Get in touch with us today to find out how can we help you.
It’s tempting to keep a business laptop or desktop until it stops working, but a reliable managed services provider in San Antonio will have other ideas. After all, technology is constantly and quickly changing, so you have to make sure your company isn’t getting left behind. But how long are you supposed to use a business desktop or laptop?
If budget is not an issue, upgrade as soon as a new one comes out! But realistically, this is not possible especially for smaller companies like startups or small and medium-sized enterprises. Besides, even if you do have the budget, employees won’t like changing devices too often because there’s always a learning curve involved, no matter how small. Productivity will be affected negatively if employees always have to get used to new devices.
Thus, the key here is balance, along with consideration of the following factors:
- Planned obsolescence – Manufacturers purposefully design and make their products unusable after a certain period of time so that people will be forced to buy newer products. A few examples of planned obsolescence are when a device can’t support a later version of a software solution, or when a device becomes too expensive to maintain and keep. Make sure you’re aware of when your business laptops and desktops will finally give out by asking your managed services provider in San Antonio about this.
- Purpose – Employees perform different tasks, so they need different tools. For example, graphic designers are more inclined to use a Mac, while field researchers may want to use a Thinkpad. Thus, it’s only reasonable to update employees’ business laptops and desktops if the device they received isn’t suitable for their responsibilities. That’s why it’s important to ask direct feedback from your employees after issuing them devices.
- Competition – How often do your competitors update their technologies? It’s best to keep track of that to ensure your company maintains its edge. Though it’s not necessary to catch up with competitors in all aspects when it comes to technology, it will reflect badly on your company if customers think your systems are outdated.
Lastly, expert opinion from your chosen managed services provider in San Antonio should also play a role. Providers are more in tune with technology trends, so they will have a good idea on what specifications a business laptop or desktop should have depending on the tasks needed to be accomplished. We at ICS can help you with this, along with other services you may need. Contact us today to know more about what we can do for you.
Further reading
ICS is a Texas-based 40-year-old technology company specializing in Managed IT, VoIP, Video Conferencing and Video Surveillance solutions for US and International businesses. ICS has over 4000 regional installations and specializes in multi-site businesses between 25 and 2500 employees. ICS’s customers enjoy the experience of ICS’s Total Care program which provides clients flat fee services with obsolescence and growth protection. Whether a customer elects to deploy their IT, Video Conferencing or VoIP in the cloud or on the customer’s premise, ICS can provide a full turn-key solution for our clients under one flat monthly fee.