Most business owners find it difficult to articulate what their technology brings to the table, other than headaches and bills. With so much technology considered a standard today that a decade ago was cutting edge, the tremendous value it brought initially has now become an expectation. This happens with every new technology, no matter how revolutionary. Consider what you expect when you turn on the lights in your office. Let there be light! And so it is.

But it wasn’t always that way and when light was first available in large cities, it was cutting edge. Suddenly, those businesses that were wired could power more machines for less, stay open later and store fronts could attract more customers and all that translated very quickly to more revenue. Today, power is a given and nothing moves without it. When listing what brings the greatest value to their business, power never makes the list, but it’s always the most important thing when it’s not there.

The difference between power and your technology is that with power someone else is responsible for the upkeep of the powerlines, keeping the generators working and the electricity flowing despite almost all sorts of weather and conditions. With your business technology, this responsibility falls on you. The upkeep of the network and computers, the adoption of key software to keep your business humming, and supporting your staff with their IT needs, because they will have them. While you may not personally be responsible for each of these aspects, it certainly does fall on your shoulders to make sure they are addressed, because when the technology doesn’t work, the frustration of your staff and clients fall there as well. There really is no debate on the necessity of technology in your business, the debate is the value you place on it.

Could your business function in a power outage? Could it function if your systems were down? How much down time could your business tolerate before it would start to lose too much money? How much are the everyday “gremlins” costing your business in productivity, morale and reputation? Answering these questions may help put some perspective on the true value of your IT.