Cost cutting is a very difficult exercise, but for most organisations it’s one they should carry out at least once a year.

And for most organisations the cost cutting time comes right about now…

Yes, you’ve guessed it, straight after year end. This is the time the boss gets to know what was the total annual operating expenses, and which departments over spent & need the dreaded cut backs.

Technology is an area that many organisations see as a necessary evil. Although they understand the organisation can not operate without it. But find it difficult to see tangible benefits for all the money spent on it.

So, to help you, we’d like to share with you 3 technology areas where you can save some cash over the next few years…

Hardware

PC’s & Laptops do not increase in value over time. These necessary purchases are a cost of doing business, and therefore they are expenses, not assets that will appreciate or grow in value.

While it is tempting to want everything in a new office to be shiny and new, does every piece of equipment need to be new, or can it be purchased for a fraction of its original price or even provided free (as part of a support contract) because it is used and help your cost cutting?

We agree, it is a little trickier than you first think, as the equipment needs to be functional. Guaranteed performance via a warranty should assure that the refurbished equipment will perform to its standard. And this is best, if it’s provided as part of a service contract, where the supplier commits to repair or replace it.

Office equipment manufacturers and distributors may have equipment that is returned by customers due to a variety of reasons — not necessarily because the equipment was not functioning properly. These types of returns are a great source of equipment for a fraction of the original price.

An example of this, could be the purchase of a laptop for a new employee. Sometimes when the brand new laptop is unpacked, it can be dented or scratched in transportation. When this cosmetically damaged laptop is delivered to the customer location, it is usually returned because the customer paid for a defect-free product. A piece of equipment could also be returned because of a minor problem, fixed by the manufacturer, but will not be resold as new. All of these situations and more provide an opportunity to acquire equipment at reduced prices.

Liquidation sales are another opportunity to acquire office equipment at big savings. A word of caution though, be careful when you shop under these conditions. There may be high-pressure sales, limited selection and a variety of other conditions that could make for a risky deal. Remember, if the equipment fails, repairs will not be possible because the company that was going out of business will no longer exist. Therefore, shop carefully, know the equipment you’re looking for, and what the current market price is.

There are also lots of great deals that can be found on eBay or other online auctions. Just as the name suggests, it is an auction. This means that you must submit a bid and wait out the other bidders before you can purchase the item of interest. And as with offline auctions, there is always the possibility of being outbid, unless you are willing to pay the asking price up front. Just as with “Going Out of Business” sales, the risk is high and the equipment may fail soon after purchase.

Finally, there are suppliers who will provide refurbished office equipment (used but still working well), such as laptops and PC’s, either with a small warranty (3 – 6 months) for a much reduced fee. Or, as part of a service contract, where you don’t actually pay or own the goods, you just rent the service in a low monthly fee, which will include the equipment, any required consumables and a fix or replacement guarantee.

In house printing

As an organisation grows in house printing can easily get out of control, before you know it, you have a printer on every desktop, with no controls in place with who prints what and if it should be in mono rather than colour.

Without realising, in house printing can be one of the most expensive operational items in a growing business, if there are no real controls in place.

One of the easiest ways to control your in house printing and drastically reduce your bills, is to consolidate all or most of your desktop printing devices in to 1 or 2 floor standing multi-function devices (photocopiers). And implementing the correct control measures. Such as defaulting to mono only (colour can be a separate option) and configuring secure print, where the user has to put a code into the device before it prints their documents.

We’ve seen plenty of these situations many times over and recently carried out a consolidation exercise for a Lancashire based accountants. In some cases you can achieve savings as high as 75%, but as an average you should expect a saving of around 60% against your existing in house printing solution and slice a good chunk off your cost cutting target.

Business telephone system

If you have a fixed line telephone solution through BT or a third party like Talk Talk, you have a great opportunity to do some cost cutting and save up to 50% on your business telephone costs. And benefit from richer functions, such as voice mail, call routing, hunt groups and direct line numbers as standard.

Recently, we carried out a cost saving assessment for Blackburn based Harrison Verity Products. And it turned out they had three fixed BT lines coming in, plus a number of extra services that BT charged for separately, along with their associated call charges.

Turns out our cloud based solution delivered a 54% saving to Harrison Verity Products, against their existing BT arrangement. You can read here the full details of how easy it was to achieve this saving. And in real cash terms, it equates to a saving of £110 a month, which is a massive £4,000 over our 3 year agreement.