We get it. It is hard to believe. Technology that can stand the test of time? But technology changes regularly! How can you make a long-term bet on something as rapidly evolving as technology? After all, sometimes you can make the wrong bet. Ask anyone with a shelf full of HD-DVDs instead of Blu-rays.
Here’s the trick: you don’t have to make that many technology choices. You can offload choice—along with things like maintenance, upgrading, scaling, and more—to a provider. Here’s what we’re talking about.
Go Digital
Once upon a time, you probably had an office with a bunch of handsets, kilometres of wiring, maybe a server or two (or more!), and a physical connection to a private branch exchange. Hooking up the system took days, adding more seats was a physical process that involved running wire (or at least plugging in handsets), servers had to be updated and maintained, and you were tied to wherever the wires were. Of course, you may still be in this situation if your office or business runs on legacy systems. Such a system relies on many technology choices, and every few years when things change, the person in charge of such a system would have to make yet more choices.
But when you digitize everything, suddenly the pressure to make choices that stand the test of time goes away. Consider a hosted private branch exchange (HPBX). If you’re setting up an office now, you just sign up with a telecom provider to get an HPBX. Your office can still have handsets if you want, but they aren’t a requirement. All the cabling is standard Ethernet, which you’d have in every office. You don’t need a server. You don’t have to upgrade anything. Instead, all your services are digital. Your HPBX provider connects as many seats as you want. You can increase or decrease the amount with the click of a button. If you want new services (such as Find Me, Follow Me, or Presence), you can sign up with the click of a button. It’s all very easy. By offloading the need to choose, maintain, or upgrade your technology to the provider, you can focus on your actual business instead of making technology choices.
XaaS
Anything can be sold as a service, hence the inclusion of an “X” as a Service (XaaS) model. As a business owner, you need to organize all kinds of technology, potentially including a telephone network, messaging, video conferencing, a POS system, an FOH system, security cameras, internet, and much more. The trick is to find a company who does what you’re looking for and let them handle installation, updates, maintenance, and everything else. Better yet, try to find a company that bundles many of these services together. For example, unified communications puts together things such as your internet and telephone service with video conferencing, AI management, and messaging in one big package, thus putting you on the hook for even fewer choices. How will each of these services stand the test of time? That’s on the service provider—they take care of that and you just enjoy the service.
Decision Fatigue
Barack Obama famously only had navy and grey suits in his closet. Why? He wanted to avoid making too many choices throughout the day. Many of us suffer from decision fatigue. There’s too much to choose from on a day-to-day basis, and it’s easy to stay up late worrying about making the right long-term choice.
As a business person, you already have some big choices on your plate. Why not remove the technology choices. Find a good service provider and let them worry about running, maintaining, and upgrading your tech. That way, your tech can stand the test of time.
