Are you considering your IT needs in your annual budget this year? Congrats! You have taken a very important step to ensure your business’ success.
We know that this process is not easy. You want to be financially ready for known expenses, but how do you predict the unexpected? You want to be ready for anything, while not wasting valuable resource allocation. It’s a delicate balance that many fail to achieve.
How do you avoid this pitfall? Below is a of the most common technology budgeting mistakes to avoid.
IT Budgeting Mistakes to Avoid
Avoiding these mistakes will ensure you are maximizing the budget.
Mistake #1: The cheapest option isn’t always the best
Technology cannot be an after-thought. Investing in high-quality technology can significantly improve your bottom line over the long term. While marketing may make the solutions all sound the same, there is a significant difference in tool quality. When selecting the cheapest option, you open yourself up to downtime, frustration and unrealized efficiencies.
Just as you would not attempt to run a marathon in jeans and sandals, you should not try to run your business with subpar technology. Invest in high-quality solutions and watch the difference it makes to your business.
Mistake #2: Using last year’s IT budget for this year
Technology advances and cybersecurity threats evolve. Your IT budget needs to adjust to meet developing technology needs. Yes, it may be hard to conceptualize the need for more spend year-to-year. Alternatively, think of how technology needs have changed in the past 10 years.
Suggestion: Instead of having dramatic IT expenses that are hard to budget for, conduct annual assessments to identify friction points and areas where upgrading to a new system or platform could improve business outcomes. This information can help make a case for necessary incremental expenditures to stay relevant and improve an organization’s ability to financially plan.
Mistake #3: Thinking one person can handle all the organization’s IT needs
A single person cannot cover all needed functions at once. Proactive support, reactive help desk response and cybersecurity all require full-time attention. Dividing focus leads to improper protection and poor support of users.
A managed IT service provider can augment internal teams to ensure a complete approach. IT service providers can take on the day-to-day tasks and responsibilities, freeing internal resources up for strategic projects. In addition, IT service providers are dedicated to managing and monitoring the tools. These insures you get the most out of your investments.
Partner for success
Partnering with an IT service provider can be an excellent strategy for successful IT budgeting. Brite provides comprehensive IT support at a fixed per-user cost. Organizations gain a full team of IT and cybersecurity experts working for them 24/7/365. Eliminate the surprises with predictable per user pricing.
Explore Brite’s managed IT services and learn more about how you can get expert IT support today!
