The Value of a Spare PC!

You likely have some kind of backup in place for your data, but what about for your hardware? Backing up your computer hardware is a simple matter of having extra PC components on hand. This is a best practice that can save you from the headache and expense of downtime.

Admittedly, the advice to go out and buy more computers sounds impractical and even expensive, but the value is seen when you take into consideration how much downtime costs your business. Every business has to battle downtime, when downtime hits your IT, production grinds to a halt and money is not being generated. Any action that you can take to avert downtime will pay off big time when you count up the costs.

It may only seem like downtime costs businesses whatever money is not being made during the loss of time, but that is only one part of the equation. You also have to take into consideration that your staff is still on the clock, and the expenses of running a business are not put on hold while your computers are down. To help you figure out the true costs of downtime for your business, we want to share with you this downtime formula:

Productivity Loss Formula
P = (Number of users affected) x (% of Productivity Loss) x (Average salary per hour) x (Duration of downtime)

Revenue Loss Formula
R = (Number of users affected) x (% of Revenue Loss) x (Average profit per employee per hour) x (Duration)

Overall Loss Due to Downtime
P + R = $$$

As you can see, even one hour of downtime can sink your profits. For many companies, the expense of having an extra PC on hand will be well worth the expense if it means keeping operations humming. This downtime formula is accurate, but there is still one additional factor that it does not cover, and that is the computer repair bill.

Computerware has a remote monitoring and maintenance service that will cover all of the computers on your network. Having us remotely perform updates and install security patches will help keep your PCs running smoothly and prevent downtime; but even with our best remote efforts, a piece of hardware can still break down and require a physical repair. Computerware can help control these unplanned repair cost by including IT repair as part of your service contract, call us at (703) 821-8200 to find out more.

The bad news; you have a broken PC that is costing you downtime. The good news; Computerware is on our way, and because of our remote support service, we will have a good idea of what the problem is before we even arrive at your office. We are fast at computer repair and we pride ourselves with our quick response time; but even if we deploy our technicians in our fastest vans equipped with rockets, it will still take time blast off from point A to point B. This will count as downtime, unless you have a backup PC on hand!

Switching out a broken PC for an extra one that works will keep your operations running smoothly while we are en route. Of course, this only works if your data and applications are not stored on the hard drive of your busted computer. Having your work stored on your network, you can then pick up right from where you left off, no mess, no stress.

Having an extra computer on hand doesn't have to be a major expense. You can think of an extra PC like having a spare tire for your computer network. It doesn't need to be the newest and nicest machine; it just has to be sufficient enough so that you can limp along and prevent expensive downtime. You might not even have to go out and buy a spare PC, just keep an old one on premise whenever you upgrade. Sure, an extra PC will take up space, but when push comes to shove and your new machine kicks the bucket, then your extra computer will become the most valuable commodity in your office.