The last recession has trained IT departments to do more with less, and that strategy won’t change any time in the near future. IT teams should be continuously thinking about how to reduce IT costs, improve ROI and potentially also enhance employee productivity and network performance. Sometimes, making an initial investment in a solution can bear significant benefits down the road, and other times investments are simply necessary to keep the network up and running. With that in mind, the seven strategies include:

1. Know what you’re spending – Start by getting a handle on what you’re spending now. A lot of companies simply pay the bills they receive without reviewing them carefully. Take a very wide view of what you consider “costs.” It’s not just paying for monthly Internet access, look on employee expense reports, for example, to see what Internet services they have purchased without your knowledge.

Another place to look is on contracts IT teams and others within the company have signed. Sometimes, well-meaning executives sign a contract for a product or service that saves money in the beginning, but gives the vendor the right to bill the company seemingly into perpetuity. Then the executive leaves and no one remembers why the company purchased the service, but figure they are locked in and continue paying. 

2. Integrate printers – Printers often proliferate in an office faster than any other device. Review who needs to print, scan and fax – how much and when. Never forget that the $120 all-in-one device with inkjet technology seems cheap, until you factor in that the cost per page to print is exponentially higher than with a more expensive laser printer.

3. Take a new look at Internet access – Do you really need that T-1 line? Would two bonded DSL lines or a fractional T-1 line provide similar service and redundancy for a lot less money? Does it make sense to bundle Internet access with telephony and other services? 

4. Get a handle on telephony charges – Well-meaning employees may turn to Skype (News - Alert) to save money, until they call overseas and charges go out of sight, for example. Between traditional telephony providers, such as AT&T, telephony resellers and the abundance of IP providers available, IT teams should be able to negotiate very favorable rate plans.

5. Look at wireless alternatives – Is there a company-wide policy for wireless charges, or does every employee have their own plan and expect the company to pay? And, does the company maximize 3G-4G/WiFi (News - Alert) convergence; i.e., do wireless devices automatically switch to less expensive WiFi whenever possible? Are company devices tied to single WiFi provider or aggregators such as Boingo (News - Alert) or iPass?

6. Think again about how your employees work – Many employees want to work at home today, and a lot of companies accommodate this through groupware solutions such as SharePoint. Yet groupware costs can quickly add up. There are numerous solutions from Dropbox (News - Alert) to Google Docs that provide many groupware features for significantly reduced costs or for free. However, IT teams have to vet the security of groupware services to ensure they protect not just their company’s IP, but the IP of customers, partners and others that may reside on the company’s servers.

7. How often do you update your security and where is security located – In addition to firewalls and endpoint protection, IT teams increasingly need to think about anti-malware strategies; i.e., solutions to identify where malware originated, which files it’s attacking and when. This allows IT teams to continuously customize and update their security infrastructure.

IT teams can address many of these issues themselves, but for some of the more complex concerns, such as ensuring the optimal security infrastructure, teams should consider bringing in outside expertise. This approach will ensure that these seven issues are addressed quickly and as professionally as possible, freeing the IT team for other projects.

Robert Messinger is Executive Vice President of Sales and Operations, and co-founding partner-owner of Vector Resources, Inc.

Vector Resources designs, implements and maintains integrated voice, video and data networks for Fortune 500 companies, global shipping and logistics companies, large urban school districts, major research hospitals, and all varieties of small and medium-sized businesses.Founded in 1988, Vector is today one of the fastest-growing systems integration firms in the United States.

Mr. Messinger leads the company's Sales and Operations teams. He is a project-oriented operations management professional with more than 20 years of experience successfully directing broad areas of sales, general management, and business operations within Vector's fast-paced, high-technology environment.  He may be reached at [email protected].