What Can You Do To Lower Your IT Costs?

Lower Your IT Costs

If you aren’t using cost-effective IT services, you’re just wasting your money. There are several ways you can lower your IT costs–with Managed IT Services, by Outsourcing your IT Service & Support rather than hiring IT staff, using Co-Managed IT Services, and taking advantage of today’s Cloud Solutions. We’ll discuss them here.

How Can IT Lower IT Costs With Managed Services?

When you pay for IT support on an hourly basis, not only are you paying for service that you can’t control, but you may also lose money from IT interruptions and downtime. As a result, many companies end up spending the same amount in a few months using hourly services than they would for an entire year retaining an IT provider on a monthly basis with Managed Services.

Managed IT Services Prevent Unanticipated Costs: When mission-critical technology fails, this can cost your company in several ways. First of all, your operations are disrupted and your employees can’t work. During any downtime, employees still get paid (often overtime to catch up). If you have in-house tech support, this usually means paying them overtime to resolve issues. In the meantime, you’re losing business and revenue. Managed IT Services prevent these unanticipated costs.

Managed IT Service Costs Are Predictable: By using Managed Services where you retain your Technology Service Provider on a monthly basis, your costs are predictable. You receive all the support and service that you need. Many companies in Greater Boston prefer this type of agreement because it covers anything and everything that could go wrong with their IT equipment for the same price each month. This alleviates any worries about your network, plus it will keep your technology in the best working condition.

Managed IT Services Can Be Aligned To Your Budget: You can arrange for IT services based on your business needs. Many Managed IT Service Providers offer packages that can be aligned to your budget. You’ll also have a Service Level Agreement (SLA) that will outline your services, prices and guarantees, so you’ll have everything spelled out in writing. You’ll always know what your costs will be.

Early Issue Detection Reduces IT Interruptions and Costly Downtime: Day-to-day computer issues often don’t get noticed right away. Managed IT Service Providers use sophisticated monitoring and reporting tools that identify these hidden defects around the clock. They will report their findings when a potential problem gets discovered. This way, the problem gets fixed before it causes costly downtime and frustration for your employees.

Using Managed IT Services Can Also Drive Revenue: When your IT works as it should, it will significantly increase your employees’ productivity and efficiency. They can get more done in less time. And, your Managed IT Provider serves the role of a consultant to ensure you’re using the right technology for your requirements so you don’t waste money on solutions that you don’t need.

How Can I Lower IT Costs By Outsourcing Rather Than Hiring In-House Technicians?

Outsourcing your IT services can drastically reduce your overall technology costs. You can say goodbye to the expense of employing an IT staff.

No More Expensive Benefits To Pay: When you employ an IT staff, you’ll need to pay for vacations, sick leave, workman’s compensation, unemployment insurance, Social Security contributions, healthcare and retirement benefits and more. When you outsource your IT service, you won’t have any of these expenses.

No Expensive Training: Training requirements never stop. If you employ an in-house team, you’ll have to always pay for their skills to be updated. Your outsourced IT company will pay for their techs to be trained. Plus, when outsourcing you can take advantage of the service provider’s economies of scale, lower cost structures, and learned efficiencies and expertise.

No Expensive Equipment: Outsourcing makes financial sense. You won’t need to invest in the equipment or software necessary to do a job. Your Outsourced IT Provider can use their own tools or include the cost of procuring the equipment in their monthly fee – and the price will usually be less than what you could get on your own.

If you use solutions like Hardware-as-a-Service, there’s no requirement for upfront capital outlays. You can also designate hardware as an operating expense rather than a capital expense, saving you money on your taxes. Plus, you can control and predict your equipment costs.

You’ll Gain Expertise About Cost-Effective Hardware & Software Solutions: Even large enterprises don’t always have the in-house IT support they need for hardware for and software projects. An outsourced IT team will have a wide range of knowledge about products that are available or coming down the road. And, they can usually get you better prices than you can find on your own.

How Can Co-Managed IT Services Lower Our Costs?

Co-Managed IT Services provide the help you need at budget-friendly prices. With proactive services that keep your IT assets running smoothly, you’ll know that you’re getting the most out of every technology dollar. Co-Managed IT professionals can handle things like scheduled maintenance, remote monitoring, help desk services, and account management–all for one predictable monthly fee.

You Can Supplement Your Internal IT Department Affordably: Co-Managed IT Services ensure that you’ll have experienced IT people on hand whenever you need them. If a critical technology problem crops up that no one on your IT staff can resolve, you’ll have IT pros with many years of experience to step in. If you take on a new project and your tech staff needs someone to fill in with day-to-day support, an IT Provider can work up a monthly plan that suits your needs. The goal is to make sure you have the complete Co-Managed IT Solution you need at an affordable monthly rate.

Co-Managed IT (Like Managed IT Service) Provides Predictable Budgeting: With an IT department to fund, you don’t need to worry about surprise invoices. You can have a customized Co-Managed IT Plan for a fixed monthly rate. You’ll benefit from proactive IT administration for things like maintenance, monitoring, help desk services, and account management. If your needs change along the way, you can update your Plan.

How Can Cloud Computing Solutions Save Us Money?

Cloud technologies have simplified and even brought down the costs of doing business when it comes to information technology. And cloud solutions provide the technology that was once only available to large corporations.

Pay For What You Need & Nothing More: Most cloud solutions offer a flexible pay-as-you-go style pricing model, allowing you to pay for the services you need and nothing more. Not only is the service affordable, but by moving to hosted servers and other hosted solutions, the costs and the responsibility of managing those solutions fall to your cloud provider.

• Eliminate the upfront costs that come with purchasing and installing new hardware.
• Eliminate the ongoing costs of hardware maintenance and upgrades.

You can retain multiple services unique to your business without complex IT systems, an endless array of servers, and the technicians needed to fix them when they break down.

Lower Your IT infrastructure Expenses: By using cloud services, you reduce the need for onsite solutions by using your cloud provider’s data centers. Not only can you save on hardware but the energy and space it uses.

You’ll Benefit From Flexible Pricing: The need for resources like bandwidth and storage are rarely static. Rather than paying for storage space that you don’t need, a cloud solution can grow, expand, and evolve right alongside your business.

• Cloud solutions are scalable and can grow with your business.
• No longer pay for storage space “just in case” you need it. You simply add more cloud storage as you require it.

Your Staff Can Work More Productively: As long as an internet connection is available, anywhere you or your employees happen to be can be an extension of your office. The critical data and applications your team relies on are accessible through the Cloud from anywhere at any time, adding a much-needed level of flexibility and mobility to your workforce.

• Employees can conveniently work from home, on the road, or even out of the country. There’s no need for additional offices or expenses for utilities to power, heat and cool them.
• Using the Cloud can increase productivity that saves in lost work time.
• Having centrally-stored documents also makes for more productive collaboration among your employees.
• Your staff can access the same software, services, and solutions as big corporations and work just as quickly and efficiently as a business twice or even ten times your size.

How Do I Get Started Lowering My IT Costs?

I’d suggest you start with Managed IT Services and go from there. For example, our company offers Managed IT Services with unlimited onsite support, so your IT bills are fixed and predictable. Plus our clients can call for anything they need during our work hours. Not all IT companies offer this, but this is something that you should always ask about.

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