How Old Technology can be Costly to Your Enterprise

In recent years, the term ‘throwaway society’ has become very heavily used. And for good reason. With disposable incomes now becoming the norm, humanity has developed some somewhat materialistic traits. Because of this shift in societal habits, we are being encouraged to reuse, recycle or maintain products and items we purchase, to elongate their life cycle.

However, unfortunately most tech and electrical goods are designed with a short end-of-life time frame. This frustrating feature is built in with the intention of electrical products being replaced evert 12 to 24 months. This way not be the case with all tech, but it most certainly applies to smart phones, watches, laptops and so forth.

Although somewhat annoying and relatively costly, sometimes purchasing tech with a built in expiry date can be a blessing in disguise. Without knowing it, older tech can start to host some sneaky hidden costs. The UK Government currently forks out £2.3bn a year to support old technology – that is a monumental figure for the daily running out outdated tech.

If your business or organization is still relying on technology or software that has possible seen better days, perhaps now is the time to consider an update. The use of older tech may bring with it unwanted expenses not only in terms of money and finances, but also risk to resources, time and client satisfaction rates. Here’s why your old tech might be costing your business the earth and why it’s about time you upgraded.

Employee Satisfaction

First and foremost, you want your employees to be happy within their workplace. This can range from how comfortable they feel within an office environment to general team morale. Without knowing it, the performance of tech and hardware can hugely impact the overall mood and productivity of your team on a daily basis.

Older, outdated tech can cause unnecessary frustration and put barriers in place of performing simple tasks and procedures in a work place. This in tern will reduce productiveness and effect workflows heavily. This will cause the performance of your organization to falter and snowball into unwanted costs piling up, triggering a waste of valuable time and resources.

Technology is intended to help streamline processes within the workplace, reduce human error and improve delivery of better customer service. If your employees begin to spend more time trying to complete simple administrative tasks that are being impaired by cumbersome tech instead of tending to customer needs, overall satisfaction from both employees and customers will quickly plumet and lead to a whole manner of issues.

Ensuring your tech, hardware and software systems are up to date, will allow your employees to carry out digital tasks to their best of abilities and deliver exceptional customer service, without a glitch in the system.

Remain Ahead of the Competition

The inset of the Covid-19 pandemic drastically radicalized the acceleration of digital transformations within many sectors. Due to this, groundbreaking technology and software solutions are being developed at a rapid pace. What was new and efficient last week, could become outdated and laggy tomorrow.

Falling behind on the technology front will make it increasingly harder for you to keep up with the competition within your industry. This will be especially highlighted if they adopt the next latest and greatest technological advances before you do.

Customer bases expect fast paced and reliable service. Using an obsolete piece of tech or software service, such as a clunky old CRM system that you haven’t updated in the past decade, will start to cause ripples in your customer service. These factors may begin to drive your clients into the direction of your competitor, who may be using more current and efficient technology to perform transactions and complete operations with a sleek and proficient manner. In turn, employees may begin to find work arounds that don’t involve the use of technology, to keep clients happy. These shortcuts may start to cause more harm than good, carrying detrimental affects to your business in the long run. This could include the loss or misplacement of data and breaches in security.

Be one step ahead of the competitors within the field and update your tech if and when possible. This will allow you to provide a much better quality of service and cause you to remain a more attractive business to be involved with.

To Sum Up

Using older tech within your enterprise may cause you to fall behind the competition. Future clients and prospects will be more attracted to modern processes and technology, as you will showcase that you are a forward thinking and innovative business. A tech upgrade will also all your employees productivity to not falter and allow them to remain one step ahead at all times.