From the printing press to the electric lightbulb, innovations have driven the world into today’s increasingly tech-based arena. Business and the marketplace constantly push for better, faster, more secure technology. Recent research from CompTIA found 30% of businesses are focused on managed IT services, making it the number one business solution on the market. From e-commerce and customer services to backend operations like supply chain management, it’s clear that technology is the key to unlocking success.
Many businesses are too small to focus serious resources on IT though. Even technology companies need a dedicated IT team to streamline manual processes in the business. System glitches can be the downfall of any company, and systems solutions from managed IT services provide proactive maintenance to ensure a stable and reliable business system.
Costs of System Downtime
IT doesn’t generate revenue like sales, so it’s easy to dismiss it. However, resources allocated to IT are a proactive investment to avoid potentially massive business losses. The IT department is the backbone of any company’s operations. When systems are breached or go down, it causes a catastrophic domino effect for the business.
Below, we’ll go over some of most common and most costly financial losses caused by a lack of IT support.
1. Direct Costs of Downtime
Lack of IT resources can cause system downtime, forcing employees to follow an inefficient manual process. Due to a lack of proactive work, the recovery time is also affected. Each minute the system is down is costly.
According to Gartner researchers, IT downtime costs companies an average of $5,600 per minute, although that number can increase as much as $2.5 million, as was the case with the New York Stock Exchange when it went down for four hours back in 2015. When British Airways’ systems went offline for one holiday weekend in 2017, it cost the company about $68 million in passenger reimbursement costs.
Managed IT services proactively keep systems running by monitoring network usage and issues in real-time. If a potential outage is detected, remote servers can be brought online to keep data redundancies in place and ensure business continuity.
2. Indirect Costs of Downtime
Some costs associated with system downtime are harder to calculate. For example, the University of California in Irvine found each time a workflow is interrupted, it takes the average person 23 minutes to refocus and get back on track. This leaves a business running at less-than-optimal efficiency after any issues are corrected.
Another study from Forrester Research found only 31 percent of IT budgets are allocated to new projects because the other 69% is spent maintaining and operating existing systems and equipment. This leaves companies at an innovation disadvantage that’s hard to make up.
Focusing resources right now on managed IT services is an insurance policy against future outages. When routine maintenance is performed regularly, system resources are freed up to focus on the future of the business.
3. Cybersecurity Risks
The most harmful part of not having dedicated IT support is the vulnerabilities to business systems. Cybercrime is estimated to cost businesses over $2 billion by the end of 2019. Without managed IT services, current system solutions can be easily compromised by something as simple as a late update.
Of course, updating enterprise systems isn’t as easy as it sounds. A simple Windows update has been known to crash personal computers, and these run without the complicated proprietary systems on enterprise computers.
Federal and state-specific data security laws also bind businesses. These regulations govern the steps every company must take to secure customer data. More devices than ever are connecting to business networks, from office equipment to wearables and employee-owned devices.
Managed IT services are necessary to keep track of which devices are connected and secure the network. Updates are tested in a secure test environment before being rolled out, and it’s all done in an efficient manner that prevents 0-day hacks.
Streamline Business Solutions with Managed IT Services
ImageNet specializes in managed IT services. Everything from budget creation and compliance analysis to regular updates, 24/7 network monitoring, and dedicated service make it easier to streamline your business.
Managed IT services go beyond simple technical support or fixing malfunctions as they happen (although technicians are available for this too). ImageNet proactively monitors and administrates the entire network to protect businesses on a holistic level.
Services include everything from securing a network to providing device management, document management, equipment maintenance, troubleshooting, and even secure, off-site cloud computing and data backup.
Whether setting up a business network for the first time or setting up data redundancy in a significant enterprise, ImageNet’s professional consultants work with clients to create the most reliable systems solutions.
Contact an ImageNet consultant today to find out how our managed IT services can streamline your business and make IT simple, effective, and easy.