How Much Time—and Revenue—Are You Losing to Technology Issues?
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We’ve all experienced lost productivity due to technical difficulties. Slow-loading computers, bogged-down internet connections, printer issues, and dropped phone calls can turn what should be quick, everyday tasks into long, painful ones.
These issues are frustrating for everyone. But tuned-in business owners know that they’re not just frustrating; they’re costly. Lost productivity translates into fewer sales, less production, longer lead times on key data preparation—all of which ultimately mean a reduction in revenue and profits.
The natural question for business owners, then, is how much productivity—and how much profitability—is your company losing?
The Average Loss of Productivity Due to Technical Issues
Researchers with Robert Half Technology have found that workers report losing an average of 22 minutes per workday due to issues related to technology.
That translates to over 2 weeks of lost productivity per year. Per employee.
And that’s the average. Of course, it’s possible that your company’s technology functions better than the average. It’s also possible that it’s worse.
The Bad News: Finding Your Company’s Lost Revenue Due to Technology Issues
Assuming that your company’s employees lose the average amount of time to technology issues, it’s relatively easy to calculate an estimate of how much that inefficiency is translating into lost revenue.
For professional services firms who bill for services by the hour, this math is simple. How much more could an attorney or a designer bill with 22 extra minutes a day, or two extra weeks in a year?
For other companies, coming up with a rough figure is still relatively painless. Think of it in terms of the metrics or KPIs you use to define success for employees in each of your core roles or departments. Let’s take a telemarketing representative for instance. For this person, you might track these or similar metrics:
Number of dials per week
Percentage of dials that turn into qualified leads
Percentage of qualified leads that turn into closed deals
Average deal size
With these metrics, you can determine how much revenue this telemarketer’s key activity (dials) helps bring in on a weekly basis. Then, assuming that your company’s technology is slightly better than average and that your employees only lose two weeks’ worth of productivity per year due to technology issues, it’s simple to estimate how much revenue you may be losing. Consider the example in the table below:
| Metrics | Weekly Averages | Total Annual Loss |
| Dials | 250 | 500 |
| Qualified % | 20% | 20% |
| Close % | 30% | 30% |
| Avg. Deal Size | $1,000 | $1,000 |
| Avg. Revenue | $15,000 | $30,000 |
In this example, the company has a telemarketer that makes 250 dials on average. Based on the company’s metrics, 20% of those dials turn into qualified leads, and 30% of those leads ultimately turn into closed deals. Since the average deal size is $1,000, this telemarketer’s average activity helps generate $15,000 in revenue per week. This means that, if the employee loses two weeks of productivity per year due to technology issues, the company’s technology is costing them $30,000 in lost revenue.
And that’s just for a single telemarketer. Presumably, this company also has employees who produce a product or provide a service. They, too, lose two weeks’ worth of efficiency due to the company’s slightly better than average technology, and the same logic can be used to calculate exactly what that lost revenue is.
The Good News: With the Right Managed Services Provider, Your Team Is More Productive
While it may not be possible to completely prevent every technical glitch from ever occurring, the number of issues your team experiences—and the amount of time they lose to them—can be reduced significantly.
It all hinges on your managed services provider’s (or your internal IT team’s) approach to technology. The nature of IT work makes it easy for even the best technology professional to prioritize the urgent over the important; support tickets must be worked quickly to keep users up and running. The problem is that if an IT provider focuses mostly on reacting to issues as they occur, they have little time left to prevent them from occurring in the first place.
Hence, the “average” IT infrastructure resulting in 2+ weeks of lost productivity per employee per year.
Above average managed services providers devote significant time and resources to two key priorities that allow them to drive down inefficiencies:
Technology optimization—regular visits to assess your systems’ current state, perform key maintenance, and improve functionality.
Data-driven strategy that puts the right technology in place for your business’s unique goals and workflows.
Without these activities, your technology may be costing your team the average amount of lost time—or worse.
Schedule a Meeting With Affinity Today
Curious as to how the right IT partner can reduce time and revenue lost to technology issues? Schedule a meeting with one of our technology experts today. We’d love to spend a few minutes learning about your business, and sharing how our approach to IT can reduce inefficiency and transform your technology into a competitive advantage for your business.
