IT budgeting: tips for cost control and optimization

In today’s digital world, information technology plays a critical role in business operations. IT departments are often responsible for managing company-wide digital systems, ensuring cyber-security, and modernizing their organization’s software and hardware to remain cutting-edge.

IT departments serve so many important functions in an organization that it can be difficult to know where to allocate funding in order to maximize performance. This article aims to explain how to best budget for your IT department and offers a streamlined solution for your IT needs.

Understanding IT budgeting

Information technology budgets include all costs associated with technology, including software, hardware, and personnel. These budgets encompass a huge portion of the operational costs for the business. Companies must consider cost control during the IT budgeting process, or the practice of identifying and eliminating unnecessary IT expenses.

IT budgeting best practices require analyzing where you want your company to be in the future and what technologies within your IT framework might aid that vision. This can be a challenge, but including key stakeholders such as IT and finance professionals, as well as executive leadership, can be helpful in pinpointing necessary technologies and expenses for your business goals.

Tips for effective IT budget planning

With the help of key stakeholders, businesses are best able to identify current IT needs as well as predict future ones. Another important aspect of budgeting is prioritizing certain projects over others based on their expected value contribution to your business.

IT asset discovery software can be a great tool for this process, as it automatically spots unused or underutilized resources that can be retired, as well as possible improvement points. Asset discovery software can be helpful in assessing the true cost of a product, including its contingent costs, by creating a database of user data. Contingent costs refer to costs that will likely crop up in the future with the use of a certain product.

Strategies for cost control in IT budget management

Cost control may require analyzing your past IT department budgets and possible ways to cut costs. Some ways to cut IT costs include supporting a remote workforce, consolidating redundant tools, and increasing automation.

Additionally, evaluating both software and hardware expenses is crucial, as there could be better deals elsewhere. With our pricing calculator, you can ensure that you’re getting the best price on the market for all your IT needs. Understanding your options is necessary when negotiating with vendors to drive down costs, as well as understanding what you can do without, and how you can accomplish more with fewer costs, like with Atera’s fixed cost for unlimited devices.

Implementing systems that can automatically monitor and manage your IT infrastructure is another easy way to simplify your budget. Remote systems like Atera’s are able to do it all, including remote access, remote monitoring and management, robust IT automations, and so much more — so you don’t have to worry about splitting your budget to implement many different software systems.

Best practices for IT budget management

Even after your IT budget has been set, the process is not over. Regularly reviewing and adjusting your budget is ideal for cost optimization.

Identifying and monitoring key performance indicators can help to determine the effectiveness of your budget. This can include user satisfaction with technologies, their security and compliance metrics, and cost savings. These indicators should be tailored to the objectives of your company.

Periodic audits are a great way to create a timeline demonstrating the effectiveness of a technology. High-quality IT asset management software is able to conduct accurate audits automatically.

Tools and technologies for IT budgeting and cost control

Information technology budgeting is a complex process. Delineating an IT purchasing manager who oversees the acquisition of new technologies may be instrumental in remaining within your budget while ensuring your IT department or IT team has all it needs to work effectively.

With the help of IT asset management systems, data is collected automatically across digital platforms. Many IT departments employ the use of a database administrator to oversee these systems. Asset management systems are a form of budgeting software, as they can weed out which technologies are not useful to your company’s needs.

Cloud cost optimization is another tool for successful IT budgeting. Cloud usage often grants users a more flexible amount of storage and processing power. Additionally, this is often a cheaper option for most companies. However, clouds require constant management to ensure they are cost-effective.

Case studies: successful IT budget management examples

Many organizations choose to migrate their operations to the cloud rather than relying on legacy servers. Shifting over to cloud computing is a great way to make your business scalable, as cloud operations can be added on as needed. Atera is born in the cloud, making migration and daily use simple.

For example, Amerihub, an Atera customer specializing in cloud-based IT automation, was able to utilize Atera’s services to accomplish its goal of providing better customer support while reducing their costs.

Aspen Solutions is another Atera customer who found that its existing IT systems were not up to par with its rapidly-growing business solutions company. Their previous system was not scalable, and Aspen Solutions found themselves hiring more personnel to make up for automated deficiencies. However, after negotiating with vendors and using price comparison, they decided to switch to Atera. Atera was able to act as the glue between IT technicians, eliminating redundant work and saving on costs.

Implementing IT governance for expense control is another successful way to manage your IT budget. Atera is able to identify possible technological issues proactively and alert IT professionals. For example, Atera client Systemagic benefited from Atera’s remote management system, which is both time- and cost-efficient.

Systemagic is an IT support company based in London that needed a system to govern tasks that an account management team would normally do. After implementing Atera’s management system, they were able to maintain their customer satisfaction rate of 99%.

Now’s the time to work on your IT budget

Effective IT budget management can help bring your company to the next level. Allocating your funds toward the right technology is critical in connecting with customers, streamlining services, and synthesizing remote workforces.

Atera offers an all-in-one platform with a fixed-cost for unlimited devices, so you can grow your business to where you want it to be, without increasing your bottom line.