Deals are great, aren’t they? Offering some money and getting more than you’d expect in return… It’s the next best thing to free. It’s also really nice to get something fast.

Not so fast, though. As nice as they can make things seem, “cheap” and “quick” aren’t often synonymous with “effective” or “valuable.” In fact, selecting the presumably easy route regarding your business technology can ultimately lead to bigger problems in the form of something called tech debt.

Let’s examine what tech debt is, how it creates problems, and—critically—how it can be addressed.

Tech Debt Explained

Putting it as simply as possible, your tech debt is the costs you will eventually face after you elected to implement a quick fix for your IT as compared to a more robust and strategic approach. For instance:

• Electing to underinvest in hardware
• Neglecting to update, upgrade, or patch software
• Failing to train employees
• Not scaling the way your business requires

While these may not seem to be business-ending issues on their own, they can all easily exacerbate and lead to larger and larger challenges if not adequately addressed.

How Does Tech Debt Create Larger Costs?

Let’s look at what tech debt causes and why these side effects are so pricey.

The less reliable your technology is, the less reliable you seem. How would you feel if you kept trying to have a business do something for you, only for them to repeatedly push back and ask for more time because their essential tools weren’t working?

Cheap technology that frequently needs fixing costs more than pricier, stable options. It’s basic arithmetic… If a less expensive option needs more regular fixes (say, 14 for every single fix a newer option requires), it’ll ultimately cost you more, even if the newer technology costs double per fix. As we can see:

14 * x > 1 * 2x

Or, in other words, you get what you pay for.

Old tech makes it harder to expand business plans. Whether you’re looking to scale up your business or pursue new opportunities, the excess attention that your tech debt will demand will keep you from being able to commit to forward-facing endeavors fully.

Without up-to-date security, you’re more vulnerable… and likely to encounter cost sinks. The less protected your business is, especially if you rely on legacy systems and other forms of tech debt itself, the more likely it is that you’ll face significant costs over time as a result.

Out-of-date technology leads to slower, more complicated work processes. There’s the old saying that a poor craftsman blames his tools… but this wisdom fails to take into account the fact that some tools just aren’t as effective in the modern work environment as more recent ones are. Keeping your IT current is a great way to keep operations moving at pace.

We Can Help You Address Your Tech Debt

We know that tech debt can be challenging to address, so PC PLACE is here for you. We can help Inland Empire businesses identify where they are suffering from tech debt, guiding them as they create and enact a plan that allows them to reduce and eliminate it.

Ready to tackle what’s holding your business back? Reach out to us at (909) 435-4220.