I am going to help answer both the Why and When should I upgrade my computer question in this article. I understand that nobody wants to lay out their hard earned profits just to replace a computer that is still running, but when you take a closer look at the numbers you may find that you are saving money by doing exactly that.
As time goes by your computer workstations slow down, it’s a fact of life with any computer just like death and taxes. Here are some of the reasons why this happens:
- Heat Strain on the Processor and internal components.
- Disk Fragmentation
- Additional load of Operating System Patch stacking.
- The Overhead of Protective Software (Antivirus, Anti-Malware, etc.)
- Adware, not considered a virus or malware, but adding bloat to your system.
- Startup Overload (programs that start, even though you don’t use them all the time.
- Bloated Temporary Files directory.
- Outdated Firmware.
- Improper Uninstalled Programs.
- A Full or Near Full Hard Drive.
I’ve done this so long I can hear the business brain gears turning with the question “but it’s still working”, true, but unlike some things in your office like a desk or file cabinet, a computer can both help or hurt efficiency in your office.
First off take somebody that is making $100,000 and spends just 5 minutes a day watching that little hourglass spin on their computer waiting for a program to load. Broken down that is .80¢ per minute gross pay (not including other employer benefits). That 5 minutes works out to 4 dollars per day, or 20 dollars a week which comes to $80.00 per month.
If you now take the capital expense tax benefit of a basic new workstation today which runs about $500.00, your new computer system will pay for itself in productivity alone in about 7 months.
Now consider that you are going to replace the old system for a new system eventually and all you have done is hasten the scale, as the benefits grow even more.
Because this model scales, an employee making $50,000 per year will save you almost 1000 dollars by rotating your computer workstations every 3 years and this is only one system, times this by each computer in your office. Now you can see where trying to stretch a dollar on keeping around old systems, can start burning up those dollars instead of saving them.
There are many types of technology and ways to help save money when running a business that we would love to show you. We specialize in making your tough computing decisions simple, call us for an in depth analysis of your computing needs to help increase your efficiency today.
