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The pace of technology moves rapidly with new innovations and features making their way to market quickly, superseding the old and setting new standards. It’s this rapid pace of advancement that gives business leaders and management concern; if your business is far behind, is that costing your business money? Or would it be a sunk cost to upgrade now? Knowing when to strike on upgrading your businesses’ IT equipment is key; the right refresh at the right time means higher productivity and performance in your business and at the right price. Too early however and you may be buying into unproven technology or eating the early adopter cost, something every business should avoid. There is no easy answer to deciding when to upgrade. Many suggest refreshing your businesses’ IT environment every five years, but what if you don’t need the latest and greatest advancements? Instead, here are the five factors we suggest monitoring, in order to know when to make a change.  

Performance: Is it going down?

The first and most measurable indication that it’s time to upgrade, is when business performance begins to suffer. Is your manufacturing process slowing? Are your office tasks getting done more slowly than ever before? There’s a high possibility it’s because your technology is becoming dated, and unable to keep up with modern software sets and workflows.

Operating Costs: Are costs rising as productivity slows?

Hand-in-hand with performance, it’s worth paying attention to the state of your expense and overhead sheets. Older systems can be costly in energy bills compared to more efficient, modern alternatives. As systems age and parts begin to degrade, you may find operating costs rise even further just to maintain previous levels of operation. Before throwing out old equipment it’s worth having your IT personnel see if rising costs can be attributed to system maintenance and repairs. If a simple once-over doesn’t fix it then it’s time to look at updating your IT systems.

Security: How secure is your environment?

Running older technology comes with risks beyond simple slowdowns; as technology moves on, old technology is abandoned, and that often includes security support and patches. For example, businesses running outdated versions of Microsoft operating systems are at risk of data breaches, digital attacks, and more. According to research by Kaspersky conducted in 2019, around half of SMBs rely on old operating systems, leaving them wide-open to intrusions and business disruption. Don’t be one of them. When support starts to dwindle you should look to newer technologies.

Employee Frustrations

Less tangible as a metric but no less important, is how your staff react and interact with systems. Are you noticing frustration and impacts to performance among your team? It could be because your systems aren’t providing a conducive environment for effective work. Check in with your staff to see what they think of the systems they’re using. It’s often the personnel working with your systems day-to-day that have the best insight into what’s working well and what isn’t, and they’ll tell you when it’s time for something to go.

Your IT Department: Are they able to keep up?

IT teams can be miracle-workers when it comes to keeping your business running, but if your IT environment is starting to age, there’s only so much they can do. Older systems may simply not have the capabilities to work as you need them to; components may lack features or raw performance to deliver, and software support may be limited to new machines. If you find you’re unable to improve production or keep pace with modern advancements, it might be your systems that are the bottleneck keeping your business evolving to new heights.   Speak to ASUS Business today to find out how we can help your business perform at its best: Contact ASUS Business