by Nigel Hilton

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Are you spending too much money on technology for your business? Whilst tech can help to save costs, many companies make the mistake of buying the wrong tech or buying it from the wrong sources, which can have the opposite effect. To help keep tech costs down, here are just 10 tricks that you can adopt.

Time your purchases right

When buying new machinery or software, the time of which you purchase it can sometimes have an impact on the cost.

The January Sales is generally a cheap time to buy anything. This is because most people are financially recovering from Christmas and so demand is reduced, which leads to companies offering lower prices to try and attract customers. This generally applies to computers and software.

June and July also tends to be a cheap time for tech. A couple brands bring out new computers in July, and last year’s models and then discounted as a result. The back to schools sales also make this a cheap time to buy laptops.

As for Cyber Monday and Black Friday at the end of the year, this too can be a good period for getting discounts. These discounts definitely are not as great as people make out (the stuff that people don’t want tends to be heavily discounted), but you’ll still save a few dollars.

Be wary of used machinery

Used machinery can be a lot cheaper to buy than brand new machinery, but you should be wary of the condition as it could cost you more in the future. Machinery that is in poor condition may require costly repairs in the long run. Faults may even affect the accuracy of your company’s results. If customers notice that it is in poor condition, it may also affect customer trust. Employees are also likely to resent using equipment that is not in good condition.

You can sometimes get lucky and find machinery that has only been gently used by a previous owner and therefore still in good quality condition. This can usually still be cheap compared to brand new equipment. Look out for company closures in your area, as these tend to be the best times to buy discounted machinery.

Ideally you should inspect this machinery in person before buying it. It’s much easier to get deceived by the quality when buying used machinery online – if there’s no way of checking it in person first, make sure enough photos are supplied and don’t be afraid to contact the seller with questions regarding its usage.

Shop around for finance schemes

Certain equipment such as manufacturing machinery or specialist medical machinery may cost tens of thousands to buy. Taking out a loan may be the only option to pay for this equipment. In such cases, you should make sure that you compare borrowing methods so that you’re paying as little interest as possible.

Some machinery sales companies may be able to offer their own finance schemes with very low interest rates. Alternatively, you may be able to try peer-to-peer loans, which can often have low interest rates compared to bank loans and private lender loans. Shop around and be careful of variable interest schemes in which the interest rates could continuously change. Don’t be afraid to refinance either if you feel you’re being ripped off by a lender.

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Think energy-efficient

The more technology being used in your business, the more energy you’re likely to be using. By considering ways to lower energy usage, you could cut the costs spent in energy bills.

You can firstly cut down energy consumption by investing in energy-efficient machinery. Modern machinery tends to be a lot more energy-efficient than older machinery. Information about the energy rating of a machine can usually be found online.

You can also cut down on energy by not leaving machines in standby. Some machines may benefit from being constantly left on, but others such as computer monitors and printers shouldn’t be left running if not in use. It could also be worth unplugging them, as even when turned off many machines can still use energy.

For some companies it can be worth making investments into sustainable power generators. Solar panels are the most common and effective example of this - whilst they aren’t cheap to buy and install, you could make your money back in a few years and never have to pay an energy bill again. 

Don’t buy into gimmicks

It’s important that you’re not paying for equipment and features that you’re not going to ever use. Buying yourself a 3-d printer could be a waste of money if you’re not going to use it regularly. Similarly, there may be no use investing in complex accounting software when a basic accounting programme do everything you need.

Try to only buy what you need. Flashy expensive tech may impress clients, but there’s no use in having it if it’s going to gather dust or you’re not ever going to use half the features (such tech can also be more complex, requiring more training to use). 

Know when to outsource

You may be able to outsource certain machinery rather than buying it. This could save you a lot of money in certain cases.

It can be particularly sensible when it comes to machinery that you’re not going to regularly use. For example, if you’re not going to print documents regularly, it could be sensible to outsource a printing company - whilst you pay per document, the overall price is much less than the costs of owning and maintaining a printer yourself (you’ll save money on ink, paper, energy usage and the cost of the printer itself). Similarly, a construction company may benefit from hiring a crane instead of buying one if a lot of their jobs don’t require a crane.

In other cases, you may be able to outsource companies to build custom-made equipment for you. There are lots of industrial design services that can do this for you. This could allow to build your own all-in-one machinery, which could save you having to buy separate machines for different purposes. In trades like manufacturing, this can be very useful.

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Service your machinery

Servicing machinery can help to spot faults early before they get too serious. More serious faults are often more expensive to repair and there may even be costly downtime as the result of not being able to use a machine. By catching issues early, you could save money and plan repairs to avoid downtime.

A lot of modern machinery is able to do it’s own diagnostics which can help to automatically spot faults. Older machinery may have to be serviced manually. This may require calling in an expert when it comes to specialist machinery like medical machinery or complex computers - this is generally still worth the cost.

Know when to repair, when to replace

Not all broken tech may be worth repairing. In fact, some tech may be just as costly to repair as it is to replace.

A time when you may want to replace instead of repairing is when dealing with very old tech - especially old tech that has already had to be repaired several times already. By investing in a new replacement, there’ll be less risk of recurring faults, saving you money in maintenance. Newer machinery is also likely to be more energy efficient. 

Meanwhile, if you’re dealing with a fault on relatively new machine, you probably want to repair and not replace. Such machinery may still be in its warranty, in which case you may be able to get it repaired for free. Even if there is no warranty, you probably don’t want to be replacing a machine after only a few months of use. Research into the recommended life of the machine. Computers tend to require replacement after four years, whilst construction equipment can last ten to thirteen years before recommended replacement. 

Streamline your software

A lot of companies have software sitting on their computers that they never use. You could even be paying a monthly subscription for some of these programmes. By quitting these software subscriptions, you could save yourself a lot of money (don’t just uninstall the programmes, as you may still have to pay the subscription). 

There may also be times when you can save money by buying one piece of software to do the job of five programmes. Custom all-in-one software is becoming a more popular choice for businesses rather than having to use multiple programmes - not only can it save costs, but it can improve organisation by having all information centralised in one place. 

Skip the extended warranty

Many machinery sellers will offer a warranty – usually only for a few months to a year. For a few dollars per month, you may be asked whether you want to extend your warranty, but this is generally never worth it. Unless you really think you’ll need it, say no to the extended warranty.