IT is an area that organisations often look to when trying to make savings. But reducing IT costs in the wrong way can cost a business more in the long run. Here are four effective ways to approach reducing IT costs:
Assess and analyse your current system
The first thing you must do is to create a detailed inventory of what your current IT system consists of. What software do you use and what subscriptions are you paying? How many licences do you have for each piece of software? How many suppliers are you working with and what solutions are being provided by each of them? Once you have this you can cross-check it with a list of what you actually need to keep the business running optimally.
It’s also often worth considering whether you could move to a single supplier – you’ll likely find your IT support company can assist you with your accounts and phone systems as well.
Look to the future
Once you are aware of how your IT systems are looking right now, you need to consider what you’re liable to need going forward. If your business is experiencing a period of growth or you’re diversifying your offering, make sure that your budget accounts for this. Will hiring new members of staff mean you need to hire an additional IT staff member? If so, could it be cheaper to outsource all your IT support?
Equally, if you’re planning to expand think how your systems will need to scale. Rather than potentially buying a new server, look at whether moving to a scalable cloud solution might be a better approach instead. It may not save you money now, but it will save you potentially paying twice in the long run
Cost-saving vs cost-effective
When trying to reduce IT spend, take advice. Simply slashing costs without understanding the implications may harm your business and productivity in other ways. After all, if your printer is costing you a fortune in ink, you wouldn’t just throw the printer out – you’d look for cheaper ink and ask staff to be more considerate with their printing.
A good IT partner will always help you to find ways to reduce costs through optimising systems and changing solutions.
Equally, if you plan to radically cut costs, consider carefully how this might impact on your business operations. Moving your IT support to a much cheaper company may reduce costs but you’ll likely face a lesser quality of service too. In the long run, you may lose more through business interruption and poorly performing hardware than has been saved by changing support.
Reducing IT costs: Review routinely
While you will likely only have to take account of your IT spend and look at how efficient your current set-up is maybe once a year, it is important to put a date in the diary and stick to it. Every year you should be assessing hardware costs and software spend, and seeing if any efficiencies can be made. But remember to factor in your IT roadmap as part of this – there’s no point getting rid of systems you’re going to rely upon in 6 months’ time.
Looking at reducing IT costs for your organisation by outsourcing? Contact Akita for a quote:
