How To Get the IT Budget Increase You Need

Every business has ambitious growth plans, driven by smarter use of technology and data. However, this increased emphasis on IT is not always reflected in the annual budget increases. So what can the IT Director do to secure the additional funding needed?

Use what you already have more effectively

A few years ago, Gartner research indicated that 80% of enterprise IT spend was “dead money,” funds directed toward keeping the lights on. This leaves just 20% of the IT budget free for spending on the projects that will drive the business forward. 

In order to convince your CFO that they should direct more funds toward IT spend, you must first convince them that you are spending what you already have effectively. By reducing “dead spend,” for instance, you demonstrate fiscal responsibility and free up more existing cash for project work. 

Reducing your ask

Perhaps more importantly, your savings can be used to off-set funding requests, which means that the CFO has to release less additional cash to achieve the same results with your next project investment.

You’ve not only made the CFO’s job easier (finding a smaller amount of money), but you’ve also made it much harder for them to reject your request.

How to reduce dead spend

One way to significantly reduce dead spend is to change your hardware support strategy. As the maintenance contracts on your servers, storage arrays, and network devices expire, consider replacing them with a third-party equivalent.

Partnering with CDS for server, storage and network maintenance allows you to reduce support spend by up to 50% or more. The more contracts you move away from the OEM, the more you can save.

Keeping the lights on becomes cheaper– and you have a good starting point for negotiating additional funding with your CFO.

For more help and advice about what can be achieved with support from CDS, please get in touch.