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A department conducts business, Monday through Saturday from 9 A.M. to 5 P.M. each day. The
department takes in revenue on an average of $500,000 per week. Employee salaries are
approximately $5,000 per week. The department requires the use of a computer system with an
RPO of 2 hours and an RTO of 4 hours.
To determine the business impact of downtime, what is the average cost of downtime per hour of
the business?

A.
$10,417

B.
$10,521

C.
$11,105

D.
$12,024

Explanation:
Impact of Downtime
The business impact of downtime is the sum of all losses sustained as a result of a given
disruption. An important metric, average cost of downtime per hour, provides a key estimate in
determining the appropriate BC solutions. It is calculated as follows:
Average cost of downtime per hour = average productivity loss per hour + average revenue loss
per hour Where:
Productivity loss per hour = (total salaries and benefits of all employees per week) / (average
number of working hours per week) Average revenue loss per hour = (total revenue of an
organization per week) / (average number of hours per week that an organization is open for
business)
The average downtime cost per hour may also include estimates of projected revenue loss due to
other consequences, such as damaged reputations, and the additional cost of repairing the
system.
Calculation

EMC E10-001 Student Resource Guide. Module 9: Introduction to Business Continuity