Here’s how you can optimize IT spending for the new normal

The ongoing global health crisis brought about by COVID-19 has dramatically altered the economic landscape of Toronto and the rest of Canada. When lockdowns were implemented, firms that were able to adopt remote work policies did so. For instance, in May, Ottawa-based Shopify announced that it was going “digital by default.” The company CEO Tobi Lütke stated that they would let their staff work from home (WFH) until 2021.

As of this writing, the province of Ontario has been allowing more and more businesses to reopen. However, uncertainty still looms, given how effective the virus is at spreading and that a vaccine may be months away from being approved for mass distribution. This means that even if the economy is fully reopened, it could be shut down quickly once again if infections spike.

Therefore, if you’ve implemented remote work policies, don’t be too quick to lift these just yet. In fact, you might want to take a page from Shopify. With WFH in mind, Shopify is reworking their on-premises (on-prem) infrastructure so that most of their staff will be able to work remotely permanently from 2021 onward.

Adjusting your business to the new normal would likely mean shifting your IT expenditures as well. However, with income streams reduced, it’s easy to overspend on tech and make it that much harder for your business to survive. To optimize IT spending, follow these tips:

Migrate completely to the cloud

In terms of cost, Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) subscriptions take a few years before overtaking lifetime licenses. Spreading expenses this way definitely helps with your cash flow in the short term.

However, even if you end up paying more in the long run, you get more value from SaaS apps anyway because these are constantly updated and let you enjoy more cutting-edge features. In contrast, lifetime licenses tend to remain the same — and new features are often sold as one-time add-ons or services you must subscribe to.

Additionally, with businesses the world over tightening their belts, offering more benefits for the same price is the name of the game among software providers these days. A prime example of this is Microsoft, which rebranded its Office 365 subscriptions as Microsoft 365. It offers subscribers more features while retaining Office 365’s price points.

Lastly, cloud services are easy to scale up or down. This means that you have greater control over your costs while being able to ramp up or slow down operations as needed.

Do an IT audit

A WFH policy is a great boon, as this allows your company to remain operational while helping your staff remain safe. However, this means that many of your on-prem assets, such as computers and servers, are left collecting dust, which would also mean that the software applications they run are also not being used.

Therefore, it makes sense to audit your IT systems and:

• Hold off payments for software licenses of the PCs you aren’t using
• Do away with software that is redundant to cloud-based solutions
• Cancel licenses of staff who are no longer employed by your organization

By cleaning up your IT systems, your business can save hundreds of dollars every month.

Partner up with a managed IT services provider (MSP)

It may be counter-intuitive to think about outsourcing as you’re cutting down costs, but having an MSP like XBASE as your business partner may allow you to save on IT expenses by:

• Streamlining your IT systems so that these fulfill your business needs in the most cost-efficient manner possible
• Offloading IT tasks to specialists who are the most qualified to take them on
• Having an IT “department” that works for you and makes IT part of your competitive advantage 24/7/365
• Scaling up when you’re ready without having to add to IT headcount

To learn more about how our Exponentially Better™ IT services will help optimize IT spending and increase the productivity of your business, download our free eBook today.