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The Modern Office: 5 Pieces of Obsolete Technology to Avoid


Employees who are forced to use outdated technology in the workplace are 750% more likely to feel frustrated with their jobs. This is an obvious issue in the workplace for a lot of reasons: it’s emotionally draining, it makes people less innovative, and it lowers productivity in the workplace.

Fortunately, knowing what this technology is and eliminating it from the workplace will ensure that your company doesn’t take a hit. Once you identify obsolete technology, it’s easy to get modern alternatives that are sure to leave your business running smoothly and your employees happy.

Read on to learn five technologies that there’s never a reason to have around the office!

1. Landline Phones

Landline phones are an extremely obsolete method of communication. In homes, we see these phones being rapidly disconnected in favor of mobile phones, and yet for some reason offices still tend to use landlines a lot. This can put a huge damper on productivity.

Luckily, there’s a much more modern alternative to using landline phones at your business. SIP trunking is a technology that hooks your desk phones up to the internet services you use.

This saves money because you won’t have to pay for separate phone service. It also allows for a faster connection so you can efficiently talk to coworkers and clients. This business friendly service provides SIP trunks at an affordable rate, so check it out!

2. Dial-Up Internet

Using landline phones made sense in the heyday of dial-up modems to connect to the internet, but this too is an obsolete technology. First off, it requires a modem to connect, which is annoying for employees who just want to do their work. It also decreases the possible use of both internet and phones by slowing everything down.

Dial-up internet makes no sense in the age of WiFi. Having a strong WiFi connection means that people in business can all use the internet and phones at the same time without slowing each other down. 

Additionally, using Wifi services, especially the Cloud, make data storage easier. More on that in 3, 2, 1…

3. Outdated Data Storage Media

If you’ve been alive for a few decades, you’ve seen data storage methods improve and change time and time again. It can be tempting to hold onto the past and keep using what you’re used to- after all, learning new ways is time-consuming and frustrating. But your employees, especially the younger ones, will be really irritated and unproductive if you don’t move forward.

It’s also simply the case that as technology grows, so does the security of the data you store. You can lose a floppy disk or have it stolen by any burglar, but only a really experienced hacker can get information off your business Cloud.

Plus, punch tapes, floppy disks, and zip disks probably aren’t going to run on any modern computer. If you use them at all, it’s time for a new computer, too.

4. Fax Machines

Though fax machines are often thought of as an office must, they’re really outdated. There’s no reason to have them, especially since they’re slow, cumbersome, and inefficient. There are so many faster technologies out there to get the same jobs done, so look into those instead!

The obvious alternative to the fax machine is a compact scanner. Just scan whatever documents you want to use in and turn them into PDFs. You can then email them to other offices or branches of your business instantly.

If you need hard copies, then just print the PDFs out for yourself. Other offices are also going to have printers, so they can just hit a button and have a hard copy of your PDF.

You can scan a document and make it into a PDF on your Smartphone, too! This means that if you choose, you don’t even need to have a scanner in your office. This saves money on technology and makes it easy for tech-minded employees, so why not at least try it out?

5. Overhead Projectors

Most people remember overhead projectors as a staple from elementary school classes. If you don’t, then they’re that big thing that your boss probably has brought into meetings, slapped a piece of paper on, and used a light to magnify and display on the wall.

These projectors take an incredible length of time to set up and get working. Besides that, any changes that you make to the originally projected material can’t be saved easily since it’s only in hard-copy form. The bottom line is that projectors don’t make sense in the modern workplace.

Instead, connect your computer to a larger screen on the wall of your conference room. This way, you can make any and all changes that employees suggest right in a word document and back them up immediately to the cloud. You can also use a variety of presentation tools like PowerPoint and Publisher, all of which couldn’t be used on an overhead projector.

Avoid Obsolete Technology

The modern workplace is an ever-growing and ever-changing animal. While it’s hard to keep up with the fast-paced changes that offices undergo at all times, it’s really important to avoid outdated technologies. If you don’t, you’ll lose productivity and, ultimately, profits.

Now that you know what obsolete technology not to use in your office, check out the ‘small business articles’ tab on our home page! We at the Small Business Brief will give you plenty of ideas to implement in your office to make sure that your workplace is running as smoothly and efficiently as possible.

Good luck and stay productive!



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