For some, a sudden break in operations may be an opportunity to sit back and relax until everything gets fixed. But if you’re an IT manager or part of a company’s administration, you would know that this period of stillness is gutting your enterprise: a thing no one should be relaxed about.
Downtimes lead to losses due to an inability to fulfill customer objectives. Consequently, they put your business behind in terms of performance, especially if they occur regularly. Cost Of Network Downtime, This reason, in particular, explains why some cybercriminals instigate attacks in the first place. By causing enough of a disturbance, they throw a wrench in the works, forcing your company to go on standby while your competitors stay on track.
From these facts alone, you can tell that your business should do everything it can to return to optimal efficiency after a shutdown. Since most of these incidents are the result of digital interference, it’s best to connect your IT department with a reliable IT company in Baton Rouge or your area. With their help, you can fortify your digital infrastructure and mitigate losses due to network downtime.
If you aren’t convinced, here are more ways Cost Of Network Downtime To Your Business:
1. Loss Of Productivity
As mentioned before, a deliberate attack on your digital systems can put a stop to your regular operations. The longer it takes to get back to normal function, the more time your workforce ends up wasting while idling. Cost Of Network Downtime, What could have been used to continue pursuing client relationships and making good on transactions ends up lost.
This inevitably leads to delays in your deliverables and reductions in your overall work output. Even if you do manage to get back to normal operations after a long while, you’ll also have to deal with the large gap you now have to fill in. That causes time crunches that can make your workforce crash, which adds another layer to your overall problem of lack of productivity. Of course, in most cases, you still have to pay your employees, which can tremendously impact your bottom line.
2. Loss Of Revenue
This is where network downtime hits a business the hardest. Cost Of Network Downtime, The most noteworthy instance of this comes from the 14-hour shutdown of Facebook in 2019, which reportedly cost the company USD$90 million in revenue. This has yet to include the cost of their stocks plummeting as soon as investors got wind of the news.
Loss of revenue should be expected since you can’t meet customer obligations at all. In the retail sector, the malfunction of a point-of-sale system can easily be addressed by going back to manual transactions. But in an e-commerce store, downtime means your customers won’t have access to your products.
3. Loss Of Opportunities
When your platforms turn inaccessible during Cost Of Network Downtime, you can only imagine the number of potential customers who have been eyeing to transact with you going to your closest competition instead.
This is true even if you have scheduled advertisements running on other places like social media. They’ll see your ad, but clicking the link will lead them to nothing. This is a hot lead turning cold as you scramble to bring your operations back online.
4. A Damaged Reputation
Going back to the story mentioned above, the social media giant had to deny reports of DDoS or distributed denial of service as this could potentially ruin its reputation.
Consequently, Cost Of Network Downtime, it’s safe to assume that most of your current client relationships will suffer in the wake of a shutdown. If you can’t address their needs through other means, they might lose interest in choosing your brand in the first place. No amount of PR can change what they’ve experienced with you.
5. Post-Recovery Expenses
Sometimes, key components get compromised altogether during downtime, like databases and transfer platforms. Cost Of Network Downtime, You’ll have to cover the repairs and replacements you need to make, as well as any refunds made by disappointed clients, just to get back to usual business.
If the cause of your network downtime is a cyberattack, you can find the root cause of the breach by hiring a reputable and experienced cyber forensics investigator. Naturally, this will cost you. At the same time, you’ll have to comply with their suggested future security measure recommendations to prove that you will take this matter seriously.
6. Litigation Due To Unfulfilled Obligations
Most business transactions involve contracts with strict terms on meeting client obligations. If you fail to comply with them because of network downtime, there’s always a chance that the other party will sue for damages. Cost Of Network Downtime, This is particularly costly both for your finances and your firm’s reputation.
How Can You Avoid Network Downtime?
There are two things every business owner should do to avoid network downtime. These are:
Having a business continuity plan –
A system of prevention and recovery strategies from known and unknown threats that could potentially harm the business
Investing in a solid IT infrastructure –
Building a solid line of defense and investing in sound infrastructure to support business operations
You need to consider many things to truly make these work for your systems, and other steps may be involved in your particular case. Nonetheless, Cost Of Network Downtime, these go a long way in preventing your operations from grinding to a halt every time a system failure happens.
Takeaways
If you don’t do anything to address network downtimes before they happen, you risk compromising your business. Planning, acting proactively, and investing wisely are your most potent weapons. Cost Of Network Downtime, Start partnering with an experienced IT provider or reviewing your current systems and strategies to stay protected.
