IT Expenses: Purchasing for Tomorrow, Not Today

A client of mine has undergone amazing growth. Just four years ago, they started with just two employees. Today, they're almost up to twenty-five.

With all that rapid growth, they had to make purchases without talking to their IT consultant. They picked up cheap computers from retail stores in order to satisfy their immediate needs. 

What they ended up purchasing were under-powered machines that were made for non-commercial consumers with low-grade operating systems, sub-standard parts with short warranty cycles, loads of software they didn't need, and mis-matched productivity software. They also weren't purchasing their software in volume licenses increasing their licensing management and paying premium for software.

Well, last week, they had grown to a point where they needed a server to host local applications. Unfortunately, very few of their PC's have professional licensing that would instantly interact with the server. They made their IT expenses based on the needs of yesterday and not their future. Now, they're in a position where much of this equipment will need to be replaced.

Learn from their costly lesson, friend. Talk to your friendly neighborhood IT consultant. Don't recklessly spend simply for today's benefit. Be prudent. Manage your purchases. Create a strategy. Plan for meeting today's requirements and tomorrow's anticipated needs. 

R

What Would Happen if I Continued Using WindowsXP?

So WindowsXP ended its mainstream support cycle around 2009. It's only been receiving security updated since that time and they're scheduled to shut down around April 8, 2014.

Moving off of WindowsXP in favor of a more modern operating system (Windows7, Windows8, Mac OSX, or Linux) would be greatly desirable. The longer time goes on beyond April, the more at-risk your machine becomes. XP is a vulnerable operating system. 

But let's pretend for a minute that you wanted to keep XP for a while longer? What would happen?  Will is just stop working?

No, actually. It will keep working as it had been. Here's some of the risks though: 

1. Over time, your system will become increasingly more vulnerable to threats that emerge beyond April 2014. 

2. New software won't be made for XP, so content from stores or delivered over the web will stop working for you over time. 

3. New antivirus definitions won't be shipped to you and will also increase your vulnerability. 

4. You will become a target. Virus writers know that humans don't like change and that you're hanging on to that old machine, and they'll write code to exploit the fact that you're still using it.

5. New hardware isn't going to work because OEM's won't be writing driver software for them on the XP platform.

Sure, it'll continue to work, but staying on XP won't be a great strategy for a business looking to meaningfully control their technology risk. Doing so will only exacerbate the risk. And if you're running any kind of point of sale (POS) software on this platform, you'll fall out of PCI compliance, further putting your firm at risk. 

if you own a business, don't take chances. Replace the XP box at your earliest opportunity. Regrettably, there's no upgrade possible here ... The box pretty much needs to be replaced. Talk to you tech professional for getting this done before too much time goes on beyond April.

r

Friction

Replacing labor is only part of the problem. Think about how technology improves customer service and satisfaction.

This is an image of a woman enjoying one of 7,000 McDonalds kiosks in their European stores.

McDonalds installed the kiosks to reduce friction.

Friction are human touch-points in your business process.

It's any time that labor must intervene to get something done.

Labor:

• Is inherently unreliable. They may or may not show up for work; may require sick or family leave; may require more training to do the work with higher quality.
   
• Is inherently error-prone. Humans make mistakes. Especially in repetition. 
   
• Is inherently slow. People can only work so fast. They are limited by their limbs, mind, focus, and attention. 
   
• Is inherently costly. Add up the opportunity cost of slow, error-prone, and unreliable to determine a basis for their expense, and, a for a return on technology investment.

Thus, technology investment is used by businesses to reduce friction, reduce human interaction, and either contain the cost of growth, or, lower costs to an organization. 

If your company isn't investing in technology to reduce friction, your competitors are, every day building themselves the capability to work faster, smarter, and less expensively than you.  

US Corporations have experienced the most profitable years on record recently because of their fervor in attacking friction. They're driven by the profit motive. Businesses will never stop investing in technology to lower labor's influence in their processes.

So you must ask yourself two questions:

1. In what ways are you investing in technology today to reduce friction and remain competitive?

2. In what ways am I redundant as labor - do I create friction - and thus at risk at losing my job?

R