How Important Is Software Maintenance For Your Business?
Introduction
As a business person, on several occasions, you may be thinking about why you should spend thousands of dollars on software maintenance. While it sounds unreasonable to regularly maintain your software, you should. Carrying out regular software maintenance is not because of software update alone, but because the business place is dynamic and highly fast-paced. The invention of advanced technologies comes with a change in application and software management.
Studies have found that 60% of a software’s cost goes for maintenance, and another 60% goes for improvement. With several users using your software, there is a high chance of bug exposure. Software maintenance would help to prevent these bugs and keep your software working all day. Software maintenance will also help to keep you ahead of your competitors.
Why Does Your Business Need Software Maintenance?
Let’s take a look at the benefit of regularly maintaining your business software.
#1. Bug Fixing
We mentioned earlier that when more than one person gets exposed to your software, the likelihood of the software being exposed to bugs is high. The only way to identify and fix these bugs is by carrying out software maintenance. Bugs have the potential to cause system failure, which may result in downtime for your business and inherent revenue loss.
Another reason why bugs may appear in your software is because of modification or change in your framework, platform, or hardware. Plus, if there is a software version update, the likelihood of bugs is also very high. So, it is pertinent to always fix bug issues to avoid revenue loss.
Think about a situation where the team at Adobe refuses to fix the bugs in their Adobe Suite Products like Muse, Photoshop, and Illustrator. Will you still proceed to purchase the software? The answer is obvious. Nobody wants to use software that would bring about a revenue loss.
#2. Upgrade Access
The importance of software upgrades cannot be overemphasized in the growth of a business. Upgrade can also make your computers work efficiently and to their maximum capacity. Upgrade also comes with new features, scalability, improved performance, and functionality. It will correct bugs automatically and help scale your business. But if you don’t carry out regular software maintenance, you won’t enjoy these benefits.
Regular software maintenance ensures testing and quality while minimizing potential issues of system failure. If you want your business to compete favorably with your competitors, you should figure out a way to maintain your software. Otherwise, you may be stuck to an old version of the software. Think about Antivirus like McAfee or Norton, if the company doesn’t upgrade the software, you won’t see new releases on the market to buy.
#3. User Adoption
Every business in the 21st century relies heavily on computers and software to operate and make a profit. However, without software maintenance, your system would be outdated. Remember, your employees and customers are regularly moving with the trend; as such, they need new functionality and features to work with. If you cannot maintain your software to be in line with what your customers want, they are likely to churn your products or services in favor of your competitors. This will be a great loss for your business in terms of revenue and annual turnover.
Think about Orkut.com, a popular social media network from 2006 to 2010. Orkut was the talk of the town just like Facebook is today. However, the company lost its relevance in less than 4 years of its existence. The major reason why they failed is that they refused to position their business strategy according to what their users yearn for. So, if you don’t want your business to fizzle out that way, it’s either you have an in-house IT support team or hire managed IT services to help you with the software maintenance.
#4. Re-engineering
Software maintenance brings about software re-engineering. Software re-engineering helps to analyze how your marketplace will look in the future. Your business software may be weak in durability if you don’t carry out regular software maintenance.
Do you know why big companies like Apple, Google, Microsoft, and other tech giants on the market are heading towards Augmented Reality, Artificial Intelligence, Predictive Analytics, and Virtual Reality? The answer is simple, it’s because they understand the demands of their users and they regularly maintain their software to work in line with user’s demands.
#5. Business Growth
Your business operations depend on computer programs and software. It is difficult to scale your business without proper maintenance, upgrades, and IT support like managed IT services. Also, without proper software maintenance, it would be very difficult to monitor your business progress and meet up your expectations.
If you find your competitors doing better than you, the chances are that they have an IT support team that regularly maintains their software, updates their computers, and fixes any broken hardware. Even if you don’t have the resources to hire expert software engineers, you can outsource the software maintenance duties to capable freelancers. There are capable freelancers on Fiverr, Upwork, and Freelancer that would help you maintain your software on a regular basis.
Conclusion
There you go! You can now see the benefits of regularly carrying out software maintenance on your business. Carrying out regular software maintenance is not because of software update alone, but because the business place is dynamic and highly fast-paced. Software maintenance would help to prevent these bugs and keep your software working all day. Software maintenance will also help to keep you ahead of your competitors.
You can sign up for an annual maintenance plan with a contracting firm and thus focus on other important aspects of your business. However, before you sign the papers, ensure you review all aspects of the contract and ask valid questions where you are in doubt. Software maintenance is a must and not an option. If you don’t maintain your software, it will be outdated and thus impede your investment or business from generating the revenue you have projected for the financial year.
