All of us here at CCS wish you a Happy Thanksgiving and Holiday Season. We also give special thanks for all of our customers and partners who continue to place trust in us as an integral part of their management team.

As we move into next year, budgets and plans are being prepared to ensure that we are ready to grow with the improving economy while still being very cost effective. This is a good time to remind people of the importance of a current and effective computer system in today's business. Our budgets often have line items for maintenance and replacement of vehicles and other capital items, but we rarely see information technology products and services included in many companies’ budgets.

We are all aware that vehicles have a fixed life in a business, and require maintenance during their business life. With the rate of changes in technology today, most computer systems are become obsolete after three years.  By the time they are five years old, the hardware often can not run current software.

It is therefore extremely critical for a company to maintain their IT assets, or face the unexpected expense of a major upgrade caused by a system or computer failure of obsolete systems.

We often do not think about computer systems until they fail. They have become such an integral part of the business, but even a half day without a functioning computer system usually is extremely disruptive to a business. With cellular telephones, we can often expect a phone outage with less disruption than a loss of computer access.

Industry standards recommend that a annual budget of 18 to 25% of the current value of your IT systems should be factored into your business plan.  This recommended amount may not be used each year, but should form the basis of a reserve for future replacement.  

If you wish for us to review your systems and make recommendations for efficient operations for today and future needs, please give us a call at 561-845-0014.  We may even recommend cost savings by integrating multiple technology services.