November 21, 2018 by Siobhan Climer
Manufacturers are under a lot of pressure: reduce downtime, improve environmental standards, decrease costs, and adapt to a global market. The cloud provides the speed, scale, and accuracy needed by manufacturers to support these efficient operations. From 2017 – 2019, manufacturers’ global spending on the cloud is expected to almost double, from $3.4 billion in 2017 to $5.2 billion in 2019. The cloud enables manufacturers to transform operations, supply chain integrations, production, and the customer experience. Today, over 90% of global enterprises report using the cloud in some aspect of their business. Are you among them?
Calculate The Cost Of Downtime
According to the Ponemon Institute’s annual report, the average cost of unplanned outages is $8,850 per minute. The range is enormous, leaping from $137 to $17,244. But the takeaway is that no matter the size of your business, production outages affect the bottom line.
Downtime is a significant cost to all SMBs, but especially manufacturers. You can take the guesswork out of cost analysis. We put together a quick calculator tool, so you can determine the cost per hour of downtime to your business.
Downtime Cost = Productivity Cost + Revenue Loss
[uCalc id=116180 name=Downtime Cost Calculator]
It’s important to remember that this is only an estimate. You may have additional costs, such as recovery, overtime, repair, and supply chain delays. In addition, there are qualitative costs, such as reputation and trust that may affect your future business growth.
How Does The Cloud Reduce Downtime With Microsoft Office 365?
Cloud solutions deploy continuity technology, which basically means the platform solution has layered functionality to keep business running, even with the inevitable unplanned interruption. It’s easy to reduce downtime with Microsoft 0ffice 365 because it stores email, documents, and applications on the cloud. With anticipated downtime, you can access desktop versions of Office programs with proper sync protocols. One of the biggest issues with technology solutions presently is maintaining current versions; this is not a problem with 0365, which removes the need for uninstallations, reinstallations, and version checks.
Despite this, Microsoft Office 365 does not remove downtime. Although you can reduce downtime with Microsoft Office 365 and increase stability, reliability, and availability, you may still experience periodic downtime. Patches, configurations, components, network maintenance, or infrastructure management are known to affect connectivity, which is why working with a managed services provider who can monitor and manage your network is so essential.
Backup And Disaster Recovery With O365
The recent release of a backup solution for Microsoft Office 365 makes it an ideal fit for industries that rely on constant functionality for business success. A persistent security gap lingered with Microsoft Office 365 until recently. Microsoft’s release of APIs enabled others to develop backup and disaster recovery solutions, and Mindsight solutions architects are uniquely situated to provide demos and a proof-of-concept to businesses looking to ensure business continuity with Office 365.
Like what you read?
Contact us today to discuss an Office 365 demo for your business.
About Mindsight
Mindsight, a Chicago IT services provider, is an extension of your team. Our culture is built on transparency and trust, and our team is made up of extraordinary people – the kinds of people you would hire. We have one of the largest expert-level engineering teams delivering the full spectrum of IT services and solutions, from cloud to infrastructure, collaboration to contact center. Our highly-certified engineers and process-oriented excellence have certainly been key to our success. But what really sets us apart is our straightforward and honest approach to every conversation, whether it is for an emerging business or global enterprise. Our customers rely on our thought leadership, responsiveness, and dedication to solving their toughest technology challenges.
Contact us at GoMindsight.com.
About The Author
Siobhan Climer, Science and Technology Writer for Mindsight, writes about technology trends in education, healthcare, and business. She previously taught STEM programs in elementary classrooms and museums, and writes extensively about cybersecurity, disaster recovery, cloud services, backups, data storage, network infrastructure, and the contact center. When she’s not writing tech, she’s writing fantasy, gardening, and exploring the world with her twin two-year old daughters. Find her on twitter @techtalksio.
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