Is old tech hindering your business?
The right technology solutions can drive sales, increase productivity and provide a competitive edge.
Technology is provided to employees with the intent of helping to augment their productivity by saving time and effort, reducing human error, and driving speed of service to customers.
When your technology becomes a daily source of frustration for your team, wasting valuable time and constantly interrupting work flow, what are the real, long-term costs to your organization’s performance?
Here are three ways outdated technology can lose your business money:
1. The loss of clients or customers
The smartest organizations know that customer perception is important. For example, if you walked into a business and saw employees working on yellowed CRT monitors using Windows XP, would you feel comfortable giving them your personal or financial information? Would you think of the company as secure, innovative, and successful?
Consider all the ways that customers interact with your company on a daily basis, and be honest as to whether your current technology is helping or hindering customer retention. For instance, can your phone system direct them to the right person? And is your website mobile-friendly?
Customers have higher expectations everyday with the speed that technology is developing. They will not hesitate to take their business elsewhere if a company cannot consistently deliver convenient and reliable solutions.
2. Decreased Productivity
Customers are not the only ones affected by outdated technology. When a company lacks the right systems to manage key business processes, inventory or customers, employees are forced to develop their own methods and work-arounds to accomplish day-to-day tasks — sometimes sharing these methods with others, but rarely in a way that can be easily duplicated and applied across the entire organization. (How to optimize productivity of your field team)
When systems aren’t integrated, employees spend time reinventing the work cycle taking away from the time they have to focus on revenue-generating activities. (What integration services does FIGJAM offer?) Implementing the right internal systems isn’t inexpensive, but done correctly, will increase employee productivity and reduce operating costs through increased standardization.
3. Increased Security Risk
Clinging to old versions of software to save the cost of updating can be a recipe for disaster As versions of software become outdated, so does support for these systems. Remember that tech is upgraded to become better and that means it’s safer and impervious to malware. It’s important to recognise the value in scheduling regular updates as they become available.
Additionally, when employees are frustrated by slow, outdated hardware like hard drives, flash sticks and CD-ROMs, they are more likely to use their own devices at work. This puts company data at risk as the IT department usually has less control over personal devices. Even when there are restrictions on the use of non-company technology, employees who require certain programs and tools to get their work done disregard the policy and unwittingly expose the network to cyber threats. (How to manage employee devices)
Technology shouldn’t be addressed with a “shiny new toy” mentality, but rather, from a strategic point of view. It needs to align with growth goals, address challenges, and factor in real-time applications so that it supports your organization’s objectives. You don’t always need the latest and greatest systems in place to be successful, but if you’re not factoring technology into your strategic planning process, the losses and accompanying risks will continue to mount.
This article was prepared by the FIGJAM marketing team.
