Think about how much of your business depends on the internet.
Email is in Microsoft 365. Files are stored in OneDrive or SharePoint. Your accounting software, scheduling system, payment processing, and other important applications may all be online.
Most days, that makes running a business easier.
But what happens when one of those services suddenly stops working?
Employees can’t open files. Emails won’t send. Customers can’t make appointments or payments.
And sometimes, there’s absolutely nothing your business can do to fix the problem.
Even the Biggest Names Go Down
You don’t need a cyberattack to bring business to a halt.
In July 2024, a faulty software update from cybersecurity company CrowdStrike caused millions of Windows computers around the world to crash. Microsoft estimated that approximately 8.5 million devices were affected.
Airlines grounded flights. Banks and hospitals experienced disruptions. Businesses around the world suddenly found themselves dealing with computers that wouldn’t work.
Microsoft 365 has experienced outages of its own. Internet providers go down. Payment processors have problems. Cloud applications become unavailable.
The lesson is simple: Any technology your business depends on can eventually go down.
You may not be able to prevent the outage, but you can prepare for it.
What an Outage Does to a Small Business
Imagine arriving at your Albuquerque office one morning and discovering Microsoft 365 isn’t working.
Employees can’t get into Outlook. Files stored in SharePoint aren’t available. Teams isn’t working either.
Someone restarts their computer. Someone else resets the router. Employees start asking each other whether they’re having the same problem.
Meanwhile, work slows down.
If Microsoft is experiencing a widespread outage, your IT provider can’t fix Microsoft’s network. They can determine what’s happening and help you work around the problem, but ultimately, everyone has to wait for Microsoft to restore the service.
That’s why it’s important to know how you’ll keep working while you wait.
Which Technology Can Your Business Not Live Without?
Start with the technology and services that would cause the biggest problems if they were unavailable for several hours:
- Microsoft 365
- Internet service
- Accounting software
- Customer management software
- Scheduling or booking systems
- Payment processing
Then ask, “If this stopped working right now, what would we do?”
If the answer is, “We’d just have to wait,” you’ve found something worth planning for.
Your Outage Plan Doesn’t Need to Be Complicated
Focus on a few basics.
Have another way to communicate. If Outlook and Teams are unavailable, employees still need a way to communicate. That might be phone calls, text messages, or a separate messaging app.
Keep important information available offline. Make sure you can still reach important customer and vendor contacts, employee phone numbers, emergency procedures, and frequently used documents. You can also keep copies of certain OneDrive and SharePoint files available offline so employees can access them if they temporarily lose access to the cloud.
Have another way to get online. If your internet provider goes down, a mobile hotspot may be enough to get a few critical employees working again.
Know who’s in charge. Decide who contacts your IT provider, communicates with employees, and updates customers if they’re affected.
These are simple steps, but figuring them out ahead of time can prevent a lot of confusion when something goes wrong.
What to Do When Something Goes Down
1. Find out whether the problem is limited to your business. Check the provider’s official status page or contact your IT provider. If it’s a widespread outage, don’t waste time restarting computers that aren’t the problem.
2. Tell employees what’s happening, which services are affected, and what they should use instead. If customers are affected, let them know too. For example, if your scheduling or payment system isn’t working, explain the situation and give customers another way to reach you.
3. Switch to your backup plan and keep the business moving as best you can until service is restored.
Keep Your Outage Plan Simple
Your plan should be easy to find and easy to follow.
Create a one-page document that answers five questions:
- Which systems are critical?
- How will employees communicate if those systems are unavailable?
- What information needs to be available offline?
- Who is responsible for making decisions and communicating updates?
- Who do we call when something goes wrong?
Most importantly, don’t store the only copy of your outage plan inside the system you’re preparing to lose access to.
Keep a printed copy or another version somewhere your key employees can reach without Microsoft 365 or your main internet connection.
Review it once or twice a year to make sure the information is still current.
You Can’t Control the Outage, but You Can Control Your Response
Microsoft 365 can experience another outage. Internet providers can go down. Cloud applications can experience problems.
You can’t control when that happens.
What you can control is how your business responds.
Because the middle of an outage is a terrible time to figure out what your backup plan should have been.
How Prepared Is Your Business?
You don’t have to wait for an outage to find out where your plan falls short.
We help Albuquerque businesses identify the technology they depend on, uncover potential gaps, and put practical plans in place to keep work moving when something goes wrong.
👉 Schedule your FREE Discovery Call or give us a call at 505-821-6070 to talk about how prepared your business really is.
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