Companies depend more and more on technology for the development of their activity, however, a large part of them do not manage to adequately manage the costs arising from the acquisition and use of their IT assets. This is a problem, as many organizations, especially smaller ones, they are not capable of making their technological solutions profitable; to negotiate with suppliers to access the best offers; to buy only what they really need and, as a consequence, to ensure that technology adds real value to the business.
At this time, 54% of those responsible for technology at a global level (59% in Spain) consider that the optimization of IT costs is your biggest challenge when managing your technological assets; well above other challenges, such as acquiring knowledge about trends such as the cloud or artificial intelligence (39% in the world and in Spain) or implementation and migration to the cloud (34% in the world and 32% in Spain). Spain).
This is one of the main conclusions that can be drawn from the study. «How to control the new IT costs»carried out by Sapio Research for Crayon, in which the opinions of 2,050 decision makers from companies in 19 countries around the world are collected on different aspects related to the use and purchase of IT assets in their organizations.
According to the Crayon study, the situation of many companies is not the most appropriate when it comes to IT cost optimization. The reality is that many organizations do not know exactly how much they spend on hardware and software (46% globally and 52% in Spain) and only 36% of IT managers globally (31% in Spain) declare having visibility and full control over unused software licenses. Likewise, more than a third of those surveyed, both globally and in Spain, (37%) say they lack the necessary knowledge to optimize their spending in the cloud, and another third cite a lack of time to be able to obtain the best offers when negotiates with the different technology providers.
The lack of a global vision and, as a consequence, of control over IT costs is due, above all, to the speed of development and, at times, to the disorderly deployment of new technological solutions, especially software applications such as service (SaaS). Likewise, in an increasingly complex technological environment, companies lack the time and knowledge necessary to optimize their infrastructures, licensing structures, relationships with IT providers, etc. Finally, the high turnover of IT consultants or the lack of available personnel is also a factor that makes it difficult to implement strategic control over IT costs.
Despite this reality, managers are aware of the problem. Thus, 91% consider the optimization of their cost structure as a priority for their company (94% in Spain); 93% think they have room to optimize their IT costs (90% in Spain), and 17% (12% in Spain) say they need to completely review their cost infrastructure. In addition, 52% of the professionals asked said that their companies have already established some type of process and protocol to better control software licenses that are not used.
The convenience of having outside help
Faced with the challenge of regaining control of their technologies and their IT expenses, many organizations are choosing to seek the support of a partner specialized in IT asset management. Not surprisingly, 90% of the managers surveyed (89% in Spain) recognize that their company would benefit from the collaboration with an external partner to help break down costs and identify areas for optimization.
The results of having external help seem to be positive. Thus, those surveyed in the Crayon report who have sought a partner to negotiate with the different technology providers say that they have been able to save, on average, 24% (18% in Spain) on the cost of their licenses.
On the other hand, the exchange of knowledge on the optimization of cloud expenses is the area in which external consultants help their clients the most in the task of cost optimization (42% globally and 46% in Spain). A similar percentage (41%) of companies have engaged external consultants to gain insight into the broader technology vendor landscape, and 38% say they have worked with external partners to gain insight into business needs and gain visibility of its overall spending.
“This study shows that IT cost control is critical to business, especially in today’s inflation-ridden environment,” says Melissa Mulholland, CEO of Crayon. “Companies will always need technologies and software, but it is important that they are used appropriately so that they can bring innovation, efficiency and savings to their businesses.”
