Without an overview of the various costs that can arise over the life span of a smartphone, keeping it working can prove expensive. And in a company that has hundreds or thousands of them, such an overview is difficult to obtain without a modern, digital solution.
The CFO needs to get involved here. Gone are the days when anybody in the company – least of which in the finance function – could allow themself to think «IT will take care of it», every time they see the words «digital» or «Internet».
In Gartner’s study Top Priorities for Finance Leaders in 2022, 64 percent of the CFOs surveyed said that they had been heavily involved in making the company more digital. There is, in other words, no reason for a competent CFO to wait around for the IT department to take the initiative.
Solution benefits
Let’s take a look at just a few reasons why a CFO might want to advocate for using a technological solution such as Techstep Lifecycle to stay on top of smartphone costs:
● Model upgrades: Techstep Lifecycle makes it easy to automate deductions in pay for employees who upgrade their phone (above the company standard issue) to a more advanced version against covering the cost difference.
● Lost time: If an employee’s smartphone is broken, going without one may incur costs for the company – some of them invisible. Through an efficient solution for quickly repairing and replacing broken smartphones, this may be avoided.
● Cost control: Employers probably do not want to cover all expenses privately incurred by the employees, both for cost and tax reasons. But the cost of enforcing such guidelines may be prohibitive without a comprehensive system like Techstep Lifecycle.
How digital systems succeed
While manual routines steal time and can be a huge «morale killer» for the workers performing them, suitable digital systems can automate processes and give your company more control. Gartner’s study points out several key success features needed in a digital system, and Techstep Lifecycle delivers on these points:
● It is a digital tool that works throughout the organisation (rather than as a silo-based solution)
● It creates a unified policy for data processing and privacy
● It scales well and dramatically simplifies the work of handling smartphones regardless of whether the company has one thousand or tens of thousands of smartphones
● It is a cloud-based solution that standardises and streamlines existing processes
Gartner also points out that an increasing number of modern organisations are now replacing manual operations and tasks with automated processes, but this requires the Finance department to be able to support these digital initiatives. In this regard, Techstep Lifecycle is an easy, profitable and efficient step to take – both for Finance and for the company at large.
Attack the hidden costs
Another reason to use a digital solution for cost cutting, is the more efficient processes underneath. A study relayed by Supply Chain 24/7 showed that the direct costs related to purchasing the phone (hardware, accessories, software, implementation and training) amount to only 10 % of the total cost of ownership (TCO).
This means that the indirect costs – the ones that solutions such as Techstep Lifecycle help you avoid – may account for up to 90% of TCO. While such costs may not be readily apparent in your books or quarterly reports, there is little reason to be complacent about them: They are a burden that your more efficient competitors are not hampered by, and as such represent a disadvantage – and potentially an expensive one.
More efficient processes, such as the ones brought about by implementing a solution from a trusted industry professional, may bring your company a long way towards realising economic gains regarding this goal.
