Technology touches every aspect of an organisation, from business operations and communication to health and safety. This is why it is vital that as technology evolves organisations evolve with it. Technology is not limited to computers, mobiles and printers, it is the card machines your customers use to pay you, accounting software or the vehicle-based GPS tracking devices used to support your fleet management processes. All these different types of technology should form part of your organisation’s ongoing technology management strategy, which is aimed at ensuring, as an organisation, you are moving forward with technology changes.
Downtime and Failures
The risk of having old hardware is the unpredictability of knowing whether your hardware is going to support the next software upgrade or changes implemented by your hardware supplier. Old technology becomes less reliable over time and opportunities for failures to occur become more commonplace. Although installing new hardware can result in a level of scheduled downtime, the aim of the new hardware is to reduce the amount of unscheduled downtime in the long run. By having the ability to plan and schedule the required downtime to upgrade technology an organisation can manage the effect on their business and work to ensure optimal efficiency during this time.
Old Hardware and Software Updates
Companies continually make enhancements or build new features for their products to keep up with the latest technology, maintain competitive advantage and provide their customers with the best product available. As these new developments and changes are made, the maintenance of the original version of the product becomes less of a priority. This often results in companies reducing their commitment to support previous versions of a product or providing no support at all. If your organisation is not progressing with these ongoing changes it can leave you with out-of-date software that is not fully supported, or hardware that can not be updated over-the-air as it was designed to do. Older hardware is incapable of keeping up and unfortunately, continuous software upgrade cycles make it more likely that the performance of older devices will suffer. By ensuring your hardware is kept up to date your organisation can be confident it also has the latest software features and enhancements available.
If your hardware is health and safety related or mission-critical to your organisation there is an even greater responsibility to ensure technology is regularly reviewed and managed within the supplier warranty periods. By developing a robust technology management strategy that includes all your technology types will ensure your business is able to operate at its best.
