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THE IT CROWD
Page 48
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The IT department presents an excellent opportunity for savings. First of all, your PCs. Consider buying factory refurbished kit — that is PCs which have been returned to the manufacturer and refurbished in-house Buying a refurbished Dell computer. for instance, could save you hundreds off the list price. and the company will still give you a year of support as part of the package.
You might also consider using open source software instead of Microsoft Office Microsoft software does have its advantages, particularly for businesses that need to share complex spreadsheets or presentations with other firms. But businesses willing to use open source software can save hundreds of pounds per user. Open Office, the leading product, is freely downloadable on the web, and provides word processing. spreadsheet and presentation functionality similar to Microsoft Office, which costs upwards of £300 for the full small business version Whatever software you're using. standardisation can reduce support costs, provided all users are on the same version of the software and the same operating system, Printing can be a major cost. When you're replacing printers, don't just look at the cost of the printer. consider the price of the cartridges as well. Laser printers will usually cost in better than inkjets and remanufactured laser cartridges offer another way to make savings, as do own brand inkjet cartridges.
For further print savings, everyone needs to make an effort. Most obviously, only print documents out if they really need to be printed And use black and white as the default setting on colour-capable printers. Save colour for your clients.
Rethink your communications with clients Do you need to send printed invoices? Banks have saved themselves thousands by switching customers to e-mailed or online statements. And scanning documents rather than sending faxes also saves on both telecoms and paper.