Published June 2003

From software to toner,
tips to stretch IT dollar

By Tom Schreier
Guest Columnist

All across the country — and the county — company budgets have been cut, and for IT, the growth during the late 1990s is but a distant memory. But all is not lost. Businesses can take advantage of the situation — and save money in the process — by re-evaluating their goals and being open to new ideas.

For example, a major cost for any company is its employment-related expenses. During the tech boom, many companies switched to using consultants for everything possible, which made great sense, as it was almost impossible to get quality staff unless you had millions in stock options to offer.

Now, however, it is easy to find great resources — for less. Evaluate what you’re paying for a rent-a-tech, check out any of the tech job sites or newspaper classifieds. You might be able to save by actually hiring a full- or part-time employee.

Next comes the hardware costs. Just like buying a car, it seems that as soon as you unpack that new server, you see an ad for the next best thing. To save a little buyer’s remorse and some real dollars, let’s look at what can be done.

First, if you have recurring maintenance costs or service contracts, dust off the magnifying glass and re-read the fine print. If you are able to renegotiate, most vendors are willing to give more than in the past. A friend of mine was just able to knock off about 30 percent from his annual bill. He was even able to get some new hardware in place of some outdated equipment — and this was with a major network hardware provider.

Other ideas for saving dollars and getting better performance:

• Survey your current server and desktop hardware. Instead of just buying a new box, find out if you can upgrade some of the internal components. A newer CPU and more RAM can easily be added to most machines. While it won’t be the same as a brand new box, it will be cheaper than buying new hardware.
• If you find that you need new hardware, look into using local vendors. Most local vendors still sell hardware that is interchangeable while many of the big-name hardware providers are selling boxes that are not easily upgraded without vendor approval (and markup). For ease of replacement, there is peace of mind in knowing that if your hardware fails, you can pull the bad component out of another machine, or drive five minutes for the replacement. Even the best support from the big providers can take hours. Factor in how often your hardware actually fails, and that extra $300 or more in savings might not be the bargain it looked like.
• Most folks don’t view software as a consumable, like we do with toner cartridges and ballpoint pens. But how often do we upgrade to some new version of the latest and greatest productive suite? Do your employees and co-workers actually use all of the features of product XYZ? If you end up upgrading, just to stay compatible with others, you might want to look at converters and other tools to read different formats. For example Microsoft has readers and converters so you can read PowerPoint files without needing PowerPoint installed on your machine. You would still need to have PowerPoint installed if you wanted to create or edit the files, but not all users need that ability. Most users will find they can do their job as well with older versions without the new cost and learning curve.
• Consumables such as toner can really add up, so the next time you go to buy a new printer, make sure to factor in the cost of the extras and not just the sticker price. My little laser printer at home, which has been working fine for years, will most likely get replaced the next time the toner runs out. It’s a waste, but the cartridges cost three times the amount of any other comparable model. I did a quick search and found a new printer that is faster and comes with one new toner — and costs less than just two toners for my current printer.

I hope these ideas will help stimulate even more ideas to save.

Tom Schreier is the Webmaster and network security analyst for the Herald. He can be reached by sending e-mail to schreier@heraldnet.com.

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