Why are fast IT response times so important for your business?

Let’s give you a couple of scenarios to consider: 

Scenario 1: What would you do if you go into work tomorrow and discover that your office has been flooded meaning that all your computers and servers are out of action? 

Scenario 2: What would you do if you suffered from a cyber-attack which used ransomware to stop you being able to access vital files that you need to run your business? 

Scenario 3: What would you do if an employee accidently spilt their coffee into your server? 

With the above scenarios, it doesn’t really matter how it happened, it is more about how do you get your IT back up and running again? 

To put this into context, lets discuss what would happen if you didn’t have an IT team that responded quickly and effectively to an urgent IT request. 

Money is lost quickly as a result of a slow response to an urgent IT request 

This goes without saying so can be established quite quickly. Simply calculate what you are paying your employees per hour for sitting around waiting for your IT team to resolve the issue then add the costs associated with the lack of productivity. 

You are already potentially running into the thousands at least? 

You will find that it doesn’t take that much time even for a relatively small business to suffer from major financial losses whilst waiting for IT support. 

Client satisfaction will majorly suffer as a result of a slow response to an urgent IT request 

You will find that even though most clients will be understanding about any delays to their work being delivered, any major delays are likely to put a strain on the relationship that you have built with your clients. As client satisfaction decreases and that trust is lost, you could find that your once reliable clients are considering alternative companies to be able to deliver the goods and services that you once did. 

Employee morale will suffer as a result of a slow response to an urgent IT request 

Granted, there will be certain employees that will be quite happy to sit around and do nothing, however you will find that most want to work to feel that they are contributing to the business.  

So what will be the outcome when your IT support guy takes ages to respond to major issues that are causing significant downtime? 

Employees will become disillusioned. 

Why is that the case? 

This will be the case as most are already feeling the strain in being able to meet project deadlines, now vital time is being lost and they are unable to access applications and data. 

This will mean that employees will be complaining that they aren’t able to do any work. 

Your business reputation and your investment will suffer as a result of a slow response to an urgent IT request 

Consider all the things that are on the line around your business. No matter whether you are the business owner or an employee with sales options, any negativity can potentially have a significant impact on the reputation of a business as well as putting any potential profits at risk. 

To provide you with the facts: 

Fact 1 

It goes without saying that significant delays in resolving major IT issues have resulted in thousands of businesses folding over the years. 

Fact 2 

It is a fact that global cybercrime is forecasted to be a $10.5 trillion dollar business by 2025. 

The question isn’t “are we being targeted?” 

The question is more like “Is your incident response quick enough to stop your business from suffering as a result?” 

Next Steps? 

Given the fact that we’ve quickly showcased that significant downtime as a result of a slow IT response can lead to extreme consequences for your business, let’s work out how to stop this happening in the first place. 

The vast majority of MSP providers use a more tailored approach rather than a traditional one which involves flagging an issue and we will resolve it. 

The ethos of managed IT services revolves around a proactive IT support model that includes managing, maintaining, monitoring and securing your IT assets. This is where managed service providers come up trumps as they are able to deliver this leading IT strategy for a single monthly payment. 

Therefore, it makes perfect sense to partner up with Advantage for proactive IT management as well as a quick critical response to help combat any potential IT downtime. Get in touch with our team of IT specialists to discuss your specific IT needs around this.