Cost Reduction Post-Covid 19

The "new normal" has become a regular saying during conversations with members of the C-Suite and boards since the beginning of the COVID-19 business crisis. But what does the "new normal" mean to businesses who are looking to adapt and to do so quickly?

Organisations, of all different sizes, are talking about the need to do more with less and are looking at ways to reduce costs. Some have already started shedding staff, which is never a pleasant thing for a company or a manager to have to do. There are many different ways to improve productivity and reduce overall costs that improve the health of an organisation rather than reducing the number of people.

Over the next few weeks, I will be writing about different aspects of the "new normal" and how Fifth Step can help your company adapt, change and thrive in this new environment.

IT Finance Analysis

CFOs and finance departments are excellent at analysing general costs, but analysing IT costs and budgets tend to be a slightly different beast, in some cases, it can include the analysis and adjustment of the IT strategy as well, especially as businesses transition from the optimistic and growth plan that most organisations have been following for the last few years to the more cost-conscious post-COVID plan.

Many IT leaders haven't had the experience in performing this kind of cost reduction exercise. At Fifth Step, we have senior IT leaders, who have had to lead through such changes over the last 20 years, both as part of the careers and as consultants working with clients adjust to new circumstances.

The deliverable is the most essential part of working with any consultancy company, and so at Fifth Step, we can cover the whole process. We analyse the current budget and expenditure, work with vendors to reduce costs adjust business and IT strategic alignment, as well as helping the IT team develop their skills to ensure that they don't fall into the same trap the following year.

The Need and the Solution

Many IT departments don't understand how they are spending their budget. Yes, of course, they know which vendor the money is flowing to, but that is a very different thing to understanding how the budget is spent and how it aligns with business objectives and strategic outcomes. Very few CIOs come from a finance background or have been trained in IT finance leading to them needing to develop their skills or being taught by a predecessor or former boss, all of which doesn't help the CIO or the CFO when they're looking to reduce costs.

At Fifth Step, we use a combination of experienced consultants and advanced tools to perform the analysis, which allows "eyes open" decisions to be made. The alternative is to look at the budget and look to shave percentage points from the costs, without the full understanding.

No matter if you are an innovative and business orientated CIO who is looking to ensure that IT is doing all that it can to reduce costs, or if you are a CFO looking to help your IT leadership with a cost reduction process, your next step should be to speak with one of our Cost Reduction experts, call us on +44 (20) 7193 1966 or email info@fifthstep.com