I constantly run into this issue…
Business owners don’t understand the TRUE costs of down time.
Ask a business owner what their last computer problem cost them and they will more than likely pull out the bill from their ‘IT guy’ and point to the total.
Trust me; this ain’t a drop in the bucket.
Get out your pencil, paper and calculator and let’s do some cypherin’.
First; The ‘average’ worker in America makes $15.11 per hour according to the latest data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (May of 2010).
Applying a 35% overhead for taxes and benefits we arrive at an hourly rate of $20.40 / hour.
I have rounded to the nearest whole dollar to make the math easy.
This is probably low for your business but gives us a good starting point.
Calculating the Costs of Downtime in Your Business
| A. | Number of employees | __________ |
| B. | Average Hourly Employee Cost | $ 20.00 |
| C. | Employee Costs per hour of down time: ( A x B ) | $_________ |
| D. | Hourly IT Support Costs | $_________ |
| E. | Total Hourly Downtime Cost: ( C + D ) | $_________ |
| F. | Total Daily Downtime Costs: ( E x 8 ) | $_________ |
This figure does not take into account;
- Impact to your customers
- Cost to repair/rebuild lost data
- Lost revenue
- Hardware / Software costs
- Damage to reputation
Care to put a figure on these items?
So next, time your systems go haywire, remember…..
That expensive computer consultant hunkered over the remains of your server is the LEAST of your worries!!
Good Networking!
Eric Hobbs
Technology Associates
ehobbs@technologyassociates.net
919-459-0109 – Direct
Things to Think About…
- Know your costs. Understanding our costs of down-time is the first step to making better decisions were IT dollars are concerned. After all, it is impossible to make a wise decision unless you fully understand the cost of NOT making the decision.
- Share this cost with your provider. IT Providers that take a lackadaisical approach to system downtime need to be smacked in the face with your hourly down-time figure; just so everyone is on the same page when the mess hits the fan.
