Cupcake Royale's Jody Hall agrees that the change made her company faster and more efficient. In addition, the company is using the tool to create training tutorials, and using SharePoint to host the company training manual online and to provide a workflow for new employees.

Is an Upgrade Right For You?

Josh Balin believes that many small businesses mask a fear of change as a fear of cost--hiding behind the expense of upgrading to justify clinging to familiar tools rather than embracing new technology.

That may be true for many businesses, but there are probably an equal or greater number where the reverse is the case: companies that are anxious to adopt new hardware and cutting-edge software, but simply don't have the discretionary budget. The fact that new hardware and software would likely boost productivity and efficiency and pay for itself over a relatively short amount of time doesn't help if the money simply isn't available in the first place.

Still, looking at Cupcake Royale and Balin Accountancy, there are plenty of benefits and advantages to upgrading to newer hardware and software for those companies that can afford the investment. If this experiment proved anything, it is that newer hardware and software can yield significant productivity and efficiency improvements regardless of the platform or vendor, even if the current systems aren't broken.