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Smaller firms being hit with the economic slowdown need to reduce spending to stay competitive.
I.T. is a significant expense for many smaller firms and can yield surprising savings without
sacrificing business performance. Here are some ways to do just that...
Optimize Phone and Data Communication Usage
Monthly recurring telecommunications expenses can add up over the course of a year.
Review your phone and Internet bills in detail. By consolidating voice and data, you can save
literally hundreds of dollars a month.
If you are leasing an older phone system when it comes time to renew, compare the renewal
cost with the cost of a newer Voice Over IP system that may save hundreds of dollars a month.
Don't continue to pay for old analog lines that were installed for faxes or modems and are no
longer in use, or can be easily upgraded to work via the Internet or Voice Over IP. Have someone
look at each phone number on you bill and try calling it. You would be surprised at how often
these numbers just ring with no answer or are even assigned to another company. Yet you pay for
these each month.
Annual savings:
$3,600
Put off upgrading PCs by optimizing current hardware. Everyone wants the
latest PC on their desktop and no one deserves a slow computer. However a slow machine does not
necessarily mean you have a clunker on your hands. Very often things like malware, missing or
incorrectly configured anti-virus, unnecessary start-up programs, insufficient memory and disk
fragmentation make a perfectly fine PC seem like a dog. A 15-minute PC tune-up can often double the
speed of an older PC without spending the thousand bucks or so to buy a new machine and reload all
the programs.
Annual savings:
$5,000 in deferred expenditures and productivity gains.
Prevent problems before they occur. If you drive a car you know it's a lot
cheaper to change the oil than to buy a new engine. Computers don't have an oil pan but neglecting
to maintain them can make a new engine seem like a steal. A server crash will cost plenty to
rebuild – not to mention lost productivity and revenue when you can least afford it. During tough
times, it is easy to neglect but ironically, especially important to perform routine I.T.
maintenance tasks such as monitoring server disk space, ensuring backups are running, keeping the
operating system up to date, and verifying firewall security to mention just a few critical items.
The savings? One server crash:
$10,000 and up.
Consider outsourcing I.T. Perhaps the biggest savings can come from
reviewing the fundamental assumptions of how you support your I.T. infrastructure. With higher
levels of I.T. management expertise, specialized systems to monitor and support the PCs and
servers, highly qualified staff, and a focus on I.T. management, outsourcing firms are typically
two-to-10 times more efficient at maintaining a given I.T. infrastructure than in-house staff.
Therefore, even with their margins (typically 10 to 15 percent) taken into consideration, these
firms provide significant cost savings and improved IT performance.
Savings:
$40,000 and up.
About
Steve
