Every business needs to invest in some sort of equipment essential to perform tasks and duties in the office. Businesses provide computers, cash registers, calculators, fax machines, printers, and photocopiers. They also invest in the maintenance of these machines. But these machines are not forever. As time goes by, these will experience the usual wear and tear, kind of like the same thing you see your car going through after a few years. Even if you invest in the best-quality computer for your business, it needs updates, repairs, and costly maintenance in the years to come.
When then is it time to replace your old office computer? How should you know if a computer needs repair or replacement already? Amid this pandemic, is this the best time to upgrade your office equipment?
Repairs Are Becoming Costlier
How many times have you taken your office computer to the repair shop in the past couple of years? How many times has it broken down when you were saving an important report? Did you notice that your employees are starting to bring their own laptops to the office because they cannot use the office-issued ones anymore? Talk with your IT department or the unit that handles the expenses on office equipment maintenance. If you’ve spent thousands of dollars in the past two years to maintain your computers, then it is time to upgrade to a new one.
Forget about repairing the equipment. It might even be more practical to upgrade to a new one than repairing something that cannot be salvaged anymore. You can use the old equipment for an upgrade, sell it in a yard sale, or donate it to a recycling program.
Employees Are Becoming Less Productive
Why are some of your competitors’ employees more productive than your workers? It’s not always about the skills. Your own employees may be as talented as your competitors’. Sometimes, it boils down to what tools you provide for them. A management that doesn’t provide the latest tools and equipment cannot expect its employees to be as productive as a company that provides these things.
For example, a store with a simple cash register cannot compete with a store that uses a point-of-sale (POS) machine. A cash register will merely add and collect the payments. It does not do basic inventory. A POS helps in bookkeeping and inventory. It saves the employees considerable time from having to count the products sold in a day manually.
Supplies Are Not Available Anymore
There was a point in time when almost all businesses immediately stopped using the fax machine. You’ll be hard-pressed to find an office right now that still uses this machine. Though they may have one, it might be under piles of papers and boxes already. That’s how obsolete the fax machine has become in recent years. Why would any office want to spend on a fax line when they can send a digital (and signed) copy of a document to their clients and customers already?
If the equipment parts and supplies are not readily available anymore, it is a foregone conclusion that you should let it go. It is no use to keep equipment whose parts will be hard to look for. You will need to pay the repairman to find these parts. It is not worth it.
You should also create an office policy about how to use the equipment properly. Your employees should follow certain ethics when sharing printers, copiers, and the like. This will create a cohesive atmosphere in your office and increase your staff’s productivity.
