More and more these days, businesses rely on a wide range of technologies to operate. There’s always a new tool coming out that promises to improve your business and new technologies that you need to implement to keep up with your competition. Before you know it, tech costs are a major part of your business’s budget. If your tech costs have gotten a little out of control, below are a few ways your business may be able to reduce its spending.
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Perform a Tech Audit
You’ll first want to perform a full audit of your business’s current technology. Go through and make a list of all the equipment, software, and other tools you use within your business. Make a note of how you use that tool and what it costs to run. Where possible, you should also note how much longer you can expect to use that tool – for example, if a piece of hardware is nearing the end of its lifespan or usefulness. By gathering this information first, you can identify where your tech spending goes and potentially identify areas where you can improve immediately.
Work with Refurbished Equipment
One great way to reduce your business’s tech spending is by working with refurbished or used equipment. There’s a lot of perfectly usable equipment out there available at a discounted cost simply because the item is no longer new. Some people return tech equipment not because there’s something wrong with it but because it doesn’t fit their particular needs.
The next time you need to buy some equipment for your business, make sure you explore the pre-owned market first. As long as you can be reasonably sure that the equipment is in good condition, for instance, by buying from a trusted seller, you can often save a lot of money on your purchase. The more equipment you need to get, the greater your savings can grow.
Implement Automation and AI
Two emerging technologies that are saving businesses a lot of money are automation and artificial intelligence (AI). Automated tools help businesses perform simple tasks in a fraction of the time, allowing staff to focus on bigger priorities. For example, you may be able to automate much of your customer communications and let your support staff only focus on the customers with significant issues.
AI, on the other hand, helps businesses in a wide variety of ways. You can use AI to gain deeper insights into customer data, improve security by adapting to the latest threats, model forecasts about product demand, and much more. We highly recommend exploring AI tools for your business to see what’s possible.
Explore a Hosted Private Cloud Server
Many businesses use the cloud to store data. Storing data on a cloud service allows you to access vital information wherever you go while protecting your data and keeping a safe backup. However, there are many ways to save your data on a cloud server.
If you’re currently using a public cloud service, you may benefit from switching to a hosted private cloud setup. A hosted private cloud offers some significant advantages, such as faster speeds, better security, and, in many cases, lower prices. Explore how you’re currently storing your data online and see if switching to a private server makes sense for your business.
Search for Software Alternatives
Your business likely has some software tools it relies on daily and has used for many years. These tools have become second nature for your team, but that doesn’t mean they are the best options. New software comes around every day, and there could be options that provide the same services as your current tools but at a reduced cost.
For example, you may have signed up with a website hosting provider using their new customer rate. After a year or so, the rate went up, and since then, you’ve been paying a lot to host your website. By exploring other hosting providers, you may be able to find a cheaper alternative at the expense of spending a few minutes to change things over.
Negotiate With Your Internet Provider
Finally, if you have an office for your business, you may want to consider negotiating your internet costs with your provider. Internet providers are known for slowly raising their prices over time. If you’re not careful, you could be paying a lot more than necessary.
See if competitors in your area can offer a better internet rate. Then, either use that offer to negotiate a lower cost with your current provider or switch over to a more affordable provider. Once again, this may disrupt your business for a short time, but it could save you a lot of money in the long run.
