Inflation is biting hard. As it is expected to hit 11%, the UK consumer price index is at its highest since records began. Expect rising capital expenditure costs as vendors feel the pinch, along with escalating contract and labour costs.
The question is what can be done to lessen the pain of I.T. products?
- Prioritise your projects
Review your IT project plans for the year and determine which are of the highest importance. Ideally, this would be a simple case of weighing the cost against the projected ROI, but it’s likely some projects will have other factors.
- Audit and consolidate
Understand how and where individual hardware and software products overlap. You will find some might not need replacing at all. In addition, those that overlap significantly might mean you could remove one of them altogether. Audit the usage of software to identify any seats or virtual server CPUs that you don’t need. Lastly, if the cloud is being used for infrastructure or platform services, this is the perfect time to review and look for service provider savings.
- Extend replacement cycles
Look to extend cycles on some hardware products. Think about repairs rather than replacements. Can laptops be upgraded with new components?
- Assess market prices
When prices start rising you need to compare the increases with similar items from other suppliers to identify differences. It is highly likely some suppliers will pass on more costs than others.
- Use a third party
The price you pay is not the whole picture and the industry is resistant to requests for cost transparency. Find a third party that can help to remove these barriers and ensure that you are not paying excessive margins to your suppliers.
Hopefully, these simple tips prove to be helpful and that you can implement at least some of them.