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Category: Business advice

The Cost Of Cutting IT Costs

Posted on 9th October 2019 by ossia
The Cost Of Cutting IT Costs

We’re strange creatures, aren’t we?

However rational we try to be, we make all sorts of illogical financial decisions.

And while you might be nodding your head, thinking of the ‘mental accounting’ you do on a night out, it’s worth pointing that we’re not much better in business mode.

Sure, we have stricter financial rules when we’re running a business, and of course we make more ‘rational’ decisions.

But the very way most businesses conceptualise their finances is often misjudged.

Obsessed with efficiency, keeping costs low and ensuring that every spending decision has a strong, defendable rationale attached to it, we see things in extraordinarily limited terms.

For example, we rarely think about opportunity costs – what making one decision prohibits us from doing.

Equally, we don’t consider the cost of not doing things, partly because we can’t foresee how it will impact the business clearly.

It’s difficult to conceptualise our business spending over long periods because so many hidden variables will come into play.

What we at Elite are sure of, however, is that there are all sorts of hidden costs to cutting corners and maximising ‘ efficiency’ when it comes to your IT spend.

So why do people do it?

The simplest explanation is that businesses don’t see the cost.

But beyond that, it can be hard to justify higher spending to higher-ups.

And the people making these decisions are rarely IT experts, and rarely even have direct access to an expert opinion.

So this is another example of situations where having dedicated IT support is essential.

But what are the costs?

The most obvious cost of cutting IT costs is missing out on potential competitive advantages.

And this often means allowing you competitors take that advantage!

This kind of cost-cutting can be all the more deeply entrenched when you realise that advantages can come from both software and hardware.

For example, new software may be released which could supercharge your business’s performance, but running it on your ‘efficiently costed’ hardware, it may not be able to run properly.

On top of this, there is the potential for systems failures to totally derail whole days of work.

And this isn’t just an economic cost – it also strikes a blow to employee confidence and morale, not to mention disgruntled customers and appearing to the public unprofessional.

Even if you don’t have a full-on systems failure, the costs of maintaining weak, cheap technology will very quickly mount.

Not to mention the fact that technology tends to leave its predecessors behind, so the most rigorous updates and securest systems will simply be unavailable for older, less robust technology soon enough.

Recent Posts

  • IT Should Be Complex, Not Complicated
  • The Cost Of Cutting IT Costs
  • What Does Digital Transformation Really Mean?
  • The Case For Working Remotely (And How To Make It Work!)
  • Common IT Concerns For SMEs

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What Does Digital Transformation Really Mean?

Posted on 25th September 201925th November 2019 by ossia
What Does Digital Transformation Really Mean?

Digital transformation has become something of a buzz phrase in the business world. Everybody seems to be in the middle of one. And while there is good reason for this sometimes frantic enthusiasm, anytime a phrase becomes so heavily leaned upon at businesses conferences and in ‘thought leadership’ articles, it’s worth treating it with a healthy dose of scepticism.

So that’s exactly what we’re about to do.

The reasons behind this mania for ‘transformation’ are numerous, but we suspect they come down to a few simple points.

First, digital technology really is changing everything. If we think of the biggest businesses to arrive in recent years, they are almost all digitally native startups with a clear, disruptive plan. Companies like AirBNB and Uber have found radical new business propositions by leveraging technology rather than any more traditional innovations. And this has led to a recent poll taken by Microsoft revealing that 41% of business leaders believe their current business model will cease to exist within five years. This has, quite rightly, led many business leaders to prioritise radically overhauling their operation and infrastructure as soon as possible.

So there is a legitimate cause for the hype.

But a second, slightly less heroic reason, is simply that business leaders have to keep face in front of one another, and once a critical mass breaks, basically everyone has to be ‘transforming’ their business and ‘disrupting’ the norms, simply in order to fit in. This is how we end up with numerous businesses approaching their ‘transformation’ is rather elaborately unimaginative ways, slapping needless technology onto their existing processes and pretending that this equally progress.

So there are also some less legitimate reasons at play.

The third reason, however, is perhaps the most intriguing, which is digital transformation sounds exciting, impressive, and progressive –things we’d all like to think about ourselves, no matter how inaccurate. It is increasingly the case that digital transformation has become – in some quarters – a vanity project wherein leaders can assert themselves and their vision on whatever legacy business they are in charge of. And this brings us to the nub of the issue.

When thinking about this current slate of ‘transformations’, it’s important businesses – particularly small businesses – don’t get carried away with the noise of it all. Many businesses really do need to reimagine their approach, but just as many are not under nearly the same threat, and in the mania of transformation they may well lose track of what really matters to their business.

Instead of thinking radically, businesses right now need a serious dose of sanity. They need to be taking in their competitive environment and working out the real pros and cons of changing their tech component. For many, a traditional IT setup is enough for them thrive, especially if it’s properly setup and well managed.

So next time you hear about digital transformation or the need for radical disruption, just ask: is that really necessary for your business?

The Case For Working Remotely (And How To Make It Work!)

Posted on 2nd August 20199th October 2019 by ossia
The Case For Working Remotely (And How To Make It Work!)

According to one report, 53% of employees in the UK feel their employers aren’t doing enough to enable remote working.

Now, there are plenty of good reasons why this might be the case.

From the difficulty of creating a ‘team mentality’ from differing locations to the slightly more gristly issue of whether they’ll actually get their tasks done, it makes sense to be wary of giving your employees too much freedom.

But equally good arguments exist for the importance (and potential performance power) remote working offers.

Plenty of workers are more productive, more focused and happier when they have the freedom to work how they like where they like.

They might have responsibilities outside work which become less conflicting when they aren’t held on too tight a leash.

And the wonderful thing is IT has made all this easily executable without impairment to the work.

So what are the facts?

Well, as ever, each workforce will be different, meaning no data is totally definitive.

However, we do know that in some surveys as many as 86% of employees claim they ‘hit maximum productivity’ working remotely, and two-thirds of managers have noted a rise in productivity.

On top of this, evidence has accumulated that successfully working remotely can reduce stress, reduce staff turnover, save on overheads and real estate, boost engagement and even help the environment, as it brings about a decrease in commuter polluting.

Overall, it seems like allowing remote work would at least be worth considering!

To do it right, however, requires really nailing your tech infrastructure and knowing how to use it.

With this, we can help.

Here are the key factors you need to bear when moving towards remote working.

Connecting to the cloud

Historically, the issue with remote working has been access.

Access to the documents you need, the resources required, and the ability to share to what you’ve done with co-workers.

All of this is solved by Cloud technology, which is both intuitive to use and highly trustworthy.

Whilst connecting everybody up to The Cloud might require professional assistance, once it’s done it is an intuitive and easy way to share and distribute documents and files of all kinds.

Project Management

Having jumped the hurdle of access, we face the more cynical resistance to remote working – getting people to do the work!

For a long time, this would have to be done by either motivating individual workers or checking in with them regularly in a way many might find invasive.

However, now project management platforms abound, and again, once a term learns to use them and habituates it, they function remarkably well in helping both assign and distribute tasks as well as maintain progress and track when and what has been done.

In most scenarios, they actually prove far more effective and efficient than traditional methods, as they keep your data nicely organised and even allow managers to gently ‘nudge’ workers when they seem to have taken their eyes off the ball.

Conference calls

Conference calls have existed for a good while now.

In fact, they’ve become a vital part of most large companies’ function, as employees are distributed across various cities and countries.

However, we often overlook the power of video conferencing to bridge remote working gaps.

For example, if you have employees who want to work from home, why not check in for a team chat in the morning, the way you might if the whole team were in the office?

Whilst some might feel a conference call can’t recreate a team mentality, it’s actually a very effective way of allowing communication to go unhampered when greater freedom is allowed.

Once a team gets used to working in this way, it becomes natural and easy, meaning you can have all the benefits of meetings and catch ups without all the unnecessary restrictions.

Whilst there are other ways IT can help mobilise a remote work force and keep everybody on task, if you can get these three simple fixes going, you’ll be more than on your way to a productive, enthusiastic team who aren’t compromised by commuting to an office every day.

It’s got to at least be worth a try!

Alignment Is Everything In IT

Posted on 16th May 201925th November 2019 by ossia
Alignment Is Everything In IT

Every business is a bit like an organism.

Regardless of the sector and market, a business needs to function in a healthy, unified way in order to have any hope at success.

That means each part of the business needs to talk to the others and share a common understanding of the values and vision they are trying to uphold.

And this is increasingly tricky, as specialism become more and more separate.

IT in particular is often treated as a side-entity, a kind of sub-business filled with people who only really appear when something’s gone wrong.

And this can cause some real issue for the organism.

By having such a central part of a business’s infrastructure either undervalued or unaligned, there is a real risk of miscommunication and misaligned values and vision.

Which many businesses believe is fine.

But this is because they are under the impression that IT either works or it doesn’t.

So IT people are either effective or they aren’t.

And if they aren’t, they can be replaced.

The reality, however, is any IT team worth its salt has at its finger tips a whole host of different software, hardware and structural choices which it can implement and recommend to respond to the specific needs and wants of a business.

And by never having a conversation about visions and values, businesses often miss out on the possibility to have their IT team purposefully construct a bespoke system which would be better suited to their specific needs.

Because a really great leader wants everything in their organism to be in alignment, working in harmony and working as well as they can.

Imagine trying to recommend a task management programme to a business without any understanding of how they operate or what they need it for.

Clearly, the chances of making the best possible choice are limited.

So what we recommend, both for the businesses we work with and any business working with outsourced IT, is to focus early in the relationship on those really important conversations where ideas are shared and visions are aligned.

You might even find you enjoy the chat.

The Beauty Of Thinking Small In IT

Posted on 10th April 20199th October 2019 by Toby Mcinnis
The Beauty Of Thinking Small In IT

The rush to make sure your IT is up-to-date and optimised can lead to some assumptions you might want to rethink.

For one, the more tech there is and the bigger your team grows, the bigger your IT team has to grow, right?

And the bigger your team grows, the bigger your thinking has to be, right?

Expect, is that really so self-evident?

Like, do you really believe ‘thinking big’ is going to keep the nuances of your data security in check?

Is it really necessary for an IT operation to grow in direct tandem with the business it supports?

Given the faulty foundations of these assumptions, we’ve been thinking through the benefits of thinking small when it comes to IT.

We’ve landed on three key reasons a compact IT team can actually be more effective than that big, bloated team you probably assume is necessary.

Communication

The bigger a team becomes, the more frayed become its channels of communication.

The more personalities involved, the more difficulties tend to manifest.

And with IT, that’s not ideal.

Because communication is essential for a team to work efficiently.

And for it to be available and proactive.

Or to react as swiftly and effectively as you need.

But there’s more.

Communication in any area is essential to good relationships.

And if your IT folks aren’t seeing eye to eye, or being clear with one another about what when and how they’re doing the work, they’re not…

Crossing wires

Without getting too technical, if everybody on an IT team isn’t on the same page, havoc can ensue.

One person’s working on one assumption while another works on a totally different one.

It doesn’t take an expert to see the problem.

But with IT, and the amount of important data involved, the issue is exacerbated.

Because there are differing technical approaches, different system and programmes to choose from, different pathways and procedures.

So the bigger the team, the more possibilities for wire crossing and general miscommunication.

Meaning you either have heightened risk, or have to burn excessive energy (and possibly enlist specific individuals) managing and running the team.

Not to mention that a bigger team often means less…

Trust

It’s hard to overstate the power of trusting your IT support.

If you do, you can work uninterrupted by worries or anxieties, and focus on growing.

If you don’t, it can be the beginning of the end of your relationship, which obviously has some real implications.

Thinking small means knowing that details are being taken care.

Thinking small means knowing most, if not all, of the people in your team.

Thinking small means knowing your data, your email, your business’s backbone is safe and secure with people you know are accountable.

Five Reasons To Outsource Your IT

Posted on 3rd March 20199th October 2019 by Toby Mcinnis
Five Reasons To Outsource Your IT

‘Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic’ – Arthur C Clarke

 

Let’s face it: we are surrounded by things we do no understand. We rely on machines whose processes we cannot fathom, to facilitate activities we can barely comprehend. And while this has amazing implications for your business’s growth – allowing information to be circulated faster and more effectively, and data to be tracked and stored in easily accessible forms – it leaves many managers in a state of confusion.

Let’s face it: we are surrounded by things we do no understand. We rely on machines whose processes we cannot fathom, to facilitate activities we can barely comprehend. And while this has amazing implications for your business’s growth – allowing information to be circulated faster and more effectively, and data to be tracked and stored in easily accessible forms – it leaves many managers in a state of confusion.

Do we get a tech-guy? Do we try to learn the stuff for ourselves? The truth is, however many concerns you might have about your tech, IT can be made simple by outsourcing your expertise. Here’s our list of the top five reasons outsourcing IT should be every manager’s solution.

Maintaining Focus

The value of keeping your workplace focused on its primary occupation cannot be overstated. Creating an environment where everyone is working in tandem, with no disruptions, ca be the difference between that big breakthrough and going bust. By having an outsourced IT support team, your business can focus on what really matters, safe in the knowledge your data and tech is taken care of.

Expertise

Working in IT Solutions, your team is likely to be servicing numerous clients. This means they’re both constantly keeping their skills sharp and constantly coming across new and unexpected issues. So an outsourced IT team is more likely to have encountered a new problem you’re facing elsewhere than an in-house techy.

Flexibility

The fact is, there isn’t always a desperate need for IT assistance. Mostly, workers these days can solve their own small-scale issues when it comes to email or data retrieval. IT professionals need only drop in when there’s a real problem, meaning outsourcing your tech support allows for the flexibility to utilise that support only when it’s necessary, rather than having a company techy twiddling their thumbs.

Reduced Cost

It may seem counter-productive, but an outsourced IT team is very likely to be cheaper than hiring your own full-time techy. For one thing, a team will already have all their own equipment, saving you the overhead. Equally, there is active competition in the IT work, meaning prices are minimised in a way in-house costs simply can’t be.

Reduced Stress

The final, and perhaps most integral reason to outsource IT Solutions is to take the load off your mind. Your data is safely taken care of; your needs are pre-empted and resolved with expedience. No need to worry about updates or enhancements – there’s a professional team dedicated to staying on top of it all for you. And you can get advice whenever you need it, without having to accommodate a new office or add an entire new salary to your payroll.

Want to chat about how we can help?

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