If you’ve been in business for more than 10 minutes, you’re probably aware that the technology “genie” brings with it both amazing advantages and agonizing negatives.
On the one hand, payments and orders can happen at lightning speed; on the other, expenses and vulnerabilities may arrive unexpectedly. A sober look at the negative impacts of any technology is a healthy practice for any businessperson.
Before you commit your hard-earned cash to technology, it pays to comparison shop and analyzes costs and benefits to determine if the expense is worth it to you.
Many technologies involve new ways of doing things, which means training on hardware, software, and methods. The investments in money and employee time for training can be substantial.
Hours and days spent learning new to use technology is a time not spent taking care of customers. Also, few technologies stand still. With constant advancements in technology, retraining becomes necessary to keep up with the latest vendor offerings.
To bolster their own revenue, some tech vendors introduce new and upgraded products in rapid succession. Staying up to date means regularly replacing software and hardware with newer versions. Although they can bring benefits, the expense and time involved in upgrading your tech can be a drain on your company.
Hacking is a fact of modern life. Almost regularly it seems the news reports yet another major company has had files stolen by data thieves. When this happens, private, confidential and sensitive information may be lost, along with the target company’s reputation.
Although some organizations have been hacked because of lax data security, others who had good practices have also been broken into.