How can businesses make smarter IT investments while staying competitive?

How can businesses make smarter IT investments while staying competitive?

IT has become even more vital to businesses during the COVID-19 pandemic. With stay-at-home orders preventing employees from reporting to the office, IT solutions like cloud computing enabled many companies to stay operational through remote work arrangements. And even as things gradually return to normal, IT remains crucial by helping companies to adapt to ever-evolving cyberthreats and workspace-related changes.

Unfortunately, investing in and maintaining IT systems aren’t cheap endeavors. The upfront costs of hardware, software, and web services, as well as the space, utilities, and talent needed to operate these, can cost your business thousands of dollars every year. When you include repairs, maintenance, and upgrades in the picture, the expenses balloon even more. It is therefore imperative to be more strategic with your IT investments. Below are five ways to reduce IT investments for your business.

Evaluate your existing IT infrastructure

You need to carefully review every component of your IT infrastructure and how much money your company is investing on it. This way, you can determine which segments need to be upgraded or overhauled and which parts can be left untouched. For instance, the evaluation may reveal that your business is wasting money on five underutilized servers when you could make do with two.

Instead of foisting evaluation onto your in-house tech department, you can outsource the task to a managed IT services provider (MSP) like Quicktech. This not only frees up your internal team to focus on business-critical tasks, but it also ensures that the evaluation is handled by impartial consultants who can help you meet industry standards.

Reexamine service level agreements (SLAs)

An SLA outlines the minimum quality of service that you can expect from third-party providers, such as cloud providers and software vendors. Review the SLAs of providers your business works with and look for any service you’re paying for but don’t or no longer need. For example, you may find that you’re paying for Software-as-a-Service solutions for managing Internet of Things (IoT) devices, even though your company uses little to no IoT. You can discuss terminating these services with your cloud provider and cut unnecessary investments.

Consolidate IT vendors to eliminate redundancy

Some companies have a specific vendor for anti-malware solutions, another one for their public cloud, and so on. While this strategy ensures that the business gets the particular service they want, it also leads to inefficiencies. For instance, products made by different manufacturers have different learning curves, which can make training users time-consuming, ineffective, and costly.

Instead, you can consolidate vendors and opt for ones that offer multiple IT products and services at the same time. MSPs, for example, offer several vital services like cybersecurity, data backups, cloud phone systems, and others under one roof. Having one vendor provide multiple products and services enables you to have a long-term relationship with that vendor, which may motivate them to go the extra mile when serving your company. They may even give your business special deals and discounts to help you save money.

Examine cloud services for possible savings

Finding cloud-based alternatives to IT infrastructure components can lead to massive savings. For example, virtual servers enable you to run multiple servers on a single physical server, allowing you to save costs on hardware and utilities. Virtual desktops, on the other hand, are software versions of office desktops that your employees can run on any computer, eliminating the need to buy new computers for remote workers.

Augment IT staff with MSPs

As your business grows, you may feel compelled to hire new tech personnel to manage your IT systems. This means you’ll need to spend on recruitment and training for new hires and pay for their salaries and benefits. If you want experienced staff, you’ll have to spend more — otherwise, you may end up recruiting someone who lacks the skills to handle advanced tech needs.

The more cost-effective alternative is to supplement gaps in your in-house IT team with an MSP. An MSP employs teams of experts in various fields of IT, all of whom can work remotely if required. This means you won't have to pay for additional training and onboarding. MSPs also charge a flat monthly fee for their services, a mere fraction of the cost of hiring new personnel.

At Quicktech, we are always prepared to give you the best IT services while helping your business save money. Find out how our services can make your company more productive by downloading this free eBook today.