Your company is facing network downtime. How will you convince the non-technical executive of its impact?
When network downtime hits, it's essential to convey the gravity to non-technical executives. Here's how to make the impact clear:
- Quantify the cost. Translate downtime into financial loss per hour to highlight urgency.
- Show competitive risk. Illustrate how outages can lead to customer churn and lost opportunities.
- Use simple analogies. Compare the network to a vital artery in the business body to stress necessity.
How do you approach explaining technical issues to non-technical stakeholders?
Your company is facing network downtime. How will you convince the non-technical executive of its impact?
When network downtime hits, it's essential to convey the gravity to non-technical executives. Here's how to make the impact clear:
- Quantify the cost. Translate downtime into financial loss per hour to highlight urgency.
- Show competitive risk. Illustrate how outages can lead to customer churn and lost opportunities.
- Use simple analogies. Compare the network to a vital artery in the business body to stress necessity.
How do you approach explaining technical issues to non-technical stakeholders?
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Alexandre Pinheiro Sampaio Neto
IT Analyst at ASELC - Health, Sport, Leisure and Culture Association
Uma das maneiras de convencer a alta gestão dos impactos da inatividade de rede é através da coleta de dados históricos. Mostrar esses dados e seus impactos em diversos setores aos gestores trazendo custos de tais interrupções podem ser uma boa saída para uma mudança de postura da mesma. Aconselho sempre nesses casos fazer uma apresentação formal com estudo de caso levantando os principais problemas enfrentados e a solução para contorná-los. Usar analogias para explicações técnicas ainda são uma ferramenta poderosa para esclarecer a natureza técnica dos problemas enfrentados.
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Right now, our network downtime is like closing our store's doors—customers can't buy, and employees can’t work efficiently. Each hour, we’re losing revenue, damaging customer trust, and reducing productivity. If this persists, we risk long-term impacts on our brand and potential security vulnerabilities. Restoring service quickly is essential to avoid these costs and keep the business running smoothly.
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Network downtime has a direct financial impact, as it halts critical operations and prevents customers from making transactions. To give context, last year during this same period, we processed 💸 in transactions, so each hour of downtime could cost us an estimated 💰in lost revenue. Beyond immediate losses, downtime also risks customer dissatisfaction and long-term loyalty, as clients may turn to competitors if they encounter repeated issues. Additionally, extended disruptions could affect our compliance with industry regulations, potentially leading to reputational damage and further financial consequences.
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I would provide a clear explanation of the outage, detailing how it disrupted communication between our internal systems and services, causing significant downtime, delays, lost productivity, potential revenue loss, and customer dissatisfaction. To prevent similar incidents in the future, we will schedule critical maintenance during non-business hours when possible, enhance monitoring and alert systems, conduct regular system audits, and improve redundancy to detect and address issues before they escalate. Additionally, we will strengthen internal communication protocols to ensure quick and efficient responses during future disruptions. These proactive measures will help minimize risks to business operations and maintain customer trust.
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- Avoir une architecture réseau qui fais abstraction des détails techniques tout en démontrant au même temps une couverture complète de tout les composants essentiels et névralgique du réseau de l'entreprise permettra au gens non techniques d'avoir une vision claire de l'impact de l'incident. - Être en mesure de prouver avec clarté et certitude le ownership de l'incident notamment quand c'est au niveau provider, cela apaisera le flux de pression appliquée par le top management non techniques et donnera plus de sérénité et calme ingénieur prenant en charge la résolution de l'incident.
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Keep it simple and avoid jargon. Present data on revenue loss and dissatisfaction. Show how downtime impedes productivity. Stress the potential damage to customer trust. Outages might be leveraged by competitors.
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Explain the potential financial loss by estimating the cost of downtime per hour and highlighting operational expenses. Explain that downtime impacts customer experience, potentially leading to frustration and customer churn. Highlight how downtime can lead to missed business opportunities, as potential clients may need help reaching the company or completing transactions, impacting long-term growth and brand perception. Always use simple analogies and emphasize reputational risks. Offer a plan for prevention and recovery. By quantifying the financial loss and risk, you can help non-technical executives understand the urgency of network downtime and the importance of investing in resilience.
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Analyze the qualitative and quantitative impact caused by the network downtime. Break down the impact into possible risks it has and can cause. Minimize the technical terms and simplify the presentation. Encourage the questions and clarify them in simple terms.
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explain what we invest and how the office functions then ask him or herwhat he do day to day office active and explain to him printing service , email, access company active in general collaboration will afected
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