Downtime is easily one of the most prolific reasons small businesses take in less money than they otherwise could, making it an existential threat to many if a certain threshold is met. Making a bad situation worse, there is no shortage of reasons a business may experience downtime. Let’s examine some of these causes to better understand how to minimize this universal issue.
Data fuels business, but we also share a large amount of data even in our personal lives. Even the most benign communications, like chats, requests to stop by the store on your way home, and even memes or pet pictures, are considered data—and where there’s data, there’s a place where it’s stored.
Today’s question: do you know where your data is being stored? And do you know the impact of that storage?
Making decisions is a big part of running a business, but relying solely on gut feelings can sometimes backfire. Back-end analysis allows business owners to gain insights they might not have considered. This can lead to more money through better sales, customer relationships, and efficiency. In today’s blog, we’ll discuss how AI enhances business intelligence.
With remote and hybrid work models becoming prominent parts of the business world, it’s time to start considering the challenges and benefits that such work can bring about for your own organization. Specifically, you want to examine how engagement is affected by these workplace models. How can you ensure employee satisfaction, productivity, and retention even while utilizing a remote or hybrid workplace model?
In 1987, the United Nations defined sustainability as “meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.” Today, almost 40 years later, businesses have various options to help promote their own sustainability. Let’s discuss just a few options and how we can help you enact them.
The end of the year is always a great time to look back on the past and look forward to the future and what it might look like. One way you can do this is by looking to cut out some of the clutter within your organization’s network by examining how often your applications are used and which services you are subscribed to.
Downtime in a business context can be considered a "business predator" because it can have detrimental effects on a company's operations, profitability, and overall success. Downtime refers to the period during which a business' critical systems, processes, or equipment are not functioning as intended. Here are some reasons why downtime is often seen as a threat to businesses.
Downtime can result in significant financial losses. When key revenue-generating systems or production processes are unavailable, businesses may lose sales, incur extra expenses, or face penalties for failing to meet contractual obligations. Downtime can also prevent a business from pursuing new opportunities or responding to market changes. In a rapidly evolving market, missing out on opportunities can have long-term consequences, and can be the difference between business growth and stagnation.
Downtime leads to decreased productivity as employees cannot perform their tasks efficiently. This results in wasted time, missed deadlines, and a drop in overall output. In cases where downtime is due to data loss or system failures, it can result in the loss of critical information, which can be difficult or impossible to recover. This can have severe consequences for businesses, especially when it comes to sensitive or irreplaceable data. Frequent downtime can demoralize employees who must deal with the frustration and stress of interrupted work. Low morale can lead to higher turnover rates and decreased employee engagement.
Prolonged or frequent downtime can do significant damage to a company's reputation. Customers and partners may perceive the business as unreliable, which can be challenging to overcome. Also, these unfortunate companies may find it challenging to compete effectively in markets with companies that show better reliability.
If you struggle with downtime, you can do better. If you don’t, you need to ensure that continues. The IT professionals at iTSTL can help. We can introduce you to technologies and strategies that are designed specifically to reduce downtime and improve operational efficiency. Get a professional perspective by calling (314)828-1234 today.
Business continuity is a tricky beast, and one that is best fought with proactive and preventative measures. The reason for this is simple: any situation where your business’ data is put at risk could mean the end, and we are not catastrophizing when we say that. Let’s look at two issues that are only small problems at the surface level, but could snowball into serious problems.
Managing your business efficiently requires judicious allocation of limited resources, encompassing budget, time, and the capabilities of your workforce. It is paramount to ensure their effective management. Let's delve into fundamental practices that can help you optimize the resources at your business' disposal.
It isn’t uncommon for businesses to engage in actions that seem to directly contradict their own best interests. This is called self-sabotage, and it can be a costly and extremely debilitating phenomenon for a business. Let’s go through some of the actions that may be holding your business back, even if you don’t realize it.
If you want your business to grow, then you’re going to have to get used to dealing with complex problems that require complex solutions. You can implement technology to make solving these challenges easier, but at the same time, you want to be careful that the solutions you implement are not going to get in the way of productivity. Today, we want to discuss good old-fashioned bureaucracy, and how while you might not want to build it into your strategy, it will probably happen anyway.
It isn’t uncommon to hear about how much working from home has environmental benefits—and on its face, this claim makes a lot of sense. We did have to wonder, however, how much greener remote work really is—if at all.
Let’s go into why the question of whether remote work is the environmentally friendly option isn’t as clear-cut as you might expect.
When you have a lot of tasks to get done, you might find yourself stressing out about the sequencing or ruminating on your circumstances. How did you let it get so bad? Why does this always happen to you? If this sounds like an everyday occurrence for your organization or your employees, we want to share three ways you can help to make things easier to manage, even when it feels like there is just too much to handle.