Tag Archives: information technology

Bring Information Technology Spending in Line with Business Objectives

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We’re headed for 2025, and it’s time to consider technology spending for the next year. How will you know the best allocation of your technology dollars? Read on to learn about how to align your tech budget with your business goals.

 

Getting Started with IT Budget Alignment

A LinkedIn article presents steps to follow in planning your IT budget. A good first step is understanding your overall business goals. What do you want to accomplish in the next year, and beyond? Broad goal categories include upgrading existing systems, reallocating spending to more critical areas, and investing in new technology. How will you use trends in technology–automation using artificial intelligence, for instance–to improve processes? Your company’s goals will be unique to you, and need to be prioritized according to what’s most vital.

 

Artificial intelligence offers great potential for increasing efficiency for your company. On the customer service front, it can automate processes like virtual chat, allowing conversational AI to handle routine questions and free up representatives for more complex tasks. Data analysis is streamlined and can efficiently provide insights. Network monitoring is improved, with automation allowing constant scans and identifying possible problems. Email messages are sorted, hence removing spam and forwarding the most important messages to the proper recipients. 

Assessing Your Current IT Spending

 

What is the state of your current technological ecosystem? Are you overspending on areas you don’t need to, and underspending in more important areas? What does each element of your technology contribute to business objectives? For example, you might need to move some systems and data to the cloud for greater flexibility and reduced costs. Do legacy systems you maintain still add value relative to what you spend? Answering these and other questions gives you a clear picture on where you need to focus technology dollars. 

 

The Role of Cybersecurity in Your Technology Budget

 

According to a LinkedIn article analyzing Forrester’s cybersecurity spending benchmarks, the average percentage of cybersecurity spending is only 5.7% of annual IT spend. Rather than being just a part of the IT department, spending on cybersecurity should be a decision made by the business as a whole. Ideally, spending on cybersecurity will be with a view toward proactive rather than reactive defense. Categories of spending include:

 

  • Processes like audits and cybersecurity measures
  • Technological tools including software purchases and network monitoring, and some outsourcing to third parties for businesses without an in-house IT team
  • Employee cybersecurity training

 

Once you have a clear picture of what you want to change, prioritize according to business objectives, such as improving customer experience, enhancing operational efficiency, or even driving innovation. Perhaps you want to increase efficiency in operations, which could involve using AI for automation of certain processes. 

 

Next Steps to Take

Communicate with Stakeholders

After setting priorities, communicate with and engage your stakeholders. They likely will have valuable input that you may not have thought of. Department heads, executives and end users inside and outside the business can tell you if any current initiatives are not meeting needs.  End users can tell you how technology you’ve adopted makes their job easier and improves experience. Department heads and executives can inform you about what is working and what isn’t. Keeping lines of communication open lets everyone know you value input and will use this input to align the tech budget with their needs.

 

Tracking and Fine-Tuning Your Progress

 

To keep track of your progress in alignment of IT spend, establishing KPIs (key performance indicators) as benchmarks for how IT projects contribute to broad goals will help make these goals measurable. Examples of KPIs include how much a certain IT initiative contributes to growth in revenue or promotes greater operational efficiency. How might adopting AI help automate tasks translate to how many minutes are saved through automation

 

Alignment doesn’t end when an IT budget is drawn up. Rather, it’s a continuous reassessment–obtaining feedback, analyzing it, and acting on it. Having a plan and being able to follow it will help you navigate changes in business priorities, market conditions or technology advancements. Then you can be agile and change spending priorities to drive your business where you want it to go.

 

Any new technology adopted should aid your business strategy and goals. For further guidance, contact your trusted technology advisor today.

Aligning Information Technology Spending with Business Goals

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As seen in various trend reports, spending is expected in certain areas like cloud computing, digital innovation, and more. These developments sound exciting, but whether or not your company wants to embark on one of these directions depends on your business goals. Read on to learn how to assess whether emerging technology fits with business plans.

 

Perform an Information Technology Audit

 

A good place to begin, when contemplating tech spend for the coming year, is assessing where you are. In cooperation and communication with your trusted technology advisory, CIO or the head of information technology, look at your IT picture–including infrastructure and devices as well as policies and operations. Reviewing all your tech assets can show where more spend might be needed.  Are there devices, such as, PCs, Macs, and servers are out of warranty and no longer in compliance? Is there any risk of data loss or compromise, or inability to comply with data protection regulations? And are there legacy systems that could be moved to the cloud, to save operating expenses? Finally, could expanding your consulting budget to work with your technology budget help you start new tech initiatives? These and other questions can show you strong points in your infrastructure as well as any deficiencies.

 

Examine Trends in Terms of How They Can Help Your Business

 

For 2024, many businesses are looking at some exciting trends. For example, Artificial Intelligence can help with automation, which in turn can save labor costs. Many companies are hoping to use the cloud for their internal infrastructure as well as customer-facing applications. Taking note of these trends and even being excited about them is significant, but you also need to look at your objectives. Would automation serve your business, and in what way? For example, automation might help your call center workers help customers with more complex problems, leaving simpler questions to a chatbot. Migrating a certain percentage of your internal infrastructure to the cloud can help convert capital expense to operating expense while taking advantage of the scale and security of cloud computing. With constant digital innovation, cybersecurity remains an issue and a key area of expenditure. 

 

Make Your Tech Department a Partner in Spending Decisions

 

Ideally, your tech department (or even head of IT) will be aligned with overall business objectives. This brings the assurance that IT investments will benefit the business as a whole and provide value (which is not just monetary). Alignment can lead to more effective and efficient IT operations, since unnecessary tasks could be eliminated. Alignment can strengthen the organization to be resilient and flexible in a challenging business environment.

 

In looking ahead to 2024 and beyond, excitement about new technologies needs to be tempered with consideration of how they support business goals and strategies. For more guidance, please contact your technology advisor today.