IT Cost Optimization Strategy for Covid-19 Series – Part 1: Workforce Optimization
IT Cost Optimization Strategy Overview
With a harsh economic outlook for 2020, many organizations are responding with cost cutting and budget optimizations. CFOs and CIOs are feeling the pressure to reduce their bottom line at least through this current year with IT spending being projected to drop by 5%. Making the right decisions now can prevent future disasters that lead to bigger problems down the road. While the IT cost cutting approach will vary by organization, it should focus on current and future strategic needs.
A cost optimization strategy is much more than simply removing line items. Focusing on the big picture, along with every single puzzle piece is critical. Understanding the true impact to your overall structure, will help you build a solid long-term future for your IT organization.
Tech analysts are predicting that spending on hardware will fall even as some projects, such as cloud enablement, may accelerate. Today, there are many IT services and products that when moved to the cloud, can help an organization control costs and defer capital spending. For example, upgrades to an on-premise data center along with applications may be necessary to continue or improve operations but are extremely expensive. Moving these to the cloud can often meet the organizations cost optimization strategy, while maintaining or even improving their capabilities.
When defining your organization’s cost optimization strategy, we recommend an approach that considers Four(4) Focus Areas:
IT Cost Optimization Focus Areas
- Workforce Optimization,
- Asset Optimization,
- Vendor Management, and
- Project Prioritization.
Let’s dig deeper into each of these focus areas, while considering both the business impact and the IT impact of these strategies. Today, we will focus on Workforce Optimization, with future segments on each of the other focus areas.
Workforce Optimization
At first glance, you may think that this focus area is just about numbers, but optimizing your workforce encompasses much more than that. It involves activities such as:
- Enhancing productivity and performance
- Decreasing overlap in activities
- Improving efficiencies and skill-based task assignments
- Increased training for improved performance
- Contracting out expensive and difficult to maintain specialized roles:
a. Cybersecurity
b. Telecom
c. Other IT professionals
With Covid-19, the workforce landscape has gone through an upheaval with employees’ work going from in-office to at-home. This change, being swift and unexpected, had organizations acting swiftly without the benefit of proper planning. Now, companies are finding themselves thinking through the process and looking at operations differently and some are continuing to evaluate their strategy of where employees work for other reasons. If employees continue to be productive and successful working remotely, an organization can evaluate their real estate presence and perhaps reduce operating costs. However, there are added risks that need to be addressed, one being cybersecurity. Hackers and bad actors have been taking advantage of the remote workforce and Covid-19, and cyber-attacks have increased dramatically. Many industry experts are expecting a “cybersecurity pandemic” in the coming months and year.
Here are a few thoughts and suggestions on services and products you should consider that will help you to optimize your environment and reduce cost:
- Virtual CIO/CISO (Chief Information Security Officer)
- Managed Telecom Services
- Managed IT Services
- Managed Cybersecurity Services
- Leverage Cloued Applications & IT Infrastructure
Discover which areas of your business require the biggest opportunities for improvement and pinpoint the best way to leverage these services and products for your organization. Perhaps you only need portions of these options, in order to optimize and create the most value for your organization. Remember, that you need to put your plan in writing, being sure to cover the specifics of your plan including the what, how, why, and when of each step.
ChoiceTel can help you leverage these options and create an effective IT Cost Optimization Strategy customized to your environment. Contact us at [email protected] or call us at 800-815-3320 for a consultation.
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Email: [email protected]
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Atlanta, GA 30328
(800) 815-3320