Old habits are hard to break. Unfortunately, if your old business habits include holding on to outdated computer programs, you could be doing more harm than good. You may think that you're doing yourself – and your employees – a favor by holding onto those outdated programs. However, in the long-run, you might actually be wasting time and money. Here are three reasons why you need to retire the old programs.

Outdated Programs are a Security Risk

If you're operating system is utilizing old programs, you have a security problem on your hands. When programs are new, the company that created the program will provide intermittent program updates. Those updates will include increased security for those programs. Once a program is no longer being produced, the original company discontinues updates. If you're running programs that are no longer receiving updates, hackers can find back doors and holes that will allow them to gain complete access to any files you have stored in the program files. Protect your valuable data. Retire the old programs and install updates.

Outdated Programs Create Compatibility Issues

Programs are designed to work with specific operating systems. If you're trying to run outdated programs on updated operating systems, you're going to be spending a majority of your time trying to work out the bugs. Bigger problems pop up when your clients are using the updated versions that you haven't implemented yet. If that happens, you're going to be dealing with upset clients who are having to save their information onto outdated programs just so they can get their information out to you. You can prevent compatibility issues and keep your clients happy by retiring your old programs and transferring the files to a new updated version.

Outdated Programs Cause Employee Discontent

Employees work best when they have the proper equipment at their disposal. If you're asking your employees to utilize outdated programs, you're asking them to work harder than they have to. When employees have to work with outdated programs, they have to go through additional steps – and stress – just to accomplish the simplest tasks. You can help your employees work more efficiently by updating your programs and deleting the outdated ones.

If you're using outdated programs for your company's online records, you're doing yourself and your company, a disservice. The information provided here will help you see why you should have your IT department retire your old applications as soon as possible.