- The importance of infrastructure and operations initiatives can be difficult to understand, even for other members of the IT team.
- Each budget discussion feels like a battle to get as much money as you can.
- You end up feeling like you’re expected to accomplish way more than you’ve been given the budget to do.
- The budgeting process is frustrating and can feel like a waste of time.
Our Advice
Critical Insight
- Budgeting is more than just a numbers game. What isn’t measured can’t be managed and hiding behind padded numbers isn’t going to help you in the long run.
- Important infrastructure discussions are often put on the backburner. Leverage budgeting as a tool to talk about strategic issues and overcome disinterest.
- Know your audience. Be prepared with a narrative of how your budgeting decisions will impact business operations.
Impact and Result
- Begin by understanding business priorities for the upcoming year and develop your budget according to their needs.
- Articulate how infrastructure and operations initiatives and projects support business operations and priorities. Know your audience and help them understand the implications of not implementing certain planned initiatives.
- Let the CIO or business management know if you cannot meet all your objectives with the given budget. Clarify what you can realistically achieve and provide management options for how to proceed. They should be driving strategic decisions.
Member Testimonials
After each Info-Tech experience, we ask our members to quantify the real-time savings, monetary impact, and project improvements our research helped them achieve. See our top member experiences for this blueprint and what our clients have to say.
Client
Experience
Impact
$ Saved
Days Saved
Denver Botanic Gardens
Guided Implementation
9/10
N/A
2
Best: experienced guide who knows the landscape of IT challenges. Worst: felt a bit rushed and rote at times.
Foxwoods Resort & Casino
Guided Implementation
9/10
$2,546
105
Workshop: Develop and Manage Your Infrastructure and Operations Budget
Workshops offer an easy way to accelerate your project. If you are unable to do the project yourself, and a Guided Implementation isn't enough, we offer low-cost delivery of our project workshops. We take you through every phase of your project and ensure that you have a roadmap in place to complete your project successfully.
Module 1: Assess the Current Environment
The Purpose
- Assess the current business environment.
Key Benefits Achieved
- Identify the likely impact on IT infrastructure.
Activities
Outputs
Perform environmental analysis.
- PEST analysis
- Competitive analysis
Review business initiatives and priorities.
- List of upcoming business initiatives and projects
Module 2: Identify and Prioritize Capital Projects
The Purpose
- Rank-order upcoming capital projects by priority.
Key Benefits Achieved
- Create an ordered list of recommended infrastructure and operations projects for the upcoming year.
Activities
Outputs
Incorporate IT projects and initiatives on your roadmap in the capital planning process.
- Schedule of recommended projects
Create a capital project worksheet.
- Completed capital worksheet
Develop and apply scoring criteria for capital projects.
- Prioritized capital projects
- Capital budget draft completed
Module 3: Develop the Operating Budget
The Purpose
- Develop your operating budget and identify potential efficiencies.
Key Benefits Achieved
- Create the infrastructure and operations operating budget.
Activities
Outputs
Conduct zero-based budgeting activities for a single account.
- Account inefficiencies identified
Build the operating budget for your group.
- Operating budget draft completed
Module 4: Drive Ongoing Improvement
The Purpose
- Improve the budget process in a structured, repeatable way with input from the Infrastructure and Operations team.
Key Benefits Achieved
- Build a plan for continuous improvement.
Activities
Outputs
Review your variance reporting practices.
- Deliver, review, and action variance reports
Run a hotwash with your team to identify possible improvements.
- Create an action list to improve your budgeting processes