Three ways to cut costs in IT

1.      Let’s start with the Pareto principle (usually known as the 80-20 rule), which “states that, for many events, roughly 80% of the effects come from 20% of the causes.” Most software projects take too long because developers spend 80% of their time on developing unnecessary functionality. This usually happens if:

a.      Business leaders request functionality which is of no use or provides very low or no ROI at all.

b.      Software architects/designers try to account for every possible future requirement which makes the solution too complex to develop and maintain.

Solution? Be a minimalist when it comes to creating technology solutions for businesses.

2.      Another popular money wasting trend for IT executives and business leaders is to hire cheap labor in order to cut costs. There is an old saying that “you get what you pay for”. Another one goes something like this: “you buy cheap, you buy twice”. My point (and it has been proven many times) is that trying to hire cheap labor will only bring low quality solutions, take long time and often fail altogether. Hire the best and get good quality on time and within budget. At the end of the day it’ll cost you less.

3.      This one is actually a no-brainer. Why should you pay for a commercial product if there are several open source products of same or better quality available in most cases? From web servers to message oriented middleware, from web frameworks to databases, from CRM solutions to complete ERP systems – open source has it all. Use open source products to save hefty amounts on licensing fees and get top notch quality solutions.