What’s the Price of Running Outdated Software in Your Print Company?
Around the world, countless organizations use outdated, non-integrated and user-hostile software solutions to run their businesses (Ok, not “hostile,” but you get the idea). This inevitably leads to serious productivity deficiencies in today’s hectic world of changing customer demands. Does this sound like your current business situation? Then this probably is no news for you.
Most likely you’re aware of the rising availability of superior print software solutions, but for numerous reasons have not decided to take the leap. While waiting, though, you might ponder the costs of hanging on to those outdated systems.
Print ERP in the Cloud
Since the advent of MIS/ERP solutions, organizations have modernized their systems every 8 to 10 years, on average. This could be an upgrade or a complete replacement. But many companies procrastinate these projects – even when their circumstances require swift action. Cloud ERP is revolutionizing the relationship between print companies and the tech they increasingly depend upon. The facilitation of updates and upgrades is a major component of this.
So why do companies postpone the modernization of their business software? For multiple reasons of course. Varying from arguments over the old defunct solution, to dreading of the complexity and effort of the hypothetical implementation. And…in case of complete project failure, heavy damage to one or more resumés.
Understandably though, it’s mostly budget and fear of disruption.
But let’s think about the potential negative impact this delay could have on your graphics business. While the list of possible ill consequences is conceivably large, let’s highlight some obvious issues that can have a serious material impact:
- Maintaining what might be a very high Total Cost of Ownership (TCO*) from legacy, on-premises software solutions, based on your own server hardware and internal IT management
- The expense of your current poor or broken business processes will continue, and likely increase if you don’t fix it shortly. This can result in a decrease of customer and employee satisfaction, even perhaps leading to their departure
- A big one (and printers are particularly in this group): for your current manual processes, a delayed modernization makes you dependent on the brains of your senior employees who will leave your company shortly when they retire
- Perhaps the most important issue: missing out on the ongoing innovation that we see in the cloud-based solutions these days. All leading MIS/ERP vendors have moved their R&D investments to their cloud products. So – if you still run on-premises solutions, this means that the availability of new functionality and innovation will slow down, and eventually stop.
Modernizing your business software is certainly a serious investment, but it doesn’t have to break your budget. Meanwhile, continuing the use of outdated solutions can truly hinder the fortune you’ve been working to build for so long.
*We’ve talked about TCO before on this blog!
Print-specific software is an essential part of your digital transformation toolkit
We’re always emphasizing here that the print industry is unique among manufacturers. What “digital transformation” looks like to the old copy shop on the corner will be quite different from modern packaging plant running all digital presses with JDF integration. Want to learn more about what to look for in an MIS/ERP software? There are crucial differences when it comes to the needs of the print industry. Go here to download our free PDF quick guide.
Or, perhaps you’re farther along on your buyer’s journey and ready for a free trial. Go to Microsoft AppSource today!
Want to get helpful articles like this straight to your inbox? Subscribe today!