Everyone understands that technology is constantly changing. However, acceptance of this reality doesn’t diminish the fact that change, even if it’s foreseeable, can be difficult to adapt to. It’s for this reason why your business needs to have a long-term technology replacement plan.
Without having a technology replacement plan, the approach to replacing your company’s technology will be reactive. Essentially, this means holding off on purchasing new tech until you absolutely have to, like when a piece of equipment fails or breaks. The biggest problem with a reactive approach like this is that it’s both time-consuming and inefficient.
For example, let’s say that you’ve got an employee still getting work done on an older workstation equipped with a no-longer-supported operating system like Windows XP. Instead of putting the old PC down a long time ago and replacing it with a newer, more efficient machine, you’ve made the executive decision to wait until the old computer kicks the bucket before replacing it.
The business-owner logic used in this example is that, by prolonging the use of an older piece of equipment (one that still gets the job done), you will in turn save money by putting off a major purchase. Even though this seems like sound logic, and it definitely applies to life’s most important purchases, this isn’t how technology works.
With every upgrade and every new version, technology is designed to improve upon the previous model, especially in regards to efficiency and productivity. Therefore, the longer one puts off upgrading their technology will only translate to losing out on the savings that new technology would have afforded them. Due to the fact of just how much more efficient new tech is over its predecessors, this is why a big selling point for new tech is “it will pay for itself.”
The best way to take advantage of the savings and the efficiency afforded to your business by new technology is to plan for its implementation. A haphazard approach to replacing older technology will yield your company minimal savings, and may even cost you more in the long run, especially if an older, bulky, and inefficient piece of technology is continued to be used in your office and outlives its usefulness.
Additionally, despite the fact that new technology is designed to be more intuitive to use than its predecessor, this isn’t always the case. Sometimes, users may find new technology to be difficult to adapt to, like if a Windows XP user suddenly had their PC switched to a new Windows 8.1 touchscreen machine. If your approach to replacing technology is to randomly replace what breaks, then the disruption caused to your company’s workflow by unexpectedly thrusting new technologies with new protocols onto your staff, will set you back until the learning curve has been overcome.
In terms of both saving money by taking advantage of the latest solutions, and quickly learning how to operate the latest tech, having a plan in place is the best way to enhance these benefits for your business. For help creating a long-term technology replacement plan for your business, one that suits your company’s current and foreseeable needs, give Business Solutions & Software Group a call at (954) 575-3992.
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