Build an IT Budget
Effective IT budgets are more than a spreadsheet. They tell a story.
Book This WorkshopNot building a budget that communicates value delivery can result in:
- IT viewed as a cost center due to lack of transparency.
- Changes in operations and environment.
- Significant deviations between actual and budgeted costs.
- IT budgets facing downward pressure: remaining flat or decreasing.
IT budgeting will help you:
- Forecast for next year’s budget.
- Implement cost improvement to optimize IT spend.
- Compare key cost accounts to industry benchmarks.
- Increase transparency and support from the business.
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Onsite 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 onsite delivery of our Project Workshops. We take you through every phase of your project and ensure that you have a road map in place to complete your project successfully.
Book NowModule 1: Plan
The Purpose
- Definition of IT budgeting.
- Recognition of the benefits of better budgeting.
- Understanding the risks of budgeting.
- Understanding the challenges of budgeting.
- Preparing for IT budgeting.
- Getting the right people in the room.
- Understanding budget mechanics.
- Establishing a clear budget target.
Key Benefits Achieved
- Understand how better budgeting can help your IT department.
- Understand the risks of poor budgeting.
- Identify budgeting challenges.
- Understand what business units are planning to do.
- Successfully pre-sell ideas and get support for IT initiatives.
- Assemble a budgeting team and make sure resources are available for consult.
- Determine your budgeting target.
- Understand budgeting process.
| Activities: | Outputs: | |
|---|---|---|
| 1.1 | Discuss how IT budgeting works for your organization. |
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| 1.2 | Brainstorm budgeting goals and understand what your IT department would do with a limitless budget. |
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| 1.3 | Identify organizational goals and discuss impacts on IT budget. |
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| 1.4 | Prioritize meeting the goals of finance and other business units. |
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Module 2: Build
The Purpose
- Forecast capital costs.
- Understand best practices for capital budgeting.
- Forecast operating costs.
- Understand best practices for operating budgeting.
Key Benefits Achieved
- Accurate budgets for the capital costs of innovation, maintenance, and business projects.
- An understanding of best practices for capital budgeting.
| Activities: | Outputs: | |
|---|---|---|
| 2.1 | Identify key projects. |
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| 2.2 | Forecast capital costs. |
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| 2.3 | Forecast operating costs. |
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Module 3: Sell
The Purpose
- Ensure budget includes required information.
- Validate and fix anomalies.
- Share your budget internally.
- Construct a budget presentation.
- Sell your financial budget.
- Build your budgeting people, process, and technology capabilities.
Key Benefits Achieved
- Ensure all required information is included.
- Identify and fix errors.
- Adjust assumptions to yield greater accuracy.
- Build a compelling budget presentation.
- Build a revised budget presentation.
- Practice the presentation to improve delivery.
- Find additional cost savings opportunities to suggest in the event of revision.
- Build budgeting capabilities through improving human capital, processes, and IT financial management technology.
| Activities: | Outputs: | |
|---|---|---|
| 3.1 | Play devil’s advocate: take turns critiquing the budget. |
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| 3.2 | Adjust the budget to tighten assumptions and correct errors. |
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| 3.3 | Build the budget presentation. |
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| 3.4 | Mock presentations: practice the budget presentation. |
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| 3.5 | Identify budgeting activities your IT department needs to stop doing, continue doing, and start doing. |
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