Large companies should be wary of the costs that accumulated as part of their growth cycles. Here are some immediate actions to take as a large corporation to reduce the expenses incurred and also enable additional resources for investment. The best options for cost reductions include: deploying a BYOD strategy,
Reduce your records storage and information management costs by up to 30%
Large companies and overcoming expense drains
As a large company, over time the benefits of having a low-cost service provider may be reduced as the cost of non-standardization may make it prohibitive for companies to operate across more than one province. For example, companies like banks are known to go with less than optimal service providers, not for the sake of simply service but for the fact that they can service them nationally across branches and offices. This, to the dismay of corporate front office employees, is one of the cost savings measures that can be employed by companies to rationalize their spending.
Bring your own device (BYOD) strategy
Corporations who have historically provided laptops and computers to their employees can also look to reduce costs by significant margins. This is accomplished by subsidizing employees to purchase their own laptops or cell phones to use for company purposes. This can help employees share the cost of replacing hardware and handsets while saving the companies thousands of dollars a year. The added bonus is to also provide employees with a preferred device of their choice.
In fact Network World reported that IT costs could be lowered by as much as 64% by allowing employees to have a stipend towards a BYOD.
Create and maintain a set of preferred vendors
By tracking the destinations of trips made by sales and executive employees, corporations may gain insight into the most frequently visited destinations of their key travellers. This provides an opportunity for a company to save cost by speaking to hotels, car dealerships, and even caterers in the area to ensure preferred rates. Subsequently, companies will release a preferred vendors list so that employees can help the company save by going to a select number of vendors.
RioTinto was able to employ this cost saving strategy along with others initiatives to save $10M in a year on their corporate flight expenses.
Hire or train para-professionals
Para professionals are team members that can provide business consulting and administrative support to a number of senior executives. This means greater amounts of productivity and better resource allocations as the right people work on the right tasks. This is a strategy employed by Big 4 professional service firms to better utilize existing staff and administrative personnel.
Store archive or infrequently accessed documents off-site
With GTA being a region of premium real estate cost, one of the most wasteful uses of office space is retaining archive files or documents that are infrequently referenced. This is particularly the case for law firms and medical offices. When a series of files can be contained together and securely sent off, like case files, there are huge savings to gain. This approach also provides additional leg room for productivity or customer satisfaction.
Some medical offices use 30% of their office space just to hold files. Removing redundant files can result in extra space to expand the waiting area for patients, or practitioners could give more space for employees to work or have client meetings. Poor utilization of office space is one of the large cost drivers for an organization.
Leverage Open Office Concepts
There is a trend of mobile workspaces or hosteling as of late from Deloitte’s Adelaide office in Toronto to the Telus Gardens in Vancouver. These are modern workspaces that do away with assigned office spaces while allowing employees to work based on a hoteling system. Though there are challenges to this, organizations can expect to unlock capacity in space utilization and overall promote a more agile and collaborate culture.
Know which application is right for the job
The great thing about starting a new company or being a young corporation is that you gain the advantage of adopting the latest and most versatile technology. For example, many companies who were around in the 90’s and early 2000’s ended up installing big and expensive IT systems with now dated infrastructures. Now, new corporations today are making use of cloud software like Salesforce, Workday, and Google Docs. Know the best tools for the job using these great websites to understand each business function and what are the latest and greatest tools.
Startup Stash is a great site for finding the best tools for the job.
Canva is one of the user-friendly graphic design applications on the market – best thing is that it’s also free!
Cease running paper through a shredder
The bottom line is that running a paper shredding machine is an ineffective use of employee time while exposing your customers to risks such as identity fraud. For organizations under PIPEDA, there are regulations that requires companies to safely remove customer information that is no longer required. A professional paper shredding service can help you save time by having a dedicated and cost competitive vendor destroy and guarantee information has been disposed. This helps you save money and time for employees who could be spending more time on customers or building your team. Further, during litigation in the event that customer information does get leaked, you also have an experienced partner to advise you on how to manage an information inquiry by the Privacy Commissioner or local regulatory bodies.
Companies can see how much they can save by using our cost calculator to find out exactly how much they are spending today and also how much they could save each month as well as get safety guarantees for their client and stakeholder information.
Having also surveyed the top alternatives to paper shredding we could that having a professional shredding can help you save up to 400% when compared to seemingly cost effective methods like chemical solutions.
Organizations that are thinking of using a business centre should also weigh their choice carefully as the transportation and the retention of sensitive documents to be destroyed in a 3rd party locations isn’t recommended. The recommendation is to always choose secure paper shredding.
Use LEAN principles on your most resource intensive processes
LEAN is a manufacturing paradigm developed by Toyota in which each step of a process provides increasing value and minimizes waste of resources like time and materials. It also allowed companies to lower their work in progress inventory meaning more cash could be freed to invest in other areas of the company. The LEAN principles have been around for a long time but the application of the tools and methodologies is often not cascaded across the organization.
Switch records management providers for significant savings
One of the biggest challenges in the Ontario records management industry is the fact that once a vendor has signed you on, they may end up increasing their prices by as much as 30% each year. On top of that, the small print in the contract details may further tie you in to this service at unreasonable costs should you wish to terminate your service agreement. This has created a number of challenges for customers particularly in the legal industry some of which ended up saving 20-30% and tens of thousands of dollars a year. Having done numerous case studies on records storage services this appears to be an industry trend. Typically incumbents will try and block this switch but there are certain document storage providers who can help offset these costs.
Are you overcharged by your records service provider? Get records storage audit and see how much you can save
Find the most Cost Effective Ways to Manage your Corporate Expenses
Blue-Pencil is experienced in helping large organizations manage their costs and offers a free security audit to businesses who want to deter rather than be defeated by identity thieves. Choose the service that helps your organization reach new heights in efficiency and productivity. We shred and store it so you save and excel. 
High standards in information destruction services with NAID AAA and Privacy+ certification
Willing to invest in clients who have had poor records management or shredding services experiences
Training, resources, and support for your staff to become adept at information management
Big-picture strategy and best practices to help business stay ahead
Costs and pricing from office retailers were acquired from information online May 26,2017 and are subject to change.