6 Business Inefficiencies You Can't Afford to Ignore: How EverOps Helps Organizations Save Money and Optimize Costs in 2024

Addressing 6 Critical Business Inefficiencies with EverOps in 2024

With business and technology evolving at an unprecedented rate, today’s organizations must look beyond traditional cost-cutting measures to stay ahead of their competitors. According to a recent Gartner study, 75% of businesses will have implemented a cost- and stakeholder-driven data center infrastructure sustainability program by 2027, underscoring the growing need for effective cost-optimization initiatives.

One area where cost optimization is particularly crucial is cloud computing. With organizations running half their workloads in the public cloud and maintaining complex IT infrastructures, cloud computing has become more expensive than anticipated. In fact, worldwide end-user spending on public cloud services is forecast to grow by 20.4% to $678.8 billion in 2024, up from $563.6 billion in 2023. To address this, companies such as EverOps have emerged, offering specialized services to help organizations navigate the complexities of cloud computing costs and achieve long-term financial sustainability.

This article aims to uncover some of the most common and uncommon culprits of inefficiencies found within organizations now, providing insights into how EverOps has successfully turned these inefficiencies into significant cost savings for clients. By proactively recognizing and tackling these inefficiencies early on, companies can begin to maximize ROI’s and optimize resources for future growth.

Frequently Asked Questions 

What is cost optimization, and why is it important for organizations? 

Cost optimization is the process of identifying and eliminating inefficiencies within an organization to reduce costs and improve overall performance. It is essential for organizations because it helps them maintain a competitive edge, increase profitability, and ensure long-term success.

What are some common areas where inefficiencies can be found within an organization? 

Some common areas of inefficiencies may include over-provisioned resources, legacy systems, manual processes, underutilized software licenses, ineffective collaboration, and a lack of skills or training. However, these are just a few of the inefficiencies EverOps has uncovered when working with clients. There are many other potential inefficiencies that may be less obvious within organizations that can significantly impact their overall performance and success. 

What are some less obvious inefficiency traps that organizations should be aware of? 

Some less obvious inefficiency traps may include underutilized talent, inadequate data governance, and a lack of innovation and continuous improvement. However,  inefficiencies can oftentimes lurk in less obvious areas of organizations, so it is important to examine all areas of your business in an effort to uncover them and better optimize for the future. 

How can organizations identify inefficiencies within their operations? 

Organizations can identify inefficiencies in various ways, such as conducting a comprehensive audit of their IT infrastructure, examining current operational processes in depth, or hiring a partner to help aid in finding and optimizing inefficiencies that might not have been as easily uncovered otherwise. Leveraging data analytics and monitoring tools can also help uncover inefficiencies in real-time.

How can partnering with a cost optimization expert like EverOps help organizations achieve their cost optimization goals? 

Partnering with a cost optimization expert like EverOps can provide organizations with the expertise, tools, and strategies needed to identify and address inefficiencies effectively. EverOps has a proven track record of helping clients achieve significant cost savings and improve operational efficiency through customized solutions and a collaborative approach.

What are some real-world examples of organizations that have successfully implemented cost optimization strategies with the help of EverOps? 

Life360, Peloton Interactive, Inc., and Zendesk are all examples of organizations that have successfully partnered with EverOps to achieve significant cost savings and operational improvements through targeted cost optimization strategies.

What are the long-term benefits of implementing a comprehensive cost optimization strategy? 

The long-term benefits of implementing a comprehensive cost optimization strategy include increased profitability, improved operational efficiency, enhanced agility, and better positioning for future growth and success.

6 Common Culprits of Inefficiencies within Organizations Today

Despite the fact that businesses might be running and maintaining a bustling institution with teams working diligently to achieve their goals, hidden inefficiencies may still lurk beneath the surface, slowly eroding the company's potential for success. These inefficiencies come in many forms, silently siphoning resources, driving up costs, and hampering productivity. 

However, by understanding these common culprits, companies can be empowered to take proactive steps towards optimizing internal operations and achieving long-term cost savings. Here are 6 examples of common inefficiencies typically found within organizations today.

Over-Provisioned Resources

• Many organizations overprovision IT resources in an effort to ensure optimal performance during peak demand. While this approach may seem like a safe bet, it often leads to significant inefficiencies and wasted spending on idle resources during periods of lower demand. To strike the right balance between performance and cost-efficiency, organizations must carefully assess their resource needs and implement strategies to dynamically scale resources based on their actual demand.

Legacy Systems

• Legacy systems can be a significant drain on an organization's resources, both in terms of maintenance costs and operational inefficiencies. These outdated systems often struggle to integrate with modern technologies, resulting in data silos and fragmented processes that hinder overall productivity. To help combat this, organizations should carefully evaluate the long-term costs and benefits of maintaining legacy systems and consider investing in modernization initiatives that can improve efficiency, reduce costs, and enable greater agility.

Manual Processes

• Manual processes are a common source of inefficiency in many organizations, particularly regarding data entry, analysis, and reporting. These time-consuming and error-prone tasks can significantly impact productivity and increase costs. By identifying opportunities for automation and implementing the proper tools and technologies, organizations can streamline manual processes, reduce errors, and free up valuable resources to focus on more strategic initiatives.

Underutilized Software Licenses

• Unused or underutilized software licenses can be a significant hidden cost for organizations. Often, this inefficiency stems from overestimating software needs or failing to manage user adoption properly. To better optimize software spend, organizations should regularly review their software usage and licensing agreements, making adjustments to ensure they are not paying for more licenses than required.

Ineffective Collaboration

• In an era where teamwork and innovation are the driving forces behind organizational success, the importance of seamless collaboration cannot be overstated. However, when organizations rely on multiple, unrelated collaboration tools, inefficiencies can quickly arise, and team members may waste valuable time navigating between platforms. This often leads to communication breakdowns and project delays. In direct response to this inefficiency, organizations should strive to integrate and standardize their collaboration tools to improve team interactions and boost productivity, creating a seamless and efficient working environment.

Lack of Skills or Training

• A skilled and well-trained workforce is crucial for driving efficiency and cost optimization. When employees lack the necessary skills or training to use the tools and systems at their disposal effectively, productivity can suffer, leading to longer project timelines and increased costs. By investing in comprehensive training programs and ongoing skill development initiatives, organizations can ensure employees have the knowledge and expertise to work efficiently and drive business success.

Turning Inefficiencies into Cost Savings with EverOps

After exploring the common and uncommon culprits of inefficiencies within organizations, it's clear that identifying and addressing these issues is crucial for driving cost optimization and improving overall business performance. However, knowing where to start and how to effectively tackle these inefficiencies can be a daunting task for many organizations.

Fortunately, the success stories of companies like Life360, Peloton Interactive, Inc., and Zendesk serve as powerful examples of how partnering with the right cost optimization expert can make all the difference. By working with EverOps, these organizations could identify and eliminate inefficiencies, achieve significant cost savings, and lay the foundation for long-term operational excellence.

In the following case studies, we will examine how EverOps tailored its approach to meet each client's unique needs and challenges, demonstrating the value of a customized and collaborative partnership when optimizing for cost optimization purposes. These real-world examples offer valuable insights and inspiration for other organizations looking to embark on their cost optimization journey and achieve similar successes.

Life360

Life360, a leading provider of digital safety solutions, faced a significant challenge in its pursuit of cost optimization and engineering excellence. The company's infrastructure demands were exceptionally high, with over 20 billion requests daily across multiple services. EverOps partnered with Life360, offering a unique operating model and a customized solution that could handle this scale while ensuring zero-defect delivery. 

By collaborating with Life360 FinOps leaders and implementing two concurrent initiatives—optimization of AWS EC2 Auto-Scaling Groups and implementation of AWS VPC Endpoints for DynamoDB and S3—EverOps helped Life360 achieve $1.7M in annual cloud cost savings and anticipate efficiency gains equivalent to up to 70 full-time employees.

Peloton Interactive, Inc

Peloton Interactive, Inc., an industry leader in exercise equipment and media, sought to reduce costs through infrastructure improvements without negatively impacting their developer teams. EverOps worked with Peloton to analyze their existing infrastructure and create a solution roadmap that included reducing instance sizes based on utilization, migrating to EC2 Graviton for performance improvements, and building executive spend dashboards for real-time data visibility. 

Within four weeks, EverOps helped Peloton reduce its infrastructure spending by $400K annually, increase developer efficiency by migrating from Chef to Ansible, and establish a repeatable cost-reduction process for its infrastructure needs.

Zendesk

Zendesk, a cloud-based industry leader in help desk management solutions, had a rapidly growing infrastructure that resulted in high monthly costs due to long-running instances and related licensing. EverOps and Zendesk engineers worked together to look at how much they spent on infrastructure and licensing for 2,500 EC2 instances. These teams devised a solution roadmap that included moving to an immutable AMI procurement workflow, automating instance recycling, using the latest OS to get rid of ESM licenses, and deploying instances behind an ASG for dynamic scaling. 

As a result, Zendesk achieved a 70% reduction in infrastructure compute costs, reduced licensing costs and dependencies, and increased engineering efficiency by reducing instance procurement times.

Key Takeaways 

Cost optimization has emerged as a critical strategy for organizations seeking to maintain a competitive edge and ensure long-term success today. As the pressure to improve efficiency and reduce costs continues to mount, it has become increasingly clear that a comprehensive approach to cost optimization is not just an option but a necessity.

By shedding light on the common culprits of inefficiencies, such as over-provisioned resources and manual processes, to the less obvious but equally impactful inefficiency traps, like underutilized talent and inadequate data governance, we've emphasized the importance of a holistic approach to cost optimization that goes beyond simple cost-cutting measures.

As organizations embark on their own cost optimization journey, embracing a culture of continuous improvement, investing in the right strategies, and leveraging the expertise of experienced professionals will be key to unlocking the full potential of cost optimization and ensuring a thriving future.

Partnering with EverOps

If you or you’re organization is interested in implementing effective cost optimization strategies, partnering with EverOps may be the differentiating factor between a profitable company and a thriving one. With a proven track record of success, deep expertise in identifying and addressing inefficiencies, and a commitment to delivering customized solutions, EverOps is the ideal partner to help you navigate the complexities of cost optimization. 

By working with EverOps, organizations will have the opportunity to tap into an extensive wealth of knowledge while leveraging cutting-edge tools and strategies and benefiting from a customized and collaborative approach to driving long-term success. So, don't let inefficiencies hold your organization back any longer. Take the first step towards a more efficient and profitable future by partnering with EverOps today!