Common leaks in your IT budget

Whether you have leaks in your IT spending or are just looking to make some IT-related budget cuts without sacrificing service, here are a few of the most common leaks with IT overhead.?

1. Internet Service Provider. You are overspending if you are out of contract, running on a month-to-month commitment with your carrier. Don't assume the competition hasn't changed in your area. You might be surprised to find out a carrier previously not servicing your area now does. What about service level? Are you utilizing the bandwidth you're paying for, or are you struggling to operate from an older, slower service level? Ask for a bandwidth utilization report so you can make an informed decision.?
2. Business Phone. Never assume "bundling" is better. It's certainly always better for the carrier, not you. Buying from the carrier is typically the worst source. They sell you an overpriced solution with a fraction of the functionality. Whose installing and configuring the phone system to make it work the way you want? Take a mental inventory of your business phone needs or, better yet, your customer's frustrations when trying to reach you. Do you have an auto-attendant, call groups, call queues, mobile and desktop apps, direct phone numbers, digital faxing, and voicemail transcription - or do you just need the phone to ring?
3. Software Licensing. Microsoft recently introduced New Commerce Experience (NCE) pricing options. If you are on a monthly commitment, you're likely paying 20% over a 12-month term. Whose managing the licensing to ensure subscriptions get canceled with employee turnover? By leveraging solutions such as OneDrive and SharePoint, you may be able to fully migrate your file storage needs to the cloud and save the capital expense of replacing a crusty old file server. Not to mention the potential security risk of maintaining a crusty old file server. Microsoft probably isn't the only software licensing circulating the office, so check installed applications on your office computers to uncover other potential leaks that are auto-renewing on your Amex each year.?
4. Print. It's true, in today's digital world, people are printing less, but depending on your staff, how much less often varies widely from one organization to another. Are you paying per click? There are cost benefits to Managed Print, which often get overlooked. That doesn't mean clinging to that old crusty printer with a high cost per click. When it's time to replace that device, buy the replacement outright, and don't lease it unless you simply don't have the capital. As a general rule of thumb, the cheaper the printer, the more expensive the consumables. Don't overlook the cost of the consumables. Lastly, don't print in color unless you need to. Set everyone's device to default to B&W, which is typically 1/10th of the cost of color.?
5. Hardware Warranty. Do you plan your hardware purchases or only invest in new hardware as needed? Meaning do you have a lifecycle replacement plan or run the computer until the wheels fall off? A lifecycle replacement plan puts you more in control of spending capital for hardware so that you can make purchases at the best time of the year and in bulk to take advantage of volume discounts. Be careful when buying online, and work directly with a manufacturer or value-added reseller to guide purchasing decisions. If you have a lot of computers in circulation, it's probably better to have one or two on hand as a spare instead of buying the extended warranty for the entire lot. Assuming, of course, you have backups and systems that allow you to provision replacement devices quickly.?Computers don't just spontaneously self-destruct. When things go horribly wrong with the hardware, it's usually very early on and covered under the initial warranty. If you can afford it, and you can justify the expense, we still recommend paying for the hardware warranty.
6. Video Conferencing. Is your sales team still paying to host meetings or webinars on a platform like GoTo or Zoom? If you still haven't adopted Microsoft Teams, you are throwing money away each and every month. Don't get me wrong, they all had their place in the market for a period of time, but the adoption and maturity of Microsoft Teams makes it incredibly difficult to justify the expense of maintaining a subscription to a separate solution. Early on, I remember struggles with OS platforms, and the lack of a phone number for old-school clients to just call into. Fast forward, and Microsoft Teams is available for both Windows and Mac OS, and you can purchase a separate dial-in number as an add-on to Microsoft Teams for a few dollars extra each month if necessary. Side note, try not to let the individual departments dictate the platform. There is nothing more crippling to productivity than supporting multiple platforms within the same organization to accomplish the same thing.

This is by no means meant to be a complete list of potential leaks in your IT overhead budget, but these are certainly some of the more common ones we run into. It's not cheap to pay for a Managed IT Service Provider to support your organization with Managed IT Services, which is why we work tirelessly to find cost-saving opportunities like those above in order to help offset the cost of our services. Good luck stopping the leaks in your organization!