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How outdated technology is hurting your business

by Laurie Bacon
Are you at the office? If so, thanks for visiting the site instead of working. We’ll make it worth your time, promise.

Look around you. What do you see? Aging desktops or state-of-the-art laptops? Someone standing over the printer, waiting for the meeting agenda to print, or people sharing the agenda between their tablets with the touch of a finger? When you look at your business, do you see the old world of work, or the new?

Or to put it simply: Does your company have information mobility or not?

Every day, the planet as a whole produces nearly 300 times the amount of information stored in the Library of Congress. 

The new world of work is about change — a changing workforce, changing ways of sharing information, and the changing technologies that enable us to work better and smarter. For example, the smartphone has existed for less than a decade and today, it’s completely changed the way we work. Or this: The planet as a whole produces nearly 300 times the amount of information stored in the Library of Congress. Not every year, not every month, and not even every week. We produce that amount of information every single day. And the amount of data we’re producing — and the ever-changing technology that drives this growth —shows no signs of slowing down.

Technology is changing so fast, it can be hard to keep up. The good news for your business is that it’s not too late to start. But where do you begin?

A speedy transition

If you look at your office and still see outdated technology, dusty file cabinets and burlap walls lining rows of identical tiny cubicles, we have some bad news: your business is stuck in the technological stone age. And the longer you wait to act, the further you’ll fall behind.

​The new world of work demands mobility and having the right mobile strategy is critical.

A critical eye on your business

A good place to start is your current IT infrastructure — the servers that power your network, host your critical business data and connect you to your customers. They are an integral part of any business. But millions of businesses are still relying on outdated technology, including software that’s more than a decade old, to handle these responsibilities. You can’t move into the future with an anchor like that keeping you in the past. Find out how you can make a change — and how it can benefit your business — in our three-part series on servers.

Then, it might be time to take a look at your mobile strategy. Are you building a mobile infrastructure that can support the demands of the new world of work — a world where workers must be able to work remotely and productively, anytime, anywhere? Have you considered adopting a Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) policy that incorporates an employee’s personal device into the network? And more importantly, have you considered the ramifications of such?

BYOD may very well be a necessary part of business in the new world of work. But there are very real concerns with BYOD — many related to network security — that you must address before implementing such a program. The new world of work demands mobility, and having the right mobile strategy is critical. Having a steady hand to help guide such a transition can make a world of difference in how well such a change is implemented.

Finally, give some thought to how you work together and collaborate within your organization — especially if you work in a business with offices across the country or world. How much time are you spending on planes to meet with coworkers? How often are you stuck on conference calls where nothing gets done? And then ask yourself a question — if we were able to land a man on the moon 45 years ago, with audio and video, shouldn’t you be able to better communicate with people today? Especially when the technology is out there to enable real-time audio and visual communication between team members, no matter where they are in the world. Today, you can even connect with customers face-to-face through these advancements in technology, rather than letting them sit in a phone queue waiting for your overworked customer service department to get to their call.

And this is just the tip of the iceberg.

A world of information mobility

These are the trends that are pushing the new world of work forward. People are working faster and more productively from anywhere in the world. And that’s the very essence of information mobility — when you can look at your business’ technology, processes and information management, and be able to say that your critical business information is working for you, not the other way around.

The business world is changing. But finding your way forward can be as simple as finding the right partner — one that’s committed to helping you not only work intelligently, but to work better.

Information should work for you in the new world of work. And that world is already here.

Don’t get left behind.

Information mobility for the new world of work

To succeed in the new world of work, you not only need to understand the trends that are shaping today’s business world, you need to be able to harness these trends by empowering your workforce.
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Laurie Bacon
Laurie Bacon, Principal Consultant, Business Process Agility, Enterprise Services Delivery, Ricoh USA, Inc., provides high value to customers’ businesses by assessing current challenges, developing multi-year solution roadmaps aligning with organizational objectives, ultimately helping to maximize operational efficiency and provide valuable return on investment. She has a tremendous track record of success, including driving multi-discipline projects that generated $76 million in Customer OG&A expense reduction.