During a recession, the purchase of new hardware is often the first thing to be put on hold.  PCs get used longer, network hardware upgrades get postponed, and the old phone system on its last leg continues to limp along.  I am cheaper than most people, and I tend to take the same approach, even during good times.  That being said, there are reasons to consider hardware upgrades even during down economic times, and failing to do so can cost you more money in the long run.  Based on a recent TechRepublic article by Erik Eckel, here are 8 reasons to consider new hardware:

 

1) Equipment still wears out - Old equipment does fail at a faster rate than newer equipment, and failures such as a dead hard drive can really set back your operation.  As an example, a new desktop PC costs approximately $500.  Recovering data from a failed hard drive can cost well more than $2,000 in direct costs alone.

 

2) Productivity is critical - If the new hardware budget is the first thing to get cut during a recession, the second thing to go is usually people.  The productivity of the remaining staff becomes even more important than normal.  It is hard for an employee to be efficient with an old PC or an unreliable network.  Spending $500 on a new PC can easily pay for itself in a couple of weeks via increased productivity.

 

3) Downtime is expensive - There are few employees today that are not dependant on technology to do their jobs.  What happens when their supporting technology fails?  They become unproductive.  The direct cost of this unproductivity is high.  The indirect cost in terms of its impact on servicing your customers can be even higher.