How Much is Complacency Costing You?

When you’ve been using the same software for a really long time, it seems like you’re being so efficient, because you know every nook and cranny of that product. You know everything it does, and where to go, to do it. You know all of the workarounds that get it to do things, it was never meant to do.

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Efficiency born of knowing how to use an old product really well is an illusion

The reason companies invest thousands, and even millions into keeping their products up to date, is that as technology improves, there are better, smarter, and faster ways to get things done. Your complacency will have you outsmarting yourself.

I’m an early adopter, no question. Sometimes I pay for that, because I get stuck in some new version of an application while they work out the bugs. Most of the time, I am happy, though because there are usually upgrades and improvements that make things go faster. When things go faster, it free’s up more time, so I can move on to, what often amounts to more interesting, and more valuable things.

The truth is, that as we move further and further into the cloud, you will have less and less of an opportunity to become complacent with your software applications. These cloud based apps are updated regularly, and you aren’t given a choice. It also doesn’t cost you more. You continue to pay your regular monthly subscription, and the products are updated seamlessly, behind the scenes.

Meanwhile, what you think you’re saving by sticking with the devil you know, is actually costing you, much more than you realize. I can speak from experience. This year I moved my own accounting from QuickBooks desktop to QuickBooks Online. It takes a fraction of the time to get my accounting done. I do it weekly, and I use a product called Transaction Pro Importer to import all of my online sales. That process works much better with QuickBooks Online. I have found the bank feeds to be much more reliable with QuickBooks Online as well.

When you upgrade, and stay up to date with the latest versions of your software, you might encounter a learning curve here and there, but the time you save, far outweighs the cost, once you put in the time. The easiest thing to do, is build some learning time into your schedule, so that when the time comes to learn a new version, or upgrade to a better product, you’ve already got the time set aside to manage the learning curve.

Meanwhile the time you save by staying up with the latest, and the greatest will translate to more time to bring in more business, as well as nurture your existing relationships. You can’t even place a value on that.