Do We Really Need this?

Identifying cost savings and methods of IT cost reduction in your SME information technology spending is a good thing.

But don’t overlook that  a good cost reduction strategy includes avoiding spending unnecessary money in the first place!

It happens; either a statement from a customer on a must have technology or tool you need in order to do business with them.

Or perhaps some new cool thing that an IT  consultant or the folks at the golf course mentioned.

It happened to us some time ago. When I joined the organization some initial pricing etc had been obtained for a required video technology system  initiative. I was to take the next steps in implementing this technology.

And for managers in the small to medium business, let me tell you; In this case I was looking at technology spend with dollar values in the tens of thousands.

Dollar Signs

Do We Really, Really, I mean Really Need this?

So I hit the research trail and the phones.

I discovered that what the client asked for, was not what they really wanted.

I also discovered that the many thousands of dollars in this proposal would not even provide the entire IT benefit that the customer was looking for.

I also discovered that for about a hundred bucks per hour there is a supplier in my region that does this technology on a pay per use arrangement – the same way many of you probably use outsourced voice conferencing services.

Cost Avoidance

In the last 18 months, we may have spent 5 or 6 hundred bucks with that provider.

Compared to the multiple tens of thousands that it was supposed to cost.

Photo Credit: pfala