Cost Control in a practice on managing and reducing business expenses . All businesses are subject to incurring costs in the operations and it is important to evaluate whether they are affordable or reasonable. Once costs are identified, it is important to find ways of getting into less expensive plans or service providers. Some of costs associated with the business include professional services, salaries communication technologies and bills. Whenever costs are high, businesses experiences a low profit margin which weakens business viability against its competitors. For instance, a public company cannot attract investor if its running costs are too high and affecting its share price.

Cost Controls through I.C.T Management

Cost involved in businesses operations are classified into three categories which include: Operating Costs, Labor Costs and Fixed Costs. Fixed costs are those that are accumulative with the flow of operations. They include taxes, insurance, storage, interest on investments and assets depreciating. Operating costs are costs that occurred in day-to-day business operations. For example, fuel costs, maintenance and repairs and petty cash expenses. Labor costs are involved in manpower services associated with the business operations. They include social costs, salaries, transport, food contributions and wages.

In the past, cutting down on operational costs included transfer of facilities and closures, staff reduction efforts to increase automation. This had a significant effect on ability to produce required volumes on manufactured goods to meet customers’ demands. These strategies affected customers’ satisfaction and the quality of production achieved.

Technological advancement in today’s businesses operations has provided major benefits including reducing cost hence bringing about growth. To fully benefit from technological advancements, a business should adhere to effective risk management, compliance and governance procedures. These three rules are the one that curbs problems that would otherwise be brought be I.T infrastructures . Therefore, the organization is able to fully realize competitive advantage that ICT can give no matter what size the business is. (Keyes. J. 2003).

Businesses are coming up with new styles to and take gains promised with use of of ICT infrastructures in return speeds up efficiency, cut down expenditures and advancement. Therefore, there are companies that are coming up to give out these services to various businesses, for example, CRN Tech Elite, PayPal Inc.,Amazon EC2 services, e.t.c. through Cloud computing. Amazon Web Services gives a combination of working applications that are important in building other scalable and sophisticated applications benefiting thousands of customers. These application services include media, financial services, retails, education, public sectors healthcare and many more. Once a number Cloud Computing services are deployed it bring about a better customer experience at a minimal cost over a broadly distributed systems. (Hoboken, N.J: Wiley, 2008.)

Information and Communication Technology have in modern days reduced complexities associated in use of shared resources through elimination of redundant application. Use of shared resources model leads to support staff rationalization that help release work force and engage them to strategic assignments elsewhere. ICT has also helped in the consolidation whereby support and maintenance are within application portfolios. These strategies have helped in cutting down overhead cost and operational cost at 10 percent.

Through the use of I.T related processes, control management has been possible to implement, during preventive actions that assist in curbing unalowed modifications of normal working. For instance, security devices and applications are available that helps monitor access to application or infrastructures which would otherwise lead to massive losses. (Hoboken, N.J: Wiley, 2008.)

Long term solutions have been implemented through advanced models of ICT. For instance, the Pay-As-You-Go business models. In this model, IT departments are able to closely work with other sectors of the economy. Pay as you go models include telecoms and other mobile technology services providers, Computer Social Network providers like Skype. Moreover, cloud computing has changed how most businesses operate, through it user are able to send or receive mails over the internet so faster that it increases the productivity of operations through the cloud. Amazon Web Services gives a combination of working applications that are important in building other scalable and sophisticated applications benefiting thousands of customers. These application services include media, financial services, retails, education, public sectors healthcare and many more. Once a number Cloud Computing services are deployed it bring about a better customer experience at a minimal cost over a broadly distributed systems. (Guerrero. L &Aghvami A. Hamid: 2000).

Conclusion

Modern day Technological advancements have made Businesses enjoy potential grows through cut down costs and enjoy a balanced competition under similar line. To achieve this, rules need to be laid down and then action taken towards accomprishing the set targets. For instance, through the use of shared devices, complexities are reduced, standardizing IT processes and operation, releasing management processes of infrastructure and application.

References

Guerrero. L, Aghvami A. Hamid: (2000). Resource allocation in hierarchical cellular systems. Artech House. Boston.

Keyes. J. (2003). Infotrends: the competitive use of information. New Yolk.

Lim Ian. (2007). Information Security Cost Management.

Rainer, R K. Introduction to Information Systems: Supporting and Transforming Business. Hoboken, N.J: Wiley, 2008. Print. P. 26