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For many Finance Managers the prospect of upgrading the
company’s business system is akin to a visit to the dentist -
something that one ought to do, but which will almost
certainly
be lengthy, expensive and painful - something to be put off
for
as long as possible.
They may claim that they cannot justify the investment; that the
new capabilities are not needed or that upgrading will take too
much internal resource.
Not only is this the wrong approach, but, in itself, it can
bring about the very problems that they are afraid of - downtime,
data loss, and increased operational costs. Eventually, when the
hardware wears out or the operating system is superseded, upgrading
or moving to a new system becomes inevitable and delaying just
makes
things difficult.
For example, eventually older releases become mature, there are
no further enhancements and, support is withdrawn. These older
releases can also become incompatible with new releases of 3rd
party products such as desktop and reporting tools, or in
unforeseen situations such as the introduction of the Euro or
International Accounting Standards (IAS).
Also, it is widely acknowledged that choosing not to upgrade for
a long period can impact on a company’s profitability. As its IT
systems become progressively more expensive to run, its capability
to demonstrate innovation declines.
 Continue
reading the FDs' guide to staying agile in a changing
climate
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