Did you know that you have a lot of control over your IT costs provided by IOT? While you may not be able to eliminate your IOT bill there are several ways to reduce it. Please find a top ten list below of ways you can save money on your IT bill.
1. Run a detailed report in Pinnacle (IOT’s billing system) of your IT charges. Audit your charges by starting with the areas where your charges are greatest. If you don’t need all the resources, place a ticket to have the service reduced or disconnected. (If you need a Pinnacle account, open a HelpDesk ticket with IOT.)
2. Desktop
- Look at the detailed report and verify the workstation count aligns with the number of employees and contractors in your agency.
- There is an associated user with each desktop to help you audit your bill. This is the user we have on record as having logged in last, it may or may not be the primary user. IOT produces monthly reports to ensure of up to date accounts.
- Desktop upgrades – during refresh, do you need so many laptops? Do you need additional ram and other accessories? All costs over our standard desktop value is charged to the agency.
3. Database - View your detailed database charges and verify with your internal app support groups that they are all still needed. Many times databases are no longer needed and IOT isn’t notified, so we continue to host and charge for it.
4. Virtual server hosting
- View your detailed billing, does your app need all the allocated CPUs and RAM, or will it run on less? IOT can provide tools and reports upon request for agencies’ application development teams to review.
- Are you using all the virtual machines on your bill?
5. Physical server hosting
- Are you still using the servers?
- Can you move your application to a virtual machine? Virtual servers can now run most applications and are less expensive than a physical server.
6. Storage
- Storage is generally associated with a server so if the server is not needed you will also save on storage.
- IOT charges for allocated space, not used space. What this means is if you tell us that you need a terabyte, and only use a gigabyte, you are still paying for the other 999 gigabytes that you aren’t using. Submit a ticket with the server name and IOT can run a report to compare allocated versus used storage.
7. Telecom - We are in the middle of a project to move from the old Centrex telephone system to a new IP based VaaS (Voice as a Service). During this project we are validating all the billed lines are actually used. We highly recommend you audit before migrating. Odds are you will save money.
8. Cell phones - Audit your detailed bill and make sure all phones you are paying for are in use. Verify the assigned person still needs to have a state-issued cell phone.
9. Adobe Software - Adobe software is billed monthly per assigned user. Audit the bill and ensure all assigned users still need Adobe software for their job.
10. File storage overage - Contact IOT to get access to our file auditing tool, Veronis. Target large files that are no longer needed or files that have not been opened in a long time. Create a ticket if you need an account for Veronis.