{"id":2397,"date":"2019-03-15T16:51:02","date_gmt":"2019-03-15T20:51:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.atyourbusiness.com\/blog\/?p=2397"},"modified":"2019-03-15T16:51:26","modified_gmt":"2019-03-15T20:51:26","slug":"time-to-upgrade-how-to-choose-great-tech-for-your-small-business","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.atyourbusiness.com\/blog\/time-to-upgrade-how-to-choose-great-tech-for-your-small-business\/","title":{"rendered":"Time to Upgrade: How to Choose Great Tech for Your Small Business"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

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Is it time to upgrade the technology your business is using? That\u2019s not fun at all but is necessary to keep your business running smoothly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Your business technology is what makes your business efficient. Yes, there is a price to pay for that efficiency. There\u2019s also an opportunity to make your business that much better.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Read on to find out the steps you need to take to upgrade your business technology.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n

Reassess Your Needs<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The great thing about technology at your company is that it\u2019s no longer confined<\/a> to the IT department. You get to take a more active role in deciding what needs to be purchased.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s also the best time to reassess your business needs. There\u2019s a good chance that your business changed dramatically since you first bought the software solution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is the time to interview your staff and find out what they need from a software or hardware perspective. You might find that the accounting and payroll department needs a new system to make payroll more efficient.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Make a Budget<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

When you know what you need, you have to figure out how much you can spend. In an ideal world, you\u2019ll have a dedicated IT budget that you can pull from when you do need to make an upgrade.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Learn more<\/a> here to find out how you can set an IT budget.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shop Around<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Even though it\u2019s time to upgrade, you don\u2019t have to buy the latest and greatest technology. It makes sense to shop around and keep your options open.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A couple of options that might be easier on your budget are open source software and .<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Open source means that the source code is open to anyone. That means that they\u2019re usually free to use or they might cost a little bit of money.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Companies like Microsoft and Apple consider their code to be proprietary and don\u2019t share it with anyone. They then license the rights to use their software.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Open source software can be great if your budget is really tight, but you might risk getting something that doesn\u2019t fully meet your needs. With paid software, you can be certain of what you\u2019re getting, and you\u2019ll get good support for it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cloud software is another option to consider. These solutions reside on the company\u2019s servers and you access them via the internet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These solutions are often affordable because you don\u2019t need to invest in too much infrastructure like servers to make them work. They\u2019re often available for a monthly payment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

No Need to Dread When It\u2019s Time to Upgrade<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Every business comes to the point when it\u2019s clear that it\u2019s time to upgrade systems. You don\u2019t need to look at it with dread.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Instead, look at it as an opportunity to do something great with your business. This is the time to invest in new technology, that\u2019s within your budget, to make your company that much better.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When your systems are running smoothly, your employees are happy and so are your customers. Want more great tips? Check out this article on . <\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Is it time to upgrade the technology your business is using? That\u2019s not fun at all but is necessary to keep your business running smoothly. Your business technology is what makes your business efficient. Yes, there is a price to pay for that efficiency. There\u2019s also an opportunity to make your business that much better. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[46],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.atyourbusiness.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2397"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.atyourbusiness.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.atyourbusiness.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.atyourbusiness.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.atyourbusiness.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2397"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.atyourbusiness.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2397\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2399,"href":"https:\/\/www.atyourbusiness.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2397\/revisions\/2399"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.atyourbusiness.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2397"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.atyourbusiness.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2397"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.atyourbusiness.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2397"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}