Majority of companies in Canada, the United States and the United Kingdom blame IT personnel error for bulk of their network downtime according to a poll released by business communication gear provider Avaya Inc.
In a survey of 210 IT professionals, Avaya found nearly 82 per cent of companies experience some form of network downtime due to IT staff making mistakes while conducting configuration changes to the core network. The respondents said at least one fifth of all downtime could be attributed to such mistakes.
The survey also said the average financial loss to a business due to network downtime amounts to $140,003. Losses could be greater in the financial sector where the average hit attributed to unscheduled downtime is $540,358.
At least one in five companies told Avaya that they fired an IT employee because of a network downtime incident.
In sectors like telecommunications, utilities and natural resources, that number went up to one in three.