This is the second post in our series on reducing IT costs. This post focuses on IT support and how getting the right IT support can help save companies time and money.

The Nominated IT Representative

One of the most common ways that companies try to save money on IT is by using a member of staff whose official job is in some other area of the company (e.g. sales, accounts etc. Sometimes even a director).  This person may be very good with computers, and may even have some training. However this scenario has many hidden costs, especially if the person in question is highly paid for their official job.

Let’s suppose that a member of staff has a computer problem which is stopping them from working. The nominated IT support guy is called to sort it out, and it takes him 2 hours to fix. What is the real cost here?

• Member of staff’s (who had computer problem) salary for two hours is lost.
• The nominated IT support member of staff’s salary for two hours is lost.
• Possibly 2 hours overtime paid to member of staff (who had computer problem) to catch up with lost work.
• Possibly 2 hours overtime paid to nominated IT support member of staff to catch up with work.
• If overtime not worked, then 4 hours productivity is lost.

Now let’s suppose an IT support company is employed, and because of their experience fixes the problem remotely within 1 hour. Now what is the cost?

• 1 hour’s support to IT company if Pay As You Go (nothing extra if on a contract).
• Member of staff’s (who had computer problem) salary is only lost for 1 hour instead of 2.
• Either only 1 hour’s overtime, or 1 hour’s lost productivity.

On top of this, due to time constraints, nominated IT representatives are generally less aware of new technology and software available on the market that if implemented can help increase company efficiencies. There is therefore the risk that the company could miss opportunities to improve efficiencies and could possibly fall behind competitors.

Full Time in House IT Support

Employing someone full time to cover IT support issues can be a very appealing option as it means that there is always someone available on site to fix problems immediately as they occur. However a full time IT employee is likely to be very costly, and is really only a viable option for larger companies. Not only this, but the employee will be entitled to holidays, and may also be off sick occasionally leaving the company with no IT support.

Most IT problems can be fixed remotely these days, so the need for a technician to be constantly on site to fix problems as they arise is not so great. An employee can just as easily call a remote IT support company and have them fix their problem immediately by remote controlling their equipment. This can offer a big saving over dedicated full time IT employees.

The Right Support Company

If you are in a company that has already decided against the above 2 options for internal IT support, you may already have an IT support arrangement with an external company. However you could still be incurring unnecessary costs if their service isn’t up to scratch. It may be that they take too long to respond to and fix issues causing more lost productivity than necessary, or maybe they don’t understand your company and therefore aren’t recommending the right systems and software to maximise efficiencies.

Hopefully this has highlighted potential areas where your company could save costs by changing its IT support strategy. If you’d like to find out more about how Broadbyte can help in this area, please contact us.

Many decision makers in companies often see Information Technology (IT) as an essential cost, and when implemented with this mind set, and in the wrong way that is exactly what it can become. Some companies can even fall into the trap of becoming less efficient through using IT by choosing inadequate solutions which are costing more to keep running than if they didn’t have them at all.

This needn’t be the case, when implemented correctly IT can help save companies time, reduce their ongoing costs, and ultimately increase their profits.  Whenever a Broadbyte consultant reviews a company’s IT systems they don’t just see it as an IT review, but a business process review too. How can IT save the company time? How can IT reduce their costs? How can IT streamline the company’s processes and make it much more efficient as a result?

This blog post is the first of a five part series in which I will analyse how each of the following areas of IT can help increase your company’s profits:

• IT Support
• Computer Software
• Computer Hardware
• IT Security

(As each follow up post is published over the next few weeks, a link will be available to it above)

Each post will analyse where time and money can be wasted on each of the above, and illustrate with examples how common pitfalls can be avoided with the right IT advice.

If you can’t wait for the follow up posts, please feel free to contact Broadbyte, and we will be happy to discuss ways that IT can reduce your organisations costs through the implementation of IT.