Running a company is not easy. In fact, it’s becoming harder by the day. With rising global inflation, costs are skyrocketing. It is no doubt that IT cost takes a significant portion of every organization’s budget. Lowering IT costs can be difficult as IT has become essential to a business in this ever-evolving world. In this article, we are going to discuss 10 Creative Ways to Slice the IT Costs of your business. Let’s dive right in.
Hire freelancers
Moving on to the first tip, Hire freelancers. I cannot say how much this will reduce your company’s IT cost. Come on, think about it when you hire a freelancer, you don’t have to invest in training as you do for a permanent employee. There are so many benefits of hiring a freelancer. You don’t have to pay for overtime and other employee benefits. They will get the work done for a fraction of the cost. Usually, freelancers are experts in what they do. There’s nothing to worry about regarding the quality of the work. You are not satisfied with the work they do. You find another one in no time. You can find IT freelancers and many more on platforms like Upwork, LinkedIn, and Fiver. Hiring freelancers are a great way to reduce your IT cost.
Hire fresh graduates
Hiring graduates who are fresh out of college is another great way to reduce the IT cost of the company. Right after college, most of the graduates are looking to get experience. Therefore, they won’t expect a higher salary. Since they are educated in their chosen field, they have the knowledge, and much training and development will not be necessary. From hiring graduates, you get the same amount of work done for a lower cost.
Hire an experienced IT consultant
Another great trick in the book to reduce IT costs is hiring a consultant. At the same time, discussing and implementing ways for the IT department to run efficiently and productively, Discuss and come up with ways to reduce costs in the department. Since a consultant is an experienced person in the field, that person can recommend ways to reduce IT cost without sacrificing quality.
Internships
Built a great internship program. Contact universities and higher education institutes in your area and inform them about this opportunity that your company has. Recruiting interns is a great way to get the necessary work for lower costs or no cost at all. While interns are looking to expand their knowledge in their chosen fields, you can get the maximum out of them by hiring them. They can offer a fresh perspective to the company while providing a service to the company. You can even hire these interns as permanent employees after their internship is over. In that way, you save other costs and not just IT costs.
Working from home
To cut down on the IT cost of the company, you can allow employees to work from home. In this way, you can save up on the internet cost and other IT related. During Covid hit in march 2019, most of the employees had to work from home, and companies experienced a significant reduction in their IT-related costs. Companies also noticed higher productivity. Payroll reduction happened during the pandemic, and companies cut off allowances like traveling since employees are working from home. Allowing your employees to work from home will help reduce your IT cost.
Reduce employee turnover
If employee turnover is high in your IT department, your cost will rise high. Because you have to train new employees, and since they are new and learning on their job, you cannot expect them to work to their full potential. Therefore, try to reduce your employee turnover. Employee turnover has a ripple effect because when a lot of people resign from their jobs, existing employees have to cover the work while the new employees settle in. which can lead to less productivity and sometimes to more turnover. Therefore, make a safe working environment for your employees and try to find the root cause of high employee turnover and cure it. Training and hiring new employees can be expensive, which will affect the department’s cost. Therefore, appreciate your employees at least for the sake of cost reduction.
OK, now that’s enough of the human capital aspect, lest see what other ways we can do to reduce the IT cost of your company.
Buy higher quality hardware
Buying higher-quality hardware can be somewhat expensive, but this can be a substantial cost-saving in the long run. Make sure to buy with warrantees so if something happens. You can fix it free of charge. Higher quality hardware leads to smooth function, making employee’s life easy and cost-effective. Additionally, higher-quality hardware tends to work well without repairs and breakage; therefore, money can also be saved on that aspect.
Look for discounts
When you are buying IT-related items like software hardware, always look for discounts. That is another excellent way to reduce IT costs. If you are purchasing large quantities of hardware, talk to a responsible person from the company you are willing to buy and get a discount. Call tenders and go for the lowest bidder if you’re purchasing items worth a ton of money. Furthermore, search the internet for the cheapest option trust my word internet is an excellent place for discounts.
Use free sources
When talking about the internet, it is a great place to find free sources for some of the very expensive software. This will reduce not just initial registration costs but monthly subscriptions and annual fees. Using open-source software is another excellent way. In open source, software engineers can modify and upgrade as they desire, free of charge. Furthermore, when you run into an issue with the software, you can fix it with available sources without contacting any software company and without spending money.
Identifying hidden costs
For this, you have to be best friends with your company’s CFO or accountant. They love cost-cutting. They can be very resourceful when it comes to cost-cutting. In a way, you are helping them to achieve their targets, too. Discuss and find ways where you can slice IT costs without affecting the quality. Cut unnecessary costs, identify hidden costs figure out ways to eliminate them together.
So, above mentioned are some of the creative ways to reduce the IT cost of your company. Feel free to tell me what your thoughts are on these ways. If you have better ideas, please share them in the comment section. I would love to know those.