Technology Helps Businesses Double-Dip On Cost-Cutting & Efficiency

Information Technology Helps Boost Cost-Cutting & Efficiency

Dialogues between technology experts and leaders in other industries sometimes trail off into unfamiliar IT jargon. Business professionals tend to look at technology as a tool meant to improve profitability. Technology insiders, on the other hand, are enthusiastic about emerging trends and innovations while the core reason to invest in these things sometimes gets lost in translation.

At the end of the day, entrepreneurs, CEOS, and other decision-makers want to know how technology will help turn a profit. Many see IT budgets swell as they spend on hardware that too quickly becomes outdated.

The bottom line seems to be that companies are not getting the return on investment from technology they anticipated. Rather than grimace each time an in-house tech person submits another financial request, perhaps it’s time to reimagine the process. By working with a managed IT expert, it’s possible to cut your technology investment and increase productivity.

Increase Your Company’s Cloud Footprint

The notion of spending more money to increase your outfit’s Cloud usage seems like the exact opposite of cutting costs. But in this instance, the adage that “less is more” is on point. One of the primary reasons organizations shift to Cloud-based systems has to do with that expensive in-house hardware.

Desktops, servers, and other physical IT infrastructure become outdated too quickly to be a cost-effective investment. An increase in your Cloud presence allows companies to implement work-from-home strategies. Teleworkers reportedly save businesses upwards of $10,000 annually and allow CFOs to reduce office space leases, according to Forbes and other resources.

“Our customers are typically saving 30-50 percent overall by moving their applications to our cloud when compared to refreshing their infrastructure on-prem or running on other clouds. This has been true regardless of whether we’re talking about Oracle Apps, third party apps, or custom ones,” Clay Magouyrk of Oracle Cloud Infrastructure reportedly said.

The Cloud can also eliminate the need to suffer diminishing returns from hardware investment. Effective Cloud utilization minimizes or removes wasteful spending. That’s where your cost-cutting resides.

Reduce Technology Redundancies

It’s essential for business leaders to understand that redundancy can be put into two thought boxes — good and bad.

Good redundancy occurs when cybersecurity and productivity experts leverage a strategy to keep your organization up-and-running in the face of adversity. Storing digital assets in the Cloud as well as physical hard drives that hackers cannot gain access to stands as a prime example. Managed IT professionals may refer to this type as “resiliency.”

But bad redundancy tends to creep into organizations that try to put a technology band-aid on emerging challenges. These IT solutions can become a costly problem all their own. Consider the following questions.

• Has your organization accumulated applications that have substantial overlap?
• Could the number of licenses to operate these applications be cut?
• Does a single technology solution exist to bring everything under one platform?

Given the innovations in recent technology, it would not be surprising to discover that new enterprise-level solutions can deliver many, if not all of your operation’s need.

For example, Microsoft Teams was a leading solution to help increase remote workforce capabilities. The platform provides collaborative project management, video conferencing, real-time communication, administrative controls, and both on- and off-site productivity. Streamlining applications and licensing fees provide double-dipping benefits for companies to increase profitability.

How To Start Double-Dipping With Technology

Righting your technology investment typically requires an organization to have a thorough IT audit conducted by a third-party firm. Having an outside set of eyes review technology, redundancies, and ongoing investment, provides an impartial review of existing practices. By selecting a managed IT provider with business efficiency experience, your consultant can provide reduction recommendations and a strategy to improved outcomes. When it comes to tech investment, less can definitely be more.