Invest In Smarter Technology to help your business in the Recession and Reduce Costs

As recession come and go businesses will Continuously look for ways to reduce cost which usually means reducing the workforce, the very people needed to produce a product or maintain a service. IT Staff and IT Support budgets usually get cut back, but is this really good for your business?

The businesses that survive recessions and downturns in economy develop processes that will improve efficiency. Those businesses that invest in smarter technologies position themselves to beat the recession and are better equipped to capitalize on economic recovery.

IT has historically suffered during poor economic periods but it is during these times when we should be investing in new technologies. A good IT Support Company can help you improve productivity in hard times.

Here are a few ways that smarter technology can help.

Remote Working - Work From Anywhere:

Citrix, Terminal Services and SSL VPN are good solutions for working form anywhere, which provides a secure link into the company’s network from a remote location while on the move to access to key business applications, data and printers. Work from Anywhere as it is referred to is a modern solution for forward thinking businesses of any size.

Who would need to work remotely?
1. Sales people and those who constantly travel
2. On-call duties at odd hours are suited with the employee at home.
3. Some tasks require work without distraction particularly when meeting a deadline.
4. During times of family illness or during inclement weather

Video Conferencing:

Video Conferencing is a great way to improve relations with remote clients while saving money.

1. Video Conferencing Saves Money: Video conferencing allows two or more people to meet remotely, dramatic effects the way they do business and the productivity gained. Video conferencing returns substantial cost savings usually associated with travel.
2. Video Conferencing Saves Time: Traveling to and from remote meetings can cause a great deal of productive downtime. A four-hour meeting with a client half way around the world could mean three or more days away from the office.
3. Video Conferencing Improves Relations: The vast improvements in video conferencing means business partners can meet face to face on a more regularly basis and helps strengthen relationships between personal visits and telephone calls.

Application Virtualization:

Application virtualization is a way of utilizing applications not installed on the PC. There are many benefits to application virtualization, the prime ones being cost and security.

1. Applications are stored on a server and are accessible via the PC or laptop.
2. only one copy of each application (although a multi-user license may be required). Deployment and maintenance are faster and easier.
3. Backups are faster because they are from one location.
4. Applications stored on servers increases data security.
5. PC’s are less cluttered with old files and orphan dll’s.
6. Less desk calls by the tech to fix problems
7. Less downtime for the PC user.

Overall, application virtualization means improved productivity at a lower cost.

VoIP:

Voice over Internet Protocol will provide better telephony quality at a fraction of the price. VoIP is telephony that utilizes broadband data services instead of the old fashioned PSTN that we are familiar with.

1. With PSTN services, you pay from the moment you dial a number to hanging up. With VoIP you pay pennies if connecting to a non-VoIP receiver and pay nothing for the call if calling to another VoIP user.
2. International calls can become expensive with PSTN especially when in a meeting. (Video Conferencing uses the same technology as VoIP, making the whole experience much less costly).
3. With PSTN, there are overhead payments such as installation, equipment, taxes etc. with VoIP there is only a monthly fee to your ISP.
4. VoIP users can benefit from the same services as PSTN, including call waiting, caller id etc.
5. Moving to VoIP means that old PBX can be removed from the building.

Switching to VoIP as a business telecommunications tools will give an vast monthly savings as you invest in smart technology.

Outsourcing IT Technology:

Outsourcing IT is about redistributing resources to people who have the means to be effective in its implementation. It is quite common for small businesses to outsource their accounting and payroll processing and other important functions such as distribution.

It is now becoming obvious that outsourcing is a very cost effective approach to IT from remote support to data backups and data security. Outsourcing means fixed costs now become variable costs with less capital tied up in resources.

Investing in a smarter technology now will put you at a distinct advantage over your competitors, help you beat the recession while continually reducing costs.