IT services have become mandatory part of business operations- for nearly all types of organizations. From standalone licensed software to cloud services and various types of networking, business have to deploy myriads of IT based services everyday for sustenance and growth. Over the years, managing all these services and resolving snags can become tedious. That is the reason such companies also deploy suitable ITSM or IT service management tools/frameworks. Using ITSM tools ensure all IT services run at optimum level and those are also aligned to goals of the company.
ITSM budgeting for a company
Similar to all other things related to your business, you need to set a budget for deploying ITSM in the company. This will depend on your company’s IT service usage needs, size of organization and type of work involved etc. However, setting the budget for ITSM may not be easy. The company operations keep evolving, company size grows and technology itself evolves faster than users can cope with! While setting the ITSM budget for your company, it is important to put focus on end user needs and expectations along with equipments and services. It is also important to find ways to avoid spending more than what is necessary on ITSM tool.
Ways to spend surplus amount in ITSM budget and evade overspending
It is not uncommon for companies to end up with surplus amount after setting budget for deploying ITSM. With IT technologies changing rapidly and companies relying more on internet than physical resources, it has now become commonplace for companies.
Below listed are some handy measures using which the company’s ITSM budget can be made more realistic. Afterwards, you can spend the leftover amount in other works for the company.
- Hardware- There was a time when almost all companies- regardless of niches and size, relied on using hardware peripherals and resources heavily. From servers to networking setups and workstations, routers and printers – various types of hardware were used for daily operations. So, a large section of ITSM budget was focused on maintenance and up gradation of such hardware assets. However, the trend has changed in last few years. Nowadays, a lot of companies are relying less on hardware assets. A section of them have resorted to BYOD policy and the workforce is required to bring their PCs and devices to the workplace. Some companies also offer the employees to work from home. This also reduces usage of hardware in the workplace. By deploying such policies, expenditure on hardware can be reduced and this will have a positive impact on ITMS budget eventually.
- VOiP- No matter which niches your company belongs to, it has to rely a lot on telecommunications. Earlier, traditional telephony was the main choice. It was also used for landline based broadband internet access. So, a chunk of ITSM budget was reserved for this. However, technological changes have brought better alternatives on horizon. The VOiP services can be used to cut down on telecommunication costs of the company to a large extent. There are plenty of such services are available and there are business oriented packages too. By using latest VOiP services business communication needs can be addressed while keeping ITSM budget under the limit.
- Cloud services- With time, more and more companies, including the MNCs are embracing Cloud services for various operations. With internet access and speed improving with time, companies no longer hesitate to rely on cloud based services for bandwidth intensive tasks as well. A lot of software applications are now being offered by cloud services- as SaaS model. Even security software and data backup are being offered by cloud service mode these days. When companies start using cloud services –their responsibility towards maintenance and snag repair becomes minimal. These are handled largely by the Cloud service provider. So, by using Cloud services in the company, you may be able to save on ITSM expenditure eventually.
- Outsourcing/hiring third party agencies- To ensure your company’s ITSM budget is not overstretched, sometimes it may be necessary to outsource certain operations. When the company is not very big, expenditure on certain segments can be reduced by hiring professional third party agencies. This can be done for printing needs. This is practical when you adhere to a paperless solution at workplace and rely on virtual copies. When you do this, the added benefit is that you can manage with a basic ITSM tool.
- Sharing resources and assets- When the monetary constraint exists, and you do not want to spend whopping amount of ITSM deployment in the company, it is prudent to share resources among departments. From a logical perspective, using an enhanced hardware setup is costly and deploying a suitable IT solution to manage it is also heavy on wallet. If your company’s hardware resources are shared by various departments based on need, managing these assets become simpler. For instance, in the initial stage, you can use a printer for managing printing needs of all departments rather than buying individual printer devices for all departments in the organization. You can use an entry level ITSM framework in this case which does not impact budget.
- Hiring ITIL certified employees- There is no denying deploying an ITSM tool can prove to be advantageous for the company in several ways. From operational cost reduction to revenue growth and productivity enhancement- the benefits are too big to overlook. However, the fact remains efficacy of an ITSM tool also depends on the people using it! So, if you hire employees who are not well versed in ITSM tool handling, additional cost will be incurred in training. They may find it hard to use the framework to the hilt. On the contrary, hiring ITIL certified professionals will ensure the ITSM tool is utilized better. In fact, such professionals are better capable of utilizing basic ITSM tools in workplace compared to untrained candidates.
- Simplifying support system- All companies selling some sort of products and services have dedicated customer support departments. As it is natural, the customer support sections need to use various IT services. Those companies offering multiple means of customer support service end up incurring steep costs. This also has an impact on the ITSM budget eventually. So, you can adopt measures to simplify customer support in the organization. For addressing basic customer queries and raising tickets, online tools and live chat service can be utilized. The telephonic support can only be kept for resolving issues that cannot be resolved by web-submitted tickets and self-service portals. Nowadays, customers with capability to access such self- service facilities are growing in number. This can keep ITSM cost within a pre set budget.
Where it all leads to?
You need to have a well defined strategy in place to ensure that the company is not overspending on ITSM. It is important to adapt the workflow to incorporate new web based technologies to keep ITSM budget in check. Embracing advanced cloud services can help bring down reliance of hardware resources which helps control spending on ITSM. Outsourcing some of the company operations can also be effective for managing ITSM budget in the long run. It is also necessary to learn about emerging IT technologies and incorporate them in workflow.
