How Can You Align Your Technology Budget with Your Organization’s Success?

Written by Marcel Manning on November 5, 2019 Under Who can you trust with your business technology?

Align Your Technology Budget with Your Organization’s Success

Nexgentec is an IT consulting company in Leesburg, FL. Contact us to put together a solid IT budget that matches your business objectives. 

A recent study reveals that 93% of small to midsize businesses recognize the strategic importance of IT operations. However, the majority of them admit that their current IT infrastructure can’t keep up with their business needs. By taking the time to align your IT budget with your business plans, you’ll end up investing in the most critical staff and IT equipment. Nexgentec can perform an assessment of your current system and suggest ways to prioritize IT budgeting to match your business needs.

What’s the Best Way to Align Your IT Budget and Business Needs?

If you don’t have a financial analyst on staff, it’s a good idea to hire one to look over your IT budget. For example, you may have a slow order entry system or have employees who are still doing a lot of manual data entry. These practices can slow or prevent your plans to scale up your business. If so, a good portion of your IT budget may be needed to implement a new order entry system or automate manual processes that create bottlenecks in your workflow. Your IT budget expenses should match your business goals for the same period.

What Questions Can Help My Company Form an IT Budget?

IT leaders and c-level stakeholders should meet to determine what technology changes are most important to the company’s success. Here are a few questions to include in this conversation:

• Do the approved IT initiatives support the company’s objectives?
• Have any essential projects been left out?
• Do any of the business’s strategic plans make planned IT changes obsolete?

Next, examine IT’s role in your company. There are three components to consider:

1. Run budget items are essential to day-to-day business operations. Mission-critical server replacements, personnel costs to maintain network security and software license renewals fall in this category. You should avoid trimming the budget here since it would put your operations at risk. An expensive network failure is the last thing you need if money is tight.
2. Grow budget items introduce new capabilities to help grow your business or improve your current technology. They include onboarding new software to improve efficiency or investing in a new firewall to reduce vulnerabilities to cyber threats or improve the interaction with customers. Grow initiatives aren’t mission-critical and may have more flexibility in terms of implementation. They can be started early if cash if flush or postponed when times are tough.
3. Transform budget items involve research and development. These include fundamental changes to your operations and the corresponding IT infrastructure needed to support them.

How Can You Contact Nexgentec to Strategize IT Spending?

Nexgentec is an IT company in Leesburg, FL, that offers a variety of IT services, including assistance planning your IT budget based on real-world estimates of the requisite software, hardware and third-party support from our consultants. Contact us today to discuss your plans for the coming year in time to put together a solid IT budget.