Housing associations are under increasing pressure to maximise their return on investment (ROI) while managing limited budgets and complex technology environments. One area that can be particularly challenging is IT spend management, where organisations can struggle to identify areas for cost savings and improve budget planning.
In this blog, we'll discuss the challenges around cost optimisation and discuss how an IT outsourcer can help housing associations achieve better ROI.
The Challenges of IT Spend Management for Housing Associations
Managing budgets in this sector is a complex and time-consuming task and requires careful consideration of multiple factors. These include accurately evaluating the return on investment for technology investments, selecting the most cost-effective vendors and products, developing realistic forecasts to predict future needs, and aligning budgets with overall objectives.
Additionally, IT managers are tasked with monitoring expenses, keeping track of actual spending against budgeted amounts, addressing invoice discrepancies, and ensuring compliance with applicable laws and regulations.
This makes managing IT spend a daunting task, furthered due to limited budgets, complex technology environments, and a possibly a lack of in-house IT expertise. These challenges can hinder ROI and overall business success. For instance, without proper budget planning, housing associations may be forced to cut back on critical IT projects, leading to reduced productivity and efficiency.
The Benefits of Optimising IT Spend
Optimising IT spend can lead to several benefits for housing associations, including cost savings, improved efficiency and productivity, and better technology alignment with business goals. By identifying areas for cost savings and implementing cost-effective technologies, housing associations can reduce their IT spending while maintaining or even improving the quality of IT services provided. This, in turn, can lead to improved efficiency and productivity among employees and better alignment of technology with business goals.
How can this be achieved?
A simple way to achieve better IT spend management and cost optimisation is by outsourcing your IT services to a Managed Service Provider (MSP). An MSP can provide experience and expertise in areas such as budgeting, forecasting, vendor management, inventory management, technology procurement, contract negotiation and administration, invoice processing and payment, license compliance and auditing.
By outsourcing IT spend optimisation to a trusted partner, housing associations can benefit from the expertise of IT professionals who have the knowledge and skills to identify areas for cost savings and improve budget planning. IT outsourcers can help housing associations to conduct a comprehensive review of their IT infrastructure and operations to identify inefficiencies and areas for improvement. This review can include an assessment of hardware and software expenses, network and infrastructure costs, and maintenance and support expenses.
IT outsourcing can also provide access to the latest technology and tools, enabling housing associations to stay up-to-date with the latest industry trends. This can include the use of automation and artificial intelligence (AI) to streamline operations and reduce costs.
Additionally, an MSP can reduce the cost of scaling up or down with IT by providing access to economies of scale when it comes to obtaining hardware, software and licenses at competitive prices. This means that housing associations can benefit from lower costs while providing a high quality of IT service delivery. Furthermore, MSPs offer responsive support tailored to the specific needs of housing associations so they don't have to worry about outages or downtime impacting their operations.
In summary, an IT outsourcer can help optimise IT spend by conducting IT assessments to identify areas for cost savings, implementing cost-effective technologies, providing strategic IT planning and budgeting support, and offering ongoing cost monitoring and optimisation. By outsourcing IT spend optimisation, housing associations can leverage the expertise of experienced IT professionals and free up internal resources to focus on other business-critical areas.
Considerations When Choosing an IT Outsourcer for IT Spend Optimisation
When choosing an IT outsourcer, housing associations should consider several key factors, including experience and expertise, proven track record, cultural fit and alignment with the organisation's goals, and communication and collaboration. By choosing the right IT outsourcer, housing associations can ensure that they receive the highest quality services that are tailored to their specific needs.
Conclusion
Outsourcing IT spend optimisation can help housing associations maximise their ROI and stay competitive in today's market. By leveraging the expertise of experienced IT professionals, housing associations can optimise their IT spending, improve efficiency and productivity, and better align technology with business goals. As such, we encourage housing associations to consider IT outsourcing as a way to improve their IT operations and maximise their ROI.
Why Advanced?
By outsourcing services to Advanced, organisations can free capacity to rapidly adapt to the changing user needs users and market fluctuations.
Through our range of security, modern workplace, cloud, app modernisation and managed services, you can lean on our unique expertise to create an empowering roadmap, unlocking the capacity and flexibility to take your business into a stronger future.
“We now save huge amounts of time, boosting productivity and profitability on each case.” Charlotte Corbyn, Taylor Rose Solicitors
At Advanced, we understand that every industry faces unique challenges and requires tailored IT services to meet specific needs. With extensive cross-sector experience, Advanced are able to support, design, implement and manage your IT environment and empower your organisation. Learn more about our IT Services for Housing Associations.