Have you ever gone to a counter at a bank, or a government office, only to find out that their "system" is down and you had to come back another day?
I'm sure a lot of us have faced this situation before. What irks me the most is this lazy response: "Our system is down, so we can't do this for you now."
Or this even lazier one: "Our system has been down for days, so we can't do this for you now/this week/this year/this decade."
Gee, thanks.
Most banks and government offices only open their counters during business hours, so to do something there would require you to sacrifice your lunch break or a vacation day so you could be there....only to find that the system is down and the staff are happily chatting about the latest celebrity gossip.
I also have civil servant friends who keep complaining that their Human Resource Management Information System is always down during their peak filing period. And guess what? It happens EVERY.SINGLE.YEAR.
What is my point here exactly?
1. THE PROBLEM WON'T GO AWAY UNLESS YOU FIX IT
Pick up the phone and call your vendor. Get them to commit to resolve the issue within a fixed amount of time, say 24 hours. Then call them at frequent intervals to check on their progress. It is your right to demand that your system runs as smoothly as it's supposed to.
As for your end users, inform them of the downtime, apologise for the inconvenience, then commit to a resolution date and time, if possible.
2. IF YOU ARE A COMPANY OWNER, ADD A CLAUSE IN THE MAINTENANCE CONTRACT THAT STIPULATES IF UNPLANNED DOWNTIME IS MORE THAN X%, YOU'RE GETTING A DISCOUNT
It's normal to have planned downtime for maintenance or upgrading. Banks regularly do this a few hours in a day for their websites, usually after midnight when web traffic is slow.
We vendors usually deploy changes to the system from midnight to six in the morning or maybe earlier if we can finish faster. The key thing about planned downtime is to inform your customer in advance so that they can inform their end users in return. Then do whatever you need to do during low traffic period to minimise the effect on end users.
As for unplanned downtime.....hey, shit happens. However, if you are expecting a peak period of usage (for online banking it might be during payday), have your team on standby to monitor how things go.
I used to work for a vendor that handles the SMS blast system for a telecommunications company. One of the types of content blasted is news from sources such as The Star and New Straits Times. The system is equipped to blast at regular intervals. However, during special events like the World Cup or the general election, news updates will come up fast into the system from the content providers. If we don't clear them fast enough by blasting more regularly to subscribers, they'll clog up the system, stop it from blasting, and prevent subscribers from getting their updates on time.
Whenever the system gets clogged, our team would have to fix it, even if it happened at 12am when we're in deep sleep and dreaming about kittens. When shit happens, we fix it.
Like I said earlier, as a customer, you have the right to demand that your system is always up and running except during scheduled downtime. So put in that discount clause to make sure your vendor knows you mean business if shit happens.
3. IF YOUR SYSTEM GOES DOWN WAY TOO OFTEN, YOU MIGHT NEED TO UPGRADE IT...
There is no perfect system or software in this world. When a bug exists, you can either submit a maintenance ticket (which is what people usually do if their off-the-shelf system support is outsourced overseas, such as India) or call your vendor straight away.
Off-the-shelf software usually releases updates that are automatically sent to you when you have Internet connection on your device. Customised software, however, might require a house call by the vendor.
Like any other business, a vendor is supposed to make their customers happy. So they should be prepared for peak periods, run maintenance checks regularly, and assess if your system is due for an upgrade.
If the system repeatedly goes down because of the vendor's incompetence, the customer might tell them to kindly take a hike, and worse, sign up with their competitors.
4. ....... OR GET A NEW SOFTWARE VENDOR
At RedBean Software, we provide customised software because we believe each business has its own specific needs. RedBean's customised software can accommodate growth and cater to key business objectives, as our software is designed with your long-term business goals in mind.
As software specialists with over nine years of industry experience, we make it our business to ensure our customers' businesses run smoothly using our high-quality products and solutions.
To assess your software needs and craft the right software for your business, please contact us at sales@redbeandev.com and we will get back to you within 24 hours.
The Geek Goddess
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