Is it time yet for your business to go through a technology refresh cycle?
Businesses that operate with IT equipment need to have a refresh cycle. In general, that means most businesses today! The tech refresh cycle prevents problems caused by old or failing IT equipment. Doing it regularly allows you to offer the best services possible for your customers. However, the technology refresh cycle can be quite expensive. Not all businesses can afford to fund it with their own capital.
Fortunately, there are other ways to finance a tech refresh cycle now. VAR technology finance is one of the best solutions. In this blog post, we'll talk about the technology refresh cycle and how it can benefit your business. In doing so, we’ll give you insight into how VAR technology finance can help.
Importance of Technology Refresh Cycle
Before you start thinking about VAR technology finance, let’s first talk about the importance of the tech refresh cycle. Like I said, the technology refresh cycle is necessary if you want to keep your business competitive. Doing it regularly can benefit your business in many ways.
The refresh cycle can improve many aspects of your operations, for instance. It can prevent many equipment-related problems that can hinder the growth of your business. You see, using old equipment invites risks that can hurt your operations. Old equipment is always more likely to experience failure or breakdown, and those are inimical to any business.
Such issues may lead to errors that can damage your reputation. This explains why the tech refresh cycle is necessary for businesses to stay at the top of their game. But even if the tech refresh cycle is vital, you shouldn’t do it right away. You need to plan it for the sake of your budget, and may even need to get extra funds from VAR technology finance.
If you’re ready to learn about that, let’s go into more detail on the reasons you should have a technology refresh cycle.
Tech Equipment Depreciates Fast
The first reason you need to have a refresh cycle is that tech equipment depreciates fast. Its value and capabilities won't last forever. Most tech equipment is only good for 1-3 years. It has a tendency to become faulty once it goes past its expected life span.
That being said, quality equipment does tend to last longer than the average. But even if your equipment still works perfectly after 3 years, continuing to use it is still not advisable. You see, the capabilities of your old equipment will be left behind by newer models. This can put you behind your competitors in various operations or services.
So, as much as possible, try to create a tech refresh cycle. Don’t worry about the money that you’re going to spend because you can minimize costs by planning what to update.
The idea is to decide what you can keep longer and what equipment to replace when. This way, you can make the most of each piece of equipment.
It’s also wise to strategize the way you plan to fund the refresh cycle. This is to avoid financial problems. Replacing tech equipment all at once can cost a lot of money, after all. If limited capital prevents you from doing this, try to look for additional funds outside of your company.
VAR technology finance is one of the best solutions for that. It can give you funds to finance your refresh cycle.
Easy Upgrades
Financial concerns are inevitable when you upgrade your equipment. Luckily enough, VAR technology finance can solve that problem, as I said. But what if you persist in using old equipment? Obviously that’s another way you could also avoid the possible problems regarding the costs of a tech refresh cycle.
It’s true that not upgrading the equipment could be a safe choice financially, at least in the short term. However, keep in mind that technological obsolescence can hurt your business. Using old and outdated equipment can put you behind your competition. This can severely limit your capabilities, especially compared to others in your industry.
Also, technological obsolescence prevents you from maximizing the benefits of integrating technology into your operations. That can result in lost opportunities for better efficiency or productivity. This renders equipment upgrades practically necessary. You see, your tech equipment will start to move towards obsolescence after a few months or years once new software or hardware is released.
In most cases, your tech equipment’s manufacturer may even stop providing support for it. Using out-of-support hardware or software can cause problems. Once it starts to fail or breaks, it can halt your operations and you won’t have recourse to manufacturer support for assistance. You can try to repair it yourself and continue using the repaired equipment afterwards. But maintaining it will be costly in the long run.
Often, you will have to troubleshoot and repair it more and more to keep it functioning over time. Simply upgrading the equipment is generally more cost- and labor-effective. That’s why having a refresh cycle with the help of VAR technology finance is vital. It can help you upgrade equipment whenever a new one comes out on the market.
Faulty Equipment Affects Your Operations
Your business also needs to have a tech refresh cycle with the help of VAR technology finance because it helps you avoid faulty equipment. Faulty equipment can affect your operations adversely. To ensure the quality of your operations, you need to use the best and reliable equipment. Old equipment tends to offer less consistency in output or process quality, by comparison.
Even a single piece of faulty equipment can have massive consequences. Depending on how important that equipment is to your business, it may result in costly operational downtime. For example, say your servers suddenly have problems. That means it would take a little longer to load your files, which can frustrate both your clients and employees.
That may result in a sharp uptick in client complaints or even a drop in your client retention rate due to dissatisfaction. As for the employee side, it may result in an interruption in their workflow, which can lead to a cascade of other issues.
Having flaws in your operations can create a chain of unwanted events. Most of them could be problems that will hinder the progress of your business. That’s the reason having a tech refresh cycle through VAR technology finance is vital to your business. This is the only way to avoid the problems caused by old or failing equipment.
Save Money
The technology refresh cycle with VAR technology finance can also save money. That’s because each generation of tech equipment tends to boast better power management. Newer equipment is usually more energy-efficient and often boasts more functionality.
Apart from that, using tech equipment allows you to have improved and streamlined processes. This can result in more efficient, simpler operations. Having a simplified operation allows you to save money. It won’t require you to hire more employees or acquire additional equipment.
You can also save money on maintenance. Having updated and new equipment means fewer hardware failure occurrences and fewer costly repairs. That’s just one of the benefits of having a refresh cycle with VAR technology finance.
Use Current Tech Trends
Having a refresh cycle with the help of VAR technology finance also helps you use current tech trends to maximize your business’s potential. Using new technology allows you to compete with others in your industry. New equipment may offer you high-end services and features like high bandwidth streaming, advanced VoIP solutions, and other modern trends now, for instance.
That’s important because customers’ demands often match technological progress. As innovations become more popular, you will find your business under more pressure to adopt them. Remember that using old or outdated equipment won’t let you reap the benefits of current technology. Not all equipment supports current trends like a high-speed Internet connection or high-definition video support.
Falling behind tech trends will put your company behind its competitors. You will miss the business opportunities that staying abreast of the latest tech can give you. For example, switching to new equipment can help you have better communications, faster transactions, or smoother operations.
This tells you that your tech refresh cycle may also be a chance to take your business to the next level. That’s why, if you can’t afford to upgrade equipment by yourself, it may still be advisable to consider pulling it off with VAR technology finance.
Final Thoughts on VAR Technology Finance & the Tech Refresh Cycle
In this blog post, we talked about the tech refresh cycle that businesses can pay for with either their own capital or VAR technology finance. The tech refresh cycle can have a lot of benefits for a business. Particularly, the refresh cycle can help you upgrade equipment quickly, save money, and stay abreast of current trends.
However, keep in mind that the refresh cycle can cost a lot of money. Trying to push through with it when you have very limited capital can cause financial problems. Luckily, VAR technology finance can help you with this problem. VAR technology finance can give you additional funds for your refresh cycle.
To set up a VAR technology finance program for your customers, you can partner with an equipment finance company like Trust Capital. To know more about them, contact (866)458-4777.