Neglecting systems maintenance is false economy

Why waiting for IT to break is breaking your business

- FRANK MULLEN

MANY SOUTH African businesses still rely on what's known as a break-fix IT model—a reactive approach where support is only called in once something stops working.

While this approach may seem cost-effective on paper, it’s a short-term strategy that often leads to hidden costs, business disruption, and increased security risks. Downtime can mean lost revenue, reputational damage, and even regulatory breaches. Waiting for systems to fail before acting is no longer sustainable for businesses that depend on technology to stay competitive.

The problem with the break-fix mindset

The break-fix model made sense when technology was simpler, and businesses could tolerate a few hours of downtime—but in an always-on economy, where operations, communication, and transactions depend on uninterrupted IT, a single system failure can halt entire workflows.