Rage against the machine: how bad tech can hit business efficiency

- August 21, 2023

Computer technology is one of the greatest and most revolutionary recent developments. So why does it so often cause frustration and irritation?

It’s a question we often wonder... It comes down to a couple of reasons, the first being high expectations. When we use an IT estate of highly capable PCs, laptops, tablets and smartphones every day, we become accustomed to them always getting the job done, so it comes as something of a shock when a problem occurs.

 

The second reason is that we know unreliable technology really affects our ability to do our jobs. Pressure quickly builds when an unresponsive device means we can’t get our work done, especially when this happens at a bad time (and doesn’t it always?). If you have a presentation to show to the board on a laptop that just won’t start, the old Bart Simpson excuse that ‘the dog ate my homework’ isn’t really going to cut it…

 

Of course, a device doesn’t even have to be broken to cause problems: rage-inducing issues can occur just as easily with something that’s old, slow or simply out of date. For example, imagine taking an old laptop into a customer meeting and bringing up their website on a projector screen, only to be greeted with a message saying: ‘This website no longer supports this operating system – please upgrade’. And with Microsoft dropping support for Windows 7 in 2020, this scenario could start happening more often.

 

Apart from putting you in an embarrassing situation, consider what the customer would think of your company: “Wow, they’re using really old tech. Hardly cutting-edge… I wonder if they’re the kind of people that do things on the cheap?”. 

 

Don’t forget that when these problems strike in an office environment, there’s an IT management team on hand to try and rectify them fairly quickly. But for the increasing number of mobile and agile workers out in the field and home working on the rise, the impact can bring their connectivity and productivity to a grinding halt for painfully long periods. All of these things make us angry with technology, which damages business efficiency. And if, or more likely when, that damage harms business success and profitability, then the senior management in the boardroom is going to get just as angry, but for an entirely different reason.

 

Saying that an IT infrastructure refresh and ongoing IT lifecycle management can take all this anger, frustration and inefficiency away makes them sound like miracle cures. But in reality, being able to steadily equip a workforce with new IT devices that are reliable, and have been specially chosen to suit specific business and employee needs, is an ideal solution.

 

Think about it from your own perspective. With a nice, shiny laptop, you can always get your job done, wherever you are, with no hassle. You’ll look and feel great in front of customers in meetings, and in front of your own management. And they’ll be just as happy because great IT service delivery is worth celebrating, and because everyone else they employ looks and feels just as great as you do, for the same reasons.

 

If you can only dream of such a state of business happiness, if you struggle with cognitive dissonance, or your everyday experience causes anger management issues, then contact us for professional help. Or, click on the links below to learn more about our solutions:

 

Technology Lifecycle Management

 

IT Asset Disposal

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