Ensuring a high level of IT services within your organisation is a key investment. This means that you’ll need to be able to ensure that your IT implementation works for you, to maximise your investment and to ensure you’re not spending on something that is actually in no way beneficial to your success.
IT budgeting is key to ensuring your tech spending is successful. By effectively budgeting and making sure that you’re not overspending, you can truly reap the benefits of having a successful IT implementation that will help sustain your organisation for the future.
In this article, we’re going to go over the key steps in how you can maximise your IT investment in 2024, through effective budgeting and taking advantage of everything at your disposal.
Assess your current IT capabilities and needs
The first step in ensuring that your IT investment is successful is knowing what that success means. This means understanding your own organisation’s IT capabilities and needs, so you know your strengths and weaknesses. After all, making informed decisions is key for any business — and doing so is the only way you can really take your IT investment and make it a success.
By doing this, you’ll be able to effectively know what you’ll need to invest into within your IT infrastructure — both what’s already working that needs to keep working and what needs to be improved. With this information, you can effectively strategise for the future and ensure that you make an informed decision on how to go forward with your IT investment. The best way of assessing your organisation’s capabilities and needs is by trying to find the areas in which your organisation is struggling, and the areas where you’re lacking. By effectively monitoring, charting, and analysing your IT implementation’s performance in different areas, you can thoroughly track what’s working and what isn’t.
Align your IT budget with your strategy and goals
Once you’ve analysed and assessed your current situation, you’ll need to figure out what your goals are and how you’re going to use the information you’ve gathered to create an actionable way to get to those goals.
For example, let’s say that you want to decrease the average amount of time that it takes for a process in your organisation to happen. You can use the data collected to work out exactly which aspects need to be addressed, as well as look at other successful parts of your organisation to see where your successes are and build upon them.
This is where budgeting comes into play as well. After all, with all this information and strategising, you can truly make an informed decision on how to spend your money on IT, and where to spend less due to a lack of success — or spend more on making an initiative successful, if required.
By ensuring that you budget according to your analysis, strategy, and goals, you’ll only be spending on things that are making you achieve more success or things that can lead to future success, rather than spending on things that are instead costing you in the long run.
The most important aspect of this, however, is budgeting to allow for both continued success and to enable innovation within your business. Rather than keeping a tight grip on only investing in parts that already work, you’ll also need to keep an eye out for emerging trends and innovations so you can move forward with the curve instead of being left behind.
Leverage emerging technologies and innovation opportunities
Emerging technologies are one of the most important parts of IT in any modern business.
After all, the most successful organisations are the ones that can take advantage of new technologies and truly help them shine before anyone else. This is why it’s important to keep your finger on the pulse of modern technology trends and ideas — and to not be scared of innovation.
Using new technologies can be expensive, though. Between having to beat the punch so you’re not just using the same technologies that others use and also having to pay for the expertise and resources to ensure that you’re constantly moving forward, budgeting here can be tricky.
Especially with the recent surge in costs worldwide, and the ongoing skills shortage, finding the expertise to be able to leverage your own organisation’s in-house wealth of knowledge is only getting more and more expensive. Newer, smarter ways of being able to have access to this kind of knowledge are being utilised worldwide.
By working with a trusted and knowledgeable provider, you’ll have access to an expert team with a whole wealth of knowledge for a fraction of the cost of hiring in-house IT staff to do so. You’ll be able to keep your finger on the pulse by being in touch with a team of experts who know exactly what they’re doing, so you can spend less on manpower and instead focus on maximising your investment.
Another great way to ensure that you can take advantage of new technologies is by looking at how existing tools that you’re utilising are taking advantage of these technologies. For example, Microsoft Copilot — the new supercharged AI assistant that Microsoft has launched — is available within Microsoft 365 and is able to be used in everyday situations.
By taking advantage of the tools that you have fully and also looking into new technologies, you can truly ensure that you’re both getting the best bang for your buck as well as staying on the cutting edge.
How Kontain Can Help
Your IT investment will help your organisation grow and prosper in the future. By ensuring that you have the right strategies, budgeting, and support, you can truly take control of your own success and take a step forward into the future while doing it.
If you’re looking for support, or a helping hand, reach out to us today. We’re here to help you with whatever your organisation needs.
