Technology is not cheap, especially not business technology that has features that the average user might not find much value in. To help you keep your business from investing in the wrong solutions or spending unnecessary capital on solutions you won’t find useful, we’ve put together some of the common places where businesses like yours might accidentally waste hard-earned funds.
Unnecessary Hardware Purchases
Businesses don’t intentionally spend more than they need to on hardware, but it’s easy to do when the latest technology becomes “outdated” just a couple of years later. Businesses might invest in a high-end solution that becomes obsolete shortly after, or worse yet, they might invest in a solution that is simply not needed at all. It’s important to consider the technology’s purpose and the worker’s role when making these types of purchases and decisions. Don’t make one workstation the standard for everyone at your office, for example.
The needs of a graphic designer versus the needs of a salesperson might be dramatically different. One might need a high-end, graphic and processing-heavy workstation, while the other will only need the bare minimum because all they do is use the web browser and productivity suite. Sometimes businesses can even save money by going for the cloud-based thin client workstations with virtual desktops rather than investing in full-blown hardware for each employee.
Unneeded Software Solutions
In order for your business to thrive, you need to give your team the tools they need to be successful. However, you want to make sure that your employees actually need the software, as some 30 percent of software expenditures by businesses are redundant and unnecessary. There are plenty of cases where a business might integrate a new tool into their infrastructure, only to find out that they already have a tool at their disposal that can pull off the same thing with similar results.
To reduce these unnecessary costs, you can perform an annual software assessment which looks at the software your business uses day-in and day-out. The purpose is to find whether or not a software actually brings value to your organization. This can help you make better decisions about implementing or removing software from your infrastructure.
Too Many Licenses and Software-as-a-Solution Services
Your IT infrastructure is going to change over time. As your business grows and you onboard more staff or offer more services, you’ll need to adjust your tools accordingly. This can go too far, though. If you start to purchase too many licenses or implement too many software solutions, you might wind up paying for licenses and solutions that are not actively being used. The cloud makes it easier to get away with not paying for licenses, as you just subscribe to the service rather than purchase it outright.
As for how you want to host the software, you have a couple of options. Those who want minimal responsibility for the upkeep and maintenance of it can opt to have it hosted in the cloud through a provider. Those who have the tools at their disposal to handle this upkeep and maintenance can host it in-house, provided they take proper care of it over time. It’s often easier to scale solutions if they are hosted in the cloud, though, and far better for your bottom line.
North Central Technologies wants to give your business the tools it needs to be successful, and we want to help you determine what your needs are. To learn more, reach out to us at 978-798-6805.
