that your business is responsible for. If a system failure results in the theft of customer confidential information, they can take legal action against you. It will be such a misfortune for your business to engage in legal battles as it tries to recover from a massive system failure.
Closure of business
Do not underestimate the possibility of system downtime resulting in the closure of your business! Massive system downtimes will affect your business productivity and reputation, resulting in less revenue. A business may go bankrupt if it does not generate any income. A costly data breach can also put you out of business.
Final remarks:
System downtimes can affect your business adversely. It is thus imperative to take precautions that can prevent costly system failures. It is smart to seek assistance from skilled IT professionals; they will monitor your systems to ensure that it stays put. They will also identify issues and correct issues that can result in unplanned systems downtime. In the event case of downtime, they will troubleshoot your system and ensure it is up and functional in no time.
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