In times of economic uncertainty, delaying a costly project may seem like the obvious choice.
Digital transformation initiatives, for example, are often large line items in an IT leader’s budget.
Undertaking such projects, however, can provide cost reduction through new technologies and help enhance current products and services.
Furthermore, the cost of maintaining legacy systems or using outdated business processes can often be high. Just to keep a legacy system up to date can cost millions of dollars.
Not to mention, outdated systems can also expose your company to losses in revenue, security flaws, and system failures.
So, while it may seem like a cost-saving venture to delay your digital transformation initiative, cloud migration, or ERP project, there’s still a price to be paid for doing so.
In this blog post, we review a number of hidden costs you could encounter by delaying a major IT project.
The Hidden Costs of Delaying an IT Project
Loss of Customers
The ability to deliver products to consumers in a quick, seamless, and secure way is of the utmost importance to organizations in today’s marketplace.
Failing to do so will have consumers looking elsewhere.
If an organization is running a legacy system that’s slower and less dependable than newer systems, they run a high risk of losing customers.
Look no further than Amazon and how they’ve been able to prosper in nearly every marketplace they enter.
Loss of Productivity
One of the main problems with legacy software and systems is that they’re often inefficient.
If a company is constantly dealing with workarounds and fixes to their outdated system, that’s time wasted that could have been spent on revenue-generating projects.
This problem was also illustrated during the COVID-19 pandemic when States weren’t able to process test results, or handle unemployment claims, because they relied on fax machines and systems running COBOL to do so.
Loss of Staff
Today’s IT workers are motivated by more than just a paycheck. Among other benefits, they seek the ability to work on new and emerging technology.
Because IT workers aren’t exactly thrilled to work with software and systems that are older than they are, talent retention and attraction will surely become an issue.
The cost of not updating systems, in this instance, would mean a loss of staff and a seemingly near impossible task of replacing them.
Higher Security Risk
While it’s true that any system can fall victim to a cyberattack, there are certain setups that are more vulnerable than others.
Due to their age, legacy systems may no longer be supported by the vendor or company that created them. That means there are no updates or security patches being released to fix vulnerabilities.
The damage that would be done to a company whose entire system failed needs no explanation.
How to Still Save on Cost
While updating systems may prove the old adage, “you need to spend money to make money,” true, you’re not at a total loss if you’re still unable to do so.
This is where PSCI can help.
As an IT staffing firm known for our ability to expertly fill the jobs others call “hard to fill,” we can help locate the talent for your IT projects.
Still worried about the overhead? Don’t be.
Our ability to staff projects on an as-needed basis means that for the length of your project, the IT consultant will remain a PSCI employee. This means we assume all the risk and costs associated with hiring including taxes, payroll, workers compensation, and even 401k matches.
Request our services today and we’ll help you achieve your IT goals.
