Out with the old (computers), in with the new (year). But what about your hardware and software,
is it due for an upgrade as w
ell? While there are many reasons not to change enterprise IT systems, possibly the biggest one is inertia. If it isn’t broken, why fix it?
Whenever an IT upgrade is mentioned, many organizations will start by looking at the cost of upgrading and assess how this fits within their budget. However, there is one (often forgotten) cost that many organizations neglect to consider: the cost of not upgrading.
It may seem a strange concept at first, but once you start considering, it’s really easy to grasp how legacy hardware and software might be costing your business serious money. The hidden cost of maintaining systems beyond their natural end-of-life is making a large dent in your business’ finances. In this blog post, we aim to provide a few pointers which will help you evaluate this cost, and hopefully make it easier to decide if it’s time for an IT upgrade in your organization.
Support and maintenance costs
Complex computers are costly to maintain and will often require more admin time and help desk resources. For comparison, maintaining older systems can be as challenging as finding spare parts for a Rover 620ti which seized production in 1999… In contrast, much newer software and hardware solutions are significantly cheaper to maintain as many complexities have been eliminated and there is a wide availability of support from manufacturers, as well as a plethora of well-trained IT engineers who will know these new systems inside-out.
Ask yourself: how much does is your organization spend each year to support and maintain older systems? Intel estimates that it costs an average of $350.87 a year to maintain a fleet of 20 desktops over four years old. (source: Intel)
Low performance
Old systems will perform slower and may require fixes more often than up-to-date systems. On top of the maintenance and support costs mentioned above, this also means hours of lost productivity and often times frustration on the employee whose system is under-performing. A Tech aisle study found that workers lose on average 42 work hours (more than a week!) per year because of old PCs.
Newer systems on the other hand will usually enhance productivity and efficiency. Your users will benefit from a faster system, improved user interfaces, and workflows.
Ask yourself: what are the anticipated productivity and efficiency gains from upgrading your hardware and software? Estimate the annual cost of not purchasing these.
Security breaches
Techaisle conducted a recent study that found that PCs older than 4 years suffered 53 percent more security breaches than newer systems. It’s not the hardware itself that directly makes old systems more susceptible to cyber-attacks. Rather, the cause is that these systems are not performant enough to support newer and more secure software. Or even more often, those companies don’t see the value in investing in updated software.
With cyberattacks increasing at a staggering rate, it really should be a top priority for all organizations to keep their systems up to date. (read Why you need to stop using Microsoft Office 2007 as soon as possible)
Ask yourself: how damaging would it be to your business’s reputation if you lost customers’ private information or credit card details? If you fail to examine the cost of upgrading hardware and software within your organization, you may essentially be leaving a lot of money on the table. As a minimum, we recommend that you audit at least systems that are older than 5 years and then every 3 years. Doing so will save your organization money which can be put to better use in other areas of the business.
