It’s the thinking of many business owners that when business is good you ramp up your IT to improve the overall operation of the company. But, when business is down, you cut or freeze the IT budget. It’s worked for companies in the past, but the marketplace we’re experiencing in the energy services sector today is unlike the past. Your business succeeded in a historical recession, and so did your competitors, so what now?
You want to do more and give yourself a competitive advantage, but you’re not sure that it’s the right time to ramp up your IT. Getting it wrong could prove costly. Business is always a balancing act, so in order to get it right, SAP recently asked its customers, solution providers, and other experts to share their recommendations for how small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) can best manage their IT budgets today.
What they found were six common themes you don’t want to miss. Over the next few weeks, we’ll be bringing each of them to you here on our blog.
The first budget boosting theme that emerged is:
Embrace the Consumerization of IT
This is a trend that Gartner analysts predicted several years ago and it explains how companies can lower costs and improve productivity by capitalizing on popular consumer technology that their employees, customers and partners are already using. For example, smartphones, tablets, Web apps, social networks, mobile networks, and more.
Many employee-bought-and-owned smartphones and tablets are being used by your employees to get their work done anytime, anywhere. Savvy business owners recognize there is a strategic opportunity in consumerization.
With employees some or all of the bill for these devices, it leads to lower IT acquisition and maintenance costs. The workforce also becomes more productive because they enjoy the user experience. The secret to capitalizing on the benefits of consumerization is to actively embrace it. You have to be willing to give your employees more than mobile e-mail and documents, but critical information they need to do their jobs.
Take SAP’s Business One application for iPhones for example. It gives employees secure access to inventory and customer information. They can create reports and alerts, process approvals, and much more. SAP customers have access to their live data anytime, anywhere – whether they’re sitting at a desk in your office, in transit to the field, or billed out on an existing job site.
The result: Higher productivity, engagement and service levels. All while helping to cut down or eliminate device, software and network costs.
Stay tuned for the next post in this series, where we’ll dive into the second critical budget boosting theme – Sail to the Cloud!
