When the IT department have a small problem, it can turn into a colossal failure for an entire company. Whatever your technical issue may be, these examples highlight why you should be working really really hard to prevent it from happening. If you think it’s time to trust an IT solutions company with the technical side of your business, we’re always here to help to make sure you don’t have to deal with any of the following issues!
RBS Group Bank Outages
Banks have a responsibility to transfer money rapidly – but many customers in 2015 were left waiting days for payments into their bank accounts. RBS and Natwest customers were affected by the technical glitch, which left 600,000 people without their wages or other payments. This is possibly the worst thing that could happen to a bank, but unfortunately outages have happened before with RBG Group. In 2013 the company suffered a cyber-attack, a hardware fault and another system outage, which left furious customers without access to cash machines or online banking. The problems have been blamed on a lack of investment in IT systems.
Nest Thermostat Glitch
The smart thermostat company, owned by Google, found themselves in hot water (or should we say cold water) in January 2016 due to a software glitch. For some reason, a software update went wrong which drained the batteries of all thermostats, leaving customers without heating or hot water in the middle of winter.
Co-op Charges Double
Imagine if a reputable company tried to charge customers twice for their groceries…well that’s what happened to Co-Op Food in July 2015. Apparently a one-off issue with software meant customers ended up paying twice for their goods, but everyone was reimbursed within 24 hours.
Amazon 1p Hiccup
During the busiest shopping season of the year, some products on Amazon’s site ended up being sold for just 1p for a whole hour. Christmas 2014 was a very happy one for savvy online shoppers, but not for small businesses selling on Amazon.
HSBC Online Malfunction
When so many people rely on mobile and online banking, it’s essential that banks keep this service accessible. HSBC didn’t have a good start to 2016, as it experienced a major outage which prevented customers from access online accounts for two full days. Issues with the internal systems were to blame, but it’s no consolation for those customers affected.
These high profile examples prove that IT hiccups can occur at any multinational corporation – so small businesses should fail-proof their IT systems.
