IT budget planning is crucial
At Bluegrass we've always believed it was important for our clients to seek our guidance when determining their IT budget. Our knowledge of their business and current IT trends can be used for identifying the most cost effective solutions for the client without the client having to make expensive mistakes. Bluegrass clientds on our Comprehensive and Enterprise support packages can all make use of this free service should they wish.
It was therefore interesting to see a recent article from the Institute of Directors (IoD) highlighting the importance of IT budget planning for SMEs. The following is an extract of their article.
Small and medium-sized business (SMB) owners need to consider a range of different factors when carrying out IT budget planning, it has been claimed.
According to the Institute of Directors (IoD), SMB owners should be used to budgeting for sales and marketing, and employee costs, but IT budget planning may be new.
First and foremost, the IoD highlighted the importance of balancing the initial expense of hardware and software with the cost of ongoing support, while factoring in the changing needs of the business.
The institute urged SMBs to calculate their fixed costs, looking at how much existing IT hardware such as PCs and servers cost to maintain annually.
"This will be the baseline figure to start with as initial infrastructure and upkeep rarely change year-on-year due to one-off purchases and active service agreements," the IoD said.
Next, SMBs are urged to consider further investment. If the business has grown to the point where it needs more complex connectivity – for instance, remote working – it may be time to upgrade small business solutions.
You can read more on the Microsoft Small Business website (this will open up a new Browser window)
