Barcanet Provides Cash to Business to Fund Innovation

MANCHESTER, England, December 8, 2015 /PRNewswire/ --

We have all seen how UBER has changed how we use taxis, how airbnb is doing the same with hotels, that PayPal now has a banking license and is evaluating what services to offer above payment processing. The likes of Tesco and ASDA changed the high street, but are themselves under growing pressure from ALDI and LIDL and the on-line retailers.  

Every industry is evolving; new entrants are changing the game. Traditional businesses must innovate, change their operating models or become one of the list of failed businesses who didn't keep-up with customers buying habits (Phones4U, Comet, Blockbuster, HMV, Woolworths to name a few).

Innovation, however, is costly and businesses need to continuously release cash to fund projects. To help, Barcanet has published 20 simple cost-optimisation tips which can generate £m's in reduced costs and efficiencies for a business. These have been applied consistently by Barcanet in their 20+ years' experience of helping businesses control and lower operating costs.

The 20 Cost Optimisation Tips 

1. Mobile phone charges are reducing at about 20% year-on-year - ensure you build that into your negotiation when agreeing multi-year deals
2. Apply any discounts and rebates obtained from suppliers to the cost of any goods imported from outside EU - a healthy discount on Import & Duty costs
3. The vast majority of invoice fraud comes from someone impersonating the supplier and changing their bank account details for payment - ensure you have a process to double-check any such requests
4. On average, 10-15% of telecom services being paid for, are no longer in use - ask your supplier to provide details of no-use services
5. Increasing your thermostat by just 1°C can add 8% to your energy costs over the winter period - set the thermostat at 19°C (66°F) reduce it over weekends and holidays
6. Make sure there is a gap between the heating temperature and when cooling systems kick-in (24°C - 75°F) - otherwise the systems will compete with each other and waste money
7. Turning air conditioning up by just 1°C can save 4% from your energy costs
8. iPhone users consume 8 x more data than those using Blackberry - choose the right devices for your business and monitor data use
9. A 15% decrease in font size equates to a 25% decrease in ink usage when printing documents
10. Printing in colour is around 10 x the cost of black and white
11. £90m is wasted every year by UK companies who leave computers switched on when not in use
12. The UK squanders £170m per annum leaving lights on unnecessarily
13. Terminating unused software subscriptions can reduce costs by 20%
14. 22% of suppliers offer early payment terms - less than half of businesses take the discount
15. When suppliers present a high volume of low-value invoices, paying 'on-statements' can reduce invoice volumes by 20% or more
16. Sign-up to financial news-feeds on key parts of your supply chain - early visibility of financial distress can protect revenues, market share and brand reputation
17. Monitor the volume of supplier invoice queries, KPI failures and late shipments - potential early warning flags to vendor issues
18. Benchmark different parts of your business for consumption and cost - taking best practice from one line-of business across the group can be transformational
19. When was the last time you had a competitive insurance quote - savings can be as much as 40% when bespoke policies are written
20. Challenge employees to find ways of doing things quicker, better, simpler, cheaper - offer incentives to those who deliver

Based in the UK, Barcanet uses its big-data analytics capability to create a single, global view of the operating costs of a business then applies subject matter expertise to drive cost out through a process of compliance, changing consumption habits, buying better and improving operating models.

For further details please visit http://www.barcanet.com or connect with us @costcontrolplus on Twitter.

Notes To Editors: 

Company Contact: Ian Yates, Managing Director, [email protected]

Press Contact: Guy Parker, Creation ADM, +44(0)161-236-3939 / +44(0)7776-128-005, [email protected]

SOURCE Barcanet Limited