Business IT Cost Management

Managing the cost of IT support

When Business IT Cost is too much

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.

Spiralling out of control IT Costs

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.

Keeping balance between IT CapEx and OpEx

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.

Our Business IT Cost approach is simple

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.

Key factors increasing IT costs

User training

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.

Delayed maintenance

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.

Lack of IT knowledge

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.

Misconfigurations

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.

Wrong SLAs

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.

Stop wasting money on inefficient technology

REDUCE YOUR OVERALL BUSINESS IT COST

Bring all your business IT costs under control by having a unique point of contact with technology.
PRETERION.

Maximizing IT Return on Investment

With PRETERION

Long-term
Investments

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...

Fixed monthly
Costs

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...

Additional
Benefits

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...

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