5 Tips For Reducing Expenses In Your Organization

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Technology has become an essential factor in almost every business operation and now business owners are looking for ways to reduce expenses in their IT departments, in order to achieve greater efficiency for less money.

To do that, as a business owner, the logical action would be to cut back on your IT costs, but it’s essential to avoid sacrificing efficiency when reducing expenses.  With that in mine, here are the top five tips and tricks to reduce expenses in your business without compromising its efficiency and/or destroying value:

  1.  If you’re a small business owner, try to find alternatives to your traditional telephone service; if you’re using a land-line or a regular cell phone, you can switch to VoIP service and virtual phone lines. There are many options available that provide provide great flexibility and excellent value for the money, not to mention a serious cost reduction when it comes to communications.
  2. Use open source software. This is an excellent alternative to the commercial mainstream applications, especially if you’re a small business. The software related costs may cripple your business, especially in its inception phase, and open source software is very attractive, because it’s free.
  3. Use cloud services, instead of investing lots of money in hardware/software, especially if you’re a small business. Also, you should determine what you really need, the latest high-tech services is not always necessary and it may cost you an arm and a leg. And if you decide to perform an audit of your existing computers, you may find an answer about what’s really necessary for your line of business, hence reducing your technology expenses.
  4. You can try to negotiate with your existing IT contracts because IT services vendors desire to keep their clients happy and on board for as long as possible. Keep in mind that the competition in this area is pretty tight and you can take advantage on that. You can proactively ask for discounts, freebies, cost reductions or even negotiate a customized plan. In the end, it’s important to ask if you want to get any advantages.
  5. Reduce expenses with online business training. Being a small business owner, you can’t afford to travel the world in order to expand your experience, to participate in live training /educational conferences and the like. But, in the Internet era, you can use online business training for you and your employees. There are lots of free online business training programs and you can use them from the comfort of your office or even at home. With these options available for ongoing training, the possibilities for you and your business are endless, and your costs related to training will be significantly reduced.

If your business is looking for Managed IT, Cloud Services, Consulting & Support Services, WheelHouse Solutions has a staff of experienced professionals to deliver outstanding results. We provide cost-efficient managed IT Services, backed by a professional IT Staff, with experience in multiple disciplines. Whether you’re looking to augment your existing IT staff, or if your business wants to outsource all your IT services, we have a flexible solution to meet your needs.  Feel free to contact us at 314-492-2506 or fill out the form on this page and someone will get back with you.

Five Ways Cloud Storage Solutions Can Improve Your Business

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Technology advances so quickly that you may become bewildered at all the options available to you. One of the choices you may find yourself making is the choice between traditionally stored data and cloud storage. You’re probably more familiar with traditional methods, but there are a few things you ought to know about cloud storage before making up your mind. One of them is how you can use cloud storage to improve your business practices and efficiency. Here are five ways cloud storage can help you do business more intelligently.

Safeguard Your Data

If a natural disaster hits your business, you won’t have to worry about losing all your projects if you’ve stored everything in the cloud. The physical components of cloud hosting are kept in several different locations and heavily protected for security. Similarly, you won’t have to worry about theft of valuable data. Security is easy; all you have to do is use strong passwords to prevent unauthorized access, and all your information will be untouchable.

Take Pressure Off Technical Staff

When you use cloud storage, your IT staff can stop worrying about taking care of data storage and focus on the other aspects of helping your business run smoothly. If you’re just starting up your business, also consider that the lessened data storage work may mean you can hire fewer technical people, reducing your overall operating costs.

Improve Public Image

Although it may soon become the norm and displace on-site servers almost entirely, cloud hosting today is a newer technology and therefore taking advantage of it can make your business look especially tech-savvy. This can give you a cutting edge which you can then use as a business advantage over your competition.

Reduce Hassle for All Employees

Because cloud storage solutions are so user-friendly, your employees will find it easier to accomplish their projects. You and your employees can access your data from any mobile device, which translates into the constant availability of work projects wherever your employees are. As you can imagine, this feature greatly increases the potential for productivity.

Improve Versatility and Flexibility

In addition to versatile access, cloud storage offers versatility in several other areas as well. For example, because cloud hosting is virtual, it doesn’t take up any space in your office. This allows you to make more efficient use of your space than ever before. In addition, it’s easier when you’re starting up a business because you don’t have to add acquiring the infrastructure for data storage to your start-up costs. Another way cloud storage offers flexibility is by allowing you to increase your storage without taking up more physical space or expending more money on enlarging your infrastructure.

These are just five of the many ways cloud storage can help your business thrive. As you can see, the many benefits it provides outweigh any possible downsides. If your dream is crafting an up-to-date business that stays ahead of the competition, cloud storage is one of the tools you can use to realize that goal.

WheelHouse Solutions provides fully managed IT infrastructure and applications, in cloud-enabled environments. By utilizing our managed cloud services, businesses can enjoy best of class service, rapidly provisioned hardware, middleware and outstanding support to meet their IT demands.

WheelHouse solutions also offer cloud hosting services, as well as a team of cloud service specialists to help our customers effectively manage their IT infrastructure.  Call us at 314-492-2506 to speak with one of our knowledgeable staff.