Your Bottom Line

   Your Bottom Line  

Managing the costs associated with technology can be overwhelming.  SDN has compiled some resources that can help justify telecommunications expenses and determine trends to help plan for future expenditures.

  

Resources: 

  • See just how much money a VoIP system can save your small business by using the IP Office Quick Calc Tool at www.avaya.com/ipofficeroi

 

  • Quality of Service (QoS) with MPLS connectivity can save your company's resources. Click here for the free white paper that will help you learn more.

 

 

 

 

Nine Things a CFO should know about the IT budget:

Read the full article from "The Four Hundred" online by Irwin Teodoro, January 4, 2010.

1.) Your IT employees know that traditional ROI thinking won't work anymore for a CFO. Return on investment is how much money you're going to give back to the company. Let's face it. Most IT projects--no matter how compelling--don't bring "return" to the organization. Projects should be thought of in terms of total cost of ownership (TCO). IT can demonstrate this by providing the lowest cost, provide options, comparisons, case studies, and examples.

  • 2.) You know that private customer records or sensitive financial data shouldn't be "in the cloud." That's why IT wants to incorporate cloud or managed services for tactical, not strategic, applications. It can be a cost saver.
  • 3.) How does IT justify the cost of Server Virtualization to a CFO? IT will provide accurate savings estimates upfront, run a formal assessment before asking for funds, and collect real-world usage statistics to build an accurate business case. Using Server Virtualization can save the budget from overspending on multiple server purchases. IT may be able to re-purpose older servers to maximize investment-again, a cost saver.
  • 4.) Desktop Virtualization can extend the typical three-year desktop refresh cycle, reduce operating costs for support, maintenance and upgrades, and reduce subsequent year capital expenditures.
  • 5.) There's a new wave of Storage Virtualization products. They can lower capital spending by up to 90 percent.
  • 6.) Risk Management, Disaster Recovery, and Business Continuity should be a part of the IT-centric CFO's business planning and budget process early on. The IT department can help you plan.
  • 7.) $29 billion is collectively used to power and cool IT infrastructure.
  • 8.) IT manifests around $2,400 a server and $40,000 a rack at $1,000 a square foot.
  • 9.) Modular data centers are becoming a way to cut costs. Google and other major players are starting to look to this model to avoid building and construction costs. The use of managed or hosted services and modular data centers can reduce capital expenses with incremental expansion. It can also bring about 40 percent lower cooling costs in one-eighth the space.

Knowing more about the IT budget can help a CFO plan for future expenses, future savings and a better budget. It's important to include the IT team when considering the TCO of a project.

Whether you're a CFO, a CEO or an IT professional, SDN Communications can help start that discussion to make the budget and planning process easier.

Call 800-247-1442 or click here to contact us today.

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