Power outages are almost a South African tradition at this point; candlelit evenings with the humming of some lucky guy’s genny in the distant background. At home, we can turn a power outage into a positive fairly easily. Bring out the board games and get some quality family time in. However, in the professional environment, it’s a little harder. Productivity and profits plummet. For this reason, South African businesses need to be relevantly equipped in order to survive power outages.
We’ve put together a step-by-step guide to surviving power outages;
Step 1: You need a generator
Unfortunately, you really have no way around this – our power supply is currently not reliable enough to operate continuously without one.
If you don’t already have a generator (why though?) keep in mind your building when venturing into having one installed. Your building and its design/requirements can impact your final choice. Things like existing infrastructure, ventilation, space within a building and size can all have an effect on your generator and surviving power outages. Also, consider the fuel source when you select a generator. Click here to read more about successful generator specification.
Step 2: Make sure you have the right UPS to handle the power outages
If you rely on a data centre then this is exponentially important. Data centre outages are traced to UPS system failure – 25% of the time.
The correct UPS can smoothly manage shut down the process of your technology when a power outage does occur. Saving you time, money and giving you time to save your work.
Click here to read more about data centre downtime and choosing the right UPS.
Step 3: Look into an Electrical Maintenance Service Contract
Technology does not like power outages. I’m sure you have had the “your PC was shut down incorrectly” message by now. If your AC unit and TV’s could send you a message, they’d tell you the same thing. Power outages further increase the likelihood of technology breaking – as if the maintenance costs aren’t high enough!
An electrical maintenance service contract can not only help you contain these costs by ensuring regular maintenance, but it can also improve your employee productivity and reduce your energy costs. Click here to read more about the benefits of electrical maintenance service contracts.
Can you flourish, not just survive, during a power outage?
Actually, yes you can! If you ensure steps 1 – 3 are in place, a power outage will barely affect your business. Picture this power outage: productivity did not cease and costs were contained. Your business stayed profitable. All the while, your ill-equipped competitors were falling behind (just make sure that you are not that ill-equipped competitor).
Contact BT-SA to find out more about how you can survive (and flourish) during power outages.