How IT Downtime Harms Small Businesses

IT downtime has the potential of disrupting many facets of a business. These could include the length of the outage, revenue loss, damaged customer relationships, and the number of employees that get affected. According to a survey by Gartner, IT downtime costs can average up to $5,600 every 60 seconds. Let's look at how IT downtime harms small businesses. 

Most businesses today depend on access to online communications and services. Ranging from customer-facing support systems and task management systems to virtual chat software and email, the loss of network access has the potential of bringing a business's operations to a screeching halt. With many companies, especially smaller businesses having to rely solely on applications in the cloud, this can spell disaster for the amount of time that the network access is unavailable. In such a scenario, access to affordable on-demand IT support from a company like USWired in San Diego can help address the issue quickly.

For companies that do their business online, the loss of their network service implies that their customers won't be able to purchase their products or services. Fewer customers result in lesser revenue as a result of these lost opportunities. Furthermore, suppose the organization's business model depends on network availability to deliver their service. In that case, downtime of their website may result in the company not connecting with their existing customers. Since technology has changed consumer behavior in recent years, these lost opportunities may permanently hamper business growth.

Today customers look to have a firm assurance that they can access products and services as and when they need them. In a few cases, companies give this assurance in the form of Service Level Agreement (SLA) uptime contracts. These contracts may have specific language about financial remuneration in case of server outages. Extended service outages may end up financially costing the business in terms of SLA payouts. Furthermore, as more and more business is carried out online each year, such costs will, in all probability, increase over time.

Data loss or exposure due to server outages is a nightmare scenario for many businesses. Even though many service providers have a data backup policy, unexpected loss of network access can result in unpredictable consequences. Essential files may get corrupted or damaged, and failure in network security can lead to cyberattacks compromising or destroying critical business data. Even if data has been backed up securely, sudden inability to access the data can result in panic, leading existing customers to lose confidence in the company and seek out reliable services from their competitors.

IT downtime can also affect a business's reputation and brand awareness. Even though losing network access can result in immediate pain in terms of lost opportunities and productivity, prolonged system downtime may lead to harmful long-term adverse effects on a company's brand. If customers regularly come across cases of server outages making it difficult for them to use a company's services or their product, they'll end up stopping from consuming them. Not only that, they may also share their negative experience with other customers. This bad word of mouth can spread like wildfire, pushing away potential customers. As a result, the affected business will need to scramble all over the place to rebuild its reputation and brand image.

Companies must have sufficient contingencies in place when an IT downtime occurs. Doing so will help the most costly consequences of the downtime. The first step is to prioritize responses to ensure that core business functions are restored before non-essential ones. After the event, a postmortem of the circumstances that led to the downtime is essential. It is also vital for businesses to schedule disaster recovery drills to prepare for any future cases of IT downtime.