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How to Communicate Your IT Budget, Part IV

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Step Four – Presenting the Budget With the work you accomplished in the previous steps, it is time present the budget. In all but the smallest organizations, standardize approaches for submitting and presenting budgets are mandated. These approaches may include spreadsheets, online tools, and presentation templates. A common goal is to produce submissions that are consistent with respect to organization and content. They also provide a way to ensure critical issues are addressed. For example, how each group will manage / be impacted by growth, potential reductions, or other significant events. Show Time Presenting an Information Technology (IT) budget can be challenging. The forces driving IT costs are not always understood, and even more fundamentally, the very essence of IT is often unclear to executives. Other factors can complicate the effort. As previously discussed, costs might be held by organizations outside of IT. This can make it difficult to calculate the

How to Communicate Your IT Budget, Part III

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Step Three – The Unveiling  With the work you accomplished in step one and two, it is time to begin focusing on communication. Specifically, how the budget is built, the primary drivers, and validation. Focus on the Core Elements I like to begin by going back to the key elements picture from Step 1: Take time to walk through each circle on the diagram above. Doing so allows you to establish a standard vocabulary with your audience while illustrating your primary budget drivers. Be sensitive to local conventions and vernacular; consider adjusting your own when necessary. Avoid unproductive discussion about terminology whenever possible, the goal is to arrive at a common and informed view. As a side note, one of the benefits of previewing the budget, as discussed in the Validation section of Step Two, is to identify and resolve many, if not all, these issues early in the process. Assembling the Pieces With the essential core elements driving the IT budget defined, it

How to Communicate Your IT Budget, Part II

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Building the Budget The precise mechanics you use to develop the budget is beyond the scope of this article, but I will address some key practices I think are worth incorporating in your approach. Clearly Define Ownership Begin with a core issue: how does the organization handle IT expenses?  Are IT expenses centralized within one budget or decentralized?    Seldom is this a black-and-white answer, but a detailed understanding is critical.  Consider for example service subscriptions.  Imagine your finance organization uses a service to help with state income tax rates or expense reporting.  Do they budget for that service?  Does that service index for headcount, does it include support, and how are IT costs impacted by that service? Almost every area of the organization can have embedded IT expenditures, often without the budget owner's recognition.  Even IT can suffer the same issue, consider all the small "tools" developers and system administrators l

How to Communicate Your IT Budget, Part I

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In many organizations, Information Technology (IT) represents a  significant portion of the overall budget.  In fact, IT is typically among the top expenditures.  Consequently, this budgetary prominence drives a corresponding level of scrutiny by management; an exercise that is often found to be time-consuming and frustrating for all concerned. Much is written about capturing the value of IT and leveraging processes to ensure value-delivery.  Organizational cultures typically dictate the overall budget process.  During my career, I have labored under many of these systems; each has their advantages and disadvantages.   I am going to leave the overarching budget process for others to debate; the focus here is on how to communicate and sell your budget.   Your budget proposal needs to be communicate in a manner that will resonate with executive charged with approving the budget.  In my experience, this is where the process fails.   As with many issues, ineffective communicati

Being hijacked via the Metro – An Unwanted Windows 8 Journey

Recently, misfortune struck when a key system failed at a rather inopportune moment.  Fortunately, a replacement was quickly obtained, and I thought it would be up and running quickly.  My hope the matter would be resolved quickly faded when I turned on the machine.  To my disappointment, Windows 8 was pre-installed, and that is when the fun began. My first reaction was one of minor annoyance, but I comforted myself thinking I would learn a few new things during the restoration process.  I certainly learned a lot, far more than I wanted or expected.  The key lesson for me: avoid Windows 8 unless you have a lot of time to invest. The degree of change, particularly with the new interface, Metro (now called "modern UI style") is substantial.  Personally, I did not find the interface intuitive, and it seemed poorly structured.  This caused me to spend a lot of time searching online for guidance to accomplish even the most basic tasks.  Moreover, in an effort to unclutter th

Using IT to Accelerate the Benefits of Outsourcing & Offshoring

I n an effort to improve overall efficiency, it is not uncommon for organizations to consider embracing some form of outsourcing.  When properly conceived and executed, outsourcing models can provide significant value.  Sadly, these efforts often fall short or take far longer than expected to deliver sought after benefits. Many drivers contribute to this shortfall, but I suspect the most consistent is the implementation strategy. An organization's outsourcing transformation typically evolves through a series of engagement models.  The initial phase often looks like a simple subcontracting engagement with a transaction company to supplier relationship model.  From this model, a more general outsourcing arrangement develops.  More expansive outsourcing is next and often an offshoring component might be added.  Also at this point, the relationship matures to the point that the service provider becomes a partner.  In this role, the outsourcing partner can offer value based on their o