Technology is an important part of our daily lives, and an important element in most businesses. In business in particular we use technology in order to enable us to create more efficient looking documents, graphs and images more quickly and efficiently, and to communicate with our clients, partners and markets.
It’s important to recognize though too that paying for technology is a hefty overhead and something that we need to factor into our business model. If you have an office filled with staff and each one needs a computer, a smartphone and a printer then that is a lot of money you’re investing up front to enable them to do their job to their maximum capacity.
It’s not just the original investment you need to be concerned with either – it’s also the cost of maintaining that technology and making sure that it stays as efficient as possible and doesn’t need to be refurbished or replaced too early on. If you can make your technology last longer, then you can potentially save thousands in overheads and greatly increase your profits over the years. Here then is how to do it…
Treat the Batteries Well
If your staff have laptops and smartphones then it’s important to make sure they know how best to charge them and look after the batteries. These are often one of the first things to go, but this could be avoided by making sure your staff let the batteries drain from time to time and don’t use the incorrect adapters.
Keep Them for Work
Getting given an iPad or a great laptop by your employer makes a great perk and a very encouraging incentive for staff. As such then you might feel loathe as a manager to suggest that they don’t use those devices outside of the office for personal use, but actually making this rule is one of the most effective ways to extend their lifespan – not only because it means the devices are used about half as much in the same space of time, but also because it means you know how they’re being used.
Use Good Quality Accessories
If you have any piece of hardware that you use regularly in the company then make sure that you only use it with high quality accessories and supplies. In other words, if you need a toner cartridge for your printer, make sure that you use one that is going to be effective and not going to jam the machine and stop it working. Likewise for power adapters you’re better off using the first party proprietary hardware that you know isn’t going to blow a fuse.
Pay for Maintenance
If your business uses a lot of expensive technology, then you need to invest a bit more to look after this. That might mean getting an IT department, or just paying for security software and outsourced IT consulting. Either way though, you should find that you save a lot of money by having facilities in place to look after that technology, and at the same time this will prevent interruptions for your staff who need those devices to do their jobs properly.
Gerard Hines is the writer of this article. He is a very tech savvy person and is familiar with all the current as well as the upcoming technologies and gadgets.