Tag Archives: #SoftwareUpdates

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.

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.