Tip of the Week: 3 Ways to Get Your IT Budget Under Control

When you’re planning your business’s technology ventures, how often does your IT budget become a major deciding factor? Chances are that it clings to you like a ball and chain. Wouldn’t it be nice to free yourself from something so limiting? We’ve compiled three ways that you can take some of the strain off of your IT budget.

 Build an IT Roadmap

If you’re making the decision to purchase new hardware or software solutions on a day-by-day basis, you might be in for a nasty surprise when a server failure or an unexpected workstation power-down leaves you with little choice but to invest in new systems. If your budget hasn’t taken these new devices into account, you could be in danger of overspending IT resources.

This is why creating an IT roadmap is so important. You sit down with a trusted network administrator or IT professional and map out the next one, five, or even ten years in regard to your organization’s technology assets. This is an opportune time to schedule hardware and software refreshes so that your technology never falls behind, and so that your budget is flexible enough to adapt to rapid changes in operations.

Minimize Downtime
Similarly, downtime is a major contender for the most disruptive instance in the office environment. Downtime is classified as any instance when your business isn’t operating as intended. This could stem from a loss of personnel or the loss of an Internet connection. In most cases, however, it comes from your technology not working properly. Eliminating downtime is a top priority if you want to ensure that your IT budget isn’t being wasted.

Thankfully, you can resolve this issue by taking advantage of a dynamic backup and disaster recovery solution. BDR works by providing near-instantaneous access to your data backups, allowing your business to experience minimal downtime in the event of a disaster, like a fire or electrical storm. The less time you spend getting back in action following a disaster, the more time you spend being productive.

Outsource as Much as Possible
We know what you might be thinking; “why pay for someone else to do the work, when I can just do it myself?” Some business owners think that they can save money on IT expenses by devoting their time and energy into learning about technology solutions and how to manage them on their own. While this might make sense on paper, it’s important to remember that IT management and maintenance are not simple tasks, and certainly not any that you can easily invest in.

This is why outsourcing is so highly recommended to small and medium-sized businesses. It helps you onboard professional technicians who understand your needs, but without the frustration of adding new salaries to your budget. All you pay is a monthly rate as per your service level agreement. It’s recommended that you outsource as much of your IT as possible, since you can remove IT as a capital expense and add it to your operational expenses.

At Preferred, we want to help optimize your IT budget. To learn more about managed IT services, reach out to us at 708-781-7110.