5 Strategies for Managing Your IT Budget

Staying on top of the curve doesn’t mean having to go broke.

There’s no question that integrating technology is the best way to keep your business at the top of its game, and as competitive as it can be. But building a profitable business is pricey — particularly when it comes to financing your IT. Are you spending too little? Or too much?

There are ways to handle the costs of building or upgrading your IT that won’t stretch your budget too thin. You can protect your bottom line without sacrificing the reliable and useful tech your business needs.

Here are some ways you can achieve that.

Get on the cloud

If you haven’t looked at adopting the cloud to handle, at the very least, your data storage, you’re missing out. There are reasons why it’s a fast-growing option for people and businesses.

For one thing, it’s a cheap way to have access to large amounts of storage. With most services, you can have two terabytes of storage for less than $15 a month. That’s more than enough for most small and medium-sized businesses. If you have a reliable, secure Internet connection, you can use the cloud to back up all of your business data daily. You or your employees can access data stored on the cloud from any location with a secure Internet connection. Most cloud services offer robust security to keep your data safe from unauthorized users.

The cloud is not just for storage. Most cloud services also allow document sharing, software modeling, and graphics editing for a fraction of the cost of purchasing commercial software for in-house use.

Finally, you’re not paying for physical servers in-house, not paying for maintenance, nor worried about local disasters shutting down your server access or destroying your data. Serverless computing saves time, money, resources, and aggravation in the long term.

Take advantage of free apps

Look at what software fulfills your business needs and see if there are free versions of these tools. It might take is a little searching, but the cost savings will be worth it.

Google offers an exceptional suite of programs that can fill multiple business needs. Google Docs, Google Sheets, and Google Slides all make useful stand-ins for Microsoft Word, Excel, and Powerpoint. Other popular free programs include Google Analytics, Skype, and GIMP (a Photoshop-like image editor). You can also find a wealth of free finance management apps to help keep your budget in line.

You’d be surprised at how productive you can be without spending thousands of dollars on commercial software.

Automate routine tasks

How much time out of the day do you or your marketing team spend managing social media? You can save a lot of time and money by planning your social media for the week (or even month) in one session and automate your entire social media posting schedule. Look at apps like Hootsuite and Tweetdeck for managing your social media, or MailChimp for managing email blasts and newsletters.

Other routine tasks you can automate include time tracking, payroll, and calendar management. Tasks that used to take hours can now be completed in minutes with the sensible application of automation software.

Go green

This suggestion has less to do with your IT hardware and software than with the surrounding technology. Switching to LED lights alone can reduce energy costs by 50% or more. Employing timers, Energy Star appliances in the break room, and energy-saving modes for climate control can also all go a long way to saving you big money.

Small things add up to big things.

And it’s good for the environment. And yes, promoting your business’s commitment to green technology makes for a high selling point.

Consider outsourcing some or all of your IT services

How much are you paying for a full time IT staff? Even if you don’t have a full time IT staff, how much time are your employees spending installing, managing, and troubleshooting your IT when they could be working on growing your business?

There exist any number of IT specialists and managed service providers who can take over your IT tasks. These providers can tailor your service agreement to suit your business’s specific needs, so you’re only paying for the services you need. Most countries have IT service providers available locally, so you don’t even have to worry about outsourcing out-of-country.

By letting someone else take over your IT tasks, you and your employees can instead focus on your business instead of the hassles of managing IT.

Protect that bottom line

Financing your tech doesn’t mean draining your profits to stay even with every other business. You can stay ahead of the game while maintaining decent profits by making smart decisions in what technology you adopt and how.

You have more options nowadays than ever before. Take advantage of it.

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