IT directors can make dramatic savings by focusing on
telecommunications costs, according to John Berney, the former IT
director of Scottish & Southern Energy.
Most organisations currently spend about 50% too much on mobile
telephony and 35% too much on fixed-voice telecommunications,
Berney told delegates at last week's CityIT conference.
Telephony is often not centralised within organisations and is
often less well managed than other areas of the business. There can
be insufficient attention to changing markets and rates, and
inadequate control over the use and abuse of phones and the optimum
time for different types of calls. That makes it a good starting
point to make deeper cuts in IT costs, said Berney.
While at Scottish & Southern Energy, Berney, who was an
accountant and finance director before becoming an IT director,
reduced IT costs by 70% over three years. In that time, he said,
the company assimilated five mergers.