{"id":334,"date":"2015-12-23T09:10:27","date_gmt":"2015-12-23T09:10:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/it-toolkits.org\/blog\/?p=334"},"modified":"2016-07-11T08:33:05","modified_gmt":"2016-07-11T08:33:05","slug":"3-ways-to-make-sure-it-budget-still-has-control","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/standard-toolkits.org\/blog\/3-ways-to-make-sure-it-budget-still-has-control.html","title":{"rendered":"3 Ways to control IT budget"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/it-toolkits.org\/Blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/IT-Toolkits_Strategy_5.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-352\" src=\"https:\/\/it-toolkits.org\/Blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/IT-Toolkits_Strategy_5.png\" alt=\"IT-Toolkits_Strategy_5\" width=\"840\" height=\"350\" srcset=\"https:\/\/standard-toolkits.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/IT-Toolkits_Strategy_5.png 840w, https:\/\/standard-toolkits.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/IT-Toolkits_Strategy_5-300x125.png 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 840px) 100vw, 840px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>A lot has been made of so-called \u201cshadow IT\u201d in the last few years, but what does it actually look like\u00a0to the average company? A new study shows that there\u2019s plenty of money to go around for tech \u2026 but IT has its work cut out for it if it wants to control the spending.\u00a0<span id=\"more-17336\"><\/span><\/p>\n<p>To hear some people tell it, shadow IT is a drain on precious resources. Representatives of every department, not just IT, are procuring new IT products and services, leaving less control for the actual technology experts.<\/p>\n<p>That misses the mark, according to recent research by CompTIA Information Technology. The trade association\u2019s Building Digital Organizations report finds that the technology budgets for most organizations are staying steady or even growing. But there are changes in who is making the decisions on where those budgets go.<\/p>\n<p>According to the report only 19% of companies report that IT still is in control of the entire technology budget.<\/p>\n<p>Instead, that budget is being spread out across multiple\u00a0departments, including:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Finance (at 59% of organizations)<\/li>\n<li>Marketing (47%)<\/li>\n<li>Sales (45%), and<\/li>\n<li>HR (45%).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>While IT still has the primary role at most organizations, 28% of companies reported that decisions were made on a level playing field by all departments and at 2% of companies, IT\u2019s role had been diminished or it didn\u2019t even get a say in spending.<\/p>\n<h2>Why it matters<\/h2>\n<p>With enough money to cover tech spending\u00a0at most companies, it doesn\u2019t matter who\u2019s making all the decisions<em> per se<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>The problem is, only one department, IT, is in a place where it can accurately assess security in addition to a service\u2019s usefulness. If IT\u2019s voice isn\u2019t being heard clearly in the decision-making process, legitimate security concerns could be glossed over\u00a0\u2013 or just as dangerously, not be taken seriously.<\/p>\n<p>In order to make sure that message is heard loud and clear, you\u2019re going to need to provide a solid business case for every IT decision, according to the report.<\/p>\n<p>CompTIA interviewed business unit professionals as part of the survey. These non-IT folks said that as spending changes, technology decisions need to adapt by:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>bringing more departments in on decisions (49%)<\/li>\n<li>making sure technology objectives focus on business needs (48%)<\/li>\n<li>having ideas come from different areas of the organization (43%), and<\/li>\n<li>having final decisions on technology made outside of the IT fuction (29%).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>And when it came to information sources for technology, business pros were just as likely to use personal research\u00a0(53%) as to consult with the internal IT department (51%).<\/p>\n<h2>There is hope<\/h2>\n<p>While that may seem like it\u2019s trying to squeeze IT out of the process, there is some good news: 99% of IT pros surveyed said they\u00a0were confident in their abilities to tie technology goals to the business\u2019s needs. And a majority of business pros agreed that IT was good at supporting and advancing their needs.<\/p>\n<p>But that\u2019s not cause to rest on their laurels. Here are three things that can make sure your voice is heard on every technology decision:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Know the business goals. If you\u2019re able to articulate what your company is looking to do and why your decisions would be the best way to do it, the argument\u2019s already won. To do so, make sure you have a good idea of where your business is going and what it\u2019s top priorities are.<br \/>\nThis is also a great way to make sure security gets a seat at the table.<\/li>\n<li>Educate others. Even if people think they have the expertise to make decisions, they\u2019d rather find out they\u2019re wrong from you than the hard way. Make sure you know how to tactfully but forcefully explain why a course of action may not be the best for the organization.<\/li>\n<li>Use metrics. Arguments are won and lost based on the numbers you have to back them up. Show decision-makers not only that you think your way is best, but also that you have the data to prove it.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A lot has been made of so-called \u201cshadow IT\u201d in the last few years, but what does it actually look<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":352,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-334","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-it-budget-management"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/standard-toolkits.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/334"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/standard-toolkits.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/standard-toolkits.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/standard-toolkits.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/standard-toolkits.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=334"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/standard-toolkits.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/334\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/standard-toolkits.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/352"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/standard-toolkits.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=334"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/standard-toolkits.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=334"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/standard-toolkits.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=334"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}