Posted by Brigitte Casemyr on Tue, Nov 30, 2010

Remember the first car you owned, remember its engine? Now picture the engine of your current car.... Sure both engines helped perform the same task... moving you and your passengers from one place to another.

But would you still want to be driving your first car on the super highways of today?

[if you're into cars and would like to see a real Model T, visit this site]

Think about all the advances in technology that went into the modern car engine, think about the highly trained technician with specialized equipment and knowledge who services it.

Now consider the technology you use to run your business

The software industry, just like the auto industry, spends millions of dollars each year in product development. Their goal is to enhance their products so that businesses like yours can gain a competitive advantage.

It takes commitment to stay current with software, and like for car engines, new knowledge is required, along with training on how to best use it.

Now may be a very good time to take a toll of your technology situation. There are two factors that affect a decision to upgrade:

• function
• finance

meaning a thoughtful weighing of the value of the new functionality against the cost of deployment.

There are of course other factors, such as compatibility and interoperability between several applications, lack of technical support for existing software, impossibility to add user licenses [your software may be completely obsolete], frustration among your staff for many reasons [slow system, lots of repetitive tasks, lots of manual manipulation, crashes], risks to your business [your software may have known vulnerabilities], etc.

Ultimately, only an in-depth analysis of the pros and cons will give you the confidence that you've made the right decision.

For a good analysis of the pros and cons, check out this article published by John Garger who is a professional copy editor, behavioral scientist, and business owner in upstate New York. He has published empirical and theoretical papers in scholarly journals on the subjects of organizational behavior, leadership, technology acceptance, and methodology.