I.T. Stress – probably not something on the top of most organizations’ annual planning agenda, but it’s a topic that can contribute to individual stress, political maneuvering, cultural dysfunction, and poor morale. If you think I might be melodramatic about the impact of inadequate I.T., then consider the following that I have seen and experienced:
- I’ve seen a company almost fold after a severe server failure, because they were unwilling to put in an adequate backup solution. Staff was stressed to the hilt for months as they re-entered data, and some left the organization. The cost of the solution paled in comparison to the cost of restoration, stress, morale, lost customers (revenue), and much frustration that ensued.
- I’ve seen sales people struggling to produce proposals for deals worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. Training, as well as better and more reliable infrastructure for the CRM system and database wasn’t important to the organization. The result was competitors got their proposals to their prospects first; sometimes they were not as professional, RFPs that were missed, etc… The real result was lost sales, a frustrated sales staff, poor morale, and more.
- I’ve seen department heads in an organization participating in political maneuvering to get greater access to budgets in order to fix ailing technology. The real result was departments began using distributed, open-source or cheap non-approved technology in order to accomplish their job. Unfortunately, this opened up security issues. The culture and morale problems ended up being one of their biggest challenges.
- I’ve seen employees at organizations have to spend 20 to 30 minutes on hold with their I.T. Support, in order to get help to fix a problem that was preventing them from producing. The result was stress, frustration, decreased sales and customer service, and poor morale.
A global 2013 study by intellitrends on the impact of technology performance sheds some further light on the impact of poor technology and poor I.T. support in an organization.
- 45% of respondents experienced a loss in market share or brand equity as a result of technology performance issues
- When considering any type of technology failure, the average short-term impact of an isolated technology performance issue was $10.8 million
- The top areas in business that poor technology performance impacted, according to respondents: Customer Service, Staff Time/Resources, Sales, Customer Traffic, Production Time, Competitive Ability, Shipping Receiving, Security, Market Share and Brand Awareness. (*Note – That’s a lotta I.T. Stress)
- 24% of respondents indicated a loss of market share following a technology failure, 21% indicated a loss of brand equity, 15% indicated a reorganization had to occur, and 9% reported legal issues and costs
No matter which way we slice this, I.T. stress costs: time, money, morale, sales, and much more. The cost of implementing a solution is almost always far less than the cost of recovering from a major technology failure.
Contact JMARK today for an analysis of your technology frustrations and let’s make 2015 the year of eliminating I.T. Stress for you and your employees.
