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It is hard to believe that this year has gone by so quickly. Of course, now is the time to plan for your IT needs and the appropriate budget for 2022. This article provides some tips as to what you should keep in mind.
What Is Important
- Do you really need a brick-and-mortar presence?
COVID-19 has changed many things on a global basis, especially with the Remote Workforce. Given the fact that more variants are now emerging, and more employees preferring to work from home, now is the time to consider if you really need a brick-and-mortar presence if you have one. Keep in mind that the money you spend on rent can be used for other purposes for the growth of your company, such as Research and Development or creating new and innovative products/services that your customers and prospects will need in 2022. Remember, you can always get what is known as a virtual office, and rent out the office for much cheaper, on an as-needed basis.
2. The shortages in the supply chain:
At one point in time, the thought of this would have been scoffed at. But now, it is the reality. Because of the pandemic and other factors, many places are short on supplies in many industries, one of those being IT. Now is the time to take a look at the computer and software inventory that you have, and plan the necessary funding in order to keep a small surplus of them on the side, if needed.
3. The use of the Cloud:
Because of the 99% Remote Workforce, many businesses in Corporate America are now moving their On-Premises Infrastructure into the Cloud, using a major platform such as that of AWS or Microsoft Azure. Some of the main reasons for doing this are scalability and affordable pricing. If you are thinking of migrating to the Cloud, now is the time to plan how much it will cost to do a full migration. Obviously, this can be done with your IT department, but undertaking this takes a lot of planning and preparation. As a result, it is highly advisable that you do not go alone at this, and instead hire the resources of an MSP to do this for you. Of course, you will need to factor in these costs as well as formulate your 2022 IT budget.
Of course, nobody can ever forget about this. There are many things to consider here, and an entire whitepaper could be written about this. But one of the key questions you need to be asking is if you are going to continue to use your existing IT staff, or simply outsource these job functions to a trusted third party. There are pros and cons to both, but keep in mind that with a full-time staff, there are salaries and benefits to be paid. But if you hire an IT staff on a contractual basis the only cost is the fee for their engagements. You typically hire them for a fixed-term contract and, depending upon your needs, you can terminate that earlier and/or bring them back on again at a later point in time. IT budgets could be tight in 2022, and this is yet another area where you could save money. Additionally, these contractors can also bring in their peers, who will have other areas of expertise that you can tap into. A typical example of this is the vCISO. As stated, you bring them on when needed. In this regard, you do not have to pay the exorbitant salaries as that of a full-time CISO. Almost on the first day, they can work directly with you and give you advice as to how your existing lines of defenses can be further beefed up.
5. Security breaches:
No matter how many protective measures you may take, there is always the risk that your company could become the victim of a security breach. If you are impacted, there will be a downtime period that will be experienced until you bring back up your mission critical processes. Of course, during this time you will not be generating any revenue, so you must plan to keep a certain amount of funds to get you through this dark period as you plan your 2022 budget. Also, you need to plan the amount of money that will be needed to purchase a good Cybersecurity Insurance Policy. Many insurance carriers have greatly ratcheted up the requirements for obtaining a policy, so you really need to start planning now as to finding one that will fit your needs. Also, keep in mind that getting a payout will take some time. Because of that, it is even more important now to plan for that “slush fund” to keep your company going in that period of downtime.
6. The cost of M365:
In this regard, there have not really been any increases in Microsoft Office products for several years. But just recently, Microsoft announced that there will be price increases starting in the spring of 2022. Depending upon how many employees are using M365 in your company, the cost increases could be minimal, or be a large amount. As a result, you also need to include this factor when planning your 2022 IT budget.
Conclusions
These tips should give some insight as to how to start your IT budget planning. No matter what approach you take in doing this, remember that transparency will be key, especially to the C-Suite if you are requesting more money for your budget. Unfortunately, budgets for Cybersecurity are still at the bottom when it comes to financial priorities, but keep reminding them of this one thing:
The costs of some extra funding are nothing compared to the cost in the event your company is impacted by a security breach, such as that of a Ransomware attack. If you are ready to learn more give us a call or visit our contact us page and schedule a meeting with one of our IT experts.
