Business Continuity and the Real Cost of Tech Breakdowns

Today’s businesses have become increasingly reliant on technology to optimize efficiency and get ahead of the competition. However, despite this, there is still the threat of tech breaking down from different issues that loom. These pauses in operations obviously lead to decreased productivity and profits. Aside from this, there are other hidden costs associated with tech malfunctions. Despite this, there are some things that can be done to ensure business continuity.  

Results of Business Continuity Breaks  

As mentioned above, the tech stops and slowdowns greatly affect business continuity and company production. A break in the company server, for example, would bring office operations, data retrieval and updates to a staggering halt. This downtime becomes the start of a domino effect that would affect all departments eventually. Ultimately leading to bad customer service, decrease customer satisfactions, decreased company reliability and tarnishing business reputation. And those are just the immediate inconveniences. Sadly, it does not end there.  

Long-term repercussions would follow, and unfortunately, these would last longer than desired. Unhappy customers, for example, would lead to decreased loyalty and will trim down your customer base. Similarly, within your company, having constant tech issues results in bad staff experience. This eventually will lead to lower morale and create an undesirable work environment overall. 

Business Continuity: Real Cost of Tech Breakdown

Decrease Disruptions in Business Continuity 

Admittedly, no one can prevent tech breakdowns 100%. To aim for such would not only be futile but also frustrating in the long run. However, there are strategies that can be applied in order to decrease the effects that these disruptions cause. Below are some that your company should consider implementing. 

Get Reliable Infrastructure 

This means, in investing in hardware and software to use for your business, think of quality first before price. Good quality hardware, for example, usually has an accompanying after-sales service and warranties that can decrease or eliminate costs in case of breakage. Similarly, software must come from reliable sources with a good track record of being up to date and providing security patches regularly. Lastly, to decrease costs in the long run, check for applicable systems that are scalable. This means, you can increase volume quickly during peak seasons and can bring it down just as fast during off days.  

Back-up, back-up and back-up 

This means everything that has to do with your tech should have a second line of defense or source in case the first line breaks down. This includes cloud storage, backup servers, alternative internet providers. 

Cybersecurity should be a priority 

Invest in your team of cybersecurity professionals to put in place reliable layers of defenses against threat actors. This may include firewall, passwords, MFAs (Multi Factor Authentication), encryptions, network segmentation, among other things. Similarly, there should be constant monitoring for quicker response time in the event of a breach. 

Preemptive maintenance 

Instead of focusing on how to resolve a breakdown, take proactive steps to prevent it from happening. Update software periodically and do regular maintenance of the hardware.  

Staff Training 

Providing staff with the knowledge and skill they need to tackle minor technical issues allows them to be your first line of defense during breakdowns. This empowerment would increase morale since they are enabled to resolve issues and get back to work quickly. As a result, it decreases the need to constantly call on IT support, enabling them in turn to focus on more complex issues. 

Create Disaster Recovery Guideline 

There should be a complete and comprehensive plan that staff and admin can refer to in case of business disruption. The break can either be from a data security breach, natural or civic disaster, among a myriad of possible causes. The plan must have step-by-step instructions on how to access data so that business continuity is achieved quickly.  

Get Help from Reliable Business Continuity Experts 

A business continuity and contingency plan is one of the most important aspects of having a good cyber security posture. Similarly, having a contingency plan that promotes business continuity is also helpful in cases of disruptions from natural disaster or civic unrest. To properly put these systems in place, have a team of experts to assist you.  

They can conduct thorough assessments of existing infrastructure and workflows, identifying vulnerabilities and devising customized strategies to fortify system reliability and performance. They can also provide ongoing support and monitoring, swiftly identifying and resolving issues in order to decrease potential impacts on business operations.

We do this with our clients every day. Schedule a consultation with us so we can create your customized plan of action.

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