If you really want to maximize your ROI and reduce your information Technology (IT) costs – and who doesn’t? – It’s not rocket science.  In fact, it’s actually kind of obvious once you see it summarized.  It just takes a bit of planning, investment, and know-how.

The secret?  In three words:  Simplify, Standardize and Control.

Remember, Your Single Biggest IT Cost is Wasted Staff Productivity

• By the time someone even decides to call for help, you’ve wasted a lot of staff payroll on lost time, lost productivity, opportunity costs, client satisfaction and so on.
• If you’re lucky, it was a simple problem where something just stopped working, and it was obvious it had to be fixed.  If you’re NOT lucky, the problem only showed up once in a while, went on for a long time, disrupting workflow and raising frustration levels.

Being Proactive is Cheaper than Being Reactive

• According to studies by highly respected groups like Gartner, IDC and others, well-managed PCs with proactive maintenance are far less costly to own.
• That’s not even considering the impact on staff morale and productivity.
• In a simplified, consistently managed environment, proactive support is far less expensive.

Simplify, Simplify, Simplify

• Simplicity means standardization. You can’t effectively manage a site where every case is special.
• The more complex the environment, the greater the support costs.  Small changes can have huge consequences.
• Do not introduce changes without good reason, support estimates and testing.
• Make sure all hardware (PCs, etc.) follows standards for your company.  All purchases are approved, or the buyer pays.

Control Staff Ability to Change PC Configurations

• Users who administer their own PCs have a far higher rate of virus infections which are harder to remove and infect other PC’s on the network.
• Staff members with “local” PC admin rights frequently install software that has little or no business value, wastes time and destabilizes the systems.
• Unmanaged changes greatly increases support costs in multiple ways.

Replace Old Systems

• Old, slow, oddball systems waste staff productivity.
• Money spent maintaining low-value, failure-prone equipment provides very poor ROI.
• Modern software is designed for modern hardware.  And shoehorns won’t help.
• Mixing old and new hardware means that all your support practices and procedures need to be more complex, i.e. expensive, driving up overall costs even more.

Upgrade Old Software

• Having to deal with multiple versions of software reduces staff productivity by having to deal with compatibility issues and varying user interfaces.  They can do it, but not as well.
• Old software wastes money.  It increases direct support costs, and vendors usually don’t even support it any more.
• Software has to be compatible with other software, with the operating system (e.g., Windows), with your antivirus software, your printers, your documents, and even with outside clients systems.  That’s a lot to ask of a mix of outdated, unsupported versions.

Consider Eliminating Servers with Cloud and Virtual Computing

• This won’t be right for every company, or every server, but consider hosted, “cloud” solutions.  Clouds can be both public and private.  Talk to your IT provider.
• Using virtualization to consolidate multiple servers into one or a few physical hosts cannot only reduce hardware costs, it can reduce support costs.  Even if “going cloud” isn’t right for your company, nearly everyone can benefit from virtualization.
• Removing servers reduces risk of server problem due to hardware failure.  It also reduces cost of server support, floor space, capital and obsolescence.
• In some cases you can also replace PCs with “thin clients” that are cheaper and have lower support costs.

Reduce IT Management Costs

• Modern IT Remote Management and Monitoring (RMM) software and processes can be very efficient at managing systems.  The fewer “exceptions to the rule”, the more effective these tools can be, and the lower the support costs.
• Remember, complexity rises exponentially as components are added.  Keep IT Simple.

Expose and Eliminate Your Hidden Costs.

• Hidden costs are still real costs.  They hit your bottom line like any other, but, being hidden, they can be especially hard to confront and eliminate.  Expose them and you can take actions that really improve your bottom line.
• Using your own staff for IT support is a classic example of hidden costs.  They simply can’t do it as effectively as trained professionals.  This results in reduced productivity, not only of the staff having the problems, but that guy who is “good with computers” probably has more valuable things to be doing for your company as well.  Track that IT support the same way you would if you were being billed for it (you are), and ask for specialists to help.

 Do IT right.

• It is absolutely vital to meet regularly with your “virtual Chief Information Officer” (vCIO) to manage your budget, review status and results, and to plan your IT strategy.
• Cheap is expensive.  Reducing IT costs doesn’t mean you have to live with slow, crappy computers.  Most of the same best practices for reducing IT costs and getting optimum return from your IT investment actually improve your IT environment.
• Your IT specialists can help you to “tune” your approach.  Companies “pulling in their horns”, battening down the hatches to weather a financial storm will have different priorities from companies who are making money now and intend to make more.  Let us know your needs:  we can help you with that.

If you’re serious about reducing your IT costs… well, this is how you do it.  It really works. Call your Calgary IT support team at KMSI today.