IT upgrades – dispelling the myths
You may understand it’s important to keep your IT up to date. But concerns or lack of information can often impede investing in timely upgrades. With technology continually changing and always evolving, upgrading your IT may appear daunting and confusing.
At the same time, the learning curve can be steep and these concerns often keep businesses from planning for IT upgrades.
Most businesses put off upgrading their IT for one or other of the following common reasons below. However, the rationale behind these often don’t stack up.
Myth 1: Cost
IT upgrades should be a financial investment for your business. These decisions may take time and research due to the significant costs involved. The cost alone often deters businesses from making upgrades until it’s necessary.
The downside to waiting until it’s absolutely necessary is implementation may take longer and can be more expensive. It’s better to invest in your business during the growth phase and before systems break or quality is impacted. However, avoid making hasty decisions. Once you’ve decided on the best solution, don’t let cost keep you from keeping your systems up to date.
Myth 2: Downtime
Downtime associated with implementing new or upgrading existing IT systems is a common concern. Implementing IT upgrades may take a few minutes, a few hours, or a full weekend or longer depending on the updates and scale of the activity. This could result in your Customers having: –
- no access to your product or services
- employees left without access to tools which allow them to do their job.
Downtime can therefore equal less productivity or a pause in business altogether. Downtime can be planned so that its impact on your business is kept to a minimum. If you do experience downtime for a couple hours or a couple days, the results of faster, better, and more secure IT systems are worth it.
Myth 3: Confusion
Many avoid IT upgrades out of confusion. Are upgrades necessary? What actions are needed to upgrade your current system? Open questions and confusion can render businesses motionless and make it easy to avoid making essential upgrade decisions.
Keep up to date on IT upgrades by paying attention to warning messages, alerts or emails from your systems and applications. Take advice from your IT support provider if you’re unsure about anything or what to do.
Myth 4: Unclear ROI
Since cost is an important factor, return on investment is important for businesses to consider. Calculation of the exact ROI is impossible. It may take months or years to see results or it’s simply not practical to assess the benefits. Consider IT upgrades with the understanding that results may be immediate or sometimes it may take months. But don’t let this deter you from the larger picture of how upgrades will help improve service and grow your business over time.
It’s normal to have concerns when considering IT upgrades but don’t allow yourself to delay because of costs, confusion or downtime. Your business and your people deserve the best if they are to succeed.
Case study: Business transformed through IT upgrades
An industrial drying equipment manufacturer was suffering from outdated IT due to prolonged oversight of their system upgrades. The knock on effect was a slow and unreliable network that started to seriously impact on the use of key business applications and productivity.
After discussing the future strategy of the business and conducting a comprehensive technology audit, it was decided to upgrade key elements of the overall IT infrastructure. This included replacing aging PCs with new, and upgrading workstations to an acceptable specification with the latest software. Secure remote working and collaboration tools were also part of the integrated upgrade.
The result has transformed a business that was struggling to operate efficiently to one that is better placed to grow and compete more effectively within its markets, whilst improving productivity and raising employee morale at the same time.