Saving Your Budget By Consolidating Software

How many different types of software does your K‑12 school system use? Is it more than 10? More than 20? More than 30? Could it be even higher? We are willing to bet it is, and we’re probably right. A STEAM Math and Computer Curriculum Coordinator at a large district said confidently that their schools use more than 50. More than 50 different types of software. That is quite a lot to keep track of. Too much, in fact. It’s overwhelming just thinking about the different portals, passwords, and potential for waste. This is especially true because it’s not just in the workplace that people have to keep tabs on their software. Recent research suggests that the average person has more passwords than pop songs have words. That is incredible! 

There is a solution, though, and that is to consider consolidating your software. Rather than collecting individual software for specific purposes, look for vendors that offer comprehensive solutions. Sure, it sounds like more work—having to look for and find a comprehensive solution provider—but there are two very compelling reasons to do it:

1. Your staff is much more likely to take advantage of the software that’s available when there are less hoops to jump through to use it. 
2. It is even more likely that this will save your district and your schools lots of money. 

Less is More

If there are any advantages to having a variety of providers and many different software solutions, we have yet to find them. Jumping from application or platform to another, again and again, is really cumbersome and inefficient. It’s also a virtual guarantee for more exposure to outages, interruptions, and other problems as the Covid-19 experience has shown us.

There is also a greater learning curve for users. If every application has its own interface and characteristics, it is asking a lot of anyone to be a proficient user. Just think about how much time and money is spent on training staff for each piece of software! 

Of course, your team will learn new software if it’s essential for their job, but what if it isn’t? It’s likely to be forgotten and collect digital dust like all those downloaded apps you swipe past daily on your smartphone.

Having a myriad of platforms and applications is almost a guarantee for headaches.

A common phrase you’ll hear in the hallways is that technology is supposed to make our lives easier. At home, it likely does, because there is freedom in choosing which technology you use. But at work? It can often cause more hassles than anything else. 

On the other side, familiarity and consistency with a software streamlines the user experience and invites exploration and play. If users understand how to navigate the software, using it becomes a habit and less time is wasted trying to understand day-to-day functions. 

It may seem like shopping around can save money, initially, but there are a lot of costs that don’t get recorded in a contract. The costs of inefficiency are not at all small even though they might be hard to measure in a budget. And if dozens of the 50+ software solutions are rarely used, if used at all, do the savings even matter? Probably not.

Bottom line, consolidation means a better workflow, streamlined processes, efficiency, and centralization. Say goodbye to putting the same data in multiple places, losing track of where something is, or forgetting what something does.

Consolidating Software Means Less Overhead

Watching the shift from being in an office to working from home has been interesting. Initially, there was a lot of indecisiveness on the part of organizational leaders who eventually let employees decide if they wanted to be back in the office or not. 

This is likely because they saw the benefits without many drawbacks. One obvious benefit has been lower costs associated with maintaining the office itself. These are savings that can mean greater profit, and who doesn’t want that? 

Another benefit of consolidating your software is the elimination of a long list of vendors to keep track of.

You can say goodbye to the embedded costs of doing business with multiple companies and say hello to the convenience of having one point of contact. Hallelujah!  

Ready to find out more about the full suite of solutions offered by LINQ? Contact us today for a walk through and let us help you make your life easier.