Most businesses now have an online profile and crucial cloud-based applications that business transactions depend on. Here are some tips that will help significantly increase your business uptime and business continuity.
Why should you invest in improving your business technology and increasing uptime? Because the easiest way for a business to lose money is through unreliable internet connections and inadequate or out-of-date technology. These can lead to loss of sales, decrease productivity and frustrated customers.
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Uptime refers to the amount of time your services, infrastructure, or systems are working and running without interruptions or failure.
What constitutes a “good” uptime you might ask. A “good uptime” is defined as a percentage of time a system is working and available over a given period. It is normally measured on a yearly basis. The closer this percentage is to 100%, the better. An uptime of 99.9% or higher is considered excellent but a “good” uptime varies based on specific business needs.
Uptime Targets:
This is considered near-perfect uptime and is aimed at industries where downtime can be dangerous, like hospitals and air traffic control systems.
Most businesses aim to achieve 99.9% uptime.
Most importantly, when we talk about uptime, we mean reliability. How reliable is your business? If your organisation fails to provide consistent performance you risk losing customers and in extension revenue, cause frustration to your partners and damage your reputation. To avoid such negative consequences, follow our tips below.
It is impossible to have internet connection that never drops but some connections are better than others. Generally speaking, fibre is the most reliable connection today. It can provide as much as 96.03% uptime. However, this percentage also means that your business will still experience around 29 hours of downtime per month and that is lot!
Needless to say, that if the hardware you use are out-of-date, they are more prone to failure, contributing to increased downtime. Not to mention, that it will also affect employee satisfaction and productivity. The slower your machines are the longer it takes to complete tasks. It is also a good idea to use uninterruptable power supplies (UPS) which can keep your system running in case of a power outage.
Natural disasters like power outages and flood risks are out of human control not to mention cyber threats. You need to plan ahead to mitigate the risks of potential disruptions and minimise downtime. A documented disaster recovery plan should be put in place and ensure that all your employees are familiar with it. A disaster recovery plan should identify potential problems, specifying how to prevent or solve them, and make it clear what everyone’s roles and responsibilities are.
Simply put, have backup options. Set up multiple internet service providers so if one connection fails the other can take over. Redundant hardware components can also help increase uptime. And consider using multiple data centres in different locations.
This is one of the first steps to take to increase your business’ uptime.
Use monitoring tools to track metrics such as availability, response time, and error rate. You also need to set up alerts for any anomalies and failures. These tools can alert your team in real-time if something goes wrong, allowing you to address issues before they can negatively affect your operations and cause major downtime.
Regularly update software and systems to patch vulnerabilities, improve performance, and prevent unexpected failures.
Transparent communication with your customers will help you maintain a trusting relationship. Let them know of any planned maintenance or anything that might affect your services. You can also learn from their feedback and improve on areas that they find less efficient.
At Syn-Star, we are committed to taking our clients on a journey to 100%. We’re redefining IT support by focusing not just on rapid issue resolution but on preventing problems before they arise.
What does this mean for you?
Traditionally, IT support has been a race to see who can fix issues the fastest, minimising downtime for your organisation. While quick fixes are important, we believe that true efficiency comes from proactive management. Instead of just reacting to problems, we work closely with your business to identify potential issues and implement strategies to prevent them from occurring in the first place.
Our proactive approach aims to understand the root causes of issues, allowing us to take preventive measures that help your business achieve maximum uptime. While break-fix support will always be a part of what we do, our goal is to minimise the need for it through strategic planning and expert guidance. This way, we can focus on maintaining your systems and ensuring they operate smoothly, rather than constantly fixing recurring problems.
To learn more about our journey to 100%, click here.
Agnes Molnar
Agnes is Syn-Star’s expert content writer, she has Master’s degree in English Literature that provides a strong foundation in writing and critical thinking of everything she does.
Qualifications: Masters in English Literature
In-house training: HubSpot SEO, WordPress Training.
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Agnes Molnar
Agnes is Syn-Star’s expert content writer, she has Master’s degree in English Literature that provides a strong foundation in writing and critical thinking of everything she does.
Qualifications: Masters in English Literature
In-house training: HubSpot SEO, WordPress Training.
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Team Productivity:
You and your team are able to see where they are using their time and how productive they are actually being. Also they are able to clock in and out, so really good for flexi-working.
Team Monitoring:
If you would like to know what your team is doing and how productive they are being, we are able to monitor them and create screenshots of what they are working on. This can be run in normal or stealth mode.
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We proactively seek opportunities to support good causes for our community.
From sponsoring local community football teams, to engaging with charity fundraiser days, we believe it’s important to continually strive to do good for the better of others.
We have members who volunteer with youth organisations, are engaged with the Round Table, run marathons and volunteer at events where we may be needed. Every charity receives a discounted IT and Telecoms service too.
Protecting your digital data is crucial for every business and this can start with the industry-leading security we offer. The Syn-Star specialists can help with identifying any vulnerabilities within your IT systems and act accordingly to ensure cyber-attacks and data breaches are mitigated.
Your business will never fall behind with its technology when you work with Syn-Star.
We understand IT and Telecoms for your business is an investment, but it’s important to use the best resources available to enable the growth of your business. Our IT Consultancy and Virtual IT Director Services are available to support you with how you use your business technology for years to come.
Syn-Star can conduct quick and easy phishing exercises to identify people within your team who need to improve on their knowledge around fraudulent emails and how they can be alerted to these threats.
At Syn-Star, our experts can proactively work to understand exactly what software you need to support with the business operations. Whether you need a listening ear on what software to choose, or would like to seek some specialist knowledge, we’re here to help where we can.
At Syn-Star, we keep Telecoms simple. There’s so much available to help UK companies with their communications. VoIP systems, fixed landline, cloud phone systems, SIP trunking and more. Contact us for further details.
Desk phones, cordless phones or conference phones, Syn-Star can provide you with whatever you need.
From conference calling facilities to the headsets which work best for your team, we’re able to provide all the equipment you need and complete any telecoms job from start to finish.
There is no need to be in the office to make and receive phone calls from your company’s number. Our market-leading Telecoms platform gives you the flexibility of desk phones, soft phones and mobile apps as standard.
Whether your team works remotely, or perhaps staff are on a business trip anywhere in the world, calls can still be made, and people are reachable via phone wherever they go.
With a range of products, our team can support you by installing exactly what you need for internet connectivity. We work with the very best products to provide speedy bandwidths which play a part in the increased productivity of your team.
