Tips for planning your ICT budget
As CFO of Macquarie Telecom, Michael Simmonds knows about managing costs. With more
than 350 employees spread across 9 offices throughout Australia, managing growing ICT spend
is a key business focus. Michael shares some tips to help you plan your ICT budget.
Now is a good time to review your information and communication technology
(ICT) expenditure and total cost of management (TCM).
But how do you go about it?
Here we look at the tools and processes you can use to maximise the return on your ICT
investment.
To begin, look at your ICT expenditure for the last year.
Key factors to review include:
- Total spend – is it coming down or increasing?
- What are the variables affecting cost?
- Is each cost centre containing variables effectively?
- Is staff time spent in ICT management accounted for and minimised?
- Are existing technologies/services being used at maximum efficiency?
- Are there other technologies/services that will cut costs further eg VoIP etc?
If this information is not easily obtained, you may need to consider implementing
management
tools.
Simple to use, Web-based management tools can deliver detailed usage reports that can be
customised to meet your business needs.
Beware focusing just on supplier rates – human behaviour is a big cost driver
How much your supplier charges for calls, line/handset rental, data and other rates is
just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to managing your ICT spend.
A significant reduction in ICT spend can result simply by making some changes in user behaviour.
For example, setting call profiles on company mobiles which put in place different
usage patterns for different job functions may be one way to cut mobile call costs.
These profiles may include a barred number list covering international, STD and directory
assistance calls which most employees don't need to access as part of their day-to-day role.
Similarly, profiles can be set across the data network, which restrict staff from downloading
non-work related files such as bandwidth hungry MP3 files or video streaming. This
can produce a significant reduction in monthly data costs.
Tools to manage operational costs and human behaviour
Macquarie Telecom provides a range of tools to help manage user behaviour and reduce costs:
Fixed Line Call Management –
VolumeControl analyses call patterns, line utilisation and other variables and highlights
areas of concern. An Alert Service will automatically notify you should any of your guidelines
be breached.
Mobile Call Management – FleetView
controls all mobile expenditure including amount of usage, call spend limits, and a mobile
inventory.
Data Network Traffic Management –
Bandwidth Manager assesses
data services performance across the WAN. Management policies can be applied to increase utilisation
and reduce congestion, throughput, network downtime and latency.
Customised Billing – Macquarie Telecom billing consolidates all ICT data on to one invoice
that is supplied electronically for efficient data analysis. Cost centre allocation is streamlined
to save staff administration time.
The year ahead – planning for growth
Contrary to popular belief, company growth does not have to result in a massive increase
in ICT expenditure.
Many organisations take an ad-hoc approach to their ICT infrastructure – adding a new telephone
line each time a new staff member joins or allowing branch offices to manage their own mobile
telephony.
The key to managing costs is to assess business needs and plan ahead.
Michael Simmonds joined Macquarie Telecom in February 2006 as Chief Financial Officer.
Prior to this Michael held a number of positions as Finance Director in the UK including with
Burgundy Global a corporate transport outsourcing provider and Carillion Services a property
consulting and asset management company. Previous experience also includes roles with IMG
and Price Waterhouse.
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