Managing technology is becoming more complicated for enterprises and small-and-medium businesses (SMB). Monitoring and maintaining equipment and keeping it up-to-date for patches or software updates can be daunting. The process of developing a lifecycle management strategy may seem overwhelming, but there are a number of risks associated with a failure to develop this type of strategy:

• Loss of Potential Opportunities. Technology is the backbone of digital transformation for businesses. Unmanaged technology WILL result in lost business opportunities!
• Failure of Business Processes. When your technology isn’t managed, it affects both your reputation and your revenue.
• Unanticipated Costs. When a failure occurs, addressing the situation can be costly and time-consuming. When you are operating in crisis mode, you’ll incur costs that wouldn’t impact you if they were planned for or if you had avoided the crisis with a Lifecycle Management strategy.
• Loss of Customers and Revenue. If you experience a system failure, or if a valuable feature is no longer available to your customers because the provider no longer supports it, what level of inconvenience will your customers tolerate? If your system is down for a few hours, or a full day, what’s the impact on your revenue?
• Missed Cost Savings Opportunities. From negotiating with providers through long-term business relationships to securing special pricing by buying devices in a bundle, there are cost savings that come with outsourcing lifecycle management to a service agent. They can negotiate better pricing and help you anticipate upcoming costs that will impact your IT budget.
• Complexity in the Environment. Investing in Lifecycle Management comes with some distinct perks that ease the complexity of enterprise IT. From receiving one simple invoice each month to only having a single contact and phone call to make when there’s a problem, Lifecycle Management can ease the stress of a system issue.