Category Archives: Manage Service

Understanding Business Downtime

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Professional in an office showing stress while dealing with a business downtime.

Dealing with service downtime

Downtime is a factor that will determine the success of your business. It is the total time elapsed when a piece of equipment or a machine is not functional. There are two kinds of downtime:

Planned Downtime

This kind occurs outside the scheduled business trading hours. Weekends are appropriate for this kind of this downtime. Effective planning for this kind of downtime requires companies to know when their demand cycles occur.

Unplanned Downtime

Unplanned downtime occurs when there is an unanticipated failure of a process or equipment. This kind of downtime occurs when companies are less prepared to address it quickly. It usually occurs at the busiest time of the day.

How Does Downtime Affect Your Business?

The cost of downtime can be very high when not managed. The cost varies from industry to industry. Nevertheless, it does not affect only your income. Here’s how downtime affects different industries:

Manufacturing Industry

In manufacturing, downtime could lead to a lack of raw materials. It will also increase the cost of holding inventory. Manufacturers will experience loss in production during downtime. Reducing downtime in manufacturing will increase your production levels.

Distribution Industry

The supply chain requires an efficient workforce. Employees need to focus on their tasks to increase efficiency. However, downtime leads to issues that divert the focus of employees. It will lead to an increase in labor cost per unit.

Service Industry

Downtime could lead to damage to a brand’s reputation for your service industry. Clients who have had experience in your system could write a negative review of your brand. These clients could damage your brand image further by sharing their experiences with friends and family. It might push away your current and potential clients.

Online Industry

Loss of opportunity can be very devastating. This is usually the case for industries such as online shopping that experience downtime. Downtime could also lead to data loss. Cyberattacks are also common during downtime.

Advertising and Marketing Industry

Downtime causes a loss of traffic for marketing sites. Visitors of these sites also lose trust in the company. It takes a lot of effort and money to rebuild that trust.

What Causes of Downtime?

Knowing the typical causes of downtime helps to avoid future inconveniences. Technology is the leading cause of downtime. In particular, IT downtime is the most popular in businesses. IT issues from any of the following may cause downtime:

Hardware Failure

Out-of-date hardware results in hardware failure. It cannot execute complex applications. This can result in data traffic flow congestion. To avoid hardware failure, replace your old hardware with the latest collection.

Software Updates

Systems and processes need to be updated regularly to maintain their efficiency. However, relying on outdated software will lead to scheduled downtime. Out-of-date software is also vulnerable to bugs. Bugs in a server’s operating system will cause server downtime.

Employee Error

Human error is the most frequent cause of IT downtime. These errors occur when employees fail to follow laid-down protocols. Although human error can not be completely avoided, it can be controlled. You can consider documenting each task step-by-step to ensure that a standard procedure is always followed.

Internet Outages

Most businesses today rely on the internet to deliver their services and products. Internet outages are therefore a significant cause of downtime for businesses. Network congestion and faulty routers are some of the causes of internet outages. Failed link-to-internet provider also leads to internet outages.

Understaffed IT Departments

Businesses require enough IT experts to monitor their network, applications, and servers. Understaffed IT departments are unable to perform tasks effectively. Companies ought to hire dedicated experts to manage their IT needs.

Let Us Support You

Preventing downtime should be a top priority for your company. You need to have a team of experienced individuals monitoring and being proactive to prevent downtime and that is where SystemsNet comes into play. Ensure you contact us today to get started.

Business Continuity: How to Plan for Downtime in Today’s Market

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An IT team on-call working on a laptop while dealing with a company's system downtime.

Building prevention plans for your company’s downtime risks.

Right now, downtime is a concern for nearly every business in all sectors. With shipping delays and material shortages at an all-time high, we are seeing a ripple effect of delays and shortages throughout the entire national (and international) marketplace.

Construction teams can’t finish houses due to lumber shortages. Vehicle manufacturers can’t complete their yearly production due to microchip shortages. Local restaurants are experiencing food delivery delays. Even tech companies can’t keep up with their schedules due to an IT labor shortage.  Downtime can and often does come from delays outside of your control. But what about the downtime that is inside your control?

There is more to downtime than delays. A company experiences downtime any time that services or the ability to work is interrupted. Power outages, road-stopping storms, malware attacks, and even software upgrade failures can all cause downtime. how can your business build a sufficient business continuity plan to prepare for the most likely downtime risks for your sector, industry, and company?

Determine Your Downtime Risks
  • Power and Internet Outages
  • Shipping and Materials
  • Extreme Weather
  • Equipment and Software Failure
  • Failed Software Upgrades
  • Cybersecurity Attacks

Most companies have the highest risk of downtime in the face of digital and technical failures. Power and internet outages are the most profound. But human error, equipment failure, and even failed software upgrades can all take down your business systems at exactly the wrong moment. Cybersecurity poses a rising threat for all sectors while the widespread shortages (from lumber to IT technicians) creates an equally widespread risk of downtime as a result.

Determine which types of downtime are the biggest risk for your company. You don’t have to choose just one. Any significant risk-factor is worth preparing for to create your business continuity plan.

Build a Prevention Plan for Each Downtime Risk
  • Backup and recovery planning
  • Deeper inventory and early ordering
  • Cloud-based data archives
  • Third-party partner solutions
  • Emergency generators and other fallback systems

Now that you have your list of downtime risks, start your prevention planning. A more robust network of backups and fallback systems are exactly what you need to make sure that if one thing goes wrong, your entire business isn’t brought to a halt.

This is your chance to build stronger systems, backup systems, and move many of your solutions to the cloud where a local disaster or device failure can’t damage your processes or backup systems. You might have a second internet provider, an emergency generator, or set up network monitoring so that system failures cannot happen without detection.

Third-party solutions are a great way to provide business continuity by networking your business functions.

Create Response and Recovery Plans: Red Folder Time

What happens if one of your major systems does go down? Your CRM upgrade eats itself and suddenly all your files are corrupted, or a shipment is delayed and production comes to a stop. What next? It’s time to build your red-folder file; your system of solutions should “the worst” happen in any possible circumstances.

Create a solution or network of solutions for every possible type of downtime. This is another place where third-party solutions are idea. It’s always a good idea to call for backup when your local systems are down and you need to keep the doors open and the phonelines on. You may have a bad-weather emergency generator service – those who deliver generators when the power goes out. You may have an IT team on-call to handle your software and hardware failures can be essential – especially if you don’t have on-staff IT to provide solutions.

Build robust backup and fallback systems. Find business continuity partners and work with third parties who can provide that fallback support when your business continuity is at risk.

Here at SystemsNet, we can help you prepare for business continuity for your hardware, software, and cybersecurity concerns. From backup recovery to software update protection, we’ll make sure your system and business stay online so you can focus on your other red folders like supply line and shipping concerns. Contact us today to take care of your technical business continuity planning with SystemsNet.

What Does Downtime Mean for Your Business?

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Two IT technicians having difficulty repairing IT system in a server room - a concept of business downtime.

Your IT system could be the main culprit behind your frequent downtime.

Many business dictionaries agree on the definition of downtime to mean the period in which your equipment, machinery, or workforce is not working. The reasons why you experience it can range from maintenance to technical failure.

This definition of downtime can apply to mainly labor-intensive industries such as construction, distribution, or manufacturing. However, it can also apply to the systems at the heart of your business operations.

Your IT system could be the main culprit behind your frequent downtime. How does this happen? Let’s take a look.

 

Hardware Failure

Wear and tear are inevitable forces when it comes to moving parts of any equipment or machinery. It is not a stretch to imagine that those parts are going to fail at one point or another. This is why routine maintenance is important to keep your equipment in good working order.

Sometimes, though, some of these components can experience a catastrophic failure. Your IT system, which has been monitoring operations all this time, could force your entire operation to shut down. This is to prevent any further damage from destroying your hard work.

The result is unplanned downtime.

 

Software Updates

You’ve probably heard of this statement before, whenever the likes of Microsoft release a new Windows version or major update; let the guinea pigs test out the new software updates before upgrading your own. The purpose is to suss out whether there are bugs that can disrupt your operations or experience.

You may not have that luxury when it comes to enterprise and industrial software. Even with numerous test runs before installation, some bugs may appear during actual operations. The bugs can have various effects on your operations, from silly mistakes and slowing down operations to downright causing havoc.

 

Employee Error

Most modern systems have an IT structure baked into them. It is responsible for the control and monitoring of the myriad components that make it up. While this kind of automation has been important in terms of automating and streamlining production processes, it still needs human input now and then.

That’s where the major weakness lies; with the operator. It is not uncommon to have an employee enter the wrong information into the controls. Depending on the operation parameters, the mistake the worker makes could range from a minor inconvenience to an expensive breakdown both in time and money.

 

Internet Outages

The IT systems running your operations are superb. The level of convenience they offer your company is unparalleled, and frankly, you wouldn’t have it any other way. The best part is, you can monitor operations over the internet, and even make changes when needed.

An internet outage occurring at the wrong time can mean loss of access to information crucial to the running of your operations. Not only does this affect output, but it can also lead to downtime when the system is waiting for input from you.

 

You Don’t Have to Suffer Downtime.

Some things can inevitably go wrong from time to time. However, how quickly you get back up is a great determinant of success. Not only is downtime a loss of productivity, but it also means you have less output for the market. It ultimately ends up impacting your company’s bottom line.

What you require is a team of qualified and experienced experts monitoring your IT systems, and being proactive to prevent your systems from experiencing downtime. That is where we at SystemsNet come into play.

We have designed packages that can suit various small and medium enterprises such as yours. Are you interested in such a program, but have no idea where to begin? Get in touch with us. We’d love to help you succeed.

What does downtime mean for your business

Manage Service, , , ,
Employee working in an office showing frustration over their company's system downtime.

Losing productivity due to device misconfiguration any other system downtime issues?

Nowadays, most companies rely on cloud-based networks to offer their products and services. It is, therefore, crucial to have a solid IT infrastructure. Unscheduled downtime can affect your business in many ways, including reduced productivity, lost customers, reputational damage, and high remediation costs. Whenever the IT system gets downtime, your small business will suffer.

According to research by Gartner, the average cost of downtime per minute is $5,600. For one hour, the cost can go up to between $14,000 and $540,000. However, the cost varies depending on business size and industry. It is crucial to understand how a system downtime affects your organization’s operations.

Causes of downtime

Let’s begin by looking at the causes of downtime. Here are some main causes.

Human error

Human error is a common cause of unplanned downtime. Employees can unplug cables, or delete data accidentally, which could lead to downtime. Fortunately, you can reduce human error through regular training of your employees.

Hardware or software failure

If you are using obsolete hardware or software, you increase the chances of a system outage. Applying patches without testing them first can cause the entire application to become corrupt.

Natural disasters

Floods, hurricanes, and earthquakes can affect the power supply, which can lead to damage. Natural disasters can lead to downtime if they extend for longer.

Device misconfiguration

Configuration errors create security gaps in the network and thus make it vulnerable to cyberattacks. You can avoid misconfiguration errors by automating the process. Make sure you test the configurations in a last before you implement them to your system.

Consequences of downtime

When you are unprepared, you’ll have to deal with the consequences of downtime. The effect of the downtime can either be long-term or short-term, depending on the frequency. Here are some consequences of downtime.

Lost productivity

Losing network access in your business could bring your workplace to a stop. If you are like most companies, then you rely on online communications. Critical systems will become unavailable when there is downtime. You use task management systems, virtual chat software, email, and customer support systems. Your employees will not have work to do when your business experiences downtime. You’ll end up paying rent and salaries even though there was no meaningful work due to the downtime.

Data loss

Downtime not only affects your business but your clients as well. When there is downtime due to cyberattacks, it can result in stolen or damaged data. Any unexpected downtime can expose your customer’s data to cybercriminals. Most companies back up their data to avoid unexpected data loss. Organizations that rely on big data analytics to make their decisions can lose their data resources when downtime occurs.

Lost business opportunities

If you do substantial business online, loss of network means that your customers will be unable to find your products or services. Fewer customers means your revenue will be reduced. A downtime makes it impossible to connect with your customers. Employees will be unable to offer support since they don’t have the necessary tools. Therefore, a downtime can drive away your prospects and existing clients.

Damaged brand image

Customers expect a seamless experience every time. Downtime is unacceptable and delays are just intolerable. All it takes to damage your brand’s image is a single downtime event. When you get repeated downtime, your customers will be unhappy and they’ll leave bad customer reviews.

One way you can minimize downtime is by taking a proactive approach to operations and systems maintenance. With the necessary backups, redundant and rollover, you can easily eliminate downtime. You can get help from a team of experienced individuals monitoring and being proactive to prevent downtime and that is where SystemsNet comes into play. Contact us today.