Running a business in today’s marketplace always involves how we manage our Business IT Costs. For the past 40 years, information technology has infiltrated our personal and business lives, and we rely more and more on IT in everything we do.
From how we acquire new customers to how we process the sales workflow and all the way to the delivery of goods and services, everything is either run by or with help from computer systems.
IT investments can often be extremely insidious because of the onset of micro-services that we subscribe to, which does not always benefit. They can be misaligned with our requirements or we may fail to properly manage the relationship with the providers.
Successful Business IT Cost management begins with a strategy that clearly states how the IT Infrastructure and Services should be paid for, based on what is important and relevant. Even for small and medium businesses, the balance between capital expenditure must be the target in the strategy due to their effect on the business running budget and later down the track. We all know a thriving business always relies on a good strategy and a detailed short-term, long term plan.
Always opting for paid, commercial services instead of investing in the development of business owned systems may be seen as the easy way out, but it often does not pay off in the long term. Conversely, investing in super-complex systems when the business does not rely much on their internal workflows will always drain the budget without good benefits. Obviously, the same can be said about IT Support services – the big question for every business large enough is if having an internal support team is worth it, or is it better to hire managed services providers or IT Service Management partners.
PRETERION has developed a simple, policy-based approach to solve the IT budget conundrum. We can provide solutions and support for almost all your business systems within our ITSM plans, irrespective of who provides the services.
We place our team between any IT service provider and your business units, ensuring we can monitor, manage and support as much as possible ourselves, using our internal skills and knowledge.
For the portion where our capabilities are not enough, we use third parties and manage the relationship with them, keeping everything within our agreed SLAs. This way, your business is protected from surprises, and our role is elevated to that of your technology partner in full.
Statistically speaking, untrained and technology challenged employees always rise the cost of IT. Delays in executing computer-based tasks, multiple incident that need the IT support team to assist, costly mistakes or disasters, they almost always have behind them lack of specific computer skills. A small investment in a one hour team training in using Outlook or other commonly used tool can go a long way in making everything more efficient and secure.
Often seen as a budgetary pain, regular maintenance of systems does keep things working smoothly, secured and low cost. Rolling hundreds of updates after two years will almost always cause glitches and take longer than making sure updates are applied regularly, on a schedule. Not to mention the benefit of having a “no-surprises” budget that includes keeping systems in top shape.
Choosing systems, services and solutions with no specific IT background knowledge is very common and, unfortunately, quite dangerous for many businesses. Failing to understand the underlying technologies and how they interact with other systems – including from a security perspective always leads to increased running costs and IT support. Always ask your IT team to assist in making decisions.
From a simple PC to an ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning), any system can have a multitude of configuration settings that may affect its functionality. We see too often systems that are misconfigured either from lack of knowledge or careless approach. They always have repercussions that can impact multiple areas of your business, from security to budget.
Service Level Agreements (SLAs) are seen mostly as a tool used to argue about the quality of services provided. This is true in many cases, but they are a far more reliable way to ensure costs are being managed not only from the perspective of IT Support but business IT costs in general. A team that delivers IT support within SLAs makes sure other providers are keeping to theirs, leading to an efficient technology position for the business.
Business IT costs have become an important part of our budgets, not just because we need computers but because most of our processes are supported by IT services. How you handle the IT budget is now a high priority...
Not having control over the ongoing costs of IT is a dangerous place. If possible, you should always seek to subscribe to fixed costs rather than PAYG. This way, you avoid bill shocks and you can plan our business budget for the long term...
Because we are an SMB, PRETERION came up with a pricing structure that allows a good balance between the two costing models. We can work with you on a subscription that includes all-you-can-eat support and PAYG if needed...
Find out the things IT providers will generally not tell you. Begin your journey to secure and improve your business IT Infrastructure - download our whitepaper on Business ICT Management.
A quick guide into improving the PRODUCTIVITY, COST, SECURITY, RESILIENCE and INNOVATION of your IT infrastructure without increasing the ongoing cost of doing business.
11 Betts StreetÂ
Kellyville Ridge, NSW 2155
9:00 AM – 5.00 PM
Monday – Sunday
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