Inclement Circumstances for Companies
On Labor Day 2020 in eastern/northeastern Washington state, a nasty storm with extreme winds knocked out power lines and Internet service for many consumers in the Spokane and surrounding areas. Over 60,000 people lost power and many businesses were without power or reliable Internet connection—many returned to work the next day completely unable to function.
Brief Case Study: Affected Small Business in Colville
Due to the Labor Day storm, one of our clients in the Colville, WA area with a highly Internet-intensive business was without their main Internet access line the day after. Threatened with the inability to perform the critical functions of their business, Philantech3 helped them engage with a service provider that supplied a failover satellite Internet connection; in the meantime, the main connection was repaired days later. This was a fortunate scenario since many full business days would have passed without the ability to work.
The Cost of Downtime
What would it cost your business to be without Internet for a full day? When your team is unable to work due to failed Internet, not only are they costing the company on the clock, but they’re unable to bring revenue from your services. Learn more about the cost of technology problems on another blog article.
It shouldn’t be hard to calculate the costs involved with a full missed day of productivity for your business due to network connection problems. What would you be willing to pay to make sure you had a failover connection waiting in the wings, just in case your main connection failed?
Keep in mind that it’s best to set up the failover connection before it’s needed: often a new service may take days or weeks to install.
The Cost of a Failover Internet Solution
Did you know a secondary failover line can cost less than $100 a month? Think of this solution as an insurance policy that you’d only pay a bit over $1,000 for each year—that can save your business from losing that huge dollar amount involved with a full day’s (or more) worth of labor lost due to downtime. Looking at it this way, another question you can ask is, why would you not do this? All things considered, it comes down to a risk analysis where you can see how much risk you’d like to shoulder in order to keep costs down for your company. This one may not be worth the gamble if you want to increase the odds that your business will continue to be safe.
Preparing for the Unexpected
Soon we’ll be heading into fall and winter weather where the elements can wreak havoc on Internet and power lines. Will you be prepared? With the basic cost analysis done above, hopefully you can weigh the benefits and drawbacks of protecting your business and do what makes the most sense for your operations. At Philantech3, we always like to consult clients about ‘what-if’ scenarios that they might not have considered, and keeping your Internet connection up and going is definitely one of them.
Helping Your Business Prepare for the Unknown
Philantech3 consults with many clients about what they can do to keep their businesses solvent and safe, especially in these times of uncertainty and surprises. If you’d like a free consult on how we can assist your company, please call us and we’ll be glad to help you prepare for the future.
Information Technology Aligned With Your Business Goals?
Philantech3 is a complete IT services & IT support company working with organizations in Spokane.
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