Planning and Budgets
The cost of IT is something that every company has issues with. The reasons are usually complex and yet justified. "So why did we not plan for it" is a common question as well as a business risk. The key is better planning, which requires the combination of a solid IT strategy and a good understanding of the business strategy.
Business managers need to be involved during the development and future reviews of the IT strategy. The risk of not involving them is that their needs are overlooked at the planning stage and being a persuasive lot, they can usually justify a business reason why their needs should be accommodated into this year’s last quarter re-forecast.
What we can do to help:
- provide guidance and input at the strategic planning stage
- ensure proper planning processes are in place for:
- development of the IT strategy
- development life cycle management
- network management and replacement
- review the budget scope, metrics and monitoring methods
- ultimately reduce the business risk of a budget overrun