Why your company should have the most up to date servers and computers for its employees
In today’s fast past new world of technology, it’s very important for any business to have the latest and greatest equipment not only for its internal infrastructure, but also for its employees. Ah, but you say you can’t, or don’t need to, or I just can’t afford to. You should be saying that you can’t afford NOT to upgrade.
In any business, we all have deadlines. We all have that meeting to go to, or that video conference link in your email that you or your department will attend. Using those types of systems, and communication devices are a must in this environment. What if you couldn’t open up that link? What if you are trying to beat that deadline of submitting that proposal or Bid to a customer to whom you’re trying to win their business? What if your employees are constantly talking about how slow their systems are, or giving excuses of waiting for a document to pull up, or complaining about a specific or across the board applications that they use as being slow or non-responsive? How will you, the CEO, CIO, I.T. Director or I.T. administrator resolve these issues? How long will you wait to change out that server? How long will you wait to upgrade that work station? Do you feel that your employees are just overly critical about their systems and just want “NEW” systems to show off? Is your I.T. Staff also trying to come up with excuses about wanting new equipment? What about employee retention? What about your customers overall satisfaction in working with your company? Have you asked them? Have you asked your employees? Have you spoken to your I.T. Staff as to WHY they really want to have their requests approved?
I’m sure the list can continue on for the reasons why you shouldn’t, can’t, won’t or straight out refuse to upgrade. So let’s look at some reasons that I’m sure that after reading the pro’s and con’s, you will feel more confident in making the decisions, that will not only benefit you, but your company as a whole.
The reasons here are listed in any random order, but from your perspective put in your mind as to what you would feel would be most important, to the least important.
• Customer Satisfaction
• Company Infrastructure
• I.T. staff confidence and retention
• General employee satisfaction, and retention
• Improvement in efficiency
• Improvement in internal communication
• Improvement in external communication
• Improvement in business productivity
• Lowering of costs and overhead expenses
• New business because customers are attracted to newer technology within a company. Gives them the feeling that you are up to date with today’s technology and see your professionalism as a strong point in doing business with you.
In review of what we’ve covered just in the few examples of the benefits of upgrading your technology within your company, you truly will see this as a necessity, rather than just a want to see your company benefit and grow to it’s full potential.
So, if you are ever wondering how the tempo of the company is, ask your employees. Ask your I.T. staff to review with you the age of your infrastructure. Have them show you the comparisons and benefits of the increase of all venues of what an upgrade can do. Don’t fall into the trap of “Well, were doing fine, everything is working”. We’ll save more money by not upgrading…WRONG! The shorter time in cycle that you do for upgrades, the quicker it will be for your company to benefit from those changes. Remember, your equipment starts to slow down after it has reached its maximum performance levels, and that is metric that should be a normal, mandatory and permanent check that you and the company should always be aware of. In the long run, you may feel that your saving money by not upgrading and trying to extend the life of your computer and server equipment to the longest life span ever thought possible, but in reality, your truly losing money that could be used else where.
-Roger Archuleta, PEI
