Remaining Ideas for 2008 Budget: Streamlining Your Business Operations and Maximize the Budget

As you are calculating your remaining budget for the end of the year and determining where to invest your money for your business need IT might not be your first thought. I have a few areas of interest that you may consider before you decide to sign on the bottom line. As you grow as a company a streamlined operational environment will enhance both your customers experience and also allow your staff to work more efficiently and effectively to handle your business. The way you streamline your business is through technology.

What I hear most as I have potential new clients contact me is that they do not have the cash flow to set-up the business environment that they would like and usually need. I am an IT Consultant and not a CPA so as I give you a few options below, please consult with your CPA before making a decision. However here are some ideas as we approach the end of the year on how to give you the lowest cost of procurement along with increasing your total cost of ownership.

1. Leasing – You need to update your office with new Desktops, but the amount that you need to update goes over your remaining budget. So to increase your quantity you are considering decreasing your quality. STOP!! I guarantee that it will cost you more in long run with an employee unable to perform their task due to their workstation being down than the initial cost of procurement of the desktop. However if cash flow is a problem than considering leasing. Most Vendors and most Partners of those Vendors have a way for you to lease new hardware. According to the new tax deduction limits for equipment set out in section 179 of the US tax code, in some cases as much as 100% of the equipment cost, up to a specified limit, can be immediately deducted from your taxable income. More importantly this allows you to run your business on quality hardware rather than “I hope it turns on and doesn’t freeze up” hardware.

2. Economic Stimulus Bill – What other savings or laws are there that can help you use a portion of that remaining budget to streamline your business through technology? The Economic Stimulus Bill expires 12/31/2008. Back on February 13th, President Bush signed the ‘Economic Stimulus Bill’ into law. The key component to this bill affecting businesses was the expansion of "bonus depreciation". This allowed investments in tangible property, computer software or improvements to leased property to be more speedily depreciated, adding to a ‘business' tax savings.

3. Application Development - There are many times that you can streamline your operations with the current hardware that you have already in your environment. Usually it is getting the multiple software applications that run your financial, supply management, and customer relationship software that does not communicate between themselves. There are many Partners that have an application development service that their focus is to get your business software talking in one language that everyone can use. This allows you to enter the information once and move on to the next project or customer call.

4. PLAN AHEAD: You have gotten to the end of the year, but your budget is exhausted. You would like to streamline your operations, but you are afraid if you call in an IT Consulting Firm you will receive phone calls and high pressure sales people. Now I cannot talk to every Partner out there, however the majority of us focus more on keeping your business for the long term than one sale. Even if you have an IT staff it is important that you have a good IT Consulting Partner. Your IT staff is focused on your operations today and delivering on your business. Let your IT Partner help you set a vision for your business operations and initiatives to get you there. This way when you do sign the huge client that you have been trying to land for years; your business will be able to support them without any lag time.

I hope I have given you some ideas as you move into the end of the 2008 and the beginning of 2009. Streamlining your business operations with IT will allow you to work more efficiently and effectively while increasing your customer satisfaction levels and the retention rate of your staff. It is proven and not just the opinion of what could appear as a bias of an IT Consultant. I hope each of you have a happy and successful holiday season!