April 1, 2008 – When do the Upgrades End?

How to develop the right attitude and business practices toward constantly-changing technology

By Justin St. Clair
Published in the St. Louis Small Business Monthly

Technology is constantly moving forward. The moment you invest in a new product or an entire information system for your business, it seems, something new and better is released. If you stick with what you have, the need to keep updating and upgrading to stay current seems never-ending.

Fortunately, there are some simple and cost-effective ways to avoid the headaches and worry of keeping up with all the upgrades and making sure you’re utilizing your technology to its full potential, according to local IT experts.

The first step, as is often the case, should be to create a plan and prioritize purchases, according to Michael Leyden, Director of IT Technical Operations, and Steve Kelly, Director of the Engineering Process and Quality Assurance Group at The Newberry Group, Inc. (www.thenewberrygroup.com), a global IT consultancy based in St. Charles.

“You should create a technology plan and make sure that plan falls within your budget,” Kelly said. “Planning ahead for those inevitable upgrades in your budget is going to make them a lot easier to take.”

Good IT consultants can offer sound advice for creating a technology plan, Leyden and Kelly said, and there are templates and other resources available on the Internet for those set on creating their own plan.

Hiring a consulting company to manage your technology is another popular route, leaving the worry of keeping your systems running, updated, and optimized for your business to IT experts, they said. While you’ll pay consulting fees, you’ll be able to devote more time to other aspects of your business. Consultants can also help find better deals on equipment through their relationships with suppliers.

“Let the consultant talk to you about the services they provide and how it can save you money,” Leyden said. “But make sure whoever you hire has credentials and references. It’s best to think twice before hiring someone just because they’re a friend or family member.”

One small business owner that opted to hire a consultant to take care of her business technology is Pam Hubbard, owner of Performance Bracing & Orthotics (www.performancebracing.com). She hired Newberry a couple years after opening for business in December 1997.

Since then, the business has grown from 3 people to a staff of 9 split between the company’s retail location in Creve Coeur and a separate office location.

“They set us up with a server, computers and e-mail addresses,” Hubbard said of the consultants at Newberry. “They analyzed our hardware, then they made sure we knew how to use it. They continue to check our computers and servers and make sure everything is okay.”

The consultants also took care of all the technology aspects of the company’s move to a new location in 2006, Hubbard said, and supplied Performance Bracing & Orthotics with computers that had been used for a few months by a larger company at a lower price.

“They’ve always been very conscious of our budget,” Hubbard said.

Another popular option is to lease technology equipment directly from vendors, Leyden and Kelly said.

“If you lease IT equipment, the vendor would keep up with the upgrades and security patches on the leased equipment routinely,” Kelly said. “That way you have a worry-free way of maintaining your equipment and keeping up with technology.”

Savvy shoppers can also opt for free upgrades in the purchase agreement when they buy new equipment, he said.

The main thing to remember, Leyden and Kelly said, is that evolving technology is the way of the world, so its important to find cost-effective ways to embrace those changes and find ways to use technology to move ahead of the competition.

That doesn’t mean that everything needs to be continually replaced, though.

“The decision factor should be when it begins to affect the profitability of the business,” Leyden said. “Once that happens, you should call an IT professional who can give you sound advice.”