𝗖𝗼𝘀𝘁 𝗦𝗮𝘃𝗶𝗻𝗴𝘀 𝗦𝘁𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗴𝗶𝗲𝘀 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗦𝗺𝗮𝗹𝗹 𝗕𝘂𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗲𝘀:

𝗜𝗺𝗽𝗹𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝘀𝗵𝗮𝗿𝗲𝗱 𝘀𝗲𝗿𝘃𝗶𝗰𝗲𝘀:

By leveraging IT shared services across business units, small businesses can drive economies of scale. Most savings and cost reductions can range from 15% to 20% of service costs in 18 to 36 months, and the highest savings can reach over 25%.

• IT Infrastructure: Small businesses can leverage shared IT infrastructure services such as cloud computing, data storage, and network security. This will help them reduce costs and improve efficiency by sharing resources across business units. Microsoft Azure is an example of IaaS that provides cloud computing, data storage, and network security services.
  
• Marketing: Small businesses can also share marketing services such as social media management, email marketing, and search engine optimization (SEO). This will help them reduce costs and improve their online presence. Zoho Social or Hootsuite is an example of a SaaS product that offers social media management services.

𝗔𝗱𝗼𝗽𝘁 𝗮 𝗰𝗹𝗼𝘂𝗱-𝗳𝗶𝗿𝘀𝘁 𝗽𝗼𝗹𝗶𝗰𝘆 𝘄𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲 𝗮𝗽𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗽𝗿𝗶𝗮𝘁𝗲:

Opting for a cloud-first policy offers a spectrum of capabilities ranging from infrastructure as a service (IaaS) through software as a service (SaaS). While many private and public sector organizations choose cloud services for increasing agility, flexibility and scalability, they also experience cost efficiencies over time. To achieve cost savings, perform strict cloud governance or risk seeing increases in infrastructure and application costs if governance is weak.

• Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS): Small businesses can use IaaS to reduce hardware and software costs. This will help them scale their IT infrastructure as needed without incurring additional costs. Amazon Web Services (AWS) is an example of IaaS that provides scalable computing resources.
  
• Software as a Service (SaaS): Small businesses can use SaaS to reduce software licensing costs. This will help them access the latest software applications without having to purchase expensive licenses. Hubspot CRM or Salesforce is an example of SaaS that provides customer relationship management (CRM) software.
  

𝗖𝗼𝗻𝘀𝗼𝗹𝗶𝗱𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗽𝗿𝗶𝘀𝗲 𝗱𝗮𝘁𝗮 𝗰𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗿𝘀:

As organizations expand their operations, the cost of maintaining a traditional data center will increase. This drives some IT organizations to shift their data centers to data-center switching architecture. Through data center modernization and consolidation efforts, cost savings can range between 10% and 20% of a data center budget.

• Data Center Modernization: Small businesses can modernize their data centers by consolidating their servers and storage devices. This will help them reduce hardware and maintenance costs. VMware is an example of a company that provides data center modernization solutions
  
• Virtualization: Small businesses can also use virtualization to reduce hardware costs by running multiple virtual machines on a single physical server. Oracle VM VirtualBox is an example of virtualization software that allows multiple virtual machines to run on a single physical server.
  

𝗥𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗹𝗶𝘇𝗲 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗻𝗱𝗮𝗿𝗱𝗶𝘇𝗲 𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗽𝗿𝗶𝘀𝗲 𝗮𝗽𝗽𝗹𝗶𝗰𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀:

The application portfolio represents a large part of an IT budget. Small businesses that standardize and rationalize their application portfolios can reduce and control costs. Savings can range between 15% and 25% of the application budget.

• Application Portfolio Management: Small businesses can use application portfolio management to standardize their application portfolios. This will help them reduce software licensing and maintenance costs. IBM Application Portfolio Management is an example of software that helps organizations manage their application portfolios .
  
• Application Rationalization: Small businesses can also use application rationalization to identify redundant or underutilized applications. This will help them reduce software licensing and maintenance costs. AppDynamics is an example of software that helps organizations identify redundant or underutilized applications.
  

𝗜𝗺𝗽𝗿𝗼𝘃𝗲 𝗜𝗧 𝗳𝗶𝗻𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗶𝗮𝗹 𝘁𝗿𝗮𝗻𝘀𝗽𝗮𝗿𝗲𝗻𝗰𝘆 𝗽𝗿𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗰𝗲𝘀:

Understanding how IT services are being delivered and what the associated costs are for IT operations is crucial for small businesses. Work with CFOs and finance personnel to associate general ledger entries (asset-based view) to technical costs and related costs for business services.

• IT Financial Management: Small businesses can improve their IT financial management practices by tracking their IT expenses and associating them with business services. This will help them identify areas where they can reduce costs and optimize their IT spending.