Do You Have the Right Tech Mindset?Switching to a service-oriented mindset can help your business achieve huge gains in productivity and effectiveness, and save money at the same time.

If your idea of a technology upgrade is buying the newest handset and calling it a day, then you have another thing coming.

Technology today doesn't work the same way it did 10, five, or even two years ago. If you want to stay competitive, do more than upgrade your equipment; upgrade yourmindset.

In this new technological landscape, you need to get the way you think about your needs right first. The execution will follow.

Whether your main technological expense is keeping the Wi-Fi on in your office or you're buying handsets for a dozen employees, IT matters. Small businesses, however, face a unique set of challenges.

Without deep expertise in IT, it's hard to know where to start doing your research. There are a ton of tech providers and each one has different products, different support, and different pricing.

Once you've made a decision about what kind of tech to buy (and paid a handsome upfront sum to secure it) the costs start piling up. You begin worrying about safety and security. And who's going to support the members of your team when they have problems?

Hiring a full-time IT team to manage all of this is expensive, and for most small businesses, infeasible. When IT feels this way, it's much easier to delay your purchasing of technology, or fence-sit and purchase only half the technology you really need. That puts you at a competitive disadvantage.

With the right tech mindset, however, IT no longer needs to be infeasible.

Enter: "anything-as-a-service," or simply, XaaS.

The new age of technology: XaaS

Today's tech landscape is all about services -- getting what you need, when you need it, without the expenses associated with the "old way" of doing things.

When you need to get to a meeting in an unfamiliar city, you don't need to rent a car. You can use Uber. You can use Airbnb to find a place to stay, and when you get hungry, you can use Postmates to get that pad thai delivered straight to your door.

This trend toward a service-based economy that is driving consumer technology forward is also at work in business technology -- if you know where to look. It's the "anything-as-a-service" revolution.

Withmobility-as-a-service, you no longer have to pay for your team member's devices and network plans upfront. You no longer have to deal with confusing, multi-tiered pricing plans and annoying upgrades. Instead, you can pay as you go, per user, and per month, with 24/7/365 phone support and flexible plans in case your needs change.

All you do is pick the devices and terms -- unlimited data? international roaming? -- that your business needs today. No hefty upfront costs. No setup. And as soon as your growth starts to outstrip your tech, you can simply add new devices to your plan.

Once you've grown enough to need a new office space, you can useworkplace-as-a-serviceto build it out with the tech you need without a massive outlay of cash. Instead, you can get a fully managed and integrated solution for your Wi-Fi, audio and video conferencing, Intranet, and more -- implemented and maintained by the expert team at Sprint Business -- while paying per seat and per month.

When you switch to a service-based mindset, you reap dividends not just in peace of mind and flexibility, but in the health and wealth of your business.

From capital expenses to operational expenses.

Adopting a service-based mindset when it comes to tech means not having to worry about security, maintenance, upgrades, and more. It also means solving one of the biggest tech concerns any small business has -- understanding where all the money is going.

Traditional tech solutions require you to spend lots of money upfront on equipment and devices. That capital expenditure adds up on your balance sheet. And not only can capital expenditure tech costs not be deducted in the same year you incur them, they're unpredictable in their size and scope.

Withmobility-as-a-service, your technological costs canbecome steady, predictable operating expenses.

Classifying costs as operating expenses allows you to impose predictability on your spending. Rather than worrying about how much your tech upgrades will cost, you'll know exactly how much you pay every month, plus how much more you'll need to pay as you grow. You get a tax benefit, and most importantly, you get to reallocate your money that you would have spent on equipment to other parts of the business.

Mindset shift.

IT isn't just about tech anymore. Getting the best service, at the best prices, in the way that's best for your business, is just as much about your mindset as it is about your equipment.

With solutions likemobility-as-a-service(MaaS) andworkplace-as-a-service(WaaS), you can upgrade your tech mindset and bring your small business into the future.