There are many ideas that we can bring to bear to help keep your technology spending under control.  Of course, first you need to know what you are spending now - that calls for a careful Technology Cost Analysis.  Do you know what your company spends, as a percentage of revenue?  How does your firm compare to the industry average for technology spending?  If you are close, great!!  If you are over, we can help you bring costs down.  If you are under, that may be good - or it may mean you are missing something.

Some specific opportunities to reduce technology costs include:

Low-Cost Alternatives

Instead of a new server, perhaps you can virtualize on an existing server.  Perhaps cloud computing - putting the server in someone else's hands - is the right choice.  Perhaps you can use open-source alternatives to traditional office products (OpenOffice is a great example of this).  Maybe you should consider thin clients as an alternative to PC’s.

Asset Management

It is vital to know what exactly you have running on your office desktops, and in the server room.  Asset management has implications at tax time, because of depreciation.  It can make your systems more reliable, because you’ll know the age and capacity of each piece of equipment.  And it can save you real money by tracking and reusing software licenses.  Asset management becomes critical also for purposes of Disaster Recovery.

Technology Right-sizing

Simply put, this is the process of doing a better job of selecting the right technologies for your company, getting rid of what doesn’t make sense, and doing the due diligence needed before implementing a new technology.  This includes factoring in the human elements in the equation, because almost every technology decision has some impact on your staff.

Standards, Practices, Policies and Procedures

It was once stated that “Needless consistency is the hobgoblin of small minds.”  Note that it says “needless consistency”.  In a business, consistency leads to quality, cost savings, improved customer service, and clearer roles and responsibilities.   From a technology standpoint, this category includes network use policies, clear and concise operations manuals and training guides, simple yet complete change management policies, and the processes involved in maintaining the standards.