Information technologies have ceased to seem like something new and unknown, as it was several years ago; blind adherence to fashion and the principle of “the main thing is to implement, and then we’ll figure it out” has passed. The realization such technologies are necessary to ensure the normal functioning of modern companies, and led many to the question of assessing their economic efficiency.

Achieving the maximum benefits from the use of an information structure in an enterprise directly depends on the level of cost management for information technology throughout the entire life cycle of the system. The concept of IT cost management includes the processes of their planning, accounting, analysis and control, and its purpose is to reduce the indicators characterizing costs and expenses.

There are many proven ways to reduce IT costs. Let’s consider just a few that allow you to really reduce IT costs in the interval from the first to the fourth quarters.

An effective way to reduce the total cost of ownership of an enterprise IT infrastructure is to save on CALs. The use of open source software (OPO), due to the specifics of licenses, will also reduce TCO. OPO CALs can be either free, or (if they come with a server license) that you no longer need to pay for after purchase. Another advantage of OPO, which allows significant savings, is the absence of license fees during the entire period of ownership.  Many business are also trying Saas on their system to reduce the expenses on pro tools. Saas Community is a platform where you can learn more about this strategy. 

The costs consist only of paying for the required amount of technical support, and the license can always be canceled if it is no longer needed. All this gives at least a twofold savings. The total cost of ownership of IT infrastructure (TCO) is usually quite high. However, in the structure of information technology costs of enterprises, as a rule, mandatory, “operational” costs for maintaining the functioning of existing systems, for communications, salaries of IT service personnel, etc. dominate. 

These costs usually reach 70% of the IT budget, and only less than 30% is spent on investments in the development of IT assets, the creation of new systems and the implementation of strategic projects that open up new business opportunities.

And if the IT service sets the task not only to “master” the IT budget, but to get the maximum return for the business from the implementation of projects, then it faces the question of the optimal distribution of investments in projects. 

Therefore, reducing the cost of ownership of IT infrastructure is an important task. After all, if you competently approach this issue, assessing the company’s real needs for IT resources and the costs of its maintenance, then the savings can be up to 50%, and sometimes even more. 

This is a significant amount, the release of which will allow the company to optimize its IT infrastructure, open promising business projects and ultimately shorten the cycle of new products to the market, improve their quality, change prices more flexibly, and so on; thus, the company will have new opportunities and ways of development even in conditions of fierce competition.

Long-term investments in infrastructure can also be carried out with the aim of changing key business processes. For example, Aeroflot invested heavily in upgrading the IT infrastructure required to move to a new ticket booking system, which subsequently allowed the airline to become a member of the international SkyTeam alliance.