While effective use of the Internet and computer technology has been proven a means of levelling the playing field between SMEs and their larger competitors, SMEs cannot afford to stop their investment there.
So says Christelle Larkins, area manager for South Africa, East Africa and Indian Ocean of MGE Office Protection Systems. "It's vital for SMEs to safeguard these strategic investments and their staffs' productivity in the event of a power surge or failure."
"There is nothing more potentially disabling for a SME than a power cut or power surge. Both have a hugely negative impact on productivity and service, not to mention the effect on its IT infrastructure," she adds.
The irony for most companies in South Africa currently is that with power supply critical, it is the companies that the economy is trying to encourage the most - namely SMEs and smaller organisations - that have become the most vulnerable.
"In most situations we find the bigger the company, the more comprehensive its contingency plan. A generator is not an investment priority for SMEs or one they can usually initially afford. Unfortunately though, as we've seen in areas of Johannesburg and Cape Town over the past two years, extended power outages have become more common. The potential impact on SMEs can be entire days of business lost, and client relationships negatively impacted upon - everything from missing data to products going undelivered." Protecting IT infrastructure and data has thus never been more of a priority for smaller businesses.
While power cuts bring with them their own list of side-effects, Larkins explains that a power surge can have equally devastating effects on an SME's infrastructure: "A power surge has the potential to irreparably damage a company's IT network - everything from its desktops to connections to its servers can be affected. This makes it impossible to use the machines for work, and impacts seriously on data retrieval. Needless to say, the knock-on implications of this can extend well into the long-term."
The negative consequences of a power cut or surge can thus serve to instantly erode any competitive edge an SME has worked so hard so create. And, perhaps the most frustrating thing about them is that they can't usually be planned for.
The good news for SMEs then is that just as IT infrastructure and solutions have become more and more sophisticated and correspondingly affordable, so too have the range of protection solutions specifically designed to assist smaller enterprises.
"SMEs now have access to the same protection technology that was previously the sole domain of larger corporates. This means they can not only protect their IT infrastructure, but also, through the purchase of a UPS, ensure their business equipment can continue functioning even during a blackout. This means that a power surge or outage doesn't affect their productivity or competitive edge. If anything, it might make them more dominant among smaller players as they can guarantee business as usual no matter the electricity situation."
Larkins explains that suppliers and developers of office protection systems such as MGE Office Protection Systems are taking an even greater interest in smaller enterprises because of their huge market potential - and adapting solutions accordingly.
"What we're finding increasingly in this space is that SMEs are able to pick and choose from a complete range of solutions, depending on their company's needs. If we look at the UPS market alone for example, we're seeing products that give just enough time to 'save' and 'shut down' computers when there's a power cut, as well as those that allow a number of computers to continue working for a set period of time. Products are also far more competitively priced and affordable. Investment in a generator has thus been upstaged by these more appropriate solutions."
With power supply uncertainty continuing to plague South Africa well into the foreseeable future, SME owners can take solace in the fact that there are solutions out there that protect both their assets and their ability to do business. They would thus do well to ensure a suitable portion of the capital they set aside for IT infrastructure is reserved for protecting it. In this way, they will ensure the bright future of their business - with or without electricity.
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