Living with outdated technology is like living in a house with asbestos. Most homeowners know asbestos can hurt them, but the pain and expense of ripping it out is overwhelming enough that it remains. The bigger problem is that often the damage being done isn’t easily seen by the executives whose minions buffer them from the reality of the situation.

I often use this analogy with organizations that have found themselves saddled with outdated technology that was once a wonder of its time but is now slow, expensive, cumbersome or simply lacks the capabilities that customers and employees demand. These older systems that were put in place to reach prospects, support customers or help employees work smarter in an office or across physical boundaries weren’t built for the pace of business today. They also weren’t built for the emerging mobile and digital nomadic workforce or the technological advances that have taken place in the last 10 years.

It used to be that technology had a longer shelf life. Now business models and technology trends can change in a matter of months, not years. In the 1990s, artificial intelligence was still relegated to the early adopters. Now, my 80-year-old mother has an Alexa in her living room. It used to be that employees expected their applications to be delegated to them, with hours of training needed to use them. Now employees expect the technology they use at work to be as powerful, beautiful and intuitive as what they use at home. If it’s not, they’ll buy their own or take their expectations elsewhere.

Employees aren’t the only ones with higher expectations. Customers now expect those they do business with to know who they are, what they need and when they need it — sometimes before they even know they need it.

Things have changed a lot in the last few years, and outdated systems (what I call technology asbestos) might now be doing more harm than good. Let’s be clear — technology asbestos doesn’t cause cancer. However, it can slow a company’s progress, strain the worker and customer experience, and negatively impact a company’s culture, brand and bottom line. Organizations can ignore it for a while, but like all those asbestos-laden materials from the 1960s and ’70s, it will eventually break down and poison an organization.

It might be time for a technology remodel when your teams start saying things like:

• “Our systems don’t support that.” Older systems are often complex, overly customized and difficult to upgrade. If you hear “no” more often than “yes” from your IT team, you might have asbestos.
• “We can’t measure the impact of that program.” You can’t improve what you can’t measure. If your sales, service, marketing or e-commerce systems don’t allow you to easily track and measure your priorities and key performance indicators (KPIs), you might have asbestos.
• “We don’t have that data,” or “We’ll get you that report…in a week or so.” People at all levels in a company should be using data to make decisions. Your existing systems might already track a ton of data, but if you’re hearing statements like this, it’s probably not the right data or not readily accessible to those who need it. Data should be as ubiquitous as possible and easy to use in real time, from analyst to executive. If that’s not the case, you might have asbestos.
• “Do I really have to come into the office every day?” We all want balance in our lives. In fact, Gallup research shows flexible scheduling and the ability to work from home greatly influence whether an employee will take or leave a job. If your tools and systems make working from home or anywhere in the world difficult, you definitely have asbestos.
• “I feel disconnected from my team (or the company).” There are many reasons why people say this, but tools play a huge role in creating organizational transparency, improving communication and increasing collaboration across teams. If you don’t have the right tools to connect with your employees, or to help them connect with each other, you probably have asbestos.
• “My computer/our Wi-Fi/this application sucks.” If you hear (or say) this phrase on a regular basis, you probably have asbestos — and it’s time to rethink your IT policy. Yes, technology is expensive, but if your employees are constantly faced with the spinning wheel of death or go to customers with PCs from 1999, you won’t recruit or retain top talent, loyalty will wane and your brand perception will suffer. These are much higher costs than what you’d spend on new equipment.

Complaints like the ones above aren’t just annoying; they’ll have a direct impact on your business. You may not be able to introduce new offerings or enter new markets fast enough, which means you’ll lose market share and see growth suffer. Your top employees may leave for greener pastures. That’s why it’s important to fix the problem, not just cover it up. Simply tacking a new piece of technology on to a system that is breaking down will leave you with a confusing and complicated mess that will cost you more in the long run.

The next question then becomes how to handle the removal. The answer to this varies depending on where the problem lies, a company’s current situation and how fast you want to move. Like asbestos, it’s best to seek out some professional help so you’re not going at it alone or in a vacuum. Ripping out technology asbestos without the right research, preparation, expertise and change-management plan can cause some serious damage. Older systems can be deeply embedded in an organization.