Your business’s IT infrastructure lays the foundation for innovation. Creating a strong IT strategy is even more important for growth, especially as we see new software and technology emerge on what seems like a daily basis.

Part of building a solid IT strategy is, of course, budgeting. New technology can significantly help your business advance, but it can also come with an expensive price tag. Budgeting for IT then becomes one of the top financial priorities. You have to find the right balance between giving enough IT budget that your business can grow, but not so much that your financial success depends on it.

How can you find that balance and create the best IT strategy for your business? These three simple tricks may be able to help.

1. Build a Techbook

A “techbook” or a “LANbook” can help you document your business’s network environment. Part of creating an IT strategy is knowing when the equipment you have needs upgrading and being able to pinpoint future network environment requirements, which a techbook can help you do.

Write down exactly what network infrastructure currently exists, how old it is, and the location, purpose, and use of installed programs. Delving into the nuts and bolts will help with creating a long-term plan.

2. Document a Technology Plan for Maintenance and Growth

After you’ve developed your techbook, you can now see the exact layout of your network environment. Building an IT strategy can be a natural expansion from your techbook. In fact, in writing down what you currently have at your business, you’ve probably identified things that are inconsistent or could be improved.

A strong technology plan will look at not only what is needed for IT maintenance, but also cover where there are opportunities for growth. Some questions you might want to consider:

• What is the network environment currently missing? What challenges and pain points exist?
• What is the IT management strategy? When there’s a problem, who is responsible?
• How does the IT environment support business strategy?
• How does your business want to work with technology?
• What risks does your business face that IT could help with?
• Should the network environment be hosted internally or on the cloud?

Once you’ve developed an idea of your IT network’s maintenance and growth strategy, you can pinpoint priorities for the long-term.

3. Create a Five-Year Strategic Budget

Of course, no IT strategy is complete without knowing where the funding will come from. If you’ve identified network maintenance needs and growth opportunities, the next step is budgeting for IT. Creating a five-year strategic budget can give you an idea of what can be accomplished, when it can be done, and how much it will cost. This will guide your business’s IT direction for forward thinking.

There’s an easy way to create a five-year strategic budget: True Sky. Our financial software simplifies the budgeting process making it easier than ever to plan and prioritize strategically.

Learn more at www.truesky.com or by calling 1-855-878-3759.