Is a technology upgrade necessary or adding value to your business?

Many small businesses face a challenge when dealing with todays technology. Most of the hardware and software far exceeds our capacity to use their features and functions. Yet in order to maintain support from the software supplier, we have to upgrade to a new version.

This might be ok, except for the fact that there is so much extra capacity in the hardware that the software developers do two things:

• They get sloppy with their development or add new features, because the new hardware can support it.
• They include these new components in the basic package, forcing you to run out of capacity on your desktop or server.

The end result is that you have to upgrade your hardware and software, just to maintain your status quo. The alternative is to lose support from the supplier.

Many small businesses do just that. They can't see the value of the upgrades and don't see support as a major concern. They get very little anyway.

The the big one happens. They have to upgrade because the software will no longer do the job. This causes a major disruption. The changes are so large that it is just like buying a new software product.

Most small businesses resist the upgrades because they can't see the value. They are given no alternative.

Developing changes in the industry are addressing this issue, but many small businesses are reluctant to take it on, because the model is different.

In the past, you bought your hardware and software. You owned it. You didn't have to pay for usage. The new model is usage based. You pay of usage of software. This payment never ends. The advantage is that you don't have to worry about hardware and software upgrades. No large capital expenditures. The supplier is responsible for keeping the hardware and software up-to-date. This is called Software as a Services (SaaS).

A small business should look at this in the same way they look at a building. You rent space. The advantage is that you get a cheap entry point. When you need extra space, you rent more. If you need less, you can release the space. When major changes in building codes come up, you let the landlord pay for it.

This is a good solution for small business. Most small businesses cannot afford the skills and time required to maintain all of the hardware and software. Hardware and software upgrades add no value to their business.

You do more than outsource the maintenance of the technology, you have outsourced the responsibility for it as well.

Todays tools allow you to do this for software and servers and also desktops.

an example.