With an ever-changing financial and technological landscape, creating a strong IT budget is becoming an increasing priority for enterprises looking to adapt their tech whilst cutting ad-hoc IT spending. Pre-emptive IT budgets and IT roadmaps are a sure-fire way to ensure your business is continuing to adapt its technologies to its needs, while keeping costs as low as possible.
In today’s blog we’ll explore how you can create an effective IT budget for your business, whether you’re going it alone or working in tandem with a trusted MSP. While creating a budget may seem like a simple project to undertake, there are likely factors you may not yet have considered, so we’ll share our IT expertise to ensure you’re creating an all-encompassing roadmap for the next year.
To create an effective IT budget for the coming year, you need to understand where your money has been spent over the past year. It’s important to see whether your spending has been effective in meeting previously set IT targets, or whether goals have been left unmet. Understanding whether you have been over or underspending on your tech is critical, as you can easily redirect budgets to cover areas that may need more attention.
There are certain areas of your IT spending that will remain consistent, and it’s important to factor them into your proposed budget for the year. From subscription cloud services to annually renewing software licenses, there’s a number of unseen costs that make up your budget. Similarly, account for ongoing hardware costs - are you in the process of upgrading desktops? Or consistently improving your office’s network? Make sure all tech-related recurring costs are accounted and paid for, to ensure business continuity and adequate budgeting. Knowing the portion of budget that is already allocated to recurring costs is good, as it’ll enable you to know how much wiggle room you have for the year’s goals.
Once you’ve taken stock of your recurring costs and previous spends, it’s time to establish your priorities for the coming year. Your IT team will likely already know the areas that they would like to focus on, working day in and day out with your company’s tech will have enabled them see what’s working, and what isn’t. Similarly, your end-users will likely also have feedback on their tech experiences at work. Endeavour to listen to everyone’s concerns before allocating your budget,.
An ongoing budgetary consideration that shouldn’t be neglected is cybersecurity. In a world of evolving cyberthreats, it’s imperative that you adequately budget to minimise risks to your business and its data. Remember to account for cybersecurity software - such as, antivirus software, malware protection, cloud backups, password managers - so your team can work with greater peace of mind. If you’re not sure what the state of your current cybersecurity is, then it would be worth factoring in a cybersecurity audit to ensure you’re budgeting enough for the needs of your business. Any MSP such as Fitzrovia IT with a specialisation in cybersecurity can conduct a full audit of your systems.
Whilst they may be similar, IT roadmaps differ slightly from IT budgets. Roadmaps consist of a strategic plan for the future, putting your executives and IT team on the same page with regards to IT spend and business goals.
A business’ roadmap will touch on all elements of their IT strategy. For example, they’ll prompt executives and the tech team to consider issues such as; whether you want to migrate your enterprise’s data to a new cloud system? Whether you’re considering upgrading to a new enterprise software platform? Or whether you want to expedite device deployment strategies?
Having such a roadmap in place means you will be able to closely track the results of your planned IT spend and track how the implementation of new technologies boosts business. This circles back to tip number 1 - you can reassess the goals and spends at the end of the year, to see how effective your roadmap was over the past year.
If you’re about to embark on your IT budgeting for the coming year, then these tips should help you make a strong head start. However, if you feel you may need some additional assistance, then your managed services partner will certainly be able to assist.
Here at Fitzrovia IT, our expert team have helped numerous clients review and audit their budgets over the years. We’ve helped businesses establish budgets for business IT growth, cutting edge technologies, and ironclad cybersecurity infrastructure.
To discuss your current IT budget and how you can cut unwanted IT spending, contact one of our experts today.