MICROSOFT has set out to prove to Your Business readers that there is a compelling case to invest in the latest business technology now that the economy has emerged from recession by giving one reader £10,000 of the latest software and hardware.
The technology giant, which has recently released the latest version of its Windows operating system, said that many businesses had understandably delayed updating their IT during the last two years as they prioritised spending and reduced costs.
But it argued that many businesses were now operating on systems that underperform and are costly to maintain.
Robert Epstein, head of small business at Microsoft UK, said that more than 80pc of small businesses were still using Windows XP, first released in 2001, and Microsoft Office 2003.
“The biggest challenge is the economic environment,” he said. “A year or so ago people said, ‘Let’s lock down everything,’ and people have got stuck in that mentality now. There’s a belief that the technology that they have that’s becoming a bit aged is still good enough. But XP is up to nine years-old.
How many pieces of nine-year technology are people using in their business? Not their mobile phones, their photocopier or even their car. So why is it good enough to use nine-year-old software?”
To make its case, Microsoft has given Devon-based Westaways, a £3m-turnover sausage maker employing 24 staff, 12 Dell PCs and three laptops loaded with its latest operating system and updated versions of Office.
Westaways, run by former Royal Marine Charles Baugham, 53, has agreed to update its systems and will report back to Your Business in three months time on its experience.
Mr Baugham said: “There’s a degree of apprehension in the office but we have a system that’s creaking.
It would have been something we invested in if we had been trading normally. It’s not antiquated but it’s slow to load applications.
Individuals are finding it difficult to have two or three applications open at one time. Then there’s this computer that does not work with this printer. So one printer gets hammered and the troublesome printer gets worked around.”
The company has a mix of software and hardware. Staff have BlackBerrys for communication but they still use Office 2000, with updates, and the PCs mostly run off Windows XP. It also uses a seven-year-old server.
Mr Baugham said: “Individuals work on their own PCs and we back up all our information to our server. But the synchronisation of files is not happening correctly, and it means for the integrity of the company we are out on a limb. For me the security aspect as well as the slowness is really frustrating.”
Mr Baugham said he hoped to see routine tasks becoming simpler and that it would help those staff who wanted to work from home to do so more effectively. “For me, the 24/7 boss, I want to dial in and check an accounting package and often
it’s, ‘Oh, it’s not working’. So I trundle the three to four miles into the business as I can’t go to sleep without doing it. I work around it.”
Westaways, which slaughters 3,500 pigs a week from local Devon farms and exports 10pc of its sales to Europe, the Middle East and Asia, is also investing in a new Microsoft small business server 2008 to replace its 2003 model.
But Mr Baugham said previous experience has taught him to be wary of the IT sales pitch. “We spent some £20,000 on a new accounting package which we eventually got rid of 10 months later because we could not get it to do what we wanted it to do,” he said.
“We went back to the original system and there were universal cheers in the office. These systems that come in have to have a degree of flexibility and stability and be user-friendly.”
He added: “None of us likes spending money unless we can see the value, particularly in this environment.
But equally I can see you do need someone to say to you, ‘Why have you walked over to the printer six times?’ and ‘What’s happening over there?’ There’s a surprising level of inefficiency that you are prepared to put up with in IT.”
Source:http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/yourbusiness/7971901/Microsofts-call-for-IT-investment-put-to-the-test-in-10000-trial.html
