Does Your IT Budget Make Sense? Do You Even Have One?

Far too many organizations have no formal IT support strategy, and along with that comes no IT support budget. Successful companies recognize that IT support is an ongoing factor of their normal operation. It’s not something that you wait to break and then have it fixed. The productivity of your employees is worth ensuring that the systems you have in place that keep them efficient keep working.

Proper Expectations

There are always going to be some companies that just don’t have a need for an active role from IT support, but unless your business is mostly running on pen and paper, yours probably isn’t one of them. If you and your employees are constantly using technology it’s going to give them trouble at some point, and you’ll want to have someone ready and willing available to address the matter. Or even better, have that someone take active measures to prevent the issues from the start.

Organizations that have no budget for IT support are many times difficult to work with. Since management starts off with the disposition that every dollar they spend is too much, they tend to get in the way of addressing an issue properly, and focus on getting it done with the immediate positive result at the lowest possible cost. Many times this is perilous to the overall health of the system and will lead to a catastrophe later on.

What’s Reasonable?

A reasonable budget really comes down to the support needs of the company. No two companies are exactly the same. Because of this, we offer our IT support only after a consultation and examination of the needs of the company. A company’s needs may be very complex and require more frequent involvement and should have a higher budget to meet their needs. Another may be a simpler operation that needs less engagement.

Whatever the volume of your needs may be, the first step is to recognize that IT resources need more attention than just fixing it when it isn’t working for you. Once you’ve accepted that, you can begin to think about how much it costs you when you have IT problems. The downtime, struggling to fix things without professional support, and the distraction from other areas in your business where your attention could be of more value all cost something. Once you have an appreciation for these costs, a consultation with a company like us will help you understand what your IT budget should be.