Based on the news ” Shares of Wells Fargo & Co. closed down more than 2 % after a nationwide outage hit the bank’s ATM and online networks.” (https://www.thestreet.com/investing/wells-fargo-shares-slide-on-network-outage-14859288) this quantifies how bad it can be when a business having a value of $243 B realizes a 2 % hit that results in a loss of about $5 B !
This is the exact situation no organization wants – and a situation very preventable with NonStop. And a great lesson in what happens when running essential applications without NonStop – on systems not sufficiently architected and setup for on-line, real-time, all-the-time information services. As such, it begs the question, who decided to save a little and expose the business to a $5 B hit ? Given an important strategy in any enterprise is to deliver services that matter, meet Customer expectations, and prudently manage risk – obviously someone made a huge error ! And given systems not designed for continuous operation will fail again, what will be the added damage then ? Or, will a lot of time, effort and money be expended to beef up the new systems ?
From this and other similar experiences, when all is said and done, what will be the benefits or real savings from switching systems ? Any ? Or, more probably the business will incur more expenses than initially anticipated and have a higher cost operation going forward. In an age of rising User expectations, quick gratification, diminishing returns in established business services, etc. – incurring, more work and cost is not the direction of any company ! Further, utilizing systems other than NonStop for demanding and high profile information services means the enterprise (in this case a Bank), needs to develop new core competencies associated with technology and over time operate on the basis of companies like Amazon, Apple, Microsoft. etc. or any one of 10,000 Fintechs out to change financial services.
With this insight, it’s easy to see there are huge issues in the making – all because someone didn’t realize what they had with their NonStop systems and their attempt to save a little. As well, there are unintended consequences by not realizing how this leads to significant changes in the company culture, redefining core competencies, the business model, etc. While this is great if it’s part of the company’s strategic plan, however since this is usually not the case, we now have a slippery slope scenario where what appears to be a little thing or people didn’t do a thorough analysis or think things through. As a result, an unfortunate situation snowballs into something much bigger and the organization is exposed to unnecessary risk. As anyone with any business acumen can confirm, the objective is to have happy Customers and to prudently manage risks – not having unhappy Customers and high risks !
Extending on this, with the Facebook IPO fiasco, did NASDAQ realize the business risks they were incurring by going off NonStop ? For anyone who has worked at a Stock Exchange, they can confirm nothing causes problems like a system outage !
There are many other examples of this and other challenges with enterprises dealing with digital disruption, expanding relevance and revenue, moving to a new business model, making innovation more rewarding, etc. And with many industries now operating in an on-line, real-time, all-the-time world – it appears organizations need NonStop more than ever ! This is compounded by studies that have proven – ” disappoint a Customer once they may come back, disappoint them a 2nd time, chances are they’re gone.”
From this it’s easy to determine system outages cause brand damage, loss of revenue / profit, kills opportunities, etc. – which over time undermines business viability and potentially the very existence of the organization. For further evidence of this, witness the increasing turnover of companies in the Fortune 500 and the huge challenges with innovation in enterprises meaningfully improving business outcomes.
Because of this, the need is for much greater awareness of how to win with on-line, real-time, all-the-time information services, and educating people about how NonStop improves business outcomes (especially with decision makers) is critically important for success. This is a big opportunity for HPE and the NonStop community. And very relevant for Expanding NonStop Opportunities and enterprises Improving Business Outcomes with NonStop by Aligning Applications and Platforms . If interested in exploring how we can leverage this for advantage with NonStop, please contact CAIL or HPE , or send a message to info@cail.com or call 1-905-940-9000.
Feb 7, 2019 – CAIL – Insights on Improving Business Outcomes