Q4 is a time when many organizations are engaged in planning budgets and strategic objectives for the coming year, and IT professionals work to align business goals and budgets with technology solutions. Here are some tips for taking a long-term, tactical approach to IT budgeting as a way to support overall business goals while getting the most from your existing and future technology resources.
Map your IT spending to your business goals
Begin by aligning every technology initiative to a specific business goal and explore how your technology budget can support your company and brand by linking every IT initiative to a defined business goal. By adopting a strategic mindset, you may identify an IT Implementation that pays for itself or adds enough strategic value to make your executives sit up and take notice.
After you make those decisions, you’ll need an IT road map to get there. A road map contains the core steps for realizing IT initiatives, including how those initiatives align with your budget and what your timeline for implementation is.
Keep in mind that a great IT partner can take over some or all of the process if needed. Find a partner that’s willing to take the time to understand the roadblocks to your business goals, along with the risks to addressing them when it comes to your technology configurations.
How to look at your IT environment when considering budget allocation?
The following classifications aren’t completely distinct because IT solutions have dependencies, but for a simplified starting point, use these categories:
IT infrastructure. Start with a high-level view of your environment: servers and networks. Consider the age of your on-premises servers (and the amount and age of network hardware) and what services they are supporting, compared with how many of your Line of Business and productivity apps are in the cloud. Has the cost of replacing or maintaining servers reached the point where you should be moving more to the cloud instead? Do your business requirements allow you to move some or all your servers to the cloud?
Applications and licensing. This includes software lifecycles and licensing changes. For example, two major suppliers have announced important changes: Microsoft Windows 10 will reach end of support in October 2025, and Broadcom VMWare has shifted from perpetual licenses to a subscription model. These changes could affect your cloud strategy and hardware buying plans, as well as the costs for supporting your environment. It’s also worth looking at your licensing agreements for products you already have access to. For example, if you have Windows Server licenses, Hyper-V is already included. As an option, you can switch over from VMWare and possibly save money.
Endpoints. If you’re going to migrate to Windows 11 when support for Windows 10 ends in October 2025, make sure your endpoint hardware can support it. The way that you manage endpoints, and what type of security and management you need, will also affect your choices and costs. Maybe it’s time to upgrade your licensing to take advantage of improved security tools like Conditional Access or MFA, or to move to virtual desktops and standardize on thin-client devices. These changes can bring efficiencies that may save significant amounts of time for employees and IT staff.
Governance, risk, and compliance (GRC) and cybersecurity. Of course, everyone should be addressing cybersecurity. Having a multi-factor authentication policy in place for your endpoints, for example via Microsoft Intune or another mobile device management solution, can help reduce your cybersecurity insurance costs while protecting your company and client data. And changes in regulations happen throughout the year, so remember to evaluate your compliance program regularly. Sometimes, a big project or a new client, especially one in the financial industry or public sector, may require you to comply with new industry standards like HIPAA, FINRA, and PCI DSS. It’s a lot to consider, but your IT partner should be able to support you with a dedicated GRC team.
How can a gap analysis or strategic technology assessment help?
A gap analysis or strategic technology assessment gives you an overall view of business and IT needs that can inform your budget choices and help you understand or improve your IT maturity level. A thorough examination of your IT environment can also uncover critical compliance or security risks.
From here, your IT partner can help you create a road map for the next one to three years. At ISOutsource, we offer not just the consulting knowledge to help you strategically meet business objectives in a way that gives you the best return on investment, but our engineers and project teams have the ability to execute or manage your IT initiatives, too.
Contact ISOutsource today for more information on supporting your budget strategy and business objectives.