Has this ever happened to you? You had a great weekend, maybe you worked a little on an important deadline. Monday comes along; you make your way to the office to finish working on the largest contract in your company's history, only to find your computer network down. Nothing is working. Your business and perhaps your future are dead in the water. No email, no Internet access and most importantly, that contract you have been working on for weeks is stored on your non-functional server. How vulnerable do you feel at that moment?
Luckily, when you contact your computer service provider they are not overly busy and they can see to your emergency right away. Great, you are confident that your business will be up and running very soon.
The systems technician arrives only to inform you a critical component is no longer functioning and it maybe a day or two before you will receive a spare part. You explain that information from the server is needed to meet a critical deadline. There is nothing for them to do but shrug their shoulders and wait for the replacement part to arrive. Without that critical component the server will not function.
Fortunately, you were smart enough to purchase a well known name brand server that will supply a replacement part for your network within the warranty period. Many hardware vendors offer a wide range of warranty plans; it is in your best interest to have a warranty plan that offers a minimum of four hour response, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
Because you opted for a 24 hour response warranty, your trusted IT technician has your server back up and running. By Tuesday morning everything is functioning normally with minimal data loss. Even your critical proposal was spared. However, you missed the deadline and lost the opportunity to win the biggest contract in the history of your business. Coupled with this is the loss of thousands of dollars in productivity since your staff could not use the network.
In discussions with your IT services firm you discover what happened with the server causing this unexpected downtime. They inform you your server had begun to fail over the past few weeks. This situation could have been prevented with network monitoring services. However, you elected not to take advantage of this offer because you decided it was not worth the investment. I am sure you feel differently now!
Network Monitoring, also known as Remote Monitoring Services, is an essential service that all small business must have to protect their critical network data from preventable downtime. You don't have the luxury of multiple servers or back up servers like some larger firms; however, you need to compete with them in the marketplace. Reliable technology offers a competitive advantage. A Network Monitoring service provides small business with 24/7 peace of mind that your systems are being watched and someone can look after any issues that may arise that may jeopardize your business.
What is the approximate cost to your business in this scenario? Let's review the numbers:
•25 staff at this firm, with an average salary of $25 per hour - $5,000.00 was lost in one day's downtime.
•IT consulting bill - 8 hours at $100.00 per hour - $800.00
•Estimated profits from the lost deal - $100,000.00.
That is $105,800.00. The network monitoring service, for a single server small business, is approximately $2,500.00 per year. Doesn't it make sense to have a solution that monitors your network and saves you over $100,000.00? Yes. Can you afford the loss of revenue related to a one day network failure? No, of course not. Don Engle, CEO of Welton Energy states "You insure what you cannot afford to lose".
Many small business owners are short sighted in thinking a 24 hour warranty is sufficient for their needs. When it comes to critical business services the important lesson is not if you have downtime but when you have downtime. Effective planning and efficient service provide optimum benefits for your business.
Network monitoring services range in what they offer to you. Your business needs a service that will alert your IT operation centre at any hour and can guarantee a response that will protect your business' integrity. Alerts can range from a failed backup, virus activity, or email server going down to almost all preventable network emergencies. Network monitoring can protect your servers, firewalls, printers and even your computers.
What are doing to protect your business from a preventable disaster?
About the Author:
Stuart Crawford is the Director of Business Development for IT Matters Inc., Calgary, Alberta's award winning Microsoft Small Business Specialist. He can be reached at
scrawford@itmatters.ca.
Stuart just released his second book for the Small Business IT industry entitled “Do you have IT? Get it online today at
http://www.doyouhaveitbook.com
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211
Date Published :
Dec 13 2007