The WiFi goes down, again, so what happens? Your team has to stop work – there’s nothing they can do if they are offline…
A computer goes down and after trying a variety of things to fix it, it has to go to the shop. Without a spare lying around, what can your employee do?…
You know there needs to be an upgrade of the software you are using – but it’s a big cost and you don’t even know where to start…
Sound familiar? And the hard-hitting truth is that all of these IT issues, they are reducing your business’s productivity levels, which in turn, translates to a loss of profit.
Read more: Poor IT will cost a business significantly – here’s how to do IT the right way
5 IT Issues Reducing You`r Producitivity
1. Time-consuming access to data
Whether you are a customer-centric organisation, in FMCG warehousing, or provide essential service maintenance – having data to work with is imperative. But if there is any delay in accessing it when required, it can cause a series of flow-on effects.
Also extremely time-consuming is accessing data when a business has multiple programmes that carry out different tasks and hold different information. Not having software integrated (especially when it is possible) can result in delays, and a less effective process being carried out – a place where errors can easily occur.
2. Unreliable email
Have you ever had a customer or client say ‘Did you not get my email last week?’ Or you have sent one with important information, only to have it delayed due to issues with your mail provider?
Billions of business emails are sent on a daily basis and you probably don’t care about 99.9% of them. But you do want to know you are able to send and receive the ones that are imperative for your business to function, as the consequence of them ‘disappearing into a black hole’ can be extremely detrimental – what is the cost of missing out on a potential customer lead or losing clients due to lack of reliable communication?
3. Intermittent outages
Sometimes our business networks, WiFi or access to particular programmes can go down for an unknown reason – too many people in the system you use, an unreliable internet provider, or issues affecting software that need to be fixed by the manufacturer.
Whatever the case may be, none of these situations is helpful for productivity flow and function – particularly when they are unexpected, and occur regularly.
4. Slow or old software/hardware
Having a slow computer to work with on a daily basis is extremely frustrating for the individual – but it actually means a lot more to the business as a whole. If software and hardware are out of date, you could experience problems with work functionality and expose your organisation to a greater risk of security threats.
If an employee’s computer takes five minutes to load each day, that is 25 minutes a week wasted. (Not counting if it crashes has to be restarted.)
5. Isolation of IT department/personnel
In many organisations, the IT department is seen as a place you can’t access freely. Raising issues can be time-consuming, and sometimes resolutions are slow to be actioned – not too mention there is often tension when it comes to communication between non-IT individuals and IT personnel (sound familiar?).
Some of the examples mentioned above may seem small, recurrent issues that are unlikely to have a big impact on your the bottom line. But when you look at it more closely – the lost time and the reduction in business productivity that it causes – is it really insignificant?
——-
This blog post is a condensed version of an article in our latest eBook. Keen on further knowledge on how to manage IT in your business? Download: An essential guide to IT for SME business – Risk, Security and Productivity
