IT disruptions can cost 16% of revenue!
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According to some stat's recently released by IBM, the bottom line negative impact of IT disruptions can cost a small business as much as 16% of it's annual revenue. At first, I thought 16% was high but then I started thinking about what disruptions really means or can include with the end result being down time, lost revenue and unproductive time for you and staff.
We are so dependent on our computers today, that if/when our IT systems go down, even for an hour, people's productivity tends to drop dramactically, if there is any at all during that time frame. For example: if your system goes down for just an hour and you have a staff of 10 and the average hourly payroll costs are $30 per hour, you just lost $300 from yoru bottom line. That does not include potential lost business.
What does disruptions mean/include? A few examples are: power outage, ISP service down, hardware failures, viruses, spam, printer problems, network connection problems, software error, fire, water or even a cup of coffee spilled on an important piece of equipment, etc.
As you can see, the likelyhood or odds of a disruption that can cost you money is high, so what can you do about it? Start by following 2 methods - the KISS method (Keep it simple s....) and Murphy's Law. I suggest you start by identifying the top 3 potential distruptions that YOU think are the most plausable. Second: Answer this question: WHat will I do if that scenerio occurs? You may not know the answer right away and seeking knowledgable assistance may be well worth any minor costs. Have a plan in place including easy access to phone numbers of providers, passwords, back ups, etc. Once that is in place, target the next 3 and follow the same procedure and so on.
How deep should you plan? That is your call! In one of my Telecom companies, I had the top 12 scenerios covered and Murphy's Law holidng true - 13 occurred - go figure.
The bottom line is exactly that - the bottom line. If you think about all the time, effort and expense you go through to generate revenue/sales and the % portion of actual profit - addressing some of these scenerios ahead of time is one of the best ROI's today!
