Preventive maintenance vs reactive maintenance

Operational efficiency, worker productivity, and ultimately even customer satisfaction and experience can directly be affected by a single unexpected crash or error in the IT framework of your company. And that's why, keeping IT infrastructure running smoothly is crucial for a business.

But how do you ensure that your organisation's IT assets function optimally, and avoid costly disruptions? This is where IT asset management (ITAM) comes in. Effective ITAM practice helps maintain a healthy IT environment, and within this field, two key maintenance approaches exist: preventive maintenance and reactive maintenance.

While both aim to keep your systems operational and running smoothly, their concepts differ greatly. Let's explore why and how one maintenance approach is superior to the other within the ITAM world.

Reactive maintenance approach:

Reactive maintenance, as the name suggests, involves waiting for IT assets to break down, or run into problems, before taking action. Imagine you've been experiencing increasing knee pain for weeks. Reactive maintenance would be ignoring it until your knee finally gives up and you're forced to see a doctor.

Now think of a business scenario, where a vital server crashes in the middle of the workday. This sudden outage leads to lost productivity and frustrated employees. Your company's services go down for hours or days while your IT team scrambles to fix the issue. Customers, facing these long downtimes, are angry and unhappy and might end up terminating their use of your service.

The drawbacks of reactive maintenance are numerous:

• Increased downtime: Unplanned outages can cripple operations, leading to lost revenue and customer dissatisfaction.

Unplanned downtime costs businesses an average of $5,600 per minute - Gartner Study

• Higher repair costs: Addressing major hardware failures is often significantly more expensive than following a routine maintenance schedule. For example: addressing a minor overheating issue early on is far cheaper than replacing a burnt-out motherboard.
• Data security concerns: Neglected or improperly maintained assets become vulnerable to security breaches. Reactive maintenance leaves potential vulnerabilities undetected until they're taken advantage of.
  
• Reduced employee morale: Constant breakdowns disrupt workflows and create a frustrating work environment for employees, negatively affecting productivity and mood.

Preventive maintenance approach.

A preventive maintenance approach focuses on taking measures to keep IT assets functioning optimally before problems actually arise. Taking the same case, where you're experiencing increasing knee pain for weeks, preventive maintenance would involve seeking medical attention early on to resolve the issue before it worsens.

Preventive maintenance improves your IT maintenance and overall workflow in many ways:

• Reduced downtime: Scheduled maintenance prevents unexpected outages and ensures the constant availability of IT assets. Regular checkups identify potential issues before they become major disruptions.
• Lower repair costs: Early detection of minor issues allows for timely intervention, minimising the need for expensive repairs down the line.

Businesses can reduce around 12-18 percent of costs using a preventive maintenance approach over reactive maintenance - EERE Research

• Enhanced security: Regular maintenance helps identify and address security concerns before they become entry points for potential cyberattacks.
• Improved employee productivity: Minimised downtime and a reliable IT infrastructure allows employees to focus on their tasks without the constant worry of system crashes. Thus, improving employee morale and productivity.
  

Implementing a comprehensive preventive maintenance strategy requires organisation and some degree of automation. This is where ITAM software steps in. ITAM tools offer a powerful and easy way to implement preventive maintenance into your business:

IT asset visibility and tracking: ITAM software creates a complete inventory of all your IT assets, ensuring that no device gets overlooked during maintenance scheduling.

Automated reminders: With ITAM tools, you can set automated alerts. IT staff and users will be notified when maintenance is due, ensuring consistent and timely action is taken before potential issues arise.

Data and analytics: ITAM software provides valuable insights into IT asset performance and utilisation. Over time, this can help optimise your organisation's maintenance strategies.

Assetze's robust ITAM platform carries all these benefits, helps businesses implement a preventive maintenance approach, and does so much more. Sign up for a demo now, and streamline your entire ITAM workflow today.

The choice is clear: preventive maintenance, facilitated by ITAM software, is the winning strategy for any organisation's IT workflow. Don't wait for your systems to break down - invest ITAM software, and implement preventive maintenance into your business today.