Nathan Ashby, Cisco Solutions Architect at Cisilion has written an article on ensuring your IT spending goes further — that has been featured on TechFinitive. See a summary of the article below or read the full article here.
Nathan emphasises the importance of maximising IT budgets, especially in the face of challenges like global health crises, procurement issues, rising energy costs, and cybersecurity threats. It highlights the need for businesses to think smarter and adapt through resilience and innovation.
One key point is the evolution of IT spending from traditional hardware purchases to subscriptions, licenses, and “as-a-service” offerings. Nathan suggests leveraging vendor programs, such as Enterprise Agreements from Cisco or Microsoft, to achieve significant cost savings. He also advises businesses to change their approach by asking IT partners about available buying programs instead of just requesting their best final price.
Nathan also discusses the importance of planning for the unknown and adopting FinOps practices to handle unexpected cost spikes. Practical tips include regularly auditing subscriptions, identifying underused resources, and rightsizing licenses to fit actual usage. For example, many businesses subscribe to Microsoft E3 or E5 licenses for all users, but often only a subset needs full features. Rightsizing licenses can lead to immediate savings.
Furthermore, Nathan emphasises linking IT investments to real business outcomes, such as improving customer experience, streamlining operations, and protecting the business brand. He provides an example of rolling out secure remote working connectivity to support hybrid work, which can enhance security, improve user experience, reduce costs, and boost employee retention.
In this article, Nathan stresses the importance of aligning technology with business goals and working closely with trusted partners to make smarter decisions. It encourages businesses to ensure their IT partners are helping them do more, not just selling more.