EssentiaLink Reveals Painful Truth About Staff Reductions and Information Technology

Westminster, CO, February 27, 2009 --(PR.com)-- It is painful being a CEO. Faced with the current economic recession, CEOs must make some very hard and very unpopular decisions.

Does no one ever consider the impossible position most CEO’s face? Let’s look at what our business leaders have to overcome. On the one hand, owners and stock holders want expenses kept as low as possible, but employees want good salaries and benefits. Stockholders want immediate ROI, even if doing so may hurt the company in the long-term. Cities and counties want good citizens, green operations and so on, while customers want lower costs. Let’s not even mention government regulations.

At the end of the day, if the company fails, all is for naught. Employees don’t get benefits and salaries from failed companies. Investors lose their money. Local governments lose tax payers.

In recessions, the decisions become clearer, not easier, but more clear. For example, if a company must cut staff to survive, the larger picture of survival takes precedence over the pain of staff reductions. The challenge is cutting staff without damaging the company or hampering its growth.

Thanks to some powerful technological developments, one department where cuts or hiring freezes can be accomplished, with little or no disruption to the company, is the IT department. Amazingly, IT departments can be trimmed without sacrificing security, maintenance or critical business projects.

According to EssentiaLink’s CEO, Bill Douglas, “there’s no easy way to say it, there is a lot of low hanging fruit in most IT departments. For example, most companies have unnecessary hardware, software and some staff dedicated to routine maintenance that’s easily outsourced.”

Mr. Douglas recommends that if companies really want to improve their working capital and cut costs, they can do so by outsourcing these routine but essential IT functions:

· Network security
· System backup and disaster recovery
· Microsoft Exchange

· Server maintenance
· Workstation maintenance and backup
· Remote Software Deployment

Nothing takes the sting out of managing a company for survival in a recession. But when cuts must happen, make them in a way that has long term benefit and minimum downside for the company.

###