Is the financial head of your organization, the CFO, asking you to trim the budget? This is a hot topic for many tech leaders like CTOs. Let’s face it, with US inflation hitting 8.5 percent, every company is feeling the pinch.
This surge in costs impacts every aspect of your business, including your most valued resource: your staff. Recent reports from Skillsoft suggest that up to 76% of IT decision-makers are grappling with a skills gap. This means you have to pay higher salaries for the coveted IT experts you need.
But saving a penny isn’t as simple as it used to be. Rather than just looking to cut software license costs, we need to look at the big picture, considering total ownership costs, the worth of employees’ time, and hidden charges like those from productivity drops due to security issues.
In light of this, it’s worth revisiting the financial benefits of unified endpoint management (UEM), especially when it’s supported by versatile cloud solutions like Dynamics 365 and Microsoft Azure.
Highlighting the economic benefits of unified endpoint management
Here are three significant perks of Microsoft solutions-powered unified endpoint management:
Through Dynamics 365 Finance, businesses can streamline their financial processes while maintaining compliance. The platform helps companies comply with global financial regulations and accurately predict potential business risks and opportunities.
Cutting down support requirements
The first part of the economic argument revolves around how UEM reduces support needs. The rationale is pretty clear: fewer support tickets mean less time for your helpdesk staff on these issues. Imagine the amount of support needed at every user lifecycle stage. For instance, with UEM, the time taken to configure a new endpoint or set up a new user on a system can be slashed by 25%.
Think about what that means if you previously spent six hours getting a new team member fully operational. Furthermore, with automated problem-solving in place before the user even notices, you’re looking at a 20% to 40% reduction in support tickets.
The net effect? The time saved by IT through UEM automation can be redirected to more strategic projects.
Streamlining endpoint management and bringing on-premise devices into the cloud
The second part of the argument is how UEM helps centralize endpoint management, eliminating fragmented costs.
With Azure’s cloud capabilities, IT admins can manage devices from anywhere, providing greater flexibility and scale. It also ensures devices are constantly updated with the latest security patches, whether they’re on a local network or not.
Beyond that, centralization with Microsoft solutions offers an opportunity to reevaluate spendings on overlapping tech and staffing. You might find savings in legacy software subscriptions, licenses, or maintenance costs.
Plus, managing multiple vendors that support different device platforms might be streamlined into a single, cost-saving solution.
Microsoft solutions reduce data breach risk and ensure compliance
Finally, with UEM, you can mitigate the risk of data breaches. Consider the estimated lost productivity of a security breach per affected employee at nearly half a working day each year.
If we can reduce the risk of a data breach by 30 to 50 percent, especially when implementing a robust Zero Trust approach with Azure, the savings can be substantial.
Revisiting uem business case for today’s work scenario
So, why should you rethink the business case for migrating to cloud-based endpoint management? Simply put, rising IT staff costs and the increasing cost and risk of data breaches in remote and hybrid work environments make the cost of inaction high.
There are two important factors to consider. Firstly, the IT job market is highly competitive, which has resulted in increased salaries. Secondly, organizations with remote or hybrid work environments face much higher costs in the event of a data breach.
When a security breach occurs, each affected employee may lose almost half a working day (about 3.5 hours) per year due to decreased productivity. This may be caused by the need to update their device with the latest patch or recover work or data that was impacted by the breach.
Reducing the risk of a data breach by 30% to 50%(as some of our customers have estimated, especially as part of a broader Zero Trust approach) with Azure results in significant enterprise savings.
Immediate action steps
Despite the heavy financial impact of a potential data breach, there are small but immediate steps you can take.
First, if you haven’t done so yet, start a proactive discussion with your CFO on strategic value, not just costs and budgets. The CTO-CFO relationship is increasingly crucial in ensuring your organization’s optimal performance.
If you’re looking for a way to manage your finances more efficiently, Microsoft Azure and Dynamics 365 Finance are a great combination to consider. Our team of experts can help you customize these tools to meet your unique business needs. Book a free consultation with us to learn more.
