The technology-driven business environment would never appreciate downtime. It can have severe consequences, which can be seen through lost opportunities, decreased revenue, declining customer trust, and reduced productivity. That’s why you need effective IT support. It can proactively prevent downtime by efficiently monitoring and taking preventive steps.
Before moving ahead, let’s figure out the meaning of downtime and why it is important. Then, you can discover its benefits.
Introducing Downtime
Downtime refers to periods or durations when a system, service, or business operations are out of service. This non-functional state is caused by maintenance, technical glitches, or unexpected failures. This inactive phase can result in a loss of production, which means no revenue for that duration. It also shakes the trust of the customer.
The Importance of Minimizing Downtime
As aforesaid, downtime can be incredibly costly. Even Gartner has found that the average cost of IT downtime is $5,600 per minute, which is massive. If you multiply it by an hour, the amount will be a whopping $300,000.
Who will ever want to lose this money? For sure, nobody. So, you need some IT solutions to eliminate downtime.
Key IT Support Solutions to Prevent Downtime
Let’s share some proven IT solutions to get rid of downtime and its complementary losses.
1. 24/7 Monitoring and Support
Machines require consistent monitoring. It is typically required if you want to detect any severe breakdown, and address it before it escalates. IT engineers in the support team use various advanced tools to capture accurate network performance insights, server health, and applications’ functionality round the clock.
TechBeacon found that 76% of businesses that rely on 24/7 monitoring see an exponential decline in downtimes. Certainly, consistent and continuous monitoring raises the buzzer when there are any anomalies emerging so that the glitch can be fixed timely without having a major adverse impact on operations.
2. Proactive Maintenance
Many IT companies provide regular maintenance of IT infrastructure, which encompasses software and hardware health checks and updates, system optimizations, data management and backups, etc. These efforts ensure that systems continue to optimally perform. This proactive approach helps to get rid of major potential system failures and performance bottlenecks.
Consider the findings of IDC, which reveal that businesses preferring proactive IT maintenance witness a 40% reduction in critical IT issues. Proactive maintenance can guide action in order to prevent potential threats that can lead to long downtimes.
3. Disaster Recovery Planning
A technical disaster can hit anytime. So, you must be ready with a comprehensive disaster recovery plan. It has the capacity to eliminate the possibility of downtime because of unforeseen disasters, such as pandemics, natural disasters, cyberattacks, and system failures. IT engineers can assist in developing and executing this plan to restore services in a short period of time.
The Ponemon Institute reported that 95% of businesses with such plans hardly take hours to overcome downtime, but not in days or weeks.
4. Data Backup Solutions
Data backups are a proactive step to retrieve crucial records. Regular backups are something that you cannot skip. This practice is a step against data loss, which also ensures the continuity of your business. IT support experts often use automatic backups every weekend or fortnight to secure precious data across all systems and applications.
Acronis conducted a survey, which revealed that 70% of businesses implementing automated backups experience significantly less downtime because of data-based issues.
5. Cybersecurity Measures
Did you protect your IT systems from cyber threats? NO! It’s critical to prevent downtime. IT support experts, execute comprehensive security measures, such as establishing firewalls, antivirus software, deploying intrusion detection systems, and regulating security audits.
6. Help Desk Support
Efficient help desk support must be in place so that IT issues can be resolved in no time. This practice minimizes technical glitches in daily operations. The help desk can also provide assistance with immediate effect through multiple channels, such as phone, email, and chatbots.
A report by HDI clearly states that 87% of businesses with efficient help desk assistance experience low downtime because resolutions are provided swiftly.
7. Network Management
Proper network management ensures seamless connectivity and smooth performance. With IT support teams, it has become way easier to track network traffic. Likewise, managing bandwidth and resolving connectivity errors can be done through communication remotely.
Cisco’s annual internet report highlights that those who host proactive network management see 37% fewer network-related downtimes.
Benefits of IT Support in Preventing Downtime
Increased Productivity
The biggest benefit of preventing downtime is to ensure efficiency and glitch-free performance among employees. This incident never lets the productivity and efficiency graph slide down across the organization.
A study by Forrester Research indicates that businesses with effective IT assistance are likely to experience a 20% increase in productivity among their employees because of minimal downtime.
Enhanced Customer Satisfaction
Customers feel satisfied when they seamlessly access IT support solutions, which is possible if the downtime is minimal. It certainly makes customers happy.
Considering the Salesforce findings, it is obvious that 89% of customers are more likely to trust and stay loyal to a business offering consistent and reliable services.
Cost Savings
Proactive IT assistance can help minimize downtime, which ultimately reduces the financial losses connected to operational disruptions. This incident also reduces the cost of emergency repairs and recoveries because they are minimal.
Competitive Advantage
Competitive advantage can be gained through uninterrupted business operations in the market. If you have reliable IT support, you can meet customers’ demand and also respond to market prospects immediately.
Another report from Gartner Research states that companies with minimal downtime are likely to stay 10–15% ahead of competitors in revenue growth.
Conclusion
In essence, IT support services are appreciated for being helpful in reducing downtime. Businesses invest massive amounts of capital in maintaining their network, software, hardware, and datasets. It helps them navigate the technical glitches effortlessly while minimizing potential challenges. Overall, IT assistance is fruitful and valuable if you want to scale your business, win customers’ trust, and reputation in the market.
