Will a Dead Computer Destroy Your Business?
July 5th, 2009
I’ve been doing a lot of heavy work on my laptop, which has slowed down under the load. Time to upgrade the RAM. So, I took a little trip to my local Fry’s.
They had exactly what I needed at a price I couldn’t beat, so I asked the sales person to write it up. Unfortunately, their computer-driven inventory system happened to be down. If you have any experience with Fry’s, you probably know they’re still running an old DOS-based system that, I’m reasonably certain, is connected to a mainframe. If this is gibberish to you, I’ll put it this way – Fry’s sells blenders that are more advanced than their inventory system.
That the computers were down didn’t surprise me – how they handled it did. The sales person had no idea how to take my order without using the computer. He vented his frustration as his supervisor demonstrated how to manually enter the product information and price on a slip of paper. When it was filled out – in pen, a device with which he seemed to have little familiarity – I took it to the front so they could pull the RAM sticks out of the parts cage and complete the purchase
The cashier brought the RAM up and set it on the counter before me. Since the order had not been entered into the system, however, he was unable to ring it up. I stood at that counter for 20 minutes, credit card in hand, memory sticks tauntingly inches away, watching other shoppers buy fans, sodas, videogames and other products with their credit cards with no problem. After several promises that the manager was working on it, that they were on the phone with corporate, that the system was almost fixed, the cashier finally said, “The system’s still down and, at this point, it doesn’t look like anyone is going to fix it. You might want to try coming back tomorrow.”
This is beyond puzzling to me. Had I stood there with cash in hand, they STILL couldn’t have let me purchase the items in front of me because their inventory system was broken. They had the product number, the serial number, a pen and thousands of pieces of paper. Still, they couldn’t ring me up. Given the number of other angry, frustrated customers standing next to me at the counter, hand-written sales slips in hand, my guiess is this little computer snafu will wind up costing them a bundle.
I did ask the cashier if they had a way to manually process the order. “Yes, we do,” he told me, “but none of us really know how it works. We’re on the phone with a manager trying to figure it out now.”
So, Here’s your goal for this week – review all of your processes, especially any process that generates revenue. Ask yourself, “What would happen if all of our computers suddenly died?” Do you have a Plan B? If not, create one – NOW! If you already have one, does your team know how to implement your offline Plan B? Quiz them on it. Better yet, set aside some time to actually drill them on it – shut down the computers for an hour during a slow period and see how well your team manages. Review what you learn from the experience.
I do love technology – it speeds up transactions and can enhance security when done right. But, when it fails – and it will fail – you’d better be ready for the fallout.
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