3 Steps Midsize Firms Can Take To Maximize ROI and Minimize TCO

To thrive in the digital age, midsize firms face constant pressure to deliver more: greater productivity, improved financial performance and stronger customer loyalty. Achieving all three goals is dependent on their ability to adopt new technology. Yet many businesses are hampered by budget constraints, the high cost of talent and complex vendor management, among other challenges—making strategic cost management more important than ever.

This blog post outlines three essential steps you can take to help maximize your return on investment (ROI) while minimizing your total cost of ownership (TCO) of new technology purchases.

Step 1: Avoid Integration Disruptions

One of the main challenges when adopting new technology is integrating it with existing systems and processes without disrupting operations or compromising quality. Successful integration can enhance operational efficiencies, improve performance, and reduce TCO and overall costs. It can also help businesses avoid the hassle of managing multiple vendors, contracts and invoices, allowing them to focus on their core business.

Such an approach requires careful planning, testing and troubleshooting, which can be time-consuming and costly. Some businesses take an all-or-nothing approach, resulting in a rapid transition and steep learning curve for employees—which can be more complex than anticipated and result in cost overruns. A measured approach, like the one taken by Koch Trucking with coordinated services, can help scale and increase productivity. The key is to transition at the right pace and implement the right tools.

Lumen can help simplify and streamline this process by offering integrated solutions that connect and optimize various technologies, such as cloud, network, security and voice. Our solutions are designed to work seamlessly with each other and with your existing infrastructure to help ensure compatibility, interoperability and scalability.

Step 2: Maximize ROI by Using a Single Technology Provider

Another challenge when adopting new technology is maximizing ROI, which can be difficult when you have multiple technology providers, each with their own products, services, prices and terms.

Trying to coordinate disparate organizations and systems can drive internal costs higher and force you to allocate employees to manage these resources instead of other strategic priorities. The result: increased complexity, inconsistency and redundancy, which lead to higher costs, lower efficiency and greater risk.

A single technology provider can help reduce your expenses, increase consistency and mitigate risk. By removing the redundancies and inconsistencies that can occur when you work with several vendors, you’ll be able to enhance employee experiences. In fact, IDC found that using managed services when introducing digital infrastructure and workflows can help bridge budget constraints and skills gaps and also enhance operational efficiency. This can also help reduce TCO and total costs while meeting strategic goals and driving your competitive advantage.

Not all companies are the same, so why should IT solutions be one-size-fits-all? Lumen has the capabilities to meet your end-to-end needs and can tailor solutions to your business. The  comprehensive Lumen portfolio includes customized pricing models, such as pay-as-you-go, subscription or consumption-based approaches that fit your budget and usage. Your trusted Lumen advisor handles all inquiries, issues and requests, helping to ensure you get the greatest value from your solutions, limit cost overruns and maximize efficiency.

SYNQ3, a virtual restaurant contact center, is an example of how partnering with Lumen for all your technology needs can generate outstanding results. The company saw customer demand and call volume triple during the pandemic, and Lumen delivered custom solutions to boost overall call capacity while helping SYNQ3 expand the use of AI using the modern, secure Lumen network.

Step 3: Adapt Workforce Models to Changing Business Conditions

COVID-19 sped up the transition to a hybrid workforce, allowing employees to work anywhere, anytime and on any device. Businesses reaped the benefits as employee productivity, flexibility and satisfaction rose.

Yet some cost-effective solutions may make it difficult to maintain connectivity, collaboration and security across multiple offices and locations, requiring businesses to allocate additional budget and resources to help mitigate these challenges.

That’s why it is essential to establish workflow processes that can adapt, grow and change along with the constantly changing needs of your business. Lumen tools offer robust connectivity, reliability and security, and can be seamlessly integrated into midsize businesses to enhance efficiency and ROI.

By integrating new technology and maximizing ROI with a single technology provider like Lumen, you’ll be able to support a dynamic workforce with reliable tools, allowing your business to minimize TCO, unlock operational efficiencies and drive profitable growth.

Find solutions sized and priced for your needs and budget.

¹Lumen, Top Tech Trends Shaping the Future of Midsize Businesses, 2023.

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