Nowadays most businesses rely heavily on their computers to automate daily processes and communicate.  And as much as they do, there are still some business owners that take their computers and uptime for granted. 

Uptime is an opportunity to take small precautionary steps that can pay off big in the long run. 

Let’s look at the effects of downtime:

1)      Production slows or stops.
2)      Revenue is lost.
3)      Opportunities can be missed.
4)      Overhead remains.
5)      Hefty repair bills await.

When a business’ computers stop working, so do they.  And when business stops, the money stops coming in and quickly starts hemorrhaging out. 

Your landlord, the state, and your employees are all still getting paid during downtime.  Just because your business stops doesn’t mean your rent isn’t due at the same time at the end of the month.  Employees may not be productive, but you’re still going to owe them a paycheck at the end of the week.  When you’re down, everything else keeps going.  It’s like running out of gas in the middle of a race.

Here’s a real life example of how downtime can cause an opportunity to be missed:

Last year my father called up one of his suppliers to order parts.  The supplier’s computers were down.  (They’re NOT clients of mine.)  The sales rep. couldn’t tell what was in stock or even quote a price!  My father dropped my name and then hung up to call another supplier to get the parts.

In this case, the supplier didn’t just miss an opportunity, they damaged their reputation.  They don’t take their business seriously, so why should we take them seriously?  How many times will this happen before that supplier ends up on the bottom of my father’s list?  …or off the list entirely?

The worst part of this whole mess is the fact that you’ll have to pay someone to make it better.  It’s not going to be easy.  Computer guys aren’t cheap.  And the more you need them the more they charge.  When they get a distress call from a customer, they have emergency charges and elevated labor rates.  The worse the problem, the higher they can charge.  Now you may say, “That not fair!”  Let me share something with you.

These big disasters are almost always a result of either little or no planning.  This type of business owner has consciously decided not to be proactive.  They simply don’t take their computers seriously.  All they ever want to do is patch and fix, but never improve or prevent.  They want to feel the downtime to justify spending money on their computers.  Believe me, they feel it.  And a special type of IT service provider has evolved around this type of reactionary thinking.

Here’s one more real life example of one of these IT service providers in action:

Recently an associate told me about his server crashing in his office.  This is always a very big deal.  Files were inaccessible, email was down…business was interrupted in a big way!  The solution was to replace a major component in the server. 

Oftentimes when leading up to a disaster, one will find errors in the event log suggesting something is wrong.  In this case, no one was getting paid to monitor the event logs so the warnings went unseen.  Most likely this disaster could have been averted, and the company would be in much better shape.  Now the company has invested even more money in an aging server when it probably should have been replaced.  How much longer will the server last until it needs to be replaced?  When will the next component fail?

They got hit by their IT service provider.  The repair was huge and so was the bill.  This type of IT service provider leeches off of the misfortunes of a company.  They profit when the company is at its worst.  I don’t see how they could have their clients’ best interests at heart.  If they gave their clients 100% and even a little more to preserve uptime, they’d go out of business.

I put myself on the same side as my clients.  I get paid to preserve uptime.  All of my skills, talents, and technology are aimed at minimizing and even preventing downtime.  It’s more profitable for both me and my clients.  I do whatever I can to ensure their systems stay up and running their best, and my client doesn’t incur the overwhelming expenses that downtime can produce.  This allows my client to be more profitable because they experience little or no downtime at all.  I profit when my client profits and I suffer when my client suffers.  My clients and I have a mutually beneficial relationship. 

Most people take uptime for granted.  I liken this to the oil in a car.  You don’t wait until your engine seizes before you change your oil.  By that time, its’ too late, and now the whole engine has to be replaced.  But if you had spent a little time and money before to change the oil, you wouldn’t have the expensive repair or the wasted time.  Be proactive! The same is true for your computers.  Why wait until your computer completely breaks down to service it?  Invest in uptime — it pays in dividends.

© 2010 Engler Information Technologies, Inc.

Posted in FEATURED Proaction
1 Comment Posted by Chris Engler