With inflation rising, life is extra expensive right now. And as you’re planning for the upcoming year, you might be looking for ways to cut costs, including those budgeted for IT.
Here are five effective ways to reduce technology costs without sacrificing quality, productivity, or security. Let’s take a look at them:
1. Consolidate Your Vendors
IT costs can quickly add up, especially for small businesses that don’t have the same economies of scale as larger companies. Consolidating your vendor services will make managing and maintaining your IT infrastructure more straightforward and cost-effective.
How so?
By consolidating large(r) portions of your IT infrastructure needs to a single or a limited number of vendor(s) you will increase your negotiating power. Ask your current vendor if there are any cost reduction or discount opportunities and see what they offer. And if you’re up for contract renewals, you can also try renegotiating the terms.
2. Reduce Unexpected Costs with Technology Risk Management
Business today relies heavily on technology. However, IT systems are susceptible to risks. Unexpected events, such as hardware and software failures, human error, data loss, and cyber-attacks, can result in costly downtime. Not only are there the direct costs of repairs and recovery to consider, but the indirect cost of lost business and profits can be considerable.
A robust risk management plan helps prevent longer-than-necessary downtime and unnecessary financial losses resulting from these events.
Remember, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, so plan now, to save later.
3. Standardize Your Infrastructure
One of the easiest ways to cut costs is by standardizing your IT infrastructure. This could be by giving everyone on your team the same type of hardware and software applications.
Every time you introduce something new into your organization, it adds a new layer of complexity. You have to train your employees on how to use that device or application and ensure that all of them are on the same page.
By standardizing your infrastructure, you ensure there’s consistency across your organization, your IT operations will become more efficient and easier to manage, and you will put your business at less risk of a security breach.
4. Move to Cloud-Based Solutions
For many businesses, the most significant expense of their IT budget is the maintenance and upkeep of their on-site IT infrastructure. By moving to a cloud-based solution instead, you no longer need to invest in costly (and often unnecessary) on-site servers and hire expensive IT staff to maintain them.
In addition, your team can access and share all data and applications from any internet-connected device at any time: improving productivity while you only pay for the infrastructure, applications, and data storage you need. Meeting Tree Computer offers a complete line of cloud-based business solutions for Hudson Valley businesses.
5. Reduce Personnel Cost
In today’s business world, the cost of hiring, training, and managing personnel can quickly become a drain on resources. One way to reduce these costs is by outsourcing support services. By hiring an external company to provide these services, you avoid paying salaries, benefits, paid time off and funding for ongoing training expenses.
Outsourcing IT support, in particular, avoids the hassle and expense of managing an in-house team of experts. A team that would require ongoing training to keep up with the changes in technology, who would need to be available after hours to answer questions, implement security patches and updates, and be available on a moment’s notice when an emergency strikes your network that needs immediate attention.
People like that don’t come cheap. For example, the average annual salary for a full-time, level 1 IT technician in Orange County, NY, is $51,000 (Indeed.com), not including 401Ks, healthcare insurance, and other benefits.
And this guy/gal is then only a one-person show …
Conclusion:
We understand that, as much as your business relies on computers, software, and other forms of technology, it can be a considerable expense with a seemingly limited ROI. Luckily, as discussed above, there are several ways in which you can cut your IT costs without sacrificing quality or productivity.
Although ROI might not always be immediately visible, investing in technology can, in fact, significantly reduce other operational costs and increase profitability when properly implemented. With help from a trusted IT partner, technology can reduce material costs, save time, save money on office space, and give your company an edge over your competition.
Can my team help you free up money in 2023? If so, call us at (845) 237-2117. Meeting Tree Computer has partnered with local businesses with world-class IT services since 1999. We’d love to support yours as well.
