Businesses rely on technology more and more everyday. From desktop computers to mobile phones, these modern tools have brought unprecedented levels of productivity to the workplace. When everything is working smoothly, companies reap the benefits of these expanded capabilities. Unfortunately, there are always unforeseen problems lurking out there. When things go wrong, the loss of technology can seriously impact your operations and even force a virtual shutdown. Businesses like couriers and air freight truckers are in a class of extremely time-sensitive firms and must address this risk. But how?
Have a Plan and Use It
A business continuity plan is no longer an option, but a necessity. Expedited delivery companies are increasingly becoming 24-hour operations. Interruptions due to weather, natural disasters or utility service faults figure into most plans. Unfortunately, plans don’t always deal with less dramatic but no less damaging impacts.
If your company maintains its own hardware for a courier software system, there is a potential point of failure. Minor flooding, electrical surges and a host of other problems can spell disaster for that system. Even if there isn’t any damage to your building or other equipment, your relatively fragile server can be damaged much more easily than trucks or structures.
Because you can’t always protect the server, make sure you’ve protected the valuable data from your operations system. Losing information on accounting (especially collections) and customers can be crippling. All it takes is a breakdown in your server or a faulty backup tape and you suddenly find yourself with no way to take orders, track shipments or bill customers.
Get That Data Out of Here
For the ultimate in protection and continuity, keep your data completely off-site. Modern courier software is all web-based and relieves you of the burden of care and maintenance for your own server. Housed in a secure hosting facility and maintained by technical professionals, these cloud-based solutions are available anytime, anywhere from any web browser.
Leading technology companies can host a system that’s available over 99.999% of the time. Their staff has the experience and knowledge to reliably run a professional system on your behalf. Why not let the experts handle all the maintenance, upgrades and backups for your system. In turn, you get to focus on what you do best and manage your company’s operations.
There are all kinds of hazards in the world of expedited deliveries. Smart companies meet those challenges using best practices that minimize their exposure. Being prepared is the first step in protecting your business from unforeseen dangers.
