by Lynne Conte

Created on: January 20, 2009   Last Updated: January 27, 2009

Never purchase technology that is unplanned to enhance your marketshare and growth. Always have a well-planned budget and compare the budget to past trends that will justify Information Technology (IT). A well-planned budget will return value to businesses and minimize the risks. Planning for major projects and maintaining an accurate asset list will help justify your

IT budget for 2009.

The second half of 2008 brought bad news for IT organizations and for most businesses worldwide. With our poor economiccrisis and the challenges of recovery in the year 2009, businesses have to cut on their spending and lower their budgets to survive. Replacing wide-area-network (WAN) links with virtual-private-network (VPN) will save thousands of dollars on monthly fees for midsize and large businesses. Chief Information Officers (CIO) have to:

Consider cost-cutting measures

Business model shifts

Restructuring changes

Other business strategies to justify the IT budget for production of business as needed to get through the recession in 2009.

Know your priorities with stakeholders to determine the right IT decision-making for your business is the key to establish a common vision or forecast. It is important to analyze business cost and how technology benefits objectives over time. Newer technologies can help facilitate changes, growth or improvements. However, know if the current technology is promoting business agility and efficiency while managing operational costs and risks. Preparing for what can or what will go wrong by controlling business spending. Research and communication with project managers will help justify business IT budget in 2009. A business will survive with a strong intellectual team by means of sharing information about projects. Shared information and knowing if newer technology will benefit the business and its future will improve budget estimates and value to a business as a whole.

Comparing your spending plans against your competitors will help evaluate a business budget in the intensity of technology use, spending and use of IT outsourcing. Benchmarking helps business understand the IT spending per employee and security. To justify ITbudget for 2009 is to:

Justify and plan IT staffing

Count your employees

Reduce or eliminate special bonuses

Reduce regional support do not over-staff

Data on IT staff ratios allows businesses not to over-staff allowing justification in budgetplanning. Outsourcing some services allows business to utilize personnel more cost-efficiently

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