How to Tell When Your Technology Needs Upgrading

The curious thing about information technology is that, while it improves as any other technology would, the environment can accelerate the various changes made to it at various rates. As a result, knowing when your business needs to upgrade its technology isn’t always so cut-and-dry. To help, we’re sharing a few clear indicators that hint that the time has come.

Your IT Team is Always Busy

Or, more specifically, they are always scrambling to fix problems as they pop up. Older technology is prone to issues like this (and others, as we will get into). So, if your internal team is always chasing down problems, or you’ve been calling in the local IT guy almost every day, it will be more helpful to upgrade your technology. More up-to-date solutions will be less susceptible to these kinds of difficulties, so the costs saved in maintenance and remediation will likely offset the financial burden of an upgrade.

Your Employees are Frustrated and Default to Using Workarounds

One of the most reassuring things about most job processes is the fact that there is a process at all, so if your technology no longer allows your set processes to be followed, how do you think your employees will react to it? They aren’t going to be happy, that’s for sure, and in order to accomplish what they are responsible for, they might resort to finding their own, less efficient (and less secure) methods to complete their objectives… methods that might be laden with problems. Improved tools can eliminate this need by providing a set, company-approved and secure process for employees to follow.

Your Technology Runs Reeeeaaaally Sloooooooowly

Speaking of things that frustrate your users, slow technology is perhaps public enemy number one in the office. Whether workstations are taking too long to boot up, the Internet connection is flaky, you deal with slow application load times, or too many other examples to list here, lagginess is generally best resolved by a replacement. This is very closely related to our next warning sign…

...You’re Feeling Financial Strains

It’s simple math, really. If each task takes longer to complete, fewer tasks can be completed throughout the day, which usually translates to reduced revenue overall. At the same time, your employees will still be paid their usual wage, meaning that you’re spending the same amount of money to generate less income. It doesn’t take an economics degree to see that this isn’t good.

Investing in an upgrade can help you improve your productivity, which gives you the potential to generate increased amounts of revenue. So, instead of working for less money, you have the chance to see some significant returns from your investment.

You’re More Vulnerable to Cyberattacks

Here’s the worst of it: as technology improves, so do the cyberattacks that bad actors will use to undermine it. By using older technology, you are effectively welcoming cybercriminals to attack you--especially if your tools have passed their end of support date. Updating your software, whether it’s your security solution or the productivity tools you rely on, helps to reinforce your overall security by reducing a particularly potent weakness.

So, when all is said and done, keeping up on your IT upgrades is a bit of a no-brainer. For more information on whether or not you need to upgrade your IT, or assistance in doing so, reach out to Washington Works! Our professionals are just a call to 301-571-5040 away.