Are you prepared for IT failure?

Ever felt like you have to keep banging the same old drum to get the message through? Yesterday, we spotted an article on the BBC news website which told us that someone else is banging the same drum we are . . . . disaster recovery planning for your IT systems.

A report by IT Group EMC said 74% of respondents (1,750 surveyed) were not very confident they could restore their networks and 54% had lost data or suffered downtime in the past twelve months. The conclusion? Firms need to place a greater emphasis on backup and recovery systems. Have you considered the cost if you don't?

We've blogged about this in the past:

But day by day we still come across companies and individuals who have failed to make adequate provision for backing up their data and to plan for how to get back up and running as quickly as possible in the event of a disaster. If you're worried that could be you, why not give us a call today and arrange a consultation with one of our IT support engineers?

November 25, 2011 at 4:01 pm | Business Technology | No comment

What is the cost of IT failure to your business?

Computers and technology - however much we might not want it to be the case, the reality is our businesses are increasingly reliant on them.

Have you sat down and done the maths for your business on what the cost of technology failure would be?

Wage costs

Firstly, there's the cost of people failure. As you can roughly add 50% to someone's wage in associated costs of employing them, the following would be the cost to your business of lost staff time:

Hourly wage x 1.5 x number of people x length of downtime = cost of downtime

So for example:

Wage of £10 ph x 1.5 x 5 employees x 4 hrs downtime = £300

Catch up costs

You might then have to play catch up and pay overtime to get onto missed workload, so doubling that cost. And if it's an extended outage, you might find yourself forever playing catch up.

Income loss

If work can only be done in real time, there's an immediate loss of income as well. For example, if you're an insurance business and your computers being down prevents you being able to access data to give an answer to the customer on the phone, your competitor is only a phone call (or click!) away.

Customer loss

Next there's the cost of loss of customer confidence. If an IT outage prevents you delivering on your promises, will they order from you the next time?

Data loss

If an IT outage causes loss of data, then there are the costs of potential customer information loss or the time costs involved in recreation of data. If you've ever tried recreating accounts data . . . it is a painful business! Plus you may fall foul of data protection regulation in the process.

Cash flow problems

Not only is no work being completed and going out the door to keep customers happy, but neither are invoices - creating a double whammy in potential cash-flow problems further down the line.

Cost of repair

On top of all of this, if you don't have an IT support contract or expertise in house, then not only will you have to find a trustworthy IT technician, but you will be at the back of their queue behind customers with Service Level Agreements and you may well also be paying a higher hourly rate and may have to wait for new equipment to be delivered. A new server can take 3-5 days to build - could your business survive that long?

So what can you do?

Plan . . . plan . . . plan. Look at every aspect of your business and its use of technology and evaluate how you can either prevent failure or minimise its impact. Put in place comprehensive backup solutions and design methods that allow you to get up and working again sooner rather than later. A good IT support company can help you by evaluating potential failure points, looking at solutions which minimise risk of failure and monitoring your systems to prevent problems becoming "fatal". For many small businesses today, cloud solutions for email and data storage can provide cost effective options to massively reduce your IT risk.

If you want to assess your business's exposure to the risk of IT failure and put in place a strategy to deal with this, then do give us a call on 01676 521444 and one of our engineers will be happy to talk it through with you. We offer cost effective IT support contracts that you can tailor to fit your business' needs.

November 15, 2011 at 2:07 pm | Business Technology, Business Thinking, Cloud Computing | No comment

Real Point making an exhibition of themselves in Stratford-upon-Avon

Over the last couple of days Real Point have been exhibiting at the Stratford-upon-Avon Business Festival, organised by the Stratford Business Forum. We've had a great time, meeting all sorts of businesses from a photographer to a Notary Public, Kids farming DVD maker to specialist shoe provider, and many more!

Many people were really keen to find out more about our social media courses, as they felt they were only scratching the surface of how it could help them. So we look forward to welcoming them on our workshops soon.

Others were very interested in our IT Support packages, as they were looking for the peace of mind in knowing that they had someone to call on if their IT was letting them down. One or two, whose businesses were expanding, were looking for advice and guidance on getting the right IT infrastructure in place - the sort of projects our engineers love getting their teeth into.

We definitely found it worthwhile attending and look forward to going along again next year, if you're a business in the Stratford-upon-Avon area, will you be joining us?

October 8, 2011 at 6:35 pm | Business Technology, Design | No comment

Don’t let running your IT distract you from running your business

We all know how important it is to have the right IT infrastructure in place, but so often achieving and maintaining this can take valuable time away from growing and working on your business. And often it can lead to sleepless nights, is it going to be working in the morning and if it isn't what do you do?

Big companies have the luxury of in-house engineers, but the cost of this for most SMEs is prohibitive, not only the cost of employing but the high cost of ongoing training required to ensure that they are up-to-date with the latest technology developments so they can pro-actively suggest how your IT could work harder for you.

But there is a way to get all the big benefits of an IT department without the big overheads. Here's just a few ways it can help:

Your time burden is reduced and the sleepless nights too
An outsourced IT company can bring a raft of experience from their wide client base to help you get the best from your IT
You get the benefit of continuously trained engineers, bringing innovative ideas, without the high cost
You get a team of engineers so that you don't have to worry about holidays or sick leave
If you've got a problem, chances are that the engineer has seen it somewhere before as they aren't just limited to experience in one company
They can bring resources and ideas to help plan and manage your IT in the event of recovering from disaster

So why not make this year the year that your systems work better for your business, by looking at whether outsourcing your IT department could work for your business?

January 13, 2011 at 2:28 pm | Business Technology | No comment

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