IT Cost Savings Checklist
If one of your departmental goals for 2024 is to save money, this checklist will help. First, it contains the tried-and-true options as you would expect as well as some ideas that require an investment and some that you don’t think of as money savers, but they really do save money. Choose what works best for your operations and save other ideas for another year.
Audit

Audit what you’re paying for:
- Compare equipment to users. Do some users have more than they need? Check for multiple cell phones, tablets, laptops and desktop equipment, personal printers, etc.
- Investigate software licences. Make sure that you’re neither over or underpaying
- Inventory your network services. An audit can regularly find old or duplicate services that you are paying for and don’t need. It can also identify high cost services that should be requoted or negotiated down to current rates.
- Inventory your server rooms. Do you have orphan servers running software that was acquired for one user that is no longer needed? Do you have equipment running that is disconnected from your network? Do you have duplicate air conditioners that should be consolidated?
Security
Reduce the risk of theft or cyberattack:
- Investigate your card access system. Do you limit access to important rooms to only those who need access?
- Investigate how people treat access – are doors or windows being propped open, negating the value of your access system?
- Refresh your cybersecurity awareness training for all staff. A cyberattack is an extremely expensive occurrence, even if you have insurance.
- Verify that you have a current penetration test – they’re not that expensive when you think about it. Assign staff to act on the recommendations.
Training, etc.
- Do your staff have the technical training that they need?
- Do end-users have the applications training that they need or do they waste time or burden the helpdesk?
- Do you have the right super-users?
- Do end-users need an IT Wiki to provide help when the help desk is closed for the weekend?
- Do end-users know how to use the IT ticketing system for best results?
Vendor Management
- Do you track lease contract expiry dates?
- Do you track maintenance contract renewals?
- Meet with vendors in advance of renewal dates to discuss options to renegotiate terms and costs and switch to better service options
Benchmarking
Compare your infrastructure and staffing to your peers and to industry benchmarks. For example, if your helpdesk costs are high, there are best practices to reduce costs and improve service levels.
Process Review
- Investigate your internal processes. Are highly skilled staff doing low level work?
- Analyze your help desk tickets. Check for patterns and see if it tells you to replace equipment or increase training.
- Make sure that your BA(s) are working well with your organization to find low hanging fruit – time consuming or labour intensive processes. Build a business case to change or automate processes or replace applications to deliver good service at an effective cost. Remember to include the labour to fix recurring mistakes in the existing manual process.
If you’d like to discuss how to implement any of these ideas or to comment on this article, please email me at ellen.
This article was published in the
February 2024
edition of The TMC Advisor
- ISSN 2369-663X Volume:11 Issue:2
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