Does Outsourcing Mean IT Cost Reduction

Any business worth its salt will have a close eye on reducing costs at all times. One area that presents a particular challenge here is IT. Keeping data and infrastructure safe is important but so is having the appropriate software and services in place to help your business work productively and safely.

But is outsourcing the answer to all your worries and does it deliver an IT cost reduction?

At Cyan Solutions, we take a closer look.

What is IT Outsourcing?

Back in the old days, any business setting up would need to get an IT infrastructure in place, usually on site. Large corporations spent millions developing IT support services that could handle everything from computer setup to internal server issues.

Gradually, over the last ten years, third party suppliers of IT services have become increasingly popular. These have developed mainly as a result of our improved connectivity. It means you can set up a remote IT service element which operates separately from your business but delivers all the expertise and technical support that you need on a day to day basis.

The Benefits of IT Outsourcing

There are numerous advantages of using a third-party IT support service. The first is that you get the expertise you need on demand. If you were employing an in-house IT team it could cost you thousands of pounds a year just for one person. Not only that, you might not get the full expertise that your business really needs.

Outsourced IT companies provide services to many different clients which means they are able to take on a wide range of experts to help solve particular problems.

If you have a small to medium size business and are looking to grow, developing a plan for your IT to meet your needs can be a huge challenge. Outsourcing enables you to scale up and down as and when you need it. As long as you find a flexible and responsive partner, you can quickly alter your service and tailor it closely to your requirements.

The truth is that we live in a fast-paced world when it comes to technology. It was only about 15 years ago when most people connected to the internet via a clumsy dial-up connection and just over 10 years since the first smartphone hit the shops and broadband started to become such an indispensable thing in our lives.

When you think about how much has changed, and how much we take our connectivity for granted, you begin to see the developments that could come in the next few years. It’s important to keep up and ensure your business has the IT support it needs. This can often only be delivered through effective outsourcing nowadays.

IT Cost Reduction: What It Means for Your Business

Businesses require much more IT support than someone with a simple home broadband connection. Speed, for example, may well be a priority for your business. Your cybersecurity needs are going to be of a higher level and your access to software will essentially determine how productive you are able to be.

IT cost reductions and savings come from a number of areas when using outsourcing:

  • You can tailor your IT provision to suit your needs, depending on the budget you have.
  • You can use money saved in employing in-house IT experts to further develop your business.
  • You can scale your IT support to suit your needs, improving it as your customer base and business grows.
  • You get to rent the top talent you need only when you need it. If there’s a specific problem with your IT infrastructure or a challenge ahead, you hire the expertise you require for a specific time at a fraction of the cost.
  • Outsourcing your IT service will also lead to cost reductions because your business is better protected. Your IT support will ensure you remain on top of the latest threats, reducing the risk of your systems being compromised. That in turn should boost your reputation as a safe company to deal with.
  • An outsourced IT service can also help you improve productivity by making sure you have the appropriate software in place for your business needs.

Finding the Right IT Partner

Of course, the big challenge here is finding the IT support service that not only delivers on your current business needs but helps you plan for the future. At Cyan Solutions, we have the experts onboard who can make a real difference to your growth and future security.

Whether it’s cybersecurity, IT support, a virtual CIO or cloud services, we ensure your business stays connected, safe and productive at a cost you can afford. Contact our expert team today to find out how we can help transform your business.

Is Your IT Spending Under Control?

There’s no doubt that IT spending is one of the most important outgoings that any business has to control. Many companies, however, don’t have a full handle on their budget in this area. Neither do they understand if what they have is suitable for their business in the first place.

Some business spend too much, others have set their budget way to low. Finding the happy medium that delivers everything you need is a challenge but certainly worth the effort.

Deciding Your Budget

There are a number of different factors that will affect the percentage of your budget that you spend on IT. These include:

  • The sector you operate in. Banks tend to devote 7.16% on IT, according to Deloitte. The building sector can be as low as 1.5 % and the average is around 3.3%.
  • The cybersecurity environment can have an impact on spending. In recent years, following a number of high-profile breaches, many high-risk companies have upped their IT budget by as much as 50%.
  • The size of your business and the budget available is, of course, going to determine quite a bit.
  • The truth is, however, that many companies are underspending on their IT and potentially missing the opportunities that the latest developments have to offer.

IT covers a much wider range of assets than many businesses realise. It’s more than just cybersecurity and operating platforms. Your IT spending also includes the hosting package you have for your website, your phones, the cloud services you use, as well as the software packages that help you deliver your business goals, including your CRM and packages such as Office 365.

If you’re a small business, your IT spending can be spread over a bunch of different areas which makes it difficult to keep track of.

How to Control Your IT Spending

The first thing you need to do is carry out an audit and list everything that you use and how much it costs you. Many SMBs don’t have a clearly defined budget for everything under the IT umbrella and it can be quite eye-opening once they discover what they spend.

1. Look at IT as an Investment

Do you think IT is a necessary evil? Then think again.

The mistake that many companies make is not understanding that IT forms the central spine around which the rest of their business operates. Changing how you view IT is important because it can open up new areas of investigation and ensure you make more productive choices when it comes to the services you employ.

For instance, cybersecurity is an investment not only in your own business but your customers as well. The last thing you want is for their data to be stolen and your reputation damaged. Better collaboration tools that your staff are able to access are also an investment because they improve their productivity which in turn boosts your bottom line.

Stop thinking ‘what do I need’ and start exploring the possibilities that IT solutions can deliver.

2. Create an IT Budget

You may be surprised at the number of businesses that don’t have a separate IT budget. Unless you do, you won’t be able to control your IT spending even in a very basic sense. A clearly defined budget helps you keep track of spending and gives you the chance to decide if you want to put more in particular areas of your operation.

3. Focus More on Productivity

The key to successful IT budgeting is to look at it from a productivity viewpoint. There are many software solutions and cloud-based services that may improve the performance of your business and these are developing all the time. For example, the growth of AI help and support services in recent times could take pressure off your staff and increase customer loyalty because the most popular queries are being answered with little or no time delay.

4. Be Strategic

Finally, it’s no use increasing or lowering your budget unless you are doing it for a reason. It may be pertinent to your business to cut costs but IT is generally not the best area to do this. You always need a good plan and it pays to discuss your options with an IT service provider that understands your needs.

At Cyan Solutions, we can help you better develop your IT spending and keep it under control while really delivering for your business. We provide IT support, cybersecurity solutions, virtual CIO and cloud based services that can really help transform productivity at a price you can afford. Contact our expert team today to find out more.

IT Budget Planning Mistakes You Should Avoid

There’s no telling when rising costs can start to get the better of your business. That’s why it’s vital to make sure you budget properly. That goes whether you are a small business with just a few employees or a large corporation with thousands.

If you’re a company that wants to stay ahead of its competitors, one thing you will certainly need to focus on is your IT budget planning. It’s pivotal to ensure you are able to deliver great services to your customers and provide the tools that your staff need to promote your business and drive it forward.

It’s not all plain sailing, however. There are plenty of pitfalls that can siphon off elements of your budget, leaving less for more important areas of your business. To help out, the team at Cyan Solutions have put together a list of the top budgeting mistakes you will want to avoid.

1. Not Fully Understanding Your Needs

Whether you are planning a digital transformation, want to up your cybersecurity posture or simply want to migrate your business operation to the cloud, understanding what each move entails and why you are doing it is important.

Many of the businesses we come across, treat their IT as a piecemeal thing rather than a series of interconnected dots that create a whole. Before you go about IT budget planning, your first step is to list the components of your current provision and decide what purpose each serves. Then you can begin to look at what you want to add to make your business more secure, more productive or more efficient.

Aligning your IT needs with your business needs is imperative. Making sure that your tech spend is heading in the right direction to support growth and revenue is not always an easy thing to do, however.

2. Budgeting and Timeline

This is a common issue with many businesses operating on a fairly restricted budget. It can mean you end up budgeting from month to month rather than looking at 1 year, 2 year or even a 5-year projection. That also means you are unlikely to have an IT budget in place that can help service you if you intend to grow. Try to see as far ahead as possible and understand what your costs are and how you are going to meet them.

3. Not Being Ready for Changes

It’s all well and good spending money on new technology but a huge mistake businesses make is not ensuring they are good to go when it is finally in place. An example of this would be if you were planning to migrate your operational procedures and other IT to the cloud so that it can be accessed securely from anywhere. If you haven’t trained your staff for using this new approach and you haven’t considered other issues such as your online security, you could be wasting money and not delivering a decent ROI from the outset.

Moving to the cloud has more benefits than simply cost savings and businesses need to be aware of this while deciding what their priorities are. If you are a company that has busier periods during the year (for example, Christmas), being able to up your capacity at this time can be of huge benefit and that’s something moving to the cloud can facilitate.

4. Choosing the Wrong Software License Plan

Software-as-a-Service, or SaaS, subscription licensing (eg SalesForce, Microsoft Office 365, Google Apps) has now become the norm for most companies. What businesses often fail to do, however, is understand their actual license needs, which often means they over commit and, inevitably, overspend. A team of sales people, for example, will have very different needs to teams working in operations or finance. Some users may just need access to online tools, others will need the full suite of features. Identifying which license plan suits each role in your business could save you significant costs in the long term.

5. Tech and Value

It can be tempting to get the latest bit of tech, just because everyone else is doing it or because you’ve seen an ad somewhere. Business owners looking to improve their efficiency or add value to their customers, bring in new technological solutions without truly understanding whether they are adding value or not.

On the other side of this is making sure that the software and IT services you are currently using are actually still providing value for money. For businesses, especially smaller ones, this can be a difficult balancing act to get right, especially if they have new technology that impacts on the performance of older software.

In a rapidly changing world where new tech is appearing almost daily, it is difficult for businesses to keep up. While sticking with tried and tested solutions can seem financially sensible, there always comes a point where that more advanced technology has to be given some breathing room.

At Cyan Solutions, we provide a range of IT support and services for businesses across the UK. If you’d like to find out how we can help support your next round of IT budget planning, contact the team at Cyan today.

What is Your IT Strategy?

Technology has revolutionised the way we do business. It’s so much easier to start up a company in the first place and innovations such as remote working and productivity software are making it viable for business owners to not only achieve their goals but scale up quicker than ever before.

Having new tech at your disposal, however, and knowing how to use it are two different things.

Here we take a look at how developing a strong IT strategy is vital in order to power any business into the future.

What is IT Strategy?

You’ll have a strategy for your business including goals you want to achieve and when you want to achieve them. Your IT strategy is all about the technical support and the tools you require to achieve these aims.

It may be something as simple as your internet connection or the virus security you have in place to protect both your business and your customers. It is likely nowadays to be more complex, including how you use the cloud and software packages together to deliver your services and enable employees to operate productively.

How to Create an IT Strategy

The problem with IT strategies is that businesses don’t often understand how they work and what the benefits are. Whether you are an established company or a new venture, it pays to do your research and find out what you really need.

That includes forming a relationship with an IT provider who not only understands those needs but has access to the latest technology and best practice.

1. Your Business Goals

The first thing that you need to get nailed down are your business goals and how these are going to be implemented in the future. These can include sales performance and targets, growth and action plans for the future and areas where you want to build relationships with other businesses.

You need to align everything in your future business development with an IT strategy that helps you achieve your goals as efficiently as possible.

2. Stakeholders and Your IT Roadmap

The next stage is to develop a roadmap and get individual stakeholders involved. Stakeholders are the managers and technical people in your business who are going to help deliver your IT strategy. They can include the IT company that you choose to bring on board but largely they are the people in your business who will monitor and liaise with that service to deliver the desired results.

3. What Your IT Currently Delivers

Unless you are a start-up, you will already have IT in place. It’s important to look at this closely. What works and what doesn’t?

There are lots of questions you need to ask here, not least what technology you are currently using and how it works for your employees and your business. Are there ways to do things better or does your current provision deliver what you need?

This involves thinking critically about all aspects of your IT delivery. It’s important to identify areas where things can be improved and where savings and productivity can be maximised.

4. Allocation and Software

Next, you need to put together the software that you will be using and organise how this is going to be allocated throughout your business. It’s important to consider how everything fits together with any IT strategy.

It’s no use having different software and IT components that work against each other and the more of an overview you can achieve the better. It’s a good idea to keep all activity and software information together in one spreadsheet where you can see how everything interacts and what it delivers.

5. Measure Performance

The last thing you need is an IT strategy that doesn’t work and fails to meet your requirements. It’s important, therefore, to measure performance. If you’ve done all the previous steps well, this will be a relatively easy process and putting key metrics and KPIs in place should be a formality.

All too often, businesses look at their IT as a fragmented set of tools that are more a marriage of convenience than a bona fide strategy. The true aim of a strong IT strategy is to bring all your technological resources under one umbrella where they work together and deliver real benefits for your business.

If you want inspiring IT solutions, Cyan Solutions can help. Discover how developing your IT strategy will make a huge difference to the growth and the future of your company. Contact us today to find out more.

Tips for Finding the Best IT Consulting Solutions

It can be difficult staying up-to-date with the latest advances in technology or understanding how these can benefit your business if they are implemented. Most business owners don’t completely understand what a managed IT solution can provide or how it fits in with the way their company currently runs.

There are also plenty of companies offering IT consulting solutions ‘tailored’ to your needs out there, each promising the earth. But which one should you chose? How do you separate the worthwhile IT consultants from the ones that are likely to hold your business back?

Your IT partner can make a huge difference to the success or failure of your business and how competitive it is. Here are our tips for finding the right company:

1. Understand What You Need

You need to be able to match the services on offer to complement your business activities. Take a look at your short and long term goals and then find out what IT consulting solutions are going to benefit these.

You might want high levels of security because of the kind of data you handle, or services that constantly monitor your threat status and automatically provide solutions. You may want to introduce new cloud services so that your staff are able to perform more productively.

2. Take Your Time

Finding the best IT consultant to work with can take time. There are lots of options online and you shouldn’t rush, or allow yourself to be rushed, into picking this company or that company. It’s better to take some extra time, including having a cooling off period before you finally decide, to ensure you get the best partner for the future development of your business.

3. Look for Expertise

The best IT consulting solutions are the ones that have a range of expertise available. You rarely get this from one person businesses – they can be stretched for time and certainly won’t have the level of knowledge you are looking for. You should check not only the number of staff they have on board but what their specialisations are.

It’s important to interview your prospective IT consultancy and find out all you can about them. Check for online reviews and ask for referrals.

4. Does It Fit Your Needs

If you’ve made a list of what you are looking for as a business, done your due diligence and matched up the various services you require, the final thing you need to decide is whether the IT service meets your needs and ticks all the right boxes. Some extra areas to consider are how long they have been operating and whether they are able to respond to your changing needs.

IT Consulting Solutions: Why Choose Cyan?

At Cyan we pride ourselves in being a flexible, high tech solution for today’s modern businesses. We offer a range of different services that can be tailored to your needs. If you want to start small and cover just a few areas of IT support, we can certainly help with that. The good news is that our provision is scalable – which means, as your requirements change, so can our service.

We work closely with our customers to identify the areas where they need support. Here are just some of the things we can help your business with:

Managed IT Support: For many businesses, IT can take up much more time than they have to offer internally. A managed IT solution basically takes the weight off your shoulders and provides the full service and maintenance you need at a cost you can afford.

Cyber Security: Safety of data is probably the biggest worry that businesses have nowadays. Your success depends on having a secure eco-system, protecting your from both financial and reputational damage. At Cyan, our expert team helps put in all the processes that protect your business, including managed firewalls and anti-virus software that is fit for purpose.

Cloud Services: More and more businesses are using the cloud to deliver flexibility and agility for their employees. Our subscription-based services mean that you can keep control of the costs and give your staff the tools they need to achieve your goals.

Virtual CIO Consultancy Services: Most businesses don’t have the finances to employ a Chief Information Officer on site. Our virtual service means that you can access the latest advice and technology to drive your business forward at a fraction of the cost.

IT consulting solutions can be complicated and are challenging to get right. If your business is looking for a partner that can deliver tailored services and grow and scale as you develop, contact the team at Cyan today.

Embrace New Technology with an IT Transformation Strategy

Often, businesses can stick with the same tried and trusted methods or operational approaches because their staff are either comfortable with them or it just seems too much work to change.

It can sometimes take a catastrophic event such as the loss of a client or a data breach before CEOs and business owners decide to take a deeper look at their current IT services. The truth is your business should not be waiting for such an event. It pays to be proactive and to look at the options long before anything goes wrong.

Engaging in an IT transformation strategy will not only improve your security online but make your business more productive and competitive in today’s fast-paced world. Here’s what you need to know.

What is an IT Transformation Strategy?

IT transformation may seem like an option which you can take or leave, depending on your business. It’s actually a necessity and most leading companies except it now.

If you want your business to perform on a level playing field with your competitors or you are planning to grow in the future, your IT transformation strategy should be an ongoing process, not a one-off change in your business operation that you implement when all else fails.

An IT transformation strategy could include:

  • Introducing new elements such as cloud-based services that allow employees to operate more productively
  • Bringing in software and operating systems that help you deliver better services to customers than you do now
  • Boosting online security so that you better protect data and information processing for your business

IT transformation may already be part of the your business process, especially if you are a start-up where the latest technology can provide you with a competitive edge. One of the barriers that often sits in the way of transformational change for older, existing companies, however, is the cost.

On-demand services and outsourcing are a lot more cost effective than many business owners think. The biggest challenge is generally getting other people on board rather than switching to new technology that offers a good ROI in the long-term.

The Benefits for Your Business

If it’s not broke, don’t fix it. That’s the popular mantra many business owners tend to dance to. Unfortunately, that can mean being stuck with outdated IT systems and even avoiding products that could improve performance.

For example, switching to cloud-based services means that your staff can access your software wherever they are in the world. You might have sales teams out in the field, who will be able to use their smartphones or tablets to give prospective clients up-to-date information. Cloud computing gives you the opportunity to install software that enables different teams to work closely together even if they are not in the same office or location, sharing documents and setting goals more efficiently.

Your IT transformation strategy will also include boosting cybersecurity. We’re under more threat than ever before from hackers and those with malicious intent. Updating your IT security is vital if your business wants to combat these threats and remain safe in the modern environment, especially if you are availing yourself of cloud services or bringing in new, high-tech software.

According to Hiscox, small businesses are subject to some 65,000 different cyber attacks each day and actual breaches cost on average £27,000 to put right.

Challenges in Implementing an IT Transformation Strategy

If you decide that an IT transformation strategy is the way forward for your business, there are certain challenges you are going to face. Employees can be resistant to change of any kind, believing that it presents a threat to their jobs. Particularly in an age where AI is delivering automation software that can do repetitive tasks and even answer customer queries better than a human being, this is likely to be an issue in most companies.

The key to successfully bringing on board an IT transformation strategy is not just convincing your staff that it’s important, making their lives better, but how it benefits your company in becoming more competitive and productive in the marketplace.

That’s not always easy if you don’t understand our rapidly improving technology, especially if IT is not your strong point. Staff may need to learn new ways of working, might even have to change jobs altogether, so it’s important to get buy-in from teams.

Working together with an IT service that not only understands your business but can communicate effectively makes a big difference. They may suggest introducing updates and new IT infrastructure gradually so that your employees and teams can gradually get used to things. If major changes are required, they will be able to show how disruption can be minimised and how staff can be effectively brought on board. Simplified processes can also make adoption much easier and transitions more seamless.

If you are searching for IT support that is tailored to your needs and meets the demands of modern businesses, contact the team at Cyan today to find out more.

Reasons to consider remote working

More and more companies have workers who work remotely. Now more than ever, organisations are embracing the benefits of remote working for their employees and their company. It enables workers a greater level of control over how they work and increases their motivation and job satisfaction. This in turn leads to an exponential increase in productivity rates. However, many companies are still averse to offering employees the flexibility to carry out their tasks in flexible geographic locations. So, what are the reasons to consider remote working?

Remote working enables employees to be flexible about where they carry out their day to day duties. Whether employees decide to skype into the office from a remote desert island or their bedroom at home, it makes little difference so long as they have an active internet link and can access the files and applications which they require to do their job.

When we talk about remote working, it’s important to note that we are not necessarily talking about a finite thing. Sometimes remote working means being permanently away from an organisation’s headquarters, whereas in other cases it may just mean working from home once or twice a week.

Remote working is a big topic of conversation right now, because of the development of cloud based software enabling remote workers as much functionality at home as in the office. Moreover, project management and task tracking software also monitors key deliverables.

Encourages good communication

Remote working has been shown to actively encourage better communication between employees. Working remotely out of the office doesn’t mean that employees are not in contact with one another. On the contrary, remote workers often make a concerted effort to be available and are able to do so by connecting via phone, skype, email and other messenger options and chat apps. Such communication may not occur so naturally whilst in the office.

Results in happier workers

Choice, freedom and flexibility for workers to choose where and how they want to work results in happier workers. Being able to work flexibly is something that employees relish. Organising your own workflow and work-life balance is something which leads to higher productivity levels.

Reduces employee stress

Remote working gives employees more freedom to work to their own timetable, reducing stress levels by working at their own time and pace. This has a knock-on effect to the total business and by reducing stress and unhappiness in the office, it also leads to an overall improvement in office health and wellbeing.

Reduce office costs

Remote working also frees up office space and reduces energy usage. As a result, companies are free to invest this additional capital into other business activities, such as marketing and recruitment of new employees who can take advantage of the free desk space.

Cloud services are now a no-brainer. Our cloud solutions and managed IT support services are complemented by unrivalled customer care. We help you create an infrastructure where remote working across technology can be easily maintained.

Essential time-saving apps for SMEs

Running a medium-sized business efficiently can be a daunting task, especially where your position means you have to take on many different roles. Luckily there are vast numbers of productivity apps devoted to helping SME professionals optimise their time resource. If you’re struggling to co-ordinate your business tasks and would like some inside information about which time saving apps are best, read on!

Managing a business can be a very time-consuming commitment. It requires a lot of time and energy to ensure that crucial tasks are not forgotten. Being able to prioritise is not an easy ask when the buck stops with you and you have to deal with all the little details of running your business. Knowing the right tools to keep track of your work, tasks and finances can make a world of difference.

There are many productivity apps that can help here. The irony is that you probably don’t have the time to try them all out for yourself. So to make it easier, here is our run-down of essential time-saving apps for SMEs.

Asana

Developed by Facebook co-founder Dustin Moskovitz and ex-engineer Justin Rosenstein this app focuses in on improving employee productivity using social networks.  Asana is a web and mobile application which allows teams to keep track their own tasks and those of their colleagues. At its heart is collaboration, allowing teams to create a custom workspace for different projects, each with separate tasks and due dates as well as a tick box function where users can follow, comment, tag and upload attachments and other resources.

Trello

Trello is a project management app that allows you to keep track team workflows. It uses “cards” which represent different tasks and shows their status. You can add users, attachments, comments, due dates and checklists as well as resources to these cards. It’s great for managers who want to manage but don’t want to pester their teams.

My Minutes

My Minutes is a real eye opener. This is a really simple app which brings transparency to what you do with your time and how you waste it. It helps you to take control of the amount of time you waste on other tasks when you should be focussed on something else. You can set simple, achievable goals in the shape of time-constraints, e.g. “research new prospecting techniques for 30 minutes”. A great tool for remote workers and freelancers who work alone and get distracted by tv or facebook!

Slack

Slack is the professional instant messaging platform that is used by teams across the globe. It is the ideal way to encourage communication between team members within your organisation, and allows you to organise conversations on certain points into public channels in one space. It also makes it much easier for team members to share files and images quickly and avoids having to check a load of other different apps and platforms for updates. Great for teams and remote workers alike.  Slack is one thing it’s not!

Pushover

Pushover is a great app for medium sized businesses who have multiple phones and devices to keep track of. It sends push notifications to a chosen smartphone that organises messages and notifications into one specific place. Great for those who are hotdesking and aren’t always in the office to keep in the loop.

RescueTime

RescueTime is ideal for SME professionals who find themselves getting distracted easily. It breaks down where you spend your overall time across applications and websites and holds you accountable. You can the set productivity goals and limits to the amount of time you spend on each of these. It’s great for remote workers and anyone who wants to get out the door at 4 as opposed to 5.30!