Today’s IT managers are in a complex situation:
On the one hand, the dependence of the business on IT is increasing more and more. There are more and more critical services, greater demand for new technologies, the user receives apparently similar services at a lower price, the organization extends to customers, suppliers, etc.
Managed IT Service Cost
On the other hand, the difficult economic situation requires the IT manager to reduce costs while maintaining or even improving the quality of IT services. Especially in this pandemic situation.
When asked how can we reduce IT costs, the obvious answer is imposed: knowing IT costs.
It is, therefore, URGENT to identify, calculate and manage the costs associated with IT services in such a way as to make profitable management of the IT assets and resources used in the provision and support of said services.
For this, it is necessary to have the mechanisms and tools that allow the IT manager to “control the infrastructure” and “measure people… and suppliers”.
This control and measurement should be aimed at the following 3 areas: asset management, service management, and IT project management.
Asset Management
Asset management allows us to answer the following questions: What do we have? Where is it? How much is it costing us? Does it have maintenance? Should it be updated? Is it working properly? What service or business process supports?
80% of the IT budget is dedicated to day-to-day operations. It seems clear that more efficient and effective management of IT operations through the introduction of a series of activities, structured as processes or not, depending on the size of the IT department, has to help us reduce this budget.
We talk about incident management, problems, configuration (asset management is a subset), changes, etc.
70% of IT projects do not meet Gartner’s deadline, cost, and quality targets. Correct planning that takes into account all the dimensions of the project is essential, as well as adequate monitoring and control that allows us to detect and react to cost deviations.
But how much the average cost?
Costs of course vary depending on the reputation of the service, the complexity of the work, the number of jobs, and so on.
However, if we take the average cost, roughly a managed service charges between $ 99- $ 199 / month. Prioritizing local services is important to keep costs down. If you live in Tacoma, contacting managed IT service Tacoma is a wise decision in order to make savings.
Finally, although the cost is essential when defining the service, in order to establish comparisons with other types of services external to the IT department, it is necessary to add two more characteristics: guarantee and utility.
If we do not do so, we run the risk of comparing pears with apples.
I insist, let’s choose the approach that best suits our needs but let’s tackle it urgently if we don’t want other departments and units of the organization to choose the way forward for us.
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