Business Communication

The impact of a business when technology fails.

Technology in business has matured considerably from decades ago with each year reaching a different milestone. In any type of business veteran employees can remember how the business used to run and the pros and cons regarding all the technological changes. The biggest change employees may most commonly remember is switching to the computer to store and/or type up reports instead of handwriting them or using a typewriter. These types of changes have moved business forward with a greater potential for profit. Businesses in infancy will begin with mom and pop places which with the right combination eventually grow into empires and money making pools.

A critical issue business most commonly face is when the programs designed to push profit and maintain a precedent to its clients/customers fails and employees are scrambling to find a quick solution. However re-educating employees about all the basics will push the business forward when technology fails. When a system shuts down for example a rental car company has no capability to view what customers have pre-paid, incoming reservations, or what vehicles are available to rent. I have entered a business many times and have been given excuses such as the system was running slower than usual, or sometimes having to turn business away because of some system malfunctions. A business needs to learn how to run effectively even when all the gadgets and gizmos fail to work properly.

Technology is the breath of life for a business and teaching its employees the core skills to overcome glitches with the technology used will give the business long term success. The employee’s business skills such as multi-tasking, excellent customer service skills, properly giving negative announcements, and problem-solving are important. Companies having to send employees home due to the system being down for long periods of time causes loss of revenue. It would be a vital task to make sure the employees understand the protocols for glitches and having to make temporary changes while continuing productivity until the problem can be resolved.

Article Review:

According to an article from Fox Business by Donna Fuscaldo “System Crash: Worse Than a Sick Employee?” a computer crash does more damage than a sick employee. In this article it details options and back up plans a business should have for situations where the system has been disabled. A hybrid cloud solution is mentioned as a perfect back up plan as it gives you a backup available for use even when the system is down. Other options discussed in the article include using portable devices like tablets, and cell phones. Using these devices saves everything on the server so if the office computer crashed you could still access vital company files. Other devices such as printers and scanners can save everything within the cloud which you can access with no interruption.

As seen in all of the examples technology can fail but with today’s advances all pertinent information is readily available online or on outside servers. This would be one of the biggest technological advances that has definitely kept the flow of success for a business. When these options were not available a lot of data was forever lost and it evitable gave ideas to create ways to have back up information available as it is today. For a small business plans like these help sustain and continue to grow the business. Ultimately technology failures give us the needed experience if needed to re-examine the strength and weaknesses of the business.