Presenters at a recent conference we attended hammered home the economic benefits of upgrading your technology. Keeping old equipment running may far exceed the cost of investing in new systems, and here are some of the ways presenters quantified the costs.

In one analysis, the total cost of owning a PC that’s four years or older is $2,397, which is enough money to buy one or more newer PCs. The biggest factors in the cost are repairs and lost productivity, and here’s how they were broken down:

• Total direct costs for PC repairs and upgrades for computers four years or older are $442. While this doesn’t seem like much at first glance, older computers experience problems nearly twice as frequently as newer ones – and they can drain employee productivity and IT resource efficiency.
• Lost productivity costs can add up to $1,965 in the example we saw. They used an average of 98 lost hours and an hourly pay rate of $20 to come up with that number.

Your numbers may be higher or lower, but here’s the real question you must ask: What will it cost in lost business when you can’t close a transaction at the time your customer or client is ready to move? If your equipment is balky, your customer or client may balk. Four years seems to be the maximum service life for most technology these days, but your experience might be different.

What does a new computer cost? The range of variables is as wide as the sky, but let’s say $500 to $1,500. The numbers can give you some guidelines for determining how advanced you need your technology to be. In a world where time is money, you should be able to benefit from serving your customers and clients faster – because they benefit from it, too.

Companies that supply computers to businesses find customers want hardware-based features such as electronic pens, which essentially capture hand-written notations without the need for typing or retyping to increase productivity. Other features that increase productivity are faster multi-tasking capabilities – which can include the ability to run certain applications faster as well as switch apps fasters – and faster refresh rates. Businesses consider design (to aid productivity) and security as key factors, too, but performance is top of mind.

This doesn’t necessarily mean everyone in an organization should get a new, feature-filled computer. Today’s range of choices allows you to focus a computer’s capabilities on the needs of each job. A more basic set of tasks can still be accomplished faster with new equipment that doesn’t need all the bells and whistles. The same logic can apply to technology for printers/copiers. Those who need to print or copy more documents than others should have access to faster machines. If you’re the boss and you want to print or copy your own documents, you can tie your computer to a personal printer.

More than just computers and other office technology, your operating system makes a huge difference. And that’s why you should upgrade from Windows 7 to Windows 10 if you haven’t done so already. In a business environment, you can select a level of sophistication to match the needs of groups of multiple users to keep your office workflow up to speed. Windows 10 OS software also keeps you up to date on system security. Microsoft has said many times that Windows 10 will be its last OS. All security and performance advances will come as updates of Windows 10.

Avoid the risk of falling behind because your systems are old, slow and prone to failure. We can help you plan equipment upgrades to maintain or improve your office productivity, especially if you haven’t moved up from Windows 7 – which Microsoft will no longer support after next February. Call us – 973-433-6676 – or email us to set up an appointment to discuss how upgrades can improve your productivity.