For too many SMBs, IT costs are often unbudgeted, and feel like a costly burden, draining the company purse without delivering much value. But what if you could have your cake and eat it – reducing your spend on IT, while at the same time using IT to drive business growth?
By adopting a strategic approach to IT budgeting, you can control daily spend and invest in innovations that propel your business forward. In this guide, we’ll explore how to master your IT spend while embracing technologies that fuel growth.
Adopt an OPEX mindset
Instead of treating IT costs as unpredictable expenses, organisations should shift to an OPEX model for all their IT related cost (hardware, software, support services) required to run their business on a day-to-day basis.
With an OPEX approach, your IT costs should flex based on the size of your business. Whether you’re scaling up or down, the model links all day to day IT expenses directly to individual users, from the laptop they use to the cloud services they consume. This flexibility makes it easier to plan and adjust as your business needs evolve, eliminating the burden of unplanned costly expenditures. This ensures no surprises for your CFO, allowing you to better control your cash flow.
For example, when a new starter joins, they’ll receive a new laptop preloaded with essential software, including the tools needed to protect against cyberattacks, 24/7 unlimited IT support and next-day replacement if their laptop breaks. This comes as a predictable monthly cost purely for that user for as long as that employee is with the business, ensuring your IT spending remains consistent and manageable, with no surprises!
Opex Checklist
| Task | Description |
|---|---|
| Assess Current IT Costs | List all operational IT expenses (hardware, software, support). |
| Move to an OPEX Model | Identify costs that can be shifted to a predictable, monthly model |
| Evaluate Scalability | Ensure IT spending cost effectively adjusts with business growth or downsizing. |
| Review Regularly | Reassess your IT operational costs periodically, looking for consolidation, ad cost saving opportunities. |
Transformation through Technology
When creating an IT budget for your business, not all your IT spend will fit into the Opex bucket. There will be some IT spend that will be an investment in your future, unlocking new levels of productivity, efficiency, outpacing your competition and ultimately grow your business and profitability.
These transformational investments, better know as Digital Transformation initiatives, will not fit into your OPEX budget – they will be a CAPEX cost.
In the remainder of this article we’ll focus on two key digital transformation technologies you need to invest in.
Artificial intelligence (AI)
In today’s rapidly evolving business landscape, embracing AI is no longer optional—it’s essential for staying competitive, driving growth, and empowering your team to succeed. In the table below we outline five compelling reasons why and how you should be using AI.
1. Boost Revenue with Smarter Sales: AI-powered tools, like chatbots can help generate more qualified leads, speed up sales cycles, and deliver proposals faster. This means more deals closed, more often.
2. Cut Costs: AI enables you to reduce reliance on expensive third-party services. For example, many SMBs rely on external marketing agencies to manage tasks like social media, ad campaigns, or content creation. By implementing AI-driven tools like Microsoft Copilot, businesses can create, schedule, and manage their marketing campaigns in-house.
3. Bridge the Talent Gap: With AI tools like Microsoft Copilot, you can enhance your existing team’s skills in areas like marketing, HR, and sales without needing to hire external specialists. AI empowers your staff to perform tasks they may not have been trained for. Consider hiring a less experienced candidate with AI skills than a more experienced candidate without.
4. Empower Your Team to Thrive: AI can play a crucial role in digitising the valuable knowledge held by subject matter experts (SMEs) within your organisation. Instead of relying on these experts for every decision, you can use AI tools to capture their expertise and make it accessible to everyone. Employees across the company can quickly access answers to common questions, detailed how-tos, or even complex problem-solving techniques without needing to involve the SMEs themselves. This reduces bottlenecks and ensures that critical knowledge is always available to everyone, in real time.
5. Elevate Client Satisfaction with Self-Service: Today’s clients prefer quick, self-service solutions. AI can enable your clients to get the answers they need when they need them, without the hassle of waiting for human intervention, resulting in higher satisfaction and loyalty. Use AI to automate mundane tasks, digitise knowledge, and streamline processes. This doesn’t just improve efficiency—it also allows employees to focus on higher-value work, reducing hours and giving them back more personal time with their families.
| Benefit | Description | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| Boost Revenue | AI-powered tools can help generate more qualified leads, speed up sales cycles, and deliver proposals faster. | Chatbots |
| Cut Costs | Reduce reliance on expensive third-party services by implementing AI-driven tools. | Microsoft 365 Copilot for marketing execs |
| Bridge the Talent Gap | Enhance your existing team’s skills in areas like marketing, HR, and sales without needing to hire external specialists. | Microsoft 365 Copilot for all departments |
| Empower Your Team | AI can digitise the valuable knowledge held by subject matter experts, making it accessible to everyone. | Chatbots |
| Elevate Client Satisfaction | Enable clients to get quick, self-service solutions without waiting for human intervention. | Digitise knowledge, streamline processes using chatbots |
Automation
Have you ever wished you had an extra pair of hands to tackle your daily tasks? With Robotic Process Automation (RPA), software bots can take care of repetitive, mundane tasks, freeing you up to focus on the big picture!
RPA is fast, reliable, and easy to implement, making it a game-changer for SMBs looking to streamline operations and stay ahead of the competition.
At Computer Care, our biggest RPA win to date is an onboarding automation created to assist us with 800 retail outlets that need onboarding. Each retail outlet must be treated as a separate entity in our systems. Engineers previously had to follow a 35+ page onboarding document, typically taking 1–1.5 hours to complete per location. We’ve reduced this down to a 5-minute automation. We estimate this will consolidate between 800–1200 hours down to just 67 hours.
Balancing Opex and Capex: A Strategic Approach
Managing a successful IT budget isn’t just about slashing costs, its also making smart investments in AI and Automation to hep your business thrive. SMBs should aim to optimise Opex to ensure operational stability while simultaneously allocating enough Capex to invest in forward-looking technologies. Here are some steps SMBs can follow to master this balance:
- Evaluate Current Spending: Take stock of all ongoing IT costs and assess how many can be shifted to a more predictable Opex model.
- Plan for Strategic Investments: Set aside a portion of the budget for Capex investments in technologies like AI and RPA that will enhance competitiveness and drive long-term growth.
- Periodic Review: Re-evaluate your IT budget regularly to ensure it aligns with evolving business goals and the external market landscape.
Mastering your IT budget is key to transforming your technology spending from a financial burden into a powerful driver of growth and innovation. By adopting an OPEX mindset for day-to-day costs and strategically investing in transformative technologies like AI and automation, SMBs can unlock new levels of efficiency, reduce costs, and remain competitive in a rapidly evolving market. The right IT strategy not only controls your spending but also fuels long-term success by preparing your business for future challenges.
What next?
Ready to take control of your IT budget and embrace the technologies that will shape your future? Start today by assessing your current IT spend and exploring how AI and automation can help you reduce costs and drive growth. Contact us to learn more about how we can help your business make smart, strategic IT decisions that deliver lasting value.