As we hurtle towards the end of another financial year, IT departments will be looking to use what’s left of their annual budgets effectively. John Dovey, IT services director, BT Business points you in the direction of 10 ways to save money through technology:
- Consolidate and save. Before swapping suppliers for a better deal, look at consolidating your phone, mobile and broadband. Bundles represent better value and you’ll find better deals by combining services, than buying from separate suppliers. Chris Caffery, company secretary at Homecarers, a Liverpool-based care service provider for the elderly is a BT Business One Plan user. Chris says it’s reassuring to know that every type of call is covered and said “BT Business One Plan is a great way to put big company benefits within reach of small companies”.
- Step away from your desk. Clive Knott, IT director at legal firm, Olswang, said, “As soon as we introduced the BlackBerry everybody took to them instantly. It did not take us long to recognise the significant efficiency and productivity gains this device would bring to.” Office real estate prices are sky high and employees who are armed to work from anywhere are more productive. Hot-desking has the potential to save UK businesses £6.5bn per year[1]. At BT for example, home workers are on average 20% more productive than office-based employees, because they can work anywhere, any time.
- Get your head in the clouds. Software is expensive. Why invest in new software licences and a bigger server to relieve the pressure on the existing systems when cloud solutions can provide the technology resources needed, over the internet from a hosted applications provider, in return for a monthly per-user subscription fee. When extra resources are required, the total fee rises. When they’re not, they can be ‘switched off’. David Graham, director DG Music, who uses electronic signature cloud-based software, BT eSignature says, “It was awesome. BT eSignature was exactly what we needed: an off-the-shelf solution with no software to load and reasonable monthly costs.”
- Get help. You’d be amazed at the quantity of free advice out there - take advantage of it! Online resources can give you the practical steps needed to strip out the fat from your business while achieving greater efficiency. Take a look at Business insight.
- Never miss another call. Two-thirds (64%) of firms said they were able to identify and seize new customer opportunities quickly and effectively some of the time, but that they could do better, found research from Cisco & BT Business in 2008. Using a unified communications system pulls all communications channels together, allowing any employee to pick up that vital sales or service call. The system reduces costs, improves customer service and stops fewer calls from going to voicemail
- Market yourself online. Businesses prioritising their online presence have been three times more effective at winning and retaining customers in the current climate. An online social business network like BT Tradespace provides a ready-made (and free) platform for networking and trading with like-minded firms. BT Tradespace user, Scottish sweet seller Granny Jackson’s, has tapped into a huge database of potential contacts and consumers, boosting its online business by a massive 450%. Its search engine optimisation (SEO) has improved to make Granny Jackson’s more visible to customers on search engines like Google. In turn, this has driven more traffic and sales leads.
- Be visible online. The recent Business Pulse survey from BT Business found that almost two-thirds of respondents (62%) rate high search engine rankings on sites such as Google as very important to their business. BT SmartSearch gives you cost-effective access to search marketing experts who can help improve your search ranking and drive customers to your website. The good news is that you now don’t need to be a tech wizard to take advantage of digital marketing.
- Turn off the engine. Welsh charity Cartrefi Cymru saved over £500,000 in direct travel and hotel costs by using BT Business’ conferencing systems, saying “we are delighted and are now investing to enhance the service on a number of fronts”. Cut down your business’ travel bill by moving to videoconferencing rather than face to face meetings.
- Boost your speed. Does your broadband speed match your need? According to the Business Pulse 2009 survey, 61% of businesses found that faster broadband speeds have had a positive effect on their operations. BT provides a free upgrade to speeds of up to 20Mb/s technology and in 2010, the first UK users of speeds of up to 40Mb/s will go live. By 2012, 40% of UK homes & business will be able to access fibre broadband through BT.
- Point against server. It costs £6,080 a year to run and maintain four servers and that’s not counting the costs for IT support staff, capital expenditure, application and backup. The power costs alone run to £1,400, and annual carbon emissions would top 7,332Kg, the equivalent to the emissions from four cars. Virtualisation helps ensure hardware is working all the time. By running multiple "virtual machines", you are effectively running more than one version of your operating system and applications. An easy way to save money on your energy bills.
[1] Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors; Economic, Environmental and Social Impacts Survey
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