It’s common knowledge that technology can be expensive, especially when it comes to businesses that need multiple software licenses, workstations, and the like. What might surprise you is that saving a little money by putting off upgrading your technology is not a good approach. Here are some of the lesser-known costs associated with clinging to old technology, hoping to save a little extra.
Time is Money
We all know the old adage that ‘time is money,’ but in this case, it’s meant more literally. As technology ages and gets more outdated, things slow down. Computers don’t run as fast. Network and system security features become outdated, leading to errors and incompatibility when connecting to web-based services. Crashes and freezes become more frequent. Sure, the old ‘turn it off and turn it on’ trick might work somewhat consistently, but all these workarounds for dealing with outdated technology take time… time that could be spent doing actual work and being productive. Slow processing speeds and load times alone could take up to 30 minutes to an hour collectively throughout the day on slower and more outdated hardware.
Customers
If your systems are outdated and prevent you from performing critical tasks in a timely manner, do you think your customers will be happy with the extended wait times, or worse, dealing with the outdated systems if you’re using them for customer-facing interfaces like web pages, self-service stations and the like? Customers generally like dealing with companies who are up to date with their technology, and lagging too far behind the times could potentially lead to a loss in customers.
Security
Older systems tend to not be compatible with security updates and other firmware updates, which could put your company not only at financial risk but also a legal risk if you store customer data on your systems. If your security is breached and it’s discovered that severely outdated security systems were to blame, it could spell all sorts of legal trouble.
Taxes
Upgrading is no longer this colossal investment it used to be. Many companies provide software as a Service business model, which helps lessen the blow of expensive software, providing a subscription-based fee rather than a massive lump sum investment to purchase the software. On top of this, technology costs are now considered operating costs for the purpose of taxes and often end up as a 100% tax write-off.