Spending too much on IT technology?
Chances are your business is wasting some part of its IT budget. But you’re a smart person, though. You know that in order to reach your financial goals, you have to take a good look at your budget and figure out where your money is going. But sometimes it can be hard to determine where you need to cut back on.
Here are some areas in which you’re likely spending too much:
You’re relying on ancient technology.
This is perhaps the most overlooked problem of them all, and it usually happens because IT professionals tend to focus their interest on the newest and brightest technology available on the market, without taking into account the implementation of such technology with the old one.
Typically, your information has been stored in a data center for years, and although the computer is out of use, it still underpins most Fortune 500 business systems.
This is not to say that executives at such companies are lazy or too cheap to upgrade, but rather that they must necessarily keep the information in those main frames because they cannot risk the downtime that a transition to newer technologies entails.
The problem is that new technologies have been installed on old systems. It’s like having the latest smart TV and still watching VHS tapes on it. This is how much potential gets lost and technologies do not always integrate well with each other. This causes performance to slow and the system typically requires a great deal of troubleshooting, something that costs time and money.
You’re spending money on systems you barely use.
When you buy more than you need, you are overprovisioning. This is a typical error coming from quite a lot of IT teams. These people aren’t wasting money just because, but they are trying to avoid risks at any cost to be absolutely sure that the system will meet needs as they grow.
Paying more for cloud storage “for the future” just doesn’t make sense. Your provider will let you know when you’ve exceeded your storage allocation and help you choose a new plan when the time comes.
It is very common for IT departments to put a legacy and essential application in a system that is much more powerful than necessary. This offers more confidence when planning the future but adds a layer of complexity. it can make it harder to spot a problem, which ends up resulting in an extra line on your IT bill.
Your IT team is siloed.
Rather than operating as a solid unit, your IT department is probably broken down into designated groups that don’t collaborate with one another. Sometimes, the person in charge of the legacy system isn’t collaborating with the person in charge of the newer system. And none of them are speaking with the person who manages the storage.
In the past there wasn’t much of an overlap among the various technologies and groups didn’t have to speak one another the way they do now. When departments are isolated, systems become a hodgepodge and the business structure becomes inoperable.
Chances are your enterprise falls into at least one of these categories. And all three problems come from the same place: You’re not getting enough expert advice and accurate diagnostic information on your system’s performance.
Discover some tips for making smart decisions.
There are countless techniques to make significant IT cost reductions. Our vCIO can examine your budget and identify ways to cut expenses.
Have a Plan.
Actively planning your technology spend should be at the top of the list. When doing so, think of everything from point of sale to accounting to inventory to customer acquisition and retention and how devices, apps and services will specifically fill those needs.
Virtualization.
It can help you achieve significant cost savings. This process is merely replacing physical hardware with their virtual counterparts. When companies realize that they don’t depend on physical servers and switch to virtual environments, they decrease energy and hardware expenses, allowing space for other uses.
Outsourcing IT Staff and Services.
In an average company, IT support accounts for 8% of all costs associated with information technology. A high percentage of small businesses use third parties to gain an edge over opponents. In addition to outsourcing IT staff, companies can outsource infrastructure components on a pay-per-use model. With these technologies typically being quite expensive, paying them on-demand could be an excellent cost-cutting initiative.
Get a Second Opinion.
A MSP like Zakini can be a source of trusted expert advice. Use the expertise of a MSP to validate your plans. This can help uncover unforeseen costs.
Don’t Spend Too Much.
These days, you can have access to inexpensive and heavily customized solutions for not a lot of cash. The cloud and Software at a Service has led to apps and portals that basically do almost anything you might want, at a fraction of the cost of traditional solutions of the past.
Don’t Buy Equipment if You Don’t Have To.
Putting your apps and data in the cloud will help keep your network environment simple and restrain costs.
Standardize.
The core infrastructure of your network, which includes routers, wireless access points, and switches, should be as standard and basic as possible. This provides flexibility in hiring vendors and can be achieved with standard tools that are usually inexpensive. You will gain consistency across different hardware and software applications.
Only Acquire Interoperable Tools.
Some tools need to be able to inter-communicate to keep from having staff needlessly waste time entering data repeatedly.
Adopt Automation.
To spend less time on tasks that once required hours to complete and to drop off the chances for human error.
Learn about how your business can benefit from our vCIO Service and obtain ready solutions to optimize your budget while staying aligned with the global objectives of your company.