There is no denying it, breaking up with a solution that you have become use to is hard to do. You may have spent years working with it and although, you know  that it’s not working, you keep using it while clinging on to the old adage “If it ain’t broke don’t fix it”.  As technology continues to evolve so should businesses especially if new tools can help improve productivity of your staff.

So, whether you are tracking employee time, providing service to your customers or purchasing a product, using an outdated system experience, especially, when you know there is a faster-better-easier way.

An article written by Marc Posser for Small Biz Technology titled ‘5 Outdated Office Supplies and Their Alternatives’ can be used as a guide for some businesses who still cling to old technology for dear life, hoping, they will prevail in the world of IoT, cloud computing and the digital wave that has sidelined video rental companies, CD music stores and dial up Internet to name a few.

The list of office supplies in the article include:

Fax Machines

“Ever heard of emails? Sending files nowadays is ideally done virtually. Not only are emails more reliable, you are also able to retain the quality of the files that you are sending. However, some clients still prefer to receive documents through a fax machine. If you need to do so, you might want to consider using fax cover sheet templates to make your document more presentable and send it through an online fax service instead so you won’t need to use an actual machine.

CDS and USBs
Apart from occupying physical space and having a high chance of getting lost in your sea of other CDs and USBs, these two storage devices are not the most reliable when it comes to storing large files for a long period of time. Ever opened your USB after a long time and found out that it is corrupted with no way of retrieving your important files? Nowadays, there’s a lot of storage solutions available online such as Google Drive and Dropbox – and they provide a pretty large virtual space, too! The next time you want to store something or share files with someone else, try uploading your files online and just send the link to your colleague. It makes retrieving your files in the future easier as well.

Post-its
Still using actual post-its for reminders and task lists? Why not try online sticky notes that you can access online anytime, anywhere? You can easily cross out tasks done after accomplishing them even when you are using a different computer or device. The best thing? You’ll help save a lot of trees in the process!

Landlines
In today’s evolving business landscape, accomplishing daily tasks sometimes require you to pick up the phone and get in touch with someone from the other side of the globe. While you can still do this using old school landlines, it is sometimes unreliable and can cost you a lot of money.

Manual Clock-In Machine
Do you still use manual clock-in attendance machines that require your employees to put in an actual time card for it to stamp their time-in and time-out? We hope not. This is a tedious method of taking note of your employees’ attendance records as you have to go through each attendance card one by one at the end of each month. As an alternative, you can use time and attendance software which can give you better insight into your team and help you track the days and hours they are working.”

In conclusion;
Many companies have updated parts of their business to the cloud and/or are using cutting-end technologies to help them streamline payroll costs and improve workforce productivity.  If you are part of the small minority that likes to hang on to old technology look around and you might be pleasantly surprise to find out that many of your competitors have already upgraded to more advanced technology platforms to help them increase business performance.