Technology has become an essential factor in almost every business operation and now business owners are looking for ways to reduce expenses in their IT departments, in order to achieve greater efficiency for less money. At least, that’s what they’re hoping for.
To do that, as a business owner, the logical action would be to cut back on your IT costs, but it’s essential to avoid sacrificing efficiency when doing that.
So, here are the top five tips and tricks to reduce expenses in your business without compromising its efficiency and/or destroying value:
- If you’re a small business owner, you should try to find alternatives to your traditional telephone service; if you’re using a land-line or a regular cell phone, you should try to switch for a VoIP service and virtual phone lines, there are many options available out there, which provide great flexibility and excellent value for money, not to mention a serious cost reduction when it comes to communications.
- Use open source software, this is an excellent alternative to the commercial mainstream applications, especially if you’re a small business. The software related costs may cripple your business, especially in its inception phase, and open source software is very attractive, because it’s free, like the best things in your life.
- Use the cloud services, instead of investing lots of money in hardware/software, especially if you’re a small business. Also, you should determine what you really need, the latest high-tech gizmo is not always necessary and it may cost you an arm and a leg. And if you decide to perform an audit of your existing (if any) computers, hardware and software alike, you could find an answer about what’s really necessary for your line of business, hence reducing your technology expenses.
- You should try and negotiate your existing IT contracts because IT services vendors desire to keep their clients happy and on board for as long as it’s humanly possible (keep in mind that the competition in this area is pretty tight and you must take advantage on that). You can ask for discounts, freebies, costs reduction or the like, negotiate yourself a customized plan; in the end, it’s important to ask if you want to get any advantages.
- Reduce expenses with online business training. Being a small business owner, you can’t afford to travel the world in order to expand your experience, to participate in live training /educational conferences and the like. But, in the Internet era, you can use online business training for you and your employees. There are lots of free online business training programs out there, and you can use them from your comfort of your office or even at home. With these, the possibilities for you and your business are endless, and your costs related to training will be slashed.
Clarus Communications is a leading, national provider of telecommunications technology. Clarus specializes in providing over 60 telecom provider options to businesses that need dependable, scalable and innovative technology solutions. Since 2001, Clarus Communications has been successfully helping clients make the best decisions regarding their phone service, phone systems, wireless and data needs. For more information about Clarus Communications, please visit www.clarusco.com or call toll free 855.801.6700.