Spring Cleaning Could Save Your Business Money on IT!

With the coming of spring, many people are taking the opportunity to get rid of all of the stuff they don't need anymore. As time goes on, you accumulate all sorts of junk that you probably don't even know you have. Sometimes it's a good idea to go through it all and see if you really need it - especially for your business's in-house IT department.

As attached as you are to all of your old equipment, your IT department probably doesn't need it for anything. There are other things you should consider doing on a regular basis - kind of like spring cleaning - such as organizing power costs, rationalizing applications, and archiving your old emails. By examining what you need and what you don't need, you'll find the result to be beneficial - not only to your IT department, but to your budget, as well!

Shed Some Light on Your Power Savings
How much are you spending on your monthly power bill? Is it more than you'd like? That might be because you aren't monitoring your company's power usage close enough. Check around the office for any devices that consume unnecessary energy and try to cut back on their use. Do your employees really need their lava lamps and disco balls? It's a tough call, but in the end, you'll be saving money by cutting back on power expenditures. You should also keep a close watch on underutilized servers - they might be putting your company at risk, in addition to running in the background and racking up your power bill.

Mark Blackburn, the CIO of 1E, has this advice to share with us: "Monitor your power management and make it a priority to understand just how much money you're spending on wasted energy." The way Computerware sees it, if you're wasting power, you're wasting money, and missing out on great opportunities because they don't fit into your current budget. Computerware will help you weed out your underutilized software and servers, and streamline your operation costs!

Cut Costs By Sacking Unused Software
Let's face it - years ago, your company probably used a couple of programs that have fallen out of favor in the your industry in recent times. This software continues to accumulate on your system, and it might be costing you hundreds of extra dollars that could be spent elsewhere in your budget. To fix this issue, make a list of all your company's applications and really think about whether you use it or not.

You'll free up a significant amount from your budget, which will in turn allow you to spend more money on productive practices, such as marketing, training, or more effective productivity software. Computerware can lend a hand with cleaning out your company's systems. We can work closely with your business and determine what you need and don't need from your software, and we'll make sure you get the most out of your systems.

Think Before You Delete!
When cleaning up your email inbox, you don't want to go on a deleting spree on all of your old emails from the past couple of years. Who knows what kind of important information could be tucked away in that pile? Maybe the court files from a few years back and insurance settlement claims could be in there too, and you don't want to lose something as crucial as those. It might actually cost your company money in the long run to lose something like that.

Instead, try to move your less-frequently accessed emails to the cloud, where they can be stored safely and securely until a later date. Computerware can assist you with migrating your mail servers to the cloud, and if those need a good spring cleaning, we can handle that, too! Some benefits of moving your servers to the cloud include, but are not limited to, improved server performance, reduced backup time, anywhere access, and revamped security and permissions.

Sure, it might be warm outside, but taking a little extra time to clean up your office's IT will allow you more free time to enjoy the nice weather in the long run. With cleaner IT practices, you'll have a lot more time - and money - to enjoy spring and all it has to offer - pollen and all! Call Computerware today at (703) 821-8200 and let your spring cleaning operation commence