Proper internal asset tracking makes a difference!

Times are difficult for small businesses nowadays. We all need to take a close look at our spending and find ways to make our operations a bit more efficient. There are a lot of ways that we can tighten our spending on IT equipment in the long run.

Say you have 5 employees in the office and each one of them has a printer attached to their computer. How much do you spend on toner for each of these printers? How often do you have to buy new boxes of paper, to ensure each one of these printers is supplied? How often do you have to call your IT person, because one of the printers loses connectivity or needs new drivers installed? Perhaps investing in a larger printer that will be able to service your whole office, is faster, requires only one type of tonner that needs less frequent purchases (more efficient) and requires less IT calls is a better way to go? The initial investment may provide you with savings down the road.

Let’s say your company hires contractors for specified period of time and provides them with laptops and other IT equipment. After a while you lose track of what you have available on hand, what software licenses need to be renewed and when. You end up buying a new laptop and other equipment every time you hire a new contractor, regardless of the fact that there may be a perfectly good one stored in a closet somewhere in your office. All this laptop needs is a bit of a cleanup, Windows updates, antivirus etc. and it can be passed to the new contractor, saving you over a thousand dollars right there.

Software licenses are another item worth looking into. Perhaps you don’t need all employees working on AutoCAD or other expensive applications. Why not track those licenses and make sure that they are being bought and renewed only on systems that require them? Especially, when you have a high employee/contractor turnaround this can become complicated, and you might end up overpaying.

There are many ways in which a smart internal asset management can save you and your company a lot of money. Above, are only a few examples in which a good managed IT solution provider can help. They, not only, make sure that your natwork is properly designed and secure and ready for another emergency, your backup is running well and is checked periodically for accuracy, your systems are properly maintained and secure, but also can track your asset inventory (model, serial number, warranty, license keys etc.) and assignation to an employee or a contractor.

It never hurts to investigate ways to make your company operations more cost effective and if you’d like to learn more do not hesitate to contact us. After all, our consultations are free!

Everyone does IT, we make IT simple!