Bad office equipment can end up costing you more to keep the devices than it does to replace them. Because office equipment is a large investment for many organizations, they choose to keep using old, outdated or cheap equipment instead of replacing it.
What companies don’t realize is that they’re losing money and opening themselves up to vulnerabilities because they’re committed to bad office equipment.
Your organization’s true office equipment cost is about more than just how much you spend on the equipment and its maintenance. You’ll also need to consider how much time and productivity the equipment in the office is costing you as well as the risks associated with security threats due to poor equipment.
Another hidden expense of bad equipment is that it can make you look bad, which could mean that your competitors beat you to that next client through more impressive proposals, video conferencing or other capabilities.
To give you a better concept of your total office equipment cost, we’ll break down the three ways bad equipment in the office is costing you money and what to do about it.
Bad Office Equipment Can Lead to Security Threats
Not all office equipment is capable of offering your business the security it needs to protect confidential information and avoid a data breach. Equipment with old hardware or software can lack crucial security updates.
Data breaches are becoming a larger problem for organizations. In 2019, there were 3,800 data breaches, according to a report from Risk Based Security. The startling reality of those numbers is that it’s up 50 percent from 2018, proving the importance of outstanding security.
Organizations can overlook the risks of office equipment, instead focusing on improving their firewall and network security. And while these are certainly important aspects of your organization’s security, bad equipment in the office can account for a great deal of your vulnerabilities.
Even if your network security is super secure, outdated or cheap office equipment can provide hackers a way to gather your confidential data.
According to a report from the Ponemon Institute, 69 percent of employees believe that their organization’s security is at risk due to outdated or inadequate technology.
The cost of security issues far outweighs the expense of replacing old office equipment.
Poor Equipment in the Office Can Decrease Productivity
An expense for your business you might not have considered is lost productivity time. When your employees spend their time challenged by technology or poor equipment in the office, the cost to your organization is enormous.
In fact, a study found that outdated technology costs an organization more than $13,000 a year per employee. Depending on the size of your organization, that could amount to a great deal of money and be impacting your bottom line in a huge way.
When office equipment gets older, it slows down, freezes, needs maintenance more frequently and leads to decreased productivity due to downtime. It might also not have the operating system or capability to accept new updates that make it efficient.
That’s not to mention the inability to automate recurring functions, support mobile devices and interact with cloud-based programs.
You Might Lose Customers to Competitors
Whether you like it or not, your equipment in the office and technology play a role in wowing potential customers. Customers want to know that they’re making the best possible choice to service their needs. So if they feel that another organization can provide for those needs more efficiently and reliably, they'll likely take their business there.
Imagine if your video conferencing equipment failed on the day you pitch a new client, forcing you to reschedule the meeting or instead do it over the phone without the ability to connect visually or with PowerPoint slides.
Or, imagine if the proposal you printed, bound and shipped to the customer printed poorly or wasn’t bound evenly. These problems can really make your organization look bad and leave room for the customer to go elsewhere to service their needs.
A Microsoft survey found that more than 90 percent of customers would take their business elsewhere if they were dealing with an organization that has outdated technology. The risk of losing customers is too great to keep using outdated or poor office equipment.
Assessing Equipment Cost and Required Changes
Discovering your true equipment cost can be a challenging calculation. So instead of trying to figure it out yourself, call in the experts. AOP is an expert in office equipment and can help you decide the best course of action for outdated or poor equipment in the office.
We’ll work with you to understand your organization’s needs to recommend the best solution for those needs. We can manage the equipment in your office entirely or help you purchase effective technology that you manage on your own.
As your partner in office equipment, we’ll help you control the total cost of ownership for your equipment in the office. And, we can even help you manage the lifecycle of your devices so that you never find yourself in a situation of lost productivity or security risks again.
We’ve been managing office equipment for more than 25 years and know how to make the expense of this equipment pay off for organizations. Instead of looking at a copy as just a copier, we think of it as a tool in an organization’s document management practices and help companies get the most value for their investment.
Getting started with AOP's office equipment management services is easy. Just reach out to us for a quote and we’ll connect you to one of our experts who will gather more information about your needs so we can tailor an office equipment management program to help you succeed.
