Top Things to Consider in Your 2022 IT Budget
With the new year here, it’s time to re-look at your budgets and start preparing for 2022. It’s important to review your budgets on a yearly basis, with the rate of inflation increasing, annual changes in operational costs, needs of your business, your staff and your client demands forever changing, in addition to advancements in technology.
We have put together a quick guide of the top things you should consider in your 2022 IT Budget.
Outsourcing Your IT
According to a study conducted by YouGov, 34% of businesses outsource their IT. Many companies prefer the option of outsourcing their IT services so that they can gain access to IT experts as and when required. Outsourced IT specialists are at the forefront of technology, which means they tend to have knowledge on the latest news, trends and updates in the industry. This enables them to provide you with the most appropriate and advanced solutions for your business.
Over the past 35 years, we have provided IT services and support to many different companies from a range of different industries. We pride ourselves in providing the best, most cost-effective IT solutions for each individual business, whilst building long-term relationships with our clients. Most of our clients end up working with us on a long-term basis.
See what our clients have to say about us:
‘We acquired Original Additions 5 years ago and we can’t say enough about how fantastic Minerva has been! They are like a full-time employee for the organization. Minerva has been outstanding at being our helpdesk/desktop support, network engineers, programmers and anything else we call on them for.’ Nick Doria – IT Director at PDC Brands
‘Minerva have worked with Oak Hill College for many years and even after a small time away using Minerva for outsourced support, it wasn’t long before we came running back to continue working together!’ Grant Farrant – Director of Operations and Finance at Oak Hill College
‘What can I say about Minerva – well we have been fully supported by them for 21 years coming up this year; so perhaps enough said!’ Managing Director – Co-Tops Limited
Staff Awareness E-Learning Programme
A cyber security strategy will only be effective if your staff have awareness and knowledge on cyber security.
It was found that 1 in 3 people are likely to click the links in phishing emails or download attachments (2020 Phishing Trends Report, Keepnet Labs). This could easily be avoided with some training.
We understand how disruptive it can be sending the entire workforce offsite for training, that’s why we have a range of e-learning courses available. These can be accessed from anywhere at anytime, based around your staffs’ workload.
Highly effective in conjunction with other cyber security methods, the e-learning courses will make your staff more cyber smart and less vulnerable to cyber-attacks.
BT 2025 Shut Off
BT has announced that in 2025, they will shut off their ISDN and PSTN services. This means the end of analogue phone lines, resulting in communication technology continuing the shift to a cloud and digital space.
The official switch off is taking place in 2025, however BT has confirmed that they will be doing localised switch offs before this date. We therefore recommend you arrange a telephony review as soon as possible.
Minerva are powered by Fidelity who are platinum partners of many of the industry leading providers. Together we can provide you with most advanced and cost-effective telephony solutions. In addition, you’ll have a dedicated account manager as well as a team on hand that can provide 24/7 365 technical support, should you need it.
Just drop us an email on contacus@minervauk.com or give us a call on 01707 607100 to book in your telephony review now.
Managed Services
Sometimes, you will be faced with unforeseen business changes which can lead to additional IT consultancy costs. This is why we recommend allocating some budget to managed services.
Through managed services, you can pre-purchase consultancy time at a cheaper rate.
Many of our clients go for this option because it works out much more cost effective in the long run and allows you to manage your IT spend, so you don’t have to worry about unexpected consultancy costs. In addition, you have the consultancy time on hand whenever required, enabling us to resolve any issues and deliver solutions, quickly and efficiently.
Challenges in Supply Chain
The pandemic has caused significant disruption to many businesses around the world, in particular those within supply chains. Sourcing hardware is taking much longer than usual so we therefore advise you to plan ahead, and order products in advance in order to avoid disappointment.
The most impacted items are often desktop PCs and laptops. This is further exasperated when you are looking at specific manufacturers, models or specifications. We are sympathetic that it is not always possible to plan ahead, and after all that is often what makes small and medium sized business businesses great in their dynamic nature to respond to change. However, wherever possible we do urge clients to think ahead and have the discussion sooner, so that we are mutually best placed to deliver what you want, when you want it, and for the right price.
Digital Transformation
Digital transformation is the integration of digital technology into an organisation, it will affect the overall operations of the business – with the aim of improving, streamlining and automating processes.
Digital transformation must be integrated into your business strategy in order to prosper and grow but will also add significant value to your business.
Minerva has been working with our clients to do just that for decades, to take the standard solutions and mesh them, extend them to remove the need for workarounds, another Excel spreadsheet, the cut, paste and formatting. All time consuming and error prone.
Reporting – Shifting to BI
If you use the standard reporting feature in your finance system, you will probably have found by now that they have some limitations.
Panintelligence BI (Pi) software is the ideal reporting tool, taking reporting to the next level. Not only does the dashboard provide a lot more valuable information, but it provides real time insights in a user-friendly format. Pi also has a role- based dashboard function, which means that each department can see data that’s relevant to them.
Most businesses nowadays have a huge amount of valuable data locked away within their systems. The insight that Pi provides could be the tool to unlock and leverage this insight in order for your business to achieve real productivity and commercial gains.
About Minerva
Minerva has provided IT services and support since 1983, since then, we’ve developed a dedicated team full of skilled IT specialists ready to help you with all things IT.
To find out more about our products or services, leave an enquiry and a member of our team will be straight back to you.
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