Cutting your IT costs with these simple tips can help you find the extra capital to invest in and streamline your business. Read on for 6 easy and practical ways to reduce your business IT costs.
Reducing IT costs during economic uncertainty
The current global economy is both volatile and uncertain. Inflation is projected to reach 11% by the end of this year, pushing the price of goods and services up across all industries. Even the smallest increase in revenue or tiniest cost reduction can improve profitability during this economic uncertainty, so every penny counts.
The current economic downturn is seeing many businesses look for places the can save money. Certain business departments typically contribute to increasing operational costs more than others, and one of these is IT. But when technology is integral to modern business, how do you reduce IT costs while maintaining an effective and connected organisation?
Before you start thinking this article is all doom and gloom, we’re here to offer some advice. If your business is worried about future profitability, here are a couple of simple steps that you can follow to reduce your IT costs and improve your bottom line.
6 Simple ways to reduce your IT costs
1. Utilise the cloud
Moving your businesses applications, workspaces and data to the cloud is one way your business can cut its IT costs as well. This is because on-premises IT is usually significantly more expensive to run, maintain, manage, and upgrade. However, moving to the cloud will eliminate most of these tedious costs.
Storing your data in the cloud using services like Google Cloud, SharePoint, and OneDrive can also help you eliminate the high costs associated with maintaining your own physical data centres. It will also give your organisation more data security.
2. Software Asset Management (SAM)
Software Asset Management (SAM) is a strategy that many firms use to reclaim their IT budget and get the most value from their software investments. The goal of SAM is to ensure that software delivers optimum value.
Why is SAM important for cost reduction?
The procurement and management of software is one area in which spending can easily spiral out of control if it isn’t closely observed and managed. Your IT team need to have set guidelines and processes for validating and approving your businesses software purchases. This will ensure that your business doesn’t end up wasting money by purchasing software licences that you don’t need.
Oversubscribing and underutilised software licenses can be an unnecessary waste of money. As a result of this, it’s crucial that you actively manage your software subscriptions, and ensure that your business gets access to the software you need at the right price.
Software Asset Management (SAM) can help you regain control of your software landscape. SAM is a tactical process for managing the software lifecycle, including planning, budgeting, allocating licenses, and disposal. SAM can help you identify licenses that are being underutilised so they can be cancel or reallocated, mitigate compliance and security risks associated with cloud services, and establish a defined process for software acquisition, documentation, deployment, and usage.
If you’re new to SAM, undertaking a software license review is a good place to start. A license review includes taking a deep dive into your software estate to gain the visibility you need to make better procurement decisions.
3. Undertake an IT Audit
In today’s digital-first world, modern IT systems typically comprise of a variety of software, hardware, and other systems. As a result of this, most businesses often struggle to examine and evaluate the efficiency of their IT systems as so many moving parts are involved.
That’s where an IT audit comes in.
An IT audit is essentially an assessment of your entire IT infrastructure to identify any risks or resource issues. Although IT audits don’t only assess the financial efficiency of a business’s IT systems, they can empower your business to gain visibility of your IT costs and identify any underutilised or idle IT assets. Which in turn, can help you reduce your IT costs if you eliminate them promptly.
4. Make the most of Tech as a Service (TaaS)
Nowadays, technology plays a crucial role in every business operation. Companies worldwide now rely on technology to make sales, recruit staff, manage their inventory, and execute marketing campaigns. Today, most businesses couldn’t operate their business without the internet, word processing software, or video conferencing tools.
However, although tech plays a crucial role in most businesses, owning, maintaining, and managing it can often be expensive and very resource demanding. Tech as a Service (TaaS) has emerged as the antidote for this issue, and many businesses have embraced it.
But what is Tech as a Service (TaaS)?
TaaS is general term for procuring any kind of IT products and solutions under an “as a service” approach. is It gives organisations flexible access to the latest tech hardware, software, and complimentary services that they require on a subscription basis.
The as a service approach makes IT procurement far easier and removes the need to own and manage your services. You’ll typically be required to pay your provider on a monthly, quarterly, or annual basis.
Additionally, switching to TaaS will help your business lower IT spend because you only pay for the services you use, instead of buying and owning products that not all users may need. TaaS will also give your business greater flexibility to upsize or downsize your IT equipment when necessary, enabling you to significantly reduce the total cost of owning your equipment.
5. Enable remote working
Enabling remote working in your business is another method that you can utilise to reduce your IT costs.
This can be done by deploying a combination of cloud-based IT solutions, like Azure Virtual Desktop, Microsoft 365, and Microsoft Teams to create a modern workplace that supports remote working.
Empowering your employees to work remotely through a modern workplace will provide your organisation with many benefits. One of them being that your organisation will get to reduce its IT costs. As well as eliminate the financial burdens that come with having to invest and maintain an on-premises IT infrastructure. If your employees have access to a cloud-powered modern workplace, all they’ll need to do their jobs is a laptop and a wi-fi connection.
6. Outsource your IT
Outsourcing elements of your IT is another proven strategy that many businesses use to lower their IT costs.
Outsourcing IT staff and services typically enables companies to significantly reduce their IT expenses. These savings could be monumental to you if you’re a small business owner, as smaller businesses often have limited IT budgets. So, outsourcing your IT functions could help you get affordable support.
However, before you make the decision to outsource your IT staff, understand that there is no one size fits all approach when it comes to outsourcing your IT staff. There are many ways to outsource your IT, so it’s important that you select the approach that’s most suitable for your business.
Outsourcing example
You could follow the approach that we recommend, which is outsourcing your IT needs to an MSP. We believe that this is by far the most effective method to outsource your IT tasks.
But what is an MSP?
A Managed Service Provider (MSP) is an external provider that businesses can use to eliminate the responsibility of monitoring, managing, and maintaining their own IT infrastructure. MSP’s may provider everything from end-user support, IT maintenance, and problem resolution to cybersecurity and network management. They can also help you improve IT performance, processes, and practices.
By working with an IT managed services provider, you gain access to a full team of certified IT staff and technology specialists at a fraction of the cost of having your own IT team. This will enable your business to reduce your IT costs without reducing the quality of your IT support and management.
Reduce your IT costs by working with a reliable MSP
The 848 Group is an MSP and IT partner to businesses around the UK. We have a team of experienced IT specialists that can help your business find the perfect solutions to reduce your IT costs.
Our IT consultancy services are designed to provide your business with clear and professional advice on all aspects of your IT strategy to empower you to make the best decisions for your business.
We understand that crafting an economical IT strategy without expert advice can be a daunting task for any business to undertake. So, we take the time to understand your business goals and objectives and provide you with guidance on how they can be achieved.
Our team of experienced, senior IT consultants will provide you with a tailored roadmap to help you reduce your IT costs in an effective manner.