If you have been advised of a software update and duly deleted the alert – YOU ARE NOT ALONE. More than a third of users don’t upgrade their software even after their vendor has advised them of an update. However you may not realise how vulnerable this can leave you. Below are a few reasons why you might not upgrade, followed by why you should.
Business Disruption and Cost:
Its true there is a time factor involved. But in most cases the software will be faster and more user friendly, which means increased productivity. When you skip a major upgrade, the costs and effort associated with the upgrade are simply deferred, not eliminated. The cost and effort involved with the next upgrade is then multiplied as the impact and complexities become larger than they were before. You can also quickly end up on unsupported versions of the software. Should a critical software issue or security vulnerability arise, solutions may only be available for current versions, exposing your business to risk.
Lack of understanding of benefit:
The benefit is a combination of the newest features, improved functionality and fixes, increasing efficiencies across the business. Designed to give you a better user experience.
Employees can become dissatisfied due to lack of change, and new features. Updates or upgrades usually involve time saving features, better layouts, and streamlined processes and can lead to increased staff morale. If you have switched to the latest version your staff are ahead of the game and so is your business.
New versions can have lots of bugs:
Whilst this is uncommon the risk is even greater when upgrading from a very old version to a new version. Every release can include software changes, database changes, settings changes, report changes. The multiplier effect of skipping 3,4,5 or more versions increases the risk of problems arising.
If it’s not broken – don’t fix it mentality:
The result is an existing model of software gradually becoming older and more defunct as newer versions are released. It will be buggier, slower and frustrating to use. Eventually support will cease for old versions. Do you upgrade your phone regularly? Then why not your software.
According to the Aberdeen Group, delaying the upgrade of an ERP platform can cause organisations to perform less effectively across a variety of metrics that will impact their bottom line.
We hadn’t upgraded Exo for a while as we didn’t want to incur the cost or have any problems. However we really needed some enhancements in Sales Orders and Purchase Orders that could only be achieved using the grid layouts in the newer versions. Once we upgraded Momentum were able to do a customisation that made a massive difference to our efficiency in managing quotes, sales and purchases. We realised that the benefits of upgrading outweigh the costs and now upgrade Exo regularly – Terry Thorpe – Citi Steel