If you have children or employ people who could be your children, you know first-hand that younger generations have as big of a digital life as they do a physical one. There are lots of debates about whether this is a good or a bad thing—I’ll leave that to others to debate. Your business has a physical life in the form of buildings, presses, desks, and the humans that you employ. Your business also has a digital life in the form of the software systems and the business data they hold. Your digital business life is as critical to your business as the physical aspects of your business.

I cringe when I hear stories like this: “We have a homegrown Print MIS/ERP that was built by this guy who has a full-time job doing something else, and he works on our system at night. He is in his late 60s.” Uh oh. Your digital business life’s foundation is not in a good state. It would be like your building foundation being held up by toothpicks. Data is critical, functioning software systems are critical. This is why ransomware has grown so quickly. It’s a part of your business that can be kidnapped from a guy in his basement wearing only boxer shorts in a faraway land. It's a lot harder to kidnap your building or your press. 

Back to the young people analogy. What would stress a kid out more, losing their phone or losing ANYTHING else? Their phone is the foundation of their digital life. As much as many printers do not want to admit it, your Print MIS/ERP is your digital foundation, even if you hate it. The (ideally) trusted system of record for your business is required to move a job from inquiry to invoice. Your trusted system of record is required to pay taxes, pay your employees, and collect from your customers.