How To Protect Your IT Services From Inflation
In May, the consumer index rose by 8.6%, which is the highest reach in the last four decades. With the lingering effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, it’s no secret inflation is going to continue to skyrocket. With the reality that inflation is here to stay, it’s up to IT professionals to take preliminary steps to protect the IT industry. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce reported that 85% of small business owners have a growing concern about inflation. Below are three first steps to protect your IT services from inflation.
Focus on Productivity
When the economy takes a hit, it is crucial to have a clear business plan. A business plan is a written document outlining the business, services, financing, and leadership roles. For IT leaders, taking concrete steps to identify technology service gaps and locating where you can improve is essential.
For many IT leaders, the cost of servicing in-house IT is not as productive or cost effective as possible. Productivity is the most important step when faced with an economic crisis. We suggest diving into your information technology spend and locating the highest spend points to see what your company can streamline.
Pay What You Must to Keep Business Moving
Inflation is not always a bad thing, The Federal Reserve actually aims to keep inflation rates around 2% annually. Although inflation is always occurring, it becomes an issue for businesses when it begins to surge.
Overall, slight inflation is inevitable, so you must pay what you have to in order to continue pushing your business forward. With consistent price increases, businesses have become accustomed to paying what is necessary to continue selling products and services. IT leaders must locate what is worth the extra spend on technology services like disaster recovery, security, and SaaS.
Investigate Subscriptions and Service Contracts
Many IT leaders don’t deeply inspect their various service contracts. Some low-hanging fruit may exist to eliminate unnecessary services or negotiate lower prices. During a period of inflation, it’s important to locate the low-hanging fruit to maintain a low expense to value ratio.
For example, outsourcing a turn-key software to automate industry compliance, CIO services, or project management could save your business. In fact, in 2019 the global outsourcing market totaled over $131 billion.
The first step is to review ALL service contracts. Look into what costs, fees, and add-ons your company is paying for. Next, look into features you don’t use consistently and downgrade or cancel them. From there, look at switching to cost-effective and productive technologies.
How We Can Help
Our IT-managed solutions provide an easy way to increase productivity by integrating into your team’s processes, especially during inflation periods. We match our solutions to fit each client’s unique needs, rather than another pesky service contract.
Learn more here.