There’s no doubt that IT systems offer businesses big benefits, but according to a survey by KPMG, you may not be getting the most of them.
In fact, the survey claims, British businesses may be wasting as much as £3.5 billion per year by failing to maximise the value of their IT.
So how can you make sure that you are getting the most out of your systems? First of all, when considering any future investment, make sure that your plans are clearly aligned with your business goals. In other words, make the business case for the investment clearly in terms of how the technology will aid the company, rather than simply investing for the sake of it.
For example, suppose you want to invest in a new customer relationship management (CRM) system. Ask some hard questions: how will it improve the relationship with customers? Will it allow less people to handle more customers, thus cutting your costs? What will the expected return on investment be?
Consolidating systems
How do you know, though, if your existing systems are being underused? The first thing to consider is a thorough audit of the systems that are in place and how your employees actually use them. Note that how they actually use them will differ from how they were originally planned to be used – for example, employees may be sharing files via email rather than copying them to servers, leading to additional (and expensive) overheads on your email systems.
You may wish to use a third-party to conduct this audit and make recommendations on their findings. For example, BT Lynx can provide an infrastructure report which makes recommendations for optimising your systems.
Look for ways to consolidate different systems. For example, if you have traditional phone services, switching to a voice over IP-based system will let you get more out of your data connection, and potentially reduce your call costs. You may also opt for completely outsourced systems, allowing you to concentrate on your core business and potentially reducing the cost of your IT support.
Online services
Once you have done this, you can begin to consider ways in which you can get more from what you already have.
One excellent way of doing this is to look at expanding the role which Internet-based services play in your business – particularly where these services are either low-cost or free. Making greater use of services like BT Workspace means that you’re getting more use from your net connection, making it a more cost-effective investment.
Hardware life
One additional way to get more from your existing systems is simply to extend the life of the hardware you already have. While the cost of PCs has come down significantly over the last few years, they remain an expensive part of your infrastructure, and one which can realistically be used for longer than three years for most business purposes.
If you are going to do this, though, make sure that you have adequate systems in place to support older hardware and software. Consider, for example, services like BT IT Support Manager for 24/7 access to a technical helpdesk, or IT Site Manager which can monitor the health of a server remotely to spot problems early, and repair or replace faulty hardware if required.
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