The Sources Of Business Downtime You Should Be Preparing For

There is no such thing as the business that is going to be working efficiently 100% of the time and expecting that much is an easy way to see yourself failing to meet your targets. However, that said, you should be aiming to reduce downtime as much as possible. Here, we’re going to look at some of the most common causes of business downtime, how they can affect your business, and what you can do to combat them.

Some of these sources are going to directly affect business operations and resources, but others are personal sources of downtime that can affect you and your employees.

Blackouts and brownouts

They might not be the most common thing in the world, but when they do hit, they can cause a huge disruption, especially if they take more than a couple of hours to fix. If your business is hit by a power cut or any other power supply options, what can you do to keep it up and running? The best option may be to make sure that you don’t need to rely solely on energy from external providers. Setting up a backup power supply, such as a battery pack or an emergency generator can see things kicking into action mere seconds after a power cut hits, allowing you to keep working.

Losing your network

The vast majority of businesses now rely on the internet to operate, be it in little ways or large. For that reason, if you’re finding that you lose access to your network repeatedly, it can become a serious interruption that becomes too costly to bear. Having an IT team check out your network set-up for any faults should be the first step and, beyond that, checking to see if any competing providers offer a more reliable service should follow. However, backup internet connections from teams like Morefield Communications might be able to help you ensure that you can stay online when your primary network is down. This can be especially important for any businesses that use unified communications systems, such as wiring their phone networks through the internet.

Electrical faults and failures

There may be issues with the power supply and electrical equipment in your business, but it’s not always down to blackouts or similar losses of power. The more electrical equipment you have in your business, the more likely that you are to run into problems with electrical problems. What’s more, you might find that the average residential electrician might not have the experience or expertise to help you deal with said faults. Teams like Caslec Electrical & Data are more likely to be better equipped to help you get your business back up and running. Make sure that you have the contact for a local electrician that is able to get out as quickly as possible to help you get back up and running.

Data breaches and their massive impacts

While some of the interruptions here can be costly due to the nature of reducing business productivity to zero, there are few that can have consequences as serious as a data breach. Many businesses are asking customers for data and collecting it to better help them gain insights on how to serve their market. Experiencing a breach that puts this data at risk can shut down your business, but it can also put it at least risk. Invest in the appropriate IT security provisions to protect the data that you keep. Beyond that, look into the crisis management plans that you should have in place to get things back up and running and to start communicating effectively following a breach.

Humans errors and distractions

Usually, when your team isn’t being as productive as you would like them to be, it’s because there is a systemic issue that’s affecting that productivity. However, there are plenty of internal reasons for lost time as well. Errors in work can require workers to go back and fix their mistakes. However, distraction tends to be one of the biggest causes of human downtime. You can help prevent it by creating workspaces where workers are less likely to distract one another, and using tools like Freedom to restrict access to websites that might be particularly time-consuming when it comes to your workers’ use of their digital technology.

Roadblocks and bottlenecks

There may not be a technical or even a personal reason for some of your team finding it difficult to get on with the work that they’re supposed to do. Sometimes, it can be down to a matter of how that work is organized. Your workers can often rely on progress made by other workers in order to get on with their tasks, especially when it comes to large-scale collaborative projects. To that end, you need to make sure that work processes are ordered and organized in a way that prevents delays as best as possible and identifies bottlenecks in the process. Project management tools like Mavenlink can help you ensure that effective communication and planning keep the workload as orderly and reliable as possible. You can’t prevent every delay, but you can do your best.

Note: This is a collaborative post