You want your technology to keep up with the demands of your business and evolving trends, which means that your hardware has to be up to date. Ultimately, tech hygiene boils down to striking a balance between evolving technology, your tech budget, and your tech needs, which can be quite a balancing act.
If you have concerns about whether your tech and hardware are keeping up, an experienced tech professional can help.
Your Employees
When you think about your business’s tech hardware, you likely focus on its functionality, but you may not have paid much attention to how it affects your employees. Outdated tech makes employees less productive and engaged.
Many employees generally:
- Consider company technology outdated.
- Prefer automated nonessential tasks.
- Prefer mobile-friendly devices
- Prefer to access work documents via cloud-based apps
These preferences amount to more than a wish list. Outdated technology and the wasted productivity that comes with it can lead to immense annual financial losses.
Your employees can lose considerable work time on repetitive endeavors that lend themselves to automation, including:
- Onboarding new employees
- Reviewing and approving contracts
- Requesting reset passwords
- Requesting office supplies
Your employees are your most valuable resource, and when you can itemize lost productivity this succinctly, consider it a sign to review your company’s hardware.
Vulnerabilities
If your computer systems have been serving you well for a while, you may not want to rock the boat by updating. Many companies fear that tinkering with their hardware opens them up to cyberattacks, but this is unrealistic. While there is a level of comfort that comes with sticking to the tried and true, the fact is that the older your hardware systems are, the harder it is to maintain their security-and the more vulnerable you are to cybercrimes as a result.
Malicious actors in the cyber world are on the hunt for weak links that allow infiltration, and outdated hardware is a prime example. When your computer system isn’t up to date, it doesn’t support the most current software, which is far more capable to thwart cyberattacks. Consider the notorious WannaCrypt global cyberattack of 2017, which infected Windows-based servers and workstations by the tens of thousands.
This malware can strike hard and swiftly by taking advantage of weaknesses inherent to the outdated Windows operating systems. Cyberattacks on small to midsize companies are increasing, making vulnerabilities more relevant.
Collaborations Are Key
When your employees-near and far-can collaborate seamlessly, your business reaps the rewards. Hardware snafus can negatively affect every sector of your business, but it can hit work collaborations particularly hard. Managing tasks and files efficiently and effectively across all platforms, team members, and workstations is a considerable challenge.
Communication Concerns
When you don’t have a well-considered and well-defined system for collaborating, communication between members can be all over the board, including efforts that proceed through team hubs, IMs, emails, phone calls, and texts. In the meantime, you may lose the integrity of all that collaboration in translation. When your hardware isn't up to handling the software updates necessary to support streamlined communications, you miss out.
Oversight
Keeping employee collaborations fluid and effective requires immense organizational efforts and serious software capacities-which in turn require robust hardware support. When your employees have to cobble together a system that allows them to collaborate effectively, they can lose a good deal of their productivity to organizational oversight that you can better address by increasing the automation capabilities of your tech. With up-to-date hardware, you’ll be far better prepared to automate oversight for collaborations that allow your employees’ organizational efforts to shine.
The Customer Is King
It is bad enough when your employees are frustrated by outdated technology. If your customers and clients are also experiencing the effects, it's time to take stock. You can't afford to ignore or underestimate your customers' concerns, and the sad truth is that for every customer who voices a complaint, several more have already given up on you.
Consumers have become very sophisticated regarding technology, and they won't wait around while you catch up. If your computer system is impeding your customer service, it's time to pick up the pace.
Don’t Let Legacy IT Bring You Down.
Considering the idea of giving your business’s computer hardware a facelift can be daunting, but you shouldn’t let your trepidation hold you back. Inadequate tech can lead to consequences you may not have bargained for, including service downtime, missed deadlines, and much more.
You cannot always break your company's IT infrastructure into separate pieces that you can address one at a time-they work as an organic whole, which means you need to address your hardware concerns in relation not only to your software but also to the compatibility between your hardware and software.
If you feel an IT pinch in one arena, there's an excellent chance that you should explore your whole system's capabilities.
An Experienced Tech Professional Can Help You Tackle Your Company’s Hardware Needs
If you don't know whether your company's computer hardware is keeping up with your business needs, a seasoned tech pro can help you assess its strengths and challenges while exploring your best options. If your hardware is letting you down, it can have a ripple effect that is difficult to master.
It's time to address your concerns head-on by consulting with a skilled IT professional today. The right company can evaluate your current situation and identify areas for improvement. They can implement a new hardware strategy to maximize your operational productivity and revenue.
Never take your hardware for granted, as outdated technology can slow down your operations and diminish your bottom line. Instead, remain proactive and consult with tech experts today.
