Consolidation in companies - how to make real savings in IT

Consolidation in companies: How does it work? Where can savings be made - in IT, for example? Part of the savings potential is offered, for example, by the Notebook Bargains at My DealThe new equipment for employees can be made more affordable with these measures. But there are also other measures that can be taken to really save money on IT. With the appropriate measures, relatively high sums can be saved quickly over the years.

The optimization of IT

It is not uncommon to completely overlook the fact that inefficient IT processes end up costing a lot of time. A major aspect of this is the unnecessary work that many employees often perform. Of course, this does not add value for the company. At the same time, whether the activity is efficient or inefficient, the salary must still be paid in full. This is especially true for processes that could actually be automated - a lot of time is also lost here in particular. Affected by this problem are both SMEs and the federal government.

Therefore, a first and important step is to eliminate any sources of error and unnecessary work steps while minimizing the risk of IT failure. In this way, all devices in IT then run trouble-free. This is not only easy on the nerves, but also saves time and therefore a lot of money. Unfortunately, it is a fact that if IT is idle for several hours, employees can hardly work efficiently and still have to be paid in full.

Measures to consolidate IT

Despite fast and expensive Internet lines that many companies pay for, often the speed cannot be reached due to system errors. However, the right configuration can speed up the slow Internet.

One of the main causes of a slow Internet connection can be misconfigured networks, for example. Likewise, however, an incorrectly set firewall can also be the culprit for slow Internet. Investing in an IT expert at this point will always pay off in the long run and ultimately provide enormous savings.

Printing costs are often completely underestimated

Time and again, it becomes apparent that many companies use several smaller printers from different manufacturers. It was not uncommon for these printers to be purchased one after the other as demand increased. It seemed to be the logical and only way to be able to cope with the increasing printing demand.

However, the disadvantage is obvious, because each printer ultimately requires special ink cartridges. This is often associated with very different maintenance of the individual printer. This, in turn, also costs additional money and all employees are forced to be familiar with the different models.

A much more efficient measure here is the purchase of a larger printer. It should then cover the company's entire printing needs. Of course, the purchase costs for such a model are often higher, but printing is more efficient here and there is also great potential for savings.

Everything about the back-ups

Simplifying and automating back-ups also provides cost savings in the long run. Meanwhile, backups can be automated through cloud services. Back-ups then run automatically in the background. The advantage is clear: no one has to be deployed to take care of hard disk replacement or the like anymore. Instead of Invest time in back-upsemployees can efficiently pursue their actual work. Another factor is that errors can easily occur, especially in complicated back-up processes.

Complicated processes usually not very efficient

The more complicated the processes, the less efficient the workflows. Unnecessary work steps in particular cost time, drive up costs and also harbor potential sources of error. This is quickly demonstrated by the following example: If six employees work on six computers in the company, then it is probably intended that each employee can also work on any PC available in the company if necessary and has the necessary access to the documents. For this reason, six users will probably be created on each computer, resulting in a total of 36 users.

However, this approach often does not take into account that if changes are made or the software needs to be updated, this must be done 36 times in this case. This immediately opens up a potential source of error, because it is quite likely that something will be overlooked here. The logical answer in such a case would be to use a cloud. This would not only significantly reduce the supposed sources of error, but above all simplify the processes extremely.

Thanks to such a cloud, all documents of all employees can be stored in the cloud and then accessed completely uncomplicatedly and easily from any PC. A separate user is completely unnecessary for this. This means that when using cloud storage, there is only one user on each computer. Accordingly, all updates now only have to be performed once per computer. Here, sources of error are significantly reduced and, of course, a great deal of time and therefore money is saved.

This example also shows the efficiency with regard to printers or even back-ups. The less complicated the workflows are and the fewer steps are required by the employees, the lower the error rate. A lot of time is saved and costs are minimized at the same time.

Simplifying IT processes saves costs

As a rule, efficient IT processes have one thing in common: they are not only much less complicated, but above all they ensure that employees' manpower can be used sensibly and thus profitably.

A decisive step in order to be successful in the IT to save money properly is to reduce the variety of models in the IT landscape. In any case, it is important here that the number of different manufacturers and the number of different models and variations in the company are greatly reduced. Notebooks, monitors or even tablets should always be compatible in order to create a truly homogeneous IT landscape. If a workstation is ever occupied on a temporary basis, no employee should have to familiarize themselves with different hardware. That would mean wasting valuable working time and money.