Every day we hear about technological developments, new gadgets and devices, new software and apps, new operating systems and complex programs that make our lives easier, more pleasant and less time-consuming. In the business environment, new and updated tech is an essential key if you want to stay ahead of your competitors and have solid revenues and happy returning customers.
Do companies have the budget, the time and the workforce to implement and manage new tech? Or can we all be happy with our 12 years old Windows XP operated PCs and our good old fashioned accounting programs?
Outdated technology can harm a business like never before. Still, very few small business owners are aware of the fact that “the right technology solutions can drive sales, increase productivity and provide a competitive edge.”
According to a Spiceworks report, companies plan to increase their IT budgets only by 1% in the near future. Do you need to rethink your investments cash flow to focus on new tech and change the old one? Let’s see ten ways outdated technology can negatively impact your business:
1. Security Breaches
This is the biggest threat posed by outdated technology: hacking, security breaches, black hat techniques you can fall victim to, malware, spyware and all sorts of viruses. To understand the gravity of the situation, remember that around 49% of consumers will never return to a business if they heard that the company’s servers or website had been hacked.
Old software can’t handle new cyber-attacks, and new software isn’t compatible with old machines. In other words, if you are serious about your business, start investing in new computers and updated security programs.
2. Equipment Failure
Hard drives, motherboards, servers, software and memory disks don’t last forever. The older the machines are, the higher the risks you face. If they fail, if they get broken, you will lose catastrophically important data, and you will have to deal with lowered productivity, wasted time, and lost money, lost clients and so on.
3. Decreased Overall Productivity
If your employees operate on outdated programs, they will have to find a way around them and implement their own working rules in order to finish their daily tasks. They waste time and effort, and the overall productivity starts circling the drain if they don’t have automated programs, new and smart software or pieces of equipment that actually work.
4. Unhappy Business Environment
If stuck to outdated programs and improper machines your workers will get irritated enough to resent the job, the company and you as a manager. Instead of taking ten days a month to fill in a report they could push two buttons and have the report printed out for them.
Worker frustration translates into poor employee retention, high rates of turnover and general chaos, which translate into poor productivity, wasted time and money, organizational insecurity and so on.
5. Falling Behind Competitors
Your competitor uses high-end software to manage a transportation fleet while you are still manually introducing data and tables in Excel files. Not that there is anything wrong with Excel, but new technology helps you connect better with consumers and collaborators, make smarter and educated decisions, respond quicker to problems, strengthen relationships with your employees and partners and close more deals.
6. Poor Company Management
If you grow as a business, have many employees, started a few subsidiaries, manage multiple projects and have a lot of deals to control, outdated technology will make everything harder. A recent study showed that companies using cloud storage data to manage large teams and supervise complex projects have better revenue and a strong reputation on the market.
The logic is simple: as long as you don’t waste time and resources managing your business but use smart software solutions, the more time and resources you can allocate to actually grow your business.
7. Poor Company Reputation
According to a recent survey, over 90% of consumers said they would take their business to other companies if the company they work with uses outdated technology. If your clients take their business elsewhere, calculate how much time you will be out of business altogether. People want apps, highly responsive websites, instant payment confirmation, fool-proof credit card security and so on. If you fail in delivering, you will fail on staying in the market.
8. Decreased Sales
According to the same survey, more than 80% of people said they would never make a purchase from a company if the company’s website was outdated, not customer-friendly, not mobile-friendly and not easy to operate with.
If your company’s website is outdated, has an unprofessional theme and doesn’t respond well, you will see the downfall of your sales strategy in a matter of months.
9. Poor Online Visibility
You know we live in an online, Internet-driven world so you’d better step up your game. Slow working websites, poorly upgraded pages and improperly optimized websites will push your company’s website to Google’s second page (if you are lucky), as nobody reads page 3 anymore.
If you want to stay ahead and be visible or becoming a reputable source you will have to learn how to brand your company, invest in an unlimited internet option to always be connected, work on your website, up your hosting plans, engage in some SEO white hat practices, install tracking software for your marketing campaigns and open up to the world with the help of social media.
10. You Lose Respect
You run a business because you want to grow, and you invest and reinvest to position yourself as good as you can in your market niche. But since you don’t expect a graphics company to draw your company logo in Paint, but use Photoshop and vectors, so you should expect others to receive from you the best, fastest and most reliable results.
Using outdated tech when you as a company want others to use their upgraded tech for you is a sign of disrespect towards your own company and towards the other product and service providers you do business with.
Keep your business safe from attacks and equipment failures, retain your customers and show your business network the same consideration you want to receive. Outdated tech can cost your business an arm and a leg, so spend a few bucks on new tech, it will save you time, money and effort in the long run!
