5 Questions to Evaluate your IT Telecom Costs

Technology is evolving at a lightning pace. But you already knew that. Of course, that doesn’t change the fact that your experience with technology will change in ways that may be surprising to you. The Internet of Things (IoT) and machine-to-machine (M2M) connections are going to have profound effects on the business landscape. Worldwide, companies will keep on buying more IT every year, and many of the IT services will be bought and directly deployed from the cloud.

At its core, what all this really means is that you’ll have more IT and telecom hardware, software, and services in your organization than ever before, and you’re going to have to manage it all. It’ll be especially challenging for the intangible assets on the cloud. You’ll have to plan your budget and strategy to prepare for this future.

Now, are you ready to do that?

Here’s a quick test: See if you have good, solid answers to the following five questions. These questions are at the core of the challenges that companies face when it comes to managing IT and telecom expenses.

1. I have to start planning the next IT budget. What should I include in this budget?

Obviously, the exact nature of your budget will depend entirely on your business needs. That said, if you go about systematically examining what you and your employees need to do your jobs, you’ll be able to distinguish the IT elements that are necessary from those that are less important (or that you can eliminate altogether).

2. Do I have a plan or roadmap for improving my IT and telecom management?

For any meaningful objective to be really attained, you need to start with an actual strategy. Without one, any tactic that you want to pursue will seem complex or impossible. This is especially true for something as big and sprawling and critical as managing your business technology. It doesn’t have to be an impossible task, but you need a plan in place.

3. How can I control my IT and telecom costs?

It can’t all be high-level; you also have to know specific and granular details about how to execute budgeting and cost management. For example, would you be able to identify genuine billing errors from instances where you had a legitimately heavy month of usage? And if you don’t have this expertise, do you know where (or what) you can turn to?

4. How do I choose an IT and telecom management system?

Say you know that you need to get a solution to help you handle your IT and telecom assets. How would you go about choosing a solution? There’s a wide variety of choices out there, and they all have their own strengths and weaknesses. Which solution best fits your needs? You’ll only know the answer to that if you know your needs and roadmap.

5. What are the key elements in selecting a vendor of IT and telecom expense management?

Just as there are many different solutions, there are also many different companies that make and/or sell these solutions. Choosing from among them means that you’d have to take into account (among others) the vendor’s reputation, size, and level of support they offer you.

If you know the answer to all these questions, you’re on the right track. If you don’t know the answers, you’re probably asking yourself a much bigger question: Where do I start?

You need to get answers to that question quickly, because you’re most likely at risk of losing control of your IT and telecom costs. In fact, that may already be the case. To help you understand where you stand on this matter, Cimpl offers a free 30 minute assessment which will shed light on your current IT and telecom management readiness/strategy.

By taking this risk-free assessment, you will get a snapshot on the current state of your IT and telecom management. This will help you answer the five questions I’ve outlined in today’s blog, and in pretty great detail. You’ll be well on your way to preparing good IT budgets and identifying recurring cost savings.

This free assessment is open to all companies and is a perfect doorway for CIOs, IT managers, and CFOs to learn more on how well their companies are making use of their IT and telecom assets to drive success and increase ROI. Alternately, even if you know the answers to all these questions, you might want to discover whether you can do even better. That’s a good investment of your 30 minutes, isn’t it?

Sign up for our free assessment today, and our Discovery Agents will contact you whenever it’s convenient for you.  Take the first step in accounting for all your telecom and IT expenses today.