How do you see your IT running costs?

How do you see your IT running costs?

We've decided to experiment with creating some video blogs. For our first, Craig Sharp from Abussi looks at IT running costs. Are they an investment, or a necessary evil? Once you've watched it, please use the comments to let us know what you think. We've put a full transcript of the video beneath it.

You can also download the audio in MP3 format for listening on the move.

Video transcript:

"Hi, this is Craig Sharp. Today's short video blog has been prompted by the recent IT donut article, How to cut your IT running costs."

"I think the key thing about IT running costs is to consider whether you're looking at them as a cost, or as an investment. There are many people who feel IT is a cost they have to bear, that there's no alternative, and that this is something they have to pay a lot of money for."

"Some of that's true, but I think it depends on your perspective as to how you deal with the costs that come with having your IT system. For me, it seems an investment, mainly because you're investing in a platform that's going to be the basis for your entire business. Therefore, you want it to be reliable and to not hinder your ability to work."

"Sometimes skimping on costs can result in problems which actually make you very ineffective and inefficient - and that ultimately can lead to problems with your business."

"The other things to bear in mind are fairly straightforward. The article pulled out that cloud computing can often save money. That's true."

"Cloud computing is a new service which allows you to take some of the services running inside your business - often on computers which are using electricity and incurring costs - and puts them in a cloud solution, which means you don't have that responsibility any more. You just pay a small monthly fee."

"Those kinds of issues are worth considering when you want to reduce costs."

"I'd certainly urge you to go and look at the article about how to cut your running costs. It's a good starting point on where to begin with making your IT more of an investment. Thanks very much."

If there are any questions you'd like to see Craig answer in a future video blog, leave a comment and we'll do our best!