Maximizing your technology while minimizing your expenses
A challenge of the day
Thomas G. Stephens, Jr., CPA, CITP, CGMA | February/March 2023 Footnote
Editor's note: Updated January 31, 2023
Serving clients and customers must be a top priority for all businesses and firms. However, most organizations must do that while keeping expenses in check. None of us have unlimited budgets; therefore, we must carefully monitor our technology expenditures.
Further, the advent of subscription services with free trial subscriptions opens the trap door to signing up for a subscription and using it for a short period. Then, in too many cases, subscribers lose track of the subscription and continue to pay for it each month as it is billed automatically to their credit card.
Read on to learn how to maximize your technology while minimizing expenses.
Understand your subscription options
Subscription-based options are now the standard, with perpetual licenses in decline. Therefore, it’s imperative to understand your subscription options to maximize productivity while controlling expenses. To illustrate, let’s consider some options available with Microsoft 365 subscription plans.
For example, suppose you work in a public accounting firm or another environment that uses seasonal workers to address peak workloads. While making annual commitments to your year-round team members’ subscriptions is likely the most cost-effective option for them, you would likely overpay for your seasonal team members’ services with annual commitments. Instead, you could subscribe to their subscription on a monthly plan and put their subscription on hold for the months they are not working.
To illustrate, say you have a seasonal team member who works only four months during the year, and you want to provide them with access to a Microsoft 365 Business Standard subscription. Based on current pricing, if you subscribe to an annual plan, you’ll pay $150 annually to equip that team member. On the other hand, if you subscribe to a monthly plan and deactivate the subscription while it’s not in use, you’ll pay only $60 to equip the team member — a 60% savings.
Know what your subscription offers
Many organizations and individuals subscribe to multiple subscription plans that sometimes provide duplicitous services. Cloud-based storage options are excellent illustrations. Continuing with the previous example, suppose your organization uses Microsoft 365 subscriptions that include access to OneDrive for Business or SharePoint Online, both of which are cloud-based storage services. In this case, subscribing to other cloud-based storage services like Dropbox or Box would probably be unnecessary and wasteful because they duplicate services already available to team members.
In addition to storage services, many organizations often pay for multiple communication platforms. For example, subscriptions to numerous communication services such as Zoom, WebEx, Teams and others are often used in the same organization. In most cases, only one is necessary and the others represent economizing opportunities.
Pay attention to alternative services and products
While many recognize large, well-known technology providers such as Microsoft, Adobe and Intuit as the leaders in their fields, alternative services and products offer cost-saving and productivity-enhancing options that merit consideration. For example, although almost all business professionals use PDF documents to some extent, most don’t use them to a level that requires an Adobe Acrobat DC or Acrobat Pro DC subscription. Instead, in many cases, the free Acrobat Reader tool provides all the features needed by many. And, in cases where Reader may not be sufficient, alternative PDF tools such as PDF Pro, Foxit PDF Editor or even the PDF creation and editing capabilities in Microsoft Office Word may provide all the functionality that is needed.
Additionally, instead of cobbling together a mixture of software and services from multiple providers, many companies would gain functionality and save money simultaneously by switching to Zoho One. The Zoho One platform contains more than 50 applications and services that can replace familiar applications. Zoho One includes:
- Corporate-grade email.
- Cloud-based storage options.
- A suite of accounting tools.
- Spreadsheets.
- Word processing and presentation tools.
- An online meeting platform.
- CRM functionality.
- Intra-organizational communication and collaboration tools.
- Data analytics options.
In essence, Zoho One can replace many other products and subscriptions you presently use for as little as $37 per user per month.
Monitor unused software
Unfortunately, it is not uncommon for team members to claim they need access to specific applications when, in reality, they rarely, if ever, use the software. One great tool you can use to check this is Belarc’s BelManage. BelManage helps you identify the specific applications installed on a device and how often team members use each application. With this information in hand, you can easily decide whether a team member’s request to access a specific application reflects a genuine need. If it is not a genuine need, you can avoid the expense of licensing the software or renewing an existing license.
Don’t overlook hardware and consumables
So far, we’ve focused on reducing the costs associated with subscriptions and software. However, don’t forget about hardware and consumables. Generally, we recommend investing in quality, business-grade hardware designed to provide maximum reliability and minimal downtime.
Although business-grade hardware is likely to be more expensive than consumer-grade devices, these devices should yield a greater return on investment. To illustrate, suppose you have a team member billing at $250 per hour, and their computer is “down” for eight hours because of a hardware failure. Is the $2,000 in lost revenue worth the $500 you might have saved by purchasing a less expensive device? Hardly! The extra investment in business-grade devices usually pays for itself many times over.
Regarding consumables, such as toner cartridges, recognize that you have economies of scale when purchasing these supplies. For example, buying and using extra-capacity toner cartridges is almost always less expensive per page than standard-capacity cartridges. You can validate this assertion by calculating the cost per page (CPP) for your printer(s). To do so, divide the cost of purchasing the cartridge by the estimated number of pages it can print. Perform this calculation for both standard-yield cartridges and extra-capacity cartridges. In most, the CPP for the extra-capacity cartridges will be less.
Taking action
Challenging business climates demand that we keep a sharp eye on expenses without sacrificing the quality of our services or the goods we produce. Yet, too often, it’s easy to allow wasteful and unnecessary costs to creep into our operations. To address this in your organization, keep an eye on your software subscriptions and take advantage of the features your software and subscriptions offer.
Additionally, avoid installing unneeded applications on team members’ devices, buy business-grade hardware, and seek to minimize the cost of your consumables. These actions will help ensure you maximize your technology and minimize your expenses.
Tommy Stephens is one of the shareholders of K2 Enterprises. At K2, Tommy focuses on creating and delivering content and is responsible for many firm management and marketing functions. You may reach him at tommy@k2e.com, and you may learn more about K2 Enterprises at www.k2e.com.
