Spiceworks recently completed a survey of more than 700 business technology providers and uncovered an interesting dilemma for IT leaders. While these buyers were positive about their market opportunities – 57% of buyers in North American expected revenues to increase – the majority of them aren’t planning to invest more in IT.

Despite a strengthening economy, it looks like IT leaders are expected to continue to do more with less in 2019. In this post, we’ll cover eleven ways IT outsourcing can help.

1/ Slash equipment expenses – Of those organizations that said they planned to increase IT budgets in 2019, 82% planned to spend the extra funds on updating outdated equipment. Break free from the never-ending cycle of hardware refreshes by moving workloads to the cloud.

2/ Lower maintenance expenses – With less equipment, you lower your maintenance expenses as well.

3/ Turn CapEx to OpEx – As important as lowering costs to many companies, outsourcing IT can help you turn capital expenses into manageable, monthly operating expenses.

4/ Reduce utility bills – Getting rid of your on-premises data center allows you to get rid of the costs of heating and cooling it as well as other hard costs such as physical security and janitorial services.

5/ Reduce your carbon footprint – If going green is a goal in 2019, moving to the cloud can help. This isn’t just a case of moving expenses around. Third-party data center operators are often experts in energy management, and they can take advantage of strategies that may be out of reach for the average organization.

6/ Focus your investments – When you’re unencumbered by capital expenses and overhead, you can focus your IT investments on the initiatives that move the business forward: AI, IoT, Big Data, a new customer portal, etc.

7/ Improve employee utilization –  Even if you don’t outsource everything, outsourcing those tasks that are beneath your employee’s “pay grade” will allow you to better utilize your current staff.

8/ Reduce employee turnover – When people feel like they are well-utilized, morale tends to improve and turnover drops. That’s definitely a good thing given the shortage of IT skills in key areas like IT security.

9/ Reduce compliance and security risks ­­– Qualified compliance and security professionals are some of the most expensive, hardest to recruit, and most difficult to retain. This leaves many IT professionals wearing multiple hats without enough time to become the experts you need them to be.

10/ Improve business continuity – In 2017, slightly more than half (55%) of organizations felt they were either prepared or fully prepared for a disaster. If you’re in the other half, a managed service provider that offers Disaster Recovery as a Service (DRaaS) can help.

11/ Increase visibility – Do you know how well your systems are performing? Are there resources that are underutilized? Vulnerabilities you don’t know about? Working with a managed cloud provider like Connectria can help increase your visibility into system performance and optimize your cloud spend.

Don’t let the prospect of a reduced or level budget in 2019 hold you back. Reach out to us today. One of our advisors would be happy to discuss your situation and see if we can help you get more done with less next year.