Calculating IT budgets for SME's ?

[creospace]

Does anyone know if there's any method for calculating the IT budget for a company?

Ie if they have x turnover their IT budget might be around Y

of if they have y employees their IT budget should be around X

Any input given greatfully received.

 

[stugster]

I'd be a bit sceptical working out a budget based on the number of employees and turnover - but I could be wrong!

Surely it depends on the type of business, and the "need" for the I.T.?

Just my thoughts

 

[creospace]

Surely it depends on the type of business, and the "need" for the I.T.?

You're right of course which is why I guess i asked the question but what i'm trying to do is work out a way that you can assess a company and suggest that they aren't investing enough into IT and how you work that out etc.

There is of course (as you say) a great divide between a company that is all office workers and a company that is all factory workers for example.

 

[Page]

Work out what they need and do the sum. IOt just varies to much between businesses.

So if a new company with 20 workers.

Number of work stations
Number of printers
Software to go
Broadband etc.

That will give a start up cost.
Then for an ongoing cost - again work out what might be needed

 

[awebapart.com]

Surely it depends on the type of business, and the "need" for the I.T.?

I would also add that a lot depends on what they really need rather than what they think they need. For instance, do you need the full Microsoft Office suite, or even MS Word, if all you are doing is typing letters.

If you do come up with any formula, it would also be interesting to see what the end result would be comparing the Microsoft way with other alternatives, e.g. if you could replace say MS Office in the equation, with the free OpenOffice.

 

[Mardell]

Have you considered leasing your IT equipment? we do this and find this a real benefit to many businesses.

Just an idea, rather than having a massive lump sum for equipment that will last 3years if that in a business environment.

 

[creospace]

Have you considered leasing your IT equipment? we do this and find this a real benefit to many businesses.

Just an idea, rather than having a massive lump sum for equipment that will last 3years if that in a business environment.

Sorry I should of said this isn't for me this is looking at other companies who perhaps are reluctant to turn to computers and in particular the internet for solutions to running their business more efficiently.

 

[KM-Tiger]

I would also add that a lot depends on what they really need rather than what they think they need. For instance, do you need the full Microsoft Office suite, or even MS Word, if all you are doing is typing letters.

Yes you need to do a proper requirements gathering exercise, and then try and analyse the business benefits against costs. Tricky to do effectively on a small scale. In the letter typing example, buying an Office Suite wouldn't be a good method of fulfilling the need to generate letters, the business requirement could be met much more cheaply.

In my experience all businesses are different in their requirements. I don't think it's ever possible to say "all you need is", or even "what you really need is".

 

[Leo-InstallingIT]

Hi

I don't think there is any easy way to predict a companies IT budget, without throroughly examining their needs; including current and future.
I spend a great deal of time determining clients IT needs, and it always varies greatly from one to the other.
For example one of our clients employs 300 people who are all located in one building do not require a very large IT budget, as the staff simply send/recieve emails and create spreadsheets. Because of the type of business they are, there wasn't much that could be improved by introducing a computer based solution.
In contrast another client with the roughly the same number of employees, is located accross multiple sites who all need access to the same set of data etc. They have a much higher IT budget due to the maintenance of the MPLS (inter site link) and technical support for the greater number of specialist applications they run.

I hope this helps.
Many Thanks

Leo