As we all know, the pace of technological change is fast and shows no signs of slowing. Even keeping mostly up to date can be costly, in time and effort as well as money. Getting too far behind can be even more costly- outdated hardware and software can very quickly become incompatible with the cutting edge.
This is a common problem in large companies which invested heavily during the early dawn of computing- the initial large investments required caused policies which favored maintaining old systems instead of adapting to new ones. And many small businesses fall into the same patterns- it can take a lot of time to change out accounting software, and that’s a precious resource for a small shop.
But it’s important to make those periodic investments- going too long without updating even a spreadsheet can mean that old files become unusable due to software changes, and lock you in to low-security, high-maintenance, outdated technology. There’s no need to be on the bleeding edge of new systems, but the importance of keeping a little current shouldn’t be understated.
Here at Katy Computer Systems, we specialize in small business support, where the decision of what and when to update can be crucial. Time and again, we’ve seen the expense involved in updating, and how much less it would cost to keep current. It’s an investment worth making.