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Create a Transparent and Defensible IT Budget

Build in approvability from the start.

  • IT struggles to gain budget approval year after year, largely driven by a few key factors:
    • For a long time, IT has been viewed as a cost center whose efficiency needs to be increasingly optimized over time. IT’s relationship to strategy is not yet understood or established in many organizations.
    • IT is one of the biggest areas of cost for many organizations. Often, executives don’t understand or even believe that all that IT spending is necessary to advance the organization’s objectives, let alone keep it up and running.

Our Advice

Critical Insight

Internal and external obstacles beyond IT’s control make these challenges with gaining IT budget approval even harder to overcome:

  • Economic pressures can quickly drive IT’s budgetary focus from strategic back to tactical.
  • Corporate-driven categorizations of expenditure, plus disconnected approval mechanisms for capital vs. operational spend, hide key interdependencies and other aspects of IT’s financial reality.
  • Connecting the dots between IT activities and business benefits rarely forms a straight line.

Impact and Result

  • CIOs need a straightforward way to create and present an approval-ready budget.
    • Info-Tech recognizes that connecting the dots to demonstrate value is key to budgetary approval.
    • Info-Tech also recognizes that key stakeholders require different perspectives on the IT budget.
    • This blueprint provides a framework, method, and templated exemplars for creating and presenting an IT budget to stakeholders that will speed up the approval process and ensure more of it is approved.

Create a Transparent and Defensible IT Budget Research & Tools

1. Create a Transparent and Defensible IT Budget Storyboard – A step-by-step guide to developing a proposed IT budget that’s sensitive to stakeholder perspectives and ready to approve.

This deck applies Info-Tech’s proven ITFM Cost Model to the IT budgeting process and offers five phases that cover the purpose of your IT budget and what it means to your stakeholders, key budgeting resources, forecasting, selecting and fine-tuning your budget message, and delivering your IT budget executive presentation for approval.

Create a Transparent and Defensible IT Budget Storyboard

2. IT Cost Forecasting and Budgeting Workbook – A structured Excel tool that allows you to forecast your IT budget for next fiscal year across four key stakeholder views, analyze it in the context of past expenditure, and generate high-impact visualizations.

This Excel workbook offers a step-by-step approach for mapping your historical and forecasted IT expenditure and creating visualizations you can use to populate your IT budget executive presentation.

IT Cost Forecasting and Budgeting Workbook

3. Sample: IT Cost Forecasting and Budgeting Workbook – A completed IT Cost Forecasting & Budgeting Workbook to review and use as an example.

This sample workbook offers a completed example of the “IT Cost Forecasting and Budgeting Workbook” that accompanies the Create a Transparent & Defensible IT Budget blueprint.

Sample: IT Cost Forecasting and Budgeting Workbook

4. IT Budget Executive Presentation – A PowerPoint template and full example for pulling together your proposed IT budget presentation.

This presentation template offers a recommended structure for presenting your proposed IT budget for next fiscal year to your executive stakeholders for approval. 

IT Budget Executive Presentation

Member Testimonials

After each Info-Tech experience, we ask our members to quantify the real-time savings, monetary impact, and project improvements our research helped them achieve. See our top member experiences for this blueprint and what our clients have to say.

9.3/10

Overall Impact

$32,630

Average $ Saved

16

Average Days Saved

Client

Experience

Impact

$ Saved

Days Saved

Kansas Public Employees Retirement System

Workshop

10/10

N/A

N/A

Areez helped us hone in on the specifics of the defensible budget, which is huge for us. I like the approach and thoroughness of the workshop.

Canadian Defence Academy

Guided Implementation

7/10

N/A

N/A

This is an excellent, important topic for organizations aspiring to "Create a Transparent and Defensible IT Budget" Eight months into my new rol... Read More

Oregon Public Defense Services Commission

Guided Implementation

10/10

$13,700

20

Not applicable.

The City of Winchester

Guided Implementation

9/10

$2,740

2

speaking with someone that has/had previous experience as a CIO. That's relevant. It allows me to "walk in the shoes" of someone performing the fun... Read More

City of Bloomington, IL

Guided Implementation

9/10

$13,700

10

Jennifer exhibited excellent attentiveness and comprehension of our goals. She was highly responsive to our customization requests for the IT Spend... Read More

Champaign Residential Services Inc

Guided Implementation

10/10

N/A

N/A

Thank you for kicking around a few ideas Jennifer! We may not have any immediate action items but now I'm more aware of what to ask for in the futu... Read More

Experience Grand Rapids

Guided Implementation

9/10

$13,700

5

Jennifer clearly explained how to use the spreadsheet for budgeting and as a tool. Her explanations of each section will prepare me with thought ou... Read More

Pyxus International, Inc.

Guided Implementation

10/10

N/A

N/A

No negative. Just getting started and at this point I am not in a position to measure time or cost savings.

GENESIS CANCER CARE UK LIMITED

Guided Implementation

9/10

N/A

2

Enjoyed the time with Benoit, well structured session and very informative. I didn't feel there was a worst part.

Hogan

Guided Implementation

10/10

$137K

120

Monica was great to work with. She took the time to understand where I was at in my budget journey and helped me through the entire process from cr... Read More

Job and Family Services

Guided Implementation

8/10

N/A

N/A

Benoit was very knowledgeable and understood the factors we are dealing with. He helped us come to the conclusion that we did not need assistance c... Read More

Champaign Residential Services Inc

Guided Implementation

10/10

N/A

N/A

I can't say that this saved any time or money, but it made me think about my budget in a different way. Now I'll be prepared with better data if I'... Read More

Tomago Aluminium Company

Guided Implementation

10/10

N/A

2

Nu Skin International

Guided Implementation

7/10

$12,999

5

The best was going through the financial review process and the results of the various views. The hard part is that Nu Skin doesn't fit nicely with... Read More

MicroPort Orthopedics Inc.

Guided Implementation

9/10

N/A

10

Monica delivered a summary of the IT Spend Study on our recent IT Steering Committee meeting. Her findings and assessment were thorough, direct, an... Read More

Soaring Eagle Casino & Resort

Guided Implementation

10/10

$32,499

5

Providence Care

Guided Implementation

9/10

N/A

2

Great to benchmark where we sit against peers to validate where we have made investments and where we need to continue to make investments. No cos... Read More

University of Kansas Hospital Authority

Guided Implementation

10/10

$32,499

5

the worse part was gathering the data, but the team as patient. The best part was getting the results and all the hard work paying off with excell... Read More

Renown Health

Guided Implementation

9/10

N/A

2

We are excited to see the final outcome of the study and how Renown compares to others in our industry. Monica and Kennedy were great to work with,... Read More

Chief Industries, Inc.

Guided Implementation

10/10

N/A

N/A

CGIAR

Guided Implementation

9/10

N/A

20

Precise information and no waste of time.

City of Bloomington, IL

Guided Implementation

10/10

$32,499

10

Brother International Corporation

Guided Implementation

9/10

$2,599

2

Best - Being able to collaborate with resources outside of Brother to review our IT budget distribution and trends. The opportunity to get another... Read More

Omaha Public Power District

Guided Implementation

10/10

$64,999

50

Kennedy and Dave were great to work with - knowledgeable, responsive. We anticipate utilizing results of the study for multiple efforts, including ... Read More

Load More Testimonials

Cost & Budget Management

Get the budget you need to enable IT to deliver to its full potential.

This course makes up part of the Financial Management Certificate.

Academy: Cost & Budget Management | Module 1
live
00:00
  • Course Modules: 6
  • Estimated Completion Time: 1 hour
  • Featured Analysts:
  • Jennifer Perrier, Principal Research Director

Now Playing:
Academy: Cost and Budget Management | What Budget Really Is

An active membership is required to access Info-Tech Academy

Workshop: Create a Transparent and Defensible IT Budget

Workshops offer an easy way to accelerate your project. If you are unable to do the project yourself, and a Guided Implementation isn't enough, we offer low-cost delivery of our project workshops. We take you through every phase of your project and ensure that you have a roadmap in place to complete your project successfully.

Module 1: Get into budget-starting position

The Purpose

Understand your IT budget in the context of your organization and key stakeholders, as well as gather your budgeting data and review previous years’ financial performance.

Key Benefits Achieved

  • Understand your organization’s budget process and culture.
  • Understand your stakeholders’ priorities and perspectives regarding your IT budget.
  • Gain insight into your historical IT expenditure.
  • Set next fiscal year’s IT budget targets.

Activities

Outputs

1.1

Review budget purpose. 

  • Budget process and culture assessment.
1.2

Understand stakeholders and approvers.

  • Stakeholder alignment assessment and pre-selling strategy.
1.3

Gather your data.

  • Data prepared for next steps.
1.4

Map and review historical financial performance.

  • Mapped historical expenditure.
1.5

Rationalize last year’s variances and set next year's budget targets.

  • Next fiscal year’s budget targets.

Module 2: Forecast project CapEx

The Purpose

Develop a forecast of next fiscal year’s proposed capital IT expenditure driven by your organization’s strategic projects.

Key Benefits Achieved

  • Develop project CapEx forecast according to the four different stakeholder views of Info-Tech’s ITFM Cost Model.
  • Ensure that no business projects that have IT implications (and their true costs) are missed.

Activities

Outputs

2.1

Review the ITFM cost model

  • Confirmed ITFM cost mdel.
2.2

List projects.

  • A list of projects.
2.3

Review project proposals and costs.

  • Confirmed list of project proposals and costs.
2.4

Map and tally total project CapEx.

  • Forecasted project-based capital expenditure mapped against the four views of the ITFM Cost Model.
2.5

Develop and/or confirm project-business alignment, ROI, and cost-benefit statements.

  • Projects financials in line.

Module 3: Forecast non-project CapEx and OpEx

The Purpose

Develop a forecast of next fiscal year’s proposed “business as usual” non-project capital and operating IT expenditure.

Key Benefits Achieved

  • Develop non-project CapEx and non-project OpEx forecasts according to the four different stakeholder views of Info-Tech’s ITFM Cost Model.
  • Make “business as usual” costs fully transparent and rationalized.

Activities

Outputs

3.1

Review non-project capital and costs. 

  • Confirmation of non-project capital and costs.
3.2

Review non-project operations and costs.

  • Confirmation of non-project operations and costs.
3.3

Map and tally total non-project CapEx and OpEx.

  • Forecasted non-project-based capital expenditure and operating expenditure against the four views of the ITFM Cost Model.
3.4

Develop and/or confirm proposed expenditure rationales.

  • Proposed expenditure rationales.

Module 4: Finalize budget and develop presentation

The Purpose

Aggregate and sanity-check your forecasts, harden your rationales, and plan/develop the content for your IT budget executive presentation.

Key Benefits Achieved

  • Create a finalized proposed IT budget for next fiscal year that offers different views on your budget for different stakeholders.
  • Select content for your IT budget executive presentation that will resonate with your stakeholders and streamline approval.

Activities

Outputs

4.1

Aggregate forecast totals and sanity check.

  • Final proposed IT budget for next fiscal year.
4.2

Generate graphical outputs and select content to include in presentation.

  • Graphic outputs selected for presentation.
4.3

Fine-tune rationales.

  • Rationales for budget.
4.4

Develop presentation and write commentary.

  • Content for IT Budget Executive Presentation.

Module 5: Next steps and wrap-up (offsite)

The Purpose

Finalize and polish the IT budget executive presentation.

Key Benefits Achieved

An approval-ready presentation that showcases your business-aligned proposed IT budget backed up with rigorous rationales.

Activities

Outputs

5.1

Complete in-progress deliverables from previous four days.

  • Completed IT Budget Executive Presentation.
5.2

Set up review time for workshop deliverables and to discuss next steps.

  • Review scheduled.

Create a Transparent and Defensible IT Budget

Build in approvability from the start.

EXECUTIVE BRIEF

Analyst Perspective

A budget’s approvability is about transparency and rationale, not the size of the numbers.

Jennifer Perrier.

It’s that time of year again – budgeting. Most organizations invest a lot of time and effort in a capital project selection process, tack a few percentage points onto last year’s OpEx, do a round of trimming, and call it a day. However, if you want to improve IT financial transparency and get your business stakeholders and the CFO to see the true value of IT, you need to do more than this.

Your IT budget is more than a once-a-year administrative exercise. It’s an opportunity to educate, create partnerships, eliminate nasty surprises, and build trust. The key to doing these things rests in offering a range of budget perspectives that engage and make sense to your stakeholders, as well as providing iron-clad rationales that tie directly to organizational objectives.

The work of setting and managing a budget never stops – it’s a series of interactions, conversations, and decisions that happen throughout the year. If you take this approach to budgeting, you’ll greatly enhance your chances of creating and presenting a defensible annual budget that gets approved the first time around.

Jennifer Perrier
Principal Research Director
IT Financial Management Practice
Info-Tech Research Group

Executive Summary

Your Challenge

Common Obstacles

Info-Tech’s Approach

IT struggles to gain budget approval year after year, largely driven by a few key factors:

  • For a long time, IT has been viewed as a cost center whose efficiency needs to be increasingly optimized over time. IT’s relationship to strategy is not yet understood or established in many organizations.
  • IT is one of the biggest areas of cost for many organizations. Often, executives don’t understand, or even believe, that all that IT spending is necessary to advance the organization’s objectives, let alone keep it running.

Internal and external obstacles beyond IT’s control make these challenges even harder to overcome:

  • Economic pressures can quickly drive IT’s budgetary focus from strategic back to tactical.
  • Corporate-driven categorizations of expenditure, plus disconnected approval mechanisms for capital vs. operational spend, hide key interdependencies and other aspects of IT’s financial reality.
  • Connecting the dots between IT activities and business benefits rarely forms a straight line.

CIOs need a straightforward way to create and present an approval-ready budget.

  • Info-Tech recognizes that connecting the dots to demonstrate value is key to budgetary approval.
  • Info-Tech also recognizes that key stakeholders require different perspectives on the IT budget.
  • This blueprint provides a framework, method, and templated exemplars for creating and presenting an IT budget to stakeholders. It will speed the approval process and ensure more of it is approved.

Info-Tech Insight
CIOs need a straightforward way to create and present an approval-ready IT budget that demonstrates the value IT is delivering to the business and speaks directly to different stakeholder priorities.

IT struggles to get budgets approved due to low transparency and failure to engage

Capability challenges

Administrative challenges

Operating challenges

Visibility challenges

Relationship challenges

IT is seen as a cost center, not an enabler or driver of business strategy.

IT leaders are not seen as business leaders.

Economic pressures drive knee-jerk redirection of IT’s budgetary focus from strategic initiatives back to operational tactics.

The vast majority of IT’s
real-life expenditure is in the form of operating expenses i.e. keeping the lights on.

Most business leaders don’t know how many IT resources their business units are really consuming.

Other departments in the organization see IT as a competitor for funding, not a business partner.

Lack of transparency

IT and the business aren’t speaking the same language.

IT leaders don’t have sufficient access to information about, or involvement in, business decisions and objectives.

Outmoded finance department expenditure categorizations don’t accommodate IT’s real cost categories.

IT absorbs unplanned spend because business leaders don’t realize or consider the impact of their decisions on IT.

The business doesn’t understand what IT is, what it does, or what it can offer.

IT and the business don’t have meaningful conversations about IT costs, opportunities, or investments.

Defining and demonstrating the value of IT and its investments isn’t straightforward.

IT leaders may not have the financial literacy or acumen needed to translate IT activities and needs into business terms.

CapEx and OpEx approval and tracking mechanisms are handled separately when, in reality, they’re highly interdependent.

IT activities usually have an indirect relationship with revenue, making value calculations more complicated.

Much of IT, especially infrastructure, is invisible to the business and is only noticed if it’s not working.

The relationship between IT spending and how it supports achievement of business objectives is not clear.

Reflect on the numbers…

The image contains a screenshot of five graphs. The graphs depict Cost and budget management, Cost optimization, Business value, perception of improvement, and intensity of business frustration.

To move forward, first you need to get unstuck

Today’s IT budgeting challenges have been growing for a long time. Overcoming these challenges means untangling yourself from the grip of the root causes.

Principle 1:
IT and the business are fighting diverging forces. Technology has changed monumentally, while financial management hasn’t changed much at all.

Principle 2:
Different stakeholders have different perspectives on your IT budget. Learn and acknowledge what’s important to them so that you can potentially deliver it.

Principle 3:
Connecting the dots to clearly demonstrate IT’s value to the organization is the key to budgetary approval. But those connected dots don’t always result in a straight line.

The three principles above are all about IT’s changing relationship to the business. IT leaders need a systematic and repeatable approach to budgeting that addresses these principles by:

  • Clearly illustrating the alignment between the IT budget and business objectives.
  • Showing stakeholders the overall value that IT investment will bring them.
  • Demonstrating where IT is already realizing efficiencies and economies of scale.
  • Gaining consensus on the IT budget from all parties affected by it.

“The culture of the organization will drive your success with IT financial management.”

– Dave Kish, Practice Lead, IT Financial Management Practice, Info-Tech Research Group

Info-Tech’s methodology for how to create a transparent and defensible it budget

1. Lay Your Foundation

2. Get Into Budget-Starting Position

3. Develop Your Forecasts

4. Build Your Proposed Budget

5. Create and Deliver Your Budget Presentation

Phase steps
  1. Understand budget purpose
  2. Know your stakeholders
  3. Continuously pre-sell your budget
  1. Gather your data
  2. Review historical performance
  3. Set budget goals
  1. Develop alternate scenarios
  2. Develop project CapEx forecasts
  3. Develop non-project CapEx and OpEx forecasts
  1. Aggregate your forecasts
  2. Stress-test your forecasts
  3. Challenge and perfect your rationales
  1. Plan your presentation content
  2. Build your budget presentation
  3. Present, finalize, and submit your budget

Phase outcomes

An understanding of your stakeholders and what your IT budget means to them.

Information and goals for planning next fiscal year’s IT budget.

Completed forecasts for project and non-project CapEx and OpEx.

A final IT budget for proposal including scenario-based alternatives.

An IT budget presentation.

Insight summary

Overarching insight: Create a transparent and defensible IT budget

CIOs need a straightforward way to create and present an approval-ready IT budget that demonstrates the value IT is delivering to the business and speaks directly to different stakeholder priorities.

Phase 1 insight: Lay your foundation

IT needs to step back and look at it’s budget-creation process by first understanding exactly what a budget is intended to do and learning what the IT budget means to IT’s various business stakeholders.

Phase 2 Insight: Get into budget-starting position

Presenting your proposed IT budget in the context of past IT expenditure demonstrates a pattern of spend behavior that is fundamental to next year’s expenditure rationale.

Phase 3 insight: Develop your forecasts

Forecasting costs according to a range of views, including CapEx vs. OpEx and project vs. non-project, and then positioning it according to different stakeholder perspectives, is key to creating a transparent budget.

Phase 4 insight: Build your proposed budget

Fine-tuning and hardening the rationales behind every aspect of your proposed budget is one of the most important steps for facilitating the budgetary approval process and increasing the amount of your budget that is ultimately approved.

Phase 5 insight: Create and deliver your budget presentation

Selecting the right content to present to your various stakeholders at the right level of granularity ensures that they see their priorities reflected in IT’s budget, driving their interest and engagement in IT financial concerns.

Blueprint deliverables

Each step of this blueprint is accompanied by supporting deliverables to help you accomplish your goals:

IT Cost Forecasting and Budgeting Workbook

This Excel tool allows you to capture and work through all elements of your IT forecasting from the perspective of multiple key stakeholders and generates compelling visuals to choose from to populate your final executive presentation.

The image contains a screenshot of the IT Cost Forecasting and Budgeting Workbook.

Also download this completed sample:

Sample: IT Cost Forecasting and Budgeting Workbook

Key deliverable

IT Budget Executive Presentation Template

Phase 5: Create a focused presentation for your proposed IT budget that will engage your audience and facilitate approval.

The image contains a screenshot of the IT Budget Executive Presentation Template.

Blueprint benefits

IT benefits

Business benefits
  • Improve IT’s overall financial management capability.
  • Streamline the administration of annual IT budget development.
  • Legitimize the true purpose and value of IT operations and associated expenditure.
  • Create visibility on the part of both IT and the business into IT’s mandate, what needs to be in place, and what it costs to fund it.
  • Foster better relationships with business stakeholders by demonstrating IT’s business and financial competency, working in partnership with business leaders on IT investment decisions, and building mutual trust.
  • Better understand the different types of expenditure occurring in IT, including project CapEx, non-project CapEx, and non-project OpEx.
  • Gain insight into the relationship between one-time CapEx on ongoing OpEx and its ramifications.
  • See business priorities and concerns clearly reflected in IT’s budget down to the business-unit level.
  • Receive thorough return on investment calculations and cost-benefit analyses for all aspects of IT expenditure.
  • Understand the direct relationship between IT expenditure and the depth, breadth, and quality of IT service delivery to the business.

Measure the value of this blueprint

Ease budgetary approval and improve its accuracy.

Near-term goals

  • Percentage of budget approved: Target 95%
  • Percentage of IT-driven projects approved: Target 100%
  • Number of iterations/re-drafts required to proposed budget: One iteration

Long-term goal

  • Variance in budget vs. actuals: Actuals less than budget and within 2%

In Phases 1 and 2 of this blueprint, we will help you understand what your approvers are looking for and gather the right data and information.

In Phase 3, we will help you forecast your IT costs it terms of four stakeholder views so you can craft a more meaningful IT budget narrative.

In Phases 4 and 5, we will help you build a targeted presentation for your proposed IT budget.

Value you will receive:

  1. Increased forecast accuracy through using a sound cost-forecasting methodology.
  2. Improved budget accuracy by applying more thorough and transparent techniques.
  3. Increased budget transparency and completeness by soliciting input earlier and validating budgeting information.
  4. Stronger alignment between IT and enterprise goals through building a better understanding of the business values and using language they understand.
  5. A more compelling budget presentation by offering targeted, engaging, and rationalized information.
  6. A faster budgeting rework process by addressing business stakeholder concerns the first time.

An analogy…

“A budget isn’t like a horse and cart – you can’t get in front of it or behind it like that. It’s more like a river…

When developing an annual budget, you have a good idea of what the OpEx will be – last year’s with an annual bump. You know what that boat is like and if the river can handle it.

But sometimes you want to float bigger boats, like capital projects. But these boats don’t start at the same place at the same time. Some are full of holes. And does your river even have the capacity to handle a boat of that size?

Some organizations force project charters by a certain date and only these are included in the following year’s budget. The project doesn’t start until 8-12 months later and the charter goes stale. The river just can’t float all these boats! It’s a failed model. You have to have a great governance processes and clear prioritization so that you can dynamically approve and get boats on the river throughout the year.”

– Mark Roman, Managing Partner, Executive Services,
Info-Tech Research Group and Former Higher Education CIO

Info-Tech offers various levels of support to best suit your needs

DIY Toolkit

“Our team has already made this critical project a priority, and we have the time and capability, but some guidance along the way would be helpful.”

Guided Implementation

“Our team knows that we need to fix a process, but we need assistance to determine where to focus. Some check-ins along the way would help keep us on track.”

Workshop

“We need to hit the ground running and get this project kicked off immediately. Our team has the ability to take this over once we get a framework and strategy in place.”

Consulting

“Our team does not have the time or the knowledge to take this project on. We need assistance through the entirety of this project.”

Diagnostics and consistent frameworks used throughout all four options

Guided Implementation

Phase 1: Lay Your Foundation

Phase 2: Get Into Budget-Starting Position

Phase 3: Develop Your Forecasts

Phase 4: Build Your Proposed Budget

Phase 5: Create and Deliver Your Budget Presentation

Call #1: Discuss the IT budget, processes, and stakeholders in the context of your unique organization.

Call #2: Review data requirements for transparent budgeting.

Call #3: Set budget goals and process improvement metrics.

Call #4: Review project CapEx forecasts.

Call #5: Review non-project CapEx and OpEx forecasts.

Call #6: Review proposed budget logic and rationales.

Call #7: Identify presentation inclusions and exclusions.

Call #8: Review final budget presentation.

A Guided Implementation (GI) is a series of calls with an Info-Tech analyst to help implement our best practices in your organization.

A typical GI is 8 to 12 calls over the course of 4 to 6 months.

Workshop Overview

Contact your account representative for more information.
workshops@infotech.com 1-888-670-8889

Day 1 Day 2 Day 3 Day 4 Day 5

Get into budget-starting position

Forecast project CapEx

Forecast non-project CapEx and OpEx

Finalize budget and develop presentation

Next Steps and
Wrap-Up (offsite)

Activities

1.1 Review budget purpose.

1.2 Understand stakeholders and approvers.

1.3 Gather your data.

1.4 Map and review historical financial performance.

1.5 Rationalize last year’s variances.

1.5 Set next year’s budget targets.

2.1 Review the ITFM Cost Model.

2.2 List projects.

2.3 Review project proposals and costs.

2.4 Map and tally total project CapEx.

2.5 Develop and/or confirm project-business alignment, ROI, and cost-benefit statements.

3.1 Review non-project capital and costs.

3.2 Review non-project operations and costs.

3.3 Map and tally total non-project CapEx and OpEx.

3.4 Develop and/or confirm proposed expenditure rationales.

4.1 Aggregate forecast totals and sanity check.

4.2 Generate graphical outputs and select content to include in presentation.

4.3 Fine-tune rationales.

4.4 Develop presentation and write commentary.

5.1 Complete in-progress deliverables from previous four days.

5.2 Set up review time for workshop deliverables and to discuss next steps.

Deliverables
  1. Budget process and culture assessment.
  2. Stakeholder alignment assessment and pre-selling strategy.
  3. Mapped historical expenditure.
  4. Next fiscal year’s budget targets.
  1. Forecasted project-based capital expenditure mapped against the four views of the ITFM Cost Model.
  1. Forecasted non-project-based capital expenditure and operating expenditure against the four views of the ITFM Cost Model.
  1. Final proposed IT budget for next fiscal year.
  2. Plan and build content for IT Budget Executive Presentation.
  1. Completed IT Budget Executive Presentation.

Phase 1

Lay Your Foundation

Lay Your
Foundation

Get Into Budget-Starting Position

Develop Your
Forecasts

Build Your
Proposed Budget

Create and Deliver Your Presentation

1.1 Understand what your budget is
and does

1.2 Know your stakeholders

1.3 Continuously pre-sell your budget

2.1 Assemble your resources

2.2 Understand the four views of the ITFM Cost Model

2.3 Review last year’s budget vs.
actuals and five-year historical trends

2.4 Set your high-level goals

3.1 Develop assumptions and
alternative scenarios

3.2 Forecast your project CapEx

3.3 Forecast your non-project CapEx and OpEx

4.1 Aggregate your numbers

4.2 Stress test your forecasts

4.3 Challenge and perfect your
rationales

5.1 Plan your content

5.2 Build your presentation

5.3 Present to stakeholders

5.4 Make final adjustments and submit your IT budget

This phase will walk you through the following activities:

  • Seeing your budget as a living governance tool
  • Understanding the point of view of different stakeholders
  • Gaining tactics for setting future IT spend expectations

This phase involves the following participants:

  • Head of IT
  • IT Financial Lead
  • Other IT Management
Webinar: Create a Transparent and Defensible IT Budget
live
00:00

About Info-Tech

Info-Tech Research Group is the world’s fastest-growing information technology research and advisory company, proudly serving over 30,000 IT professionals.

We produce unbiased and highly relevant research to help CIOs and IT leaders make strategic, timely, and well-informed decisions. We partner closely with IT teams to provide everything they need, from actionable tools to analyst guidance, ensuring they deliver measurable results for their organizations.

MEMBER RATING

9.3/10
Overall Impact

$32,630
Average $ Saved

16
Average Days Saved

After each Info-Tech experience, we ask our members to quantify the real-time savings, monetary impact, and project improvements our research helped them achieve.

Read what our members are saying

What Is a Blueprint?

A blueprint is designed to be a roadmap, containing a methodology and the tools and templates you need to solve your IT problems.

Each blueprint can be accompanied by a Guided Implementation that provides you access to our world-class analysts to help you get through the project.

Need Extra Help?
Speak With An Analyst

Get the help you need in this 5-phase advisory process. You'll receive 8 touchpoints with our researchers, all included in your membership.

Guided Implementation 1: Lay Your Foundation
  • Call 1: Discuss the IT budget, processes, and stakeholders in the context of your unique organization.

Guided Implementation 2: Get Into Budget-Starting Position
  • Call 1: Review data requirements for transparent budgeting.
  • Call 2: Set budget goals and process improvement metrics.

Guided Implementation 3: Develop Your Forecasts
  • Call 1: Review project CapEx forecasts.
  • Call 2: Review non-project CapEx and OpEx forecasts.

Guided Implementation 4: Build Your Proposed Budget
  • Call 1: Review proposed budget logic and rationales.

Guided Implementation 5: Create and Deliver Your Budget Presentation
  • Call 1: Identify presentation inclusions and exclusions.
  • Call 2: Review final budget presentation.

Author

Jennifer Perrier

Contributors

  • Lynn Fyhrlund, Chief Information Officer, Milwaukee County
  • Trisha Goya, Director, IS Client Services, Hawaii Medical Service Association
  • Angela Hintz, VP of PMO & Integrated Services, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Louisiana
  • Rick Hopfer, Chief Information Officer, Hawaii Medical Service Association
  • Matt Johnson, IT Director Governance & Business Solutions, Milwaukee County
  • Miguel Suarez, Head of Technology, Seguro Monterrey New York Life
  • Kristen Thurber, IT Director, Office of the CIO, Donaldson Company

Anonymous:

  • Head of IT, Manufacturing

Related Content: Cost & Budget Management

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