I know the title sounds boring, but if you're responsible for the IT in your business, read on, it will save you money.
Short Sharp & Strategic
When you're buying IT equipment for your business, it pays to plan ahead and buy "strategically". Despite this, most of our customers, and probably you too, will buy IT equipment "tactically", i.e. when someone's computer dies, or the server hardware starts to go wrong. We'll take a look at some of the reasons why buying strategically vs tactically will save you money and time, and how you can overcome the obstacles that prevent most small businesses from using this cost-saving approach to purchasing.
Why you should be purchasing your IT equipment Strategically Vs Tactically
In a nutshell tactical IT sourcing is hasty, short-term and reactive, and it's what most business do, at their own cost. It does not take into consideration the benefits for your company as a whole. Individual IT purchasing decisions are being made at the expense of your business's overall IT needs.
Strategical IT sourcing is long-term, efficient, and proactive. Strategical sourcing does not simply react when something goes wrong and you find yourself weeping in front of your error message, it considers your organisations IT needs as a whole, and makes decisions based on that directive.
If you want to drive down your IT costs, while ensuring the best IT trouble shooting delivery times, if you want access to the most competitive prices, then strategic IT sourcing is the way to go.
So now you know you should be purchasing your IT equipment strategically, what next? Why IT standardisation of course!
The perks of IT standardisation & buying IT in bulk
Standardisation is another benefit of strategic purchasing, as well as a method to reduce your IT costs, increase productivity, optimise employee work time and bank savings yearly.
Lenovo, Acer, Dell and all other manufacturers are frequently changing their models. Buying identical computers all of the same age in bulk really is the only way to avoid compatibility problems. Do you have the time to hunt for replacement parts for a specific PC when you're supporting ten different models? Is your business employing three antivirus programs, instead of one? If so each one of those programs has a different procedure for updating and patching, so it follows the IT troubleshooting, support and online resources for each application will vary, you can see where I’m going with this right? It’s simple, the more varied your software and hardware is, the more your business will suffer handicaps and errors which are laborious, taxing and expensive to fix.
Why you should have a 3 to 5-year hardware renewal cycle
Let's chew the fat on the subject of your hardware renewal cycle. Most experts consider the life cycle of a PC to be just three to five years; that is a tough pill to swallow if you’re a medium to small size business, so here’s your spoonful of sugar...
Maintaining a three to five-year renewal cycle will save you money! A 2009 study, showed the overall cost of maintenance on a computer that was just four years old, was almost 60% higher than applicable costs in a one-year old PC! You do the maths. The same study showed the cost of removing viruses from a five-year-old PC, was double that of a year-old PC, again it’s common sense.
Bear in mind the expense, and cost to productivity of trying to maintain an outmoded PC. Bear in mind that employee expenditure will swiftly surpass any equipment costs if their time is lost. The harsh reality is one of two things will happen, your software will become obsolete, or your aging hardware will fail, either way you’re going to have to replace your computers.
So let’s recap, three sure-fire ways to scale back on your IT costs, make savings and increase productivity.
- Buy your IT hardware and software strategically not tactically
- Standardise your company’s hardware and software
- Plan to renew all IT hardware on a 3 to 5-year cycle
Remember - Computercentric offers finance to spread the cost of hardware renewal. You can pay an affordable and fixed monthly fee, no need to deal with an unwelcome, unexpected and hefty bill. No need to put up with out-dated equipment, no need to worry at all. We're happy to take your call, and find a way to help you.
