Cage Data, Inc.

Procrastination: A Doubled Edged Sword

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How Procrastination Effects Your Technology

Procrastination is a double-edged sword. It’s like hitting the snooze button: on one side you get to stay in bed longer and catch a few more winks of sleep. On the other side you’re late for work.

The same thing is true of computer systems. We’ve recently seen a large volume of client hardware orders. We don’t know the exact reason for the increase, but here are some thoughts: One, procrastination. As a business owner you want to get as much return on your hardware investment (ROI) as possible. Years ago we used to say computer systems were being replaced every five to maybe even eight years. Not anymore. It’s amazing the number of conversations I have with people on a daily basis about the age of their computers. It may come as a shock to you, but it’s become common for us to replace computers every two to three years.

Sure you can get more use out of your systems, but if you haven’t replaced them in three years or more you need to create a plan to replace them soon. Technology changes so quickly. Systems which were released three years ago, running Windows XP with 512MB of RAM just aren’t powerful enough today to run new releases of software. Can we make them work? Sure, but productivity will suffer and the potential for system failure increases. And it will fail, eventually. Having a plan to upgrade your computer system is like carrying a life insurance plan. You never know when the systems will fail but as each year passes and technology changes, your system failure rate also increases.

Our second thought is the business climate. The economy has forced many businesses to reset spending priorities. Until recently, replacing and/or upgrading computer systems have moved to the back burner. But that is turning around big time as noted in the October 2009 Forbes.com article as they looked ahead to this trend for 2010. We can certainly see the changing trend and we expect it to continue well into 2011.

This trend reminds me of an old Fram Oil commercial. Picture this: in the foreground an auto mechanic, holding an oil filter in one hand says to his customer, “You can pay me now or you can pay me later,” motioning to the car being towed behind them. Just like taking care of the family car, it’s less expensive to keep up with the maintenance in small, incremental steps than it is to pay for a big repair down the road that may bring your productivity to a screeching halt.

Cage Data would like to partner with you and your business to help maintain a high level of productivity. We offer an onsite review of your information systems, a technical consultation to increase business productivity, and provide a competitive quote for new computer equipment, if needed.

Call us today to set up your onsite review and consultation.