8 Benefits of Business Technology That Communicate the Importance of Upgrading
It was projected in 2019 that businesses across the world would pour a staggering 4 trillion dollars into technology. That spend was made with the hopes of improving productivity, staying competitive, and growing.
If you have the same ambitions as a business owner, you may very well be pondering boosting your technology spend in ’21. With 2020 being such a soft year for most organizations though, is that juice worth the squeeze?
Our team contends that it certainly is as business technology is one of the best catalysts to increase revenue and profit margins. For those of you that aren’t sure of the precise value that technology in business brings, keep reading to discover 8 key advantages that hardware and software upgrades could deliver to you almost immediately.
1. Attracting Talent
A business is only as good as the talent pool that’s helping it run. Do you think that top talent in your area is going to want to work at a company that’s encumbered by a bunch of legacy technology? If you do, think again.
You may be able to attract someone out of college that’s desperately looking to take their first career steps. A year or so into dealing with old workflows though, you can bet they’ll jump ship for greener pastures.
Bottom line, technology attracts talent and keeps them in place which helps your company make and save money.
2. Lowering IT Costs
IT is another big line item in most business budgets. Fortunately, technology has become so intuitive that its self-help protocols can often keep IT teams at bay.
That is, of course, if you’ve invested in technology with self-help protocols.
Legacy technologies will almost always need more attention from technology professionals than newer products. You may find that constant attention costs you more money in labor than upgrading your systems would have.
3. Side-Stepping Productivity Issues
Old technology is slow technology. Slow technology means having employees twiddling their thumbs more and working less.
It may not seem like a big deal that your software takes 15 seconds to process a function when newer software only takes 3. If you think of those additional 12 seconds multiplied across multiple people, countless functions, and over a year though, you could be burning hundreds of hours of payroll.
4. Ensuring Compatibility
Buying the latest and greatest software is well and good. Running that software on legacy hardware though can be a challenge due to compatibility issues.
The same is true when getting new software to talk to old software.
Say you have accounting software that you want to plug into whatever point-of-sale system you use. If your accounting software is a decade old, you may find that your POS won’t communicate with it, creating workflow bottlenecks.
As a general rule, new tools offer wider compatibility which increases the flexibility your business has to operate effectively.
5. Security Enhancements
If you invest in tech upgrades for no other reason, let it be for the sake of your security. Millions of attacks are launched against government entities every day via cyber warfare. Countless more are levied against businesses like yours.
New software and hardware take into account the ever-changing landscape of cyber attacks and have a bevy of safeguards built in to make attempts at collecting your data harder or downright impossible for hackers.
Depending on the kind of data you harbor in your business, you actually have legal obligations to have certain security safeguards in place. If you don’t and a breach takes place, you could be liable to pay damages to those affected.
6. Support from Vendors
One of the best parts about investing in enterprise-level small business technology is that small businesses will almost always gain access to a team of experts that represent the software they’ve acquired for support. That support, however, does not last forever.
Vendors have windows of time in which they support products they put out. Once those windows expire, businesses are on their own. What’s worse is that when vendors fully stop supporting hardware/software, they’ll stop releasing security updates which leaves your company vulnerable to cyber attacks.
7. Lower Electric Bills
While not often talked about in business technology conversations, electricity bills are yet another thing that benefits from your investment in new tools.
Any comparable piece of hardware you buy that’s newer than last year’s will almost certainly have been created to run more effectively. That efficiency multiplied across your whole business could save you hundreds of dollars (or more) every year on your utility usage.
8. Tax Benefits
As you may know, investments in your company today could mean tax breaks come April.
Talk to your accountant about how you’re planning on revolutionizing the technology in your business. Ask them what help may exist in the way of government rebate programs and which sorts of tax breaks you’ll qualify for.
You may find that you’ll earn enough breaks to lower your taxable bracket which could save you almost as much as you spend on upgrades.
Business Technology Is What Will Keep You Competitive
As competition becomes more globalized and fierce in business, we’re confident that business technology will be one of the primary weapons in any company’s arsenal that’ll enable them to stay competitive. We hope that our post showcasing the many benefits that technology brings to corporate settings has hit that point home.
If you’re inspired, we implore you to consider one or two things in your business you can invest in today to start yourself down the path towards being more tech competent. Still not sure where to start with your tech buys? No problem!
Our team has ample tech content on our blog that’ll continue guiding you. Check out more of our newest content to continue fulfilling your need to know.
Trevor Anderson wrote this article on behalf of FreeUp. FreeUp is the fastest-growing freelance marketplace in the US. FreeUp only accepts the top 1% of freelance applicants. Click here to get access to the top freelancers in the world.
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