Advanced levels of digital technologies have enabled businesses to improve efficiency and increase productivity. However, disruptions with your IT system also contribute to a lack of productivity.
A report published by Splunk titled Damage Control – The Impact of Critical IT Incidents, reveals the average business suffers 3.5 critical IT issues a month which results in a serious dip in productivity and financial loss.
Other reports estimate system failures cause 2.5 hours of lost productivity a week per employee. The three most common IT issues are slow-running systems (65%), connection failures (54%), and legacy software (32%).
The health and performance of IT systems, devices and software are central to your teams’ productivity efforts. Moreover, downtime is expensive, demoralising to employees and could potentially mean you lose customers.
To minimise disruptions, companies should look for proactive IT solutions that ensure the optimum amount of uptime together with digital solutions that support the performance of their employees.
Take Advantage of Automated Software
Installing software that can perform tedious, manual jobs is a no-brainer. If a computer can update data, why would you want to pay an employee for data processing?
Automated software can free up employees to focus on other areas of work. And in doing so you should expect to see a higher return in productivity.
Yet despite the obvious advantages, decision-makers are often guilty of overlooking the cost-saving aspects and only focusing on the cost.
Adopt Cloud-Based Platforms
Cloud computing solutions have emerged as a proven method that helps to increase a company’s output. Cloud-based platforms have a 99.5-99.99% uptime – which is far superior to the average in-house server.
The adoption of the cloud-based platform has grown exponentially in recent years. With more businesses contemplating a shift to a hybrid office, the cloud-computing market is estimated to be worth $791.48 billion by 2028.
Companies that have already made the move to the cloud have reported money savings, improved cybersecurity measures and an uplift in productivity.
The cloud not only improves server uptime. The technology has promoted the proliferation of product management software, faster systems, collaborative tools and more flexibility for employees.
Collaboration and flexibility are key to improving productivity. Collaboration helps companies to execute faster and cloud software enables your teams to work from remote locations in the same document at the same time.
Reduce Disaster Recovery Downtimes
Analysing the potential risks to your business operations can ensure you have a strategy in place to get up and running in the quickest time possible.
A disaster recovery plan should provide a full overview of where and how your IT network can potentially fail. This includes power outages, cyberattacks, software and hardware failure, accidental deletion of files and unforeseen disasters such as flood, theft and fire.
A disaster recovery plan should include the maximum time you should expect for operations to be offline. It should also include the financial loss this will incur and how much time has to pass for it to become a problem.
By highlighting potential risks, you will be able to identify IT solutions that ensure business continuity. For example, a multi-cloud approach gives your employees an option to access files from more than one location.
Software that performs automatic backups can also reduce the amount of downtime you suffer by a significant margin.
Remote Network Monitoring
Given that IT systems failure has the biggest impact on lost productivity, an intelligent strategy is to implement a solution that prevents downtime in the first place.
Today’s advanced digital technologies are able to monitor networks from remote locations. For example, an IT support team in London can observe the health of an IT network in Sydney.
Remote network software is a crucial component of your business continuity. The technology actively monitors your computer network 24/7 and flags up potential issues. This means that problems can be resolved before they cause your system to crash.
Install A Virtual Desktop
Virtual desktops provide your employees with a secure environment from which they can access files and folders from any location on any device. The ability to interact with your business applications gives your team more flexibility.
However, flexibility is not the biggest advantage of a virtual desktop. The gold star goes to the cybersecurity benefits of virtual desktops. A virtual environment enables you to secure your IT network and endpoint devices.
What this means is that even if the personal device of one of your employees is compromised, hackers would still not be able to access your business network – not easily anyway. They would still have several more steps to go.
Implement Cybersecurity Solutions for Business Continuity
It’s well documented that the threat of cybercriminals presents a real and present danger to businesses of all sizes. Elite corporations may be grabbing the headlines but 43% of cyberattacks target small businesses.
What’s more, 60% of small businesses close their doors within six months of being hacked. A data breach is costly. You could incur a penalty for non-compliance with data protection regulations, the legal fees are extortionate and a loss of customers contributes to the collapse.
Every company, regardless of size, needs to implement cybersecurity solutions. The complexity of your cyber defences will be determined by the setup of your operation and whether you deploy remote workers.
At the very least you should use antivirus software, firewalls, VPN, backup your data, train your employees and perform updates on your apps, software and operating system. You might want to consider patch management services.
The Final Word
Improving the productivity of your business rarely involves implementing tools that supposedly make it easier for your staff to perform their job. Tools only deliver marginal improvements.
If system failures and slow-running computers are to blame for stalling the productivity of your employees, the solution is to fix your IT network. An IT system that functions smoothly and quickly is the best solution to prevent a loss of productivity.