A 1% chance of rain may not sound like much. A 1% loss in your company’s annual revenue on the other hand …

That’s how much of a bite something as “minor” as the company network’s going down for a few hours takes out of your bottom line.

And while hopefully things run smoothly the vast majority of the time, you want to be confident your IT folks can get you back on track as quickly as possible when it doesn’t.

Those minor tech hiccups cost organizations an average of 1% of their total annual revenues, according to a recent study by Infonetics Research.

Fortunately, there are some steps you can (and should) be taking to prevent such a costly hit on your watch.

Here are four questions to ask your organization’s top techie to know you’re minimizing the financial hit from down systems:

Question #1:  Do we have broadband access for multiple applications? Your best follow-up question: Is that being done as cost effectively as possible?

Question #2: How close are we to 100% “up time” at any remote locations? That way, even if the entire building is down, work can get done elsewhere.

Question #3: Do we have an always-on backup network? A simple “yes” isn’t enough here. You want that backup network to be completely separate from your usual, “terrestrial” network.

Question #4:  Do we have a way to gain constant access to data, voice and radio, even when local network services are down? Remaining out-of-touch could cost your business even more.

Finally, make sure everyone understands this is an ongoing conversation. IT needs to keep working on both cutting downtime and minimizing its impact.

Adapted from “Network Downtime More Costly Than Ever,” in Disaster Recovery Journal, Summer 2010.