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Forbes Technology Council

Moving into the 21st century is a challenge for many businesses that have held long and hard to older technology that seemed to get the job done. Moving from inter-office email and in-house servers to new outsourced systems that provide greater reliability and redundancy can benefit your company, giving you more uptime and a better overall performance. 

With global information technology spending hitting $3.5 trillion last year, integrating more technologically advanced systems makes sense for large and small businesses alike. As a technology professional, you are charged with integrating these tech systems into your business without causing too much stress or disruption.

Knowing where to add and upgrade the tech solutions can help you manage your company’s overall IT strategy now and in the future. To help, 12 members of Forbes Technology Council provide the best technologies for companies that want to upgrade from older systems. Here is what they recommend: 

1. Start With Integration In Mind

There are many arguments for and against upgrades to software systems, but no matter what you choose, the best attribute I see in systems is their ability to integrate and connect to other applications that your business uses. If it can connect to other apps, then the win is far bigger than just upgrading a legacy system — it turns into a benefit that can help the whole business. – Joe Dwyer, Propelware

2. Automate

Many organizations are upgrading systems and thinking about how to migrate to the cloud. To get the most out of an upgrade, consider automating manual and repetitive tasks, and you will be much farther ahead of the game. – Gabby Nizri, Ayehu Inc

3. Migrate To Cloud Software

For small and medium-sized companies to reduce maintenance costs and increase accessibility for enterprise resource planning, accounting, inventory management and e-commerce, it is prudent to migrate to a cloud software. A cloud ERP solution is a good option for managing all of a company’s needs. – Raj Kellampalli, NetScore Technologies

4. Try Hosted Email

Hosted email, whether it is an exchange provider or Google Suite, takes a considerable amount of resources that were traditionally spent keeping those systems running and updated locally. They provide highly stable, managed platforms that put the responsibility for upkeep on the provider. I have seen this move free up both time and capital in several cases. – George Heimel, Square360 Inc.

5. Focus On Security

Lack of security has become a crisis for our technology-dependent world. Historically, security has been considered as a nice-to-have feature and something that can be added when needed later. We have learned the hard way that security must be designed into every technology and application, and it cannot be left out to reduce the cost. – Jamshid Vayghan, IBM

6. Opt For SaaS Software

SaaS software provides an alternative route to standard software installation options. It is usually available at a lower cost and is immediately ready for use, permitting for quick proof of concept operations. Additionally, SaaS solutions are usually on the cloud environment allowing scalability and integration with other SaaS offerings. Upgrades are also simpler to carry out, and less expensive. – Alexandro Pando, Xyrupt 

7. Focus On Task Over Tech

Never simply grab the latest software because you think you should. Think about how you can fix a process versus install new technology. A great example is Slack — many people love it, but many install it because they feel they have to. If you have diverse remote workers, but don’t need constant communication, your best bet may be to install a process management system over a synchronous chat. – Diego Fischer, Instacarro.com 

8. Choose Centralized CRM Applications

Inter-office email is often a crutch for some businesses. People become too dependent on it for information. Unlike inter-office email, help-desk applications and centralized CRM applications provide collective, customer-specific information, systems issues and action items requiring attention. Communicating through a CRM allows subscribers to search combined real-time information. – Michael Plummer, Our Town America

9. Embrace Video

All companies, large and small, must embrace streaming video communication to employees, partners and customers. Modern, efficient platforms that handle the entire video management/delivery workflow are emerging. The cost and complexity of producing good video content is coming down. So tell your team to step away from the keyboard, summon their inner Spielberg and embrace video. – K.C. Watson, Sherpa Digital Media

10. Fix Only The Bottlenecks

A generic answer like “go cloud,” or “use Slack” will probably bring little or no value to the technology experts in this council. My advice is, before upgrading your technology, find the real bottlenecks in your processes and fix them. Sometimes the fix will require new technology, sometimes not. Focus on the barriers to growth and efficiency and relentlessly fix them with adequate solutions. – Stefan Petzov, swisscom.com

11. Use Agnostic Content

Companies managing large amounts of data often keep it siloed within isolated and proprietary systems that can’t communicate with each other. Instead, website content, product inventory, client info, employee details, digital assets and everything else can be managed within a single database as a service (DBaaS). Less training, easy access, lower costs and most importantly: the agnostic content can be used anywhere. – Ben Haynes, RANGER Studio LLC

12. Check Out Your Current Vendor First

Your current vendor is the first place to look. If you’re happy with your current vendor, chances are they’ll have a cloud-based option to which you may be able to upgrade. – Sayer Martin, Orchestrate, LLC