Computer Problems Cost Small Businesses
$24 Billion Annually
If you are a small business owner you probably have a love-hate relationship with technology. The Times-Tribune cites technology as one of the keys to growing a small business, reported The Times-Tribune, right alongside superior customer service.
“What businesses have done during recessionary times is reduce their cost and look for smarter ways to get things done,” business consultant Dale Rothenberger told the news source. “They’ve invested in technology, so the technology is doing many of the functions in businesses a human being used to do. They’ve been able to reduce their human resource requirement to get the same level of production.”
This same reliance on technology poses its own set of problems. Many small businesses rely on a limited staff of hard workers using the assistance of technology to fill multiple roles and rarely have the luxury of bringing on dedicated IT personnel. So when a workstation goes down, it can be costly and time-consuming to get it back up.
Computer problems result in productivity, revenue losses
As small businesses increasingly use technology to automate business processes, improve efficiency and reduce costs, they seldom have a plan for dealing with malware, viruses or system issues. Even a slow computer can be detrimental to a company’s success if it’s preventing workers from answering emails or completing projects in a timely manner.
When these kinds of IT issues surface, many small business owners try to resolve problems themselves or by enlisting other employees, called “involuntary IT managers,” to fix them. But a recent survey found that this costs those companies, on average, six hours of lost productivity per week. In total, those losses add up to $24 billion annually in lost productivity..
The survey, completed by AMI-Partners and commissioned by Microsoft, collected data from 538 small businesses in five different countries: Australia, Brazil, Chile, India and the United States. Those organizations spent a total of $83 billion on critical technology and communications initiatives, but lost $24 billion because of computer problems or other IT issues that employees had to deal with. In addition, the survey found that small companies suffer the most and report even greater productivity losses when technology problems occur.
“As our research shows, relying on an Involuntary IT Manager can have an adverse impact on small businesses’ productivity, which can negatively affect revenue and translates into a very high opportunity cost,” said Andy Bose, CEO of AMI-Partners.
Small businesses that want to proactively avoid computer problems and the opportunity costs of fixing them may find that a quality PC tune-up suite such as System Mechanic Pro can actually save them money in the long term. System Mechanic Pro monitors and resolves computer problems that contribute to slowdown, as well as helps protect computers from malware and viruses, allowing small business owners to focus on more important things than IT problems.
