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Study Finds Vast Majority of Retailers Still Vulnerable to Network DowntimeTAMPA, Fla., March 06, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- “The Cost of Downtime: Beyond the Bottom Line,” a new study released today by Accelerated Concepts, now part of Digi International, (NASDAQ:DGII) (www.digi.com), a leading provider of secure, enterprise-grade cellular (LTE) networking equipment for primary and backup connectivity applications, finds that despite advances in infrastructure, the overwhelming majority of retailers still experience unplanned connectivity outages at least once each year. While 72 percent of retailers surveyed indicated sales were lost during network downtime, the study also finds downtime severely impacts customer loyalty, employee productivity and overall business operations. The study shows that 20 percent of respondents do not have backup connectivity solutions in place in the event their primary source goes down, proving that not all retailers understand the true impact of downtime to their businesses. Of those that do currently have a backup connectivity solution, 78 percent count on cellular LTE technology. As more and more retailers increase their dependence on internet-enabled technologies to run business operations, the cost of outages are dramatically increasing. When the network goes down, retailers are faced with two options: close immediately, or stay open while waiting for support. The majority of respondents reported when the network is down, it can take up to four hours to get back in service. The majority of retailers surveyed noted they would close within two hours and less than a quarter noted they would stay open the whole day waiting for support. However, those retailers that choose to remain open face limited operations that may cost more than revenue earned during the outage. For instance, during an outage:
Long Term Impacts of Network Downtime Because retailers often hold personal and sensitive customer data, any downtime they experience presents major security risks as well. The study found that more than half of retailers cannot enable security systems during downtime, leaving themselves vulnerable to data breaches. “Unplanned outages are mostly short term issues for IT, but for a business owner, outages can have long term affects,” said Dorough. “All retailers set expectations with their customers in terms of the level of service they can deliver, so if an outage occurs and the store can’t deliver on those expectations, customers are more likely to bring their business elsewhere or express their dissatisfaction publicly. Because of social media, In a matter of minutes, word about a store’s downtime can reach across the globe. Using a failover solution with monitoring and incident management capabilities prevents retailers from becoming the next headline about a major service failure.” Click to Tweet: For more information on the study findings, visit https://accelerated.com/downtime_survey. To learn more about Accelerated and its extensive line of enterprise-grade, primary and secondary cellular backup solutions, visit https://accelerated.com/. About Accelerated – A Digi International Company About Digi International Accelerated PR Contact: Digi Media Contact: |