It’s never too early to start planning your IT costs and next year’s strategic IT plan. With 2020 right around the corner, now’s the ideal time to begin quantifying next year’s IT goals, budget, and expenses. Thinking about migrating to the cloud? Time for a network upgrade? Productivity taking a hit due to slow computers? Clarifying tomorrow’s IT goals and planning your IT costs today is a critical part of achieving your overall business objectives, and in order to set realistic expectations, you need to first decide how much you’re able to invest in technology solutions.
In this post, we’ll provide you with a general framework to help you understand your IT priorities for the upcoming year and figure out the technology you need to be investing in. Establishing an IT budget early on helps you not only maximize the value of your investment but also protects your business against surprise IT expenses later on.
Planning Your IT Costs & Budget
Most organizations approach their IT budget from one of three angels:
- They want to maintain their current IT budget without spending more or less next year.
- They feel that they’re overspending and want to cut their current IT budget.
- They are looking to expand their technology platform and explore IT business alignment strategies.
Just about all businesses will fall into one of these three categories. Which one does your company fall under? By answering this question, you’ll be one step closer to formulating a concrete number for next year’s IT budget.
How to Determine Your IT Strategy
Whether you have a precise number in mind for next year’s IT budget, or you’re willing to adjust that number as you discern your IT objectives, getting the most out of your budget starts with setting priorities.
Maintaining Your IT Budget
If you’re just trying to maintain your current IT budget, you need to figure out if this budget will allow you to continue delivering the tools and platforms your team depends on for day-to-day operations. If so, you’re in great shape for the upcoming year! If not, you may have to consider more cost-effective IT tools, or paring operations down to the essential while staying on budget.
Cutting Your IT Budget
If you think that you’re currently overspending on your information technology needs, first pinpoint where and how you’re overspending. If you utilize multiple vendors for a variety of different IT tools, you may be spreading your IT resources too thin. Consolidating services with a managed service provider (MSP) can actually help you spend less while getting more out of your technology.
Expanding Your IT Budget
One of the best ways to figure out what technology your organization needs in the upcoming year is to ask your team. What pain points do they encounter with technology on a regular basis? A cumbersome email platform? A lack of collaboration tools? Gaining a deeper understanding of how technology makes their jobs easier or more difficult can provide powerful insights into which IT solutions are worth the money and which aren’t.
Technology Worth Investing in for 2020
Heading into 2020, our experts at Hi-Tek Data think that these IT tools are well worth investing in for the coming year:
Cloud Services
If you’re looking for one of the most cost-effective ways to store, share, and manage data, look no further than the cloud. Because a cloud solution is customizable enough to be as unique as your business, there’s no better way to prioritize adaptability, agility, and growth than by migrating network operations to the cloud.
A Mobility Platform
Today’s workers need to be able to work wherever their work takes them, including on the road, while visiting clients, or from home. If your organization hasn’t yet invested in tools to empower your team’s mobile capabilities, you’re already behind, and 2020 is a perfect time to catch back up.
Data Backups & Disaster Recovery
Data has become as valuable to companies as their money. Need evidence? Ninety-three percent of companies that lost data access for ten days or more due to a disaster filed for bankruptcy within one year of the outage. Without a comprehensive data backup and recovery platform, mission-critical data can be lost in the blink of an eye, resulting in lost revenue, reduced productivity, and crippled operations. If you aren’t investing in data protection, the rest of your IT budget may end up being for naught.
IT Consulting for Long Island and New York City Businesses
Does your New York business need help planning your IT costs for the upcoming year? If so, the experts at Hi-Tek Data are here to help. We specialize in understanding the finer details of your day-to-day operations to develop a customized IT roadmap that prepares your organization for tomorrow’s challenges while helping you prosper today. Get in touch with our experts, and we’ll work with you to start clarifying your 2020 IT budget while figuring out what technology you need to be investing in.
