IT support has changed a lot in the last few years. The wide-spread adoption of cloud technology has created more opportunities for IT professionals to be a partner in complete business optimization. Now updated for COVID-19 response! 

 More and more businesses are switching to a bring your own device (BYOD) policy for employee computers. In theory, it sounds like a win-win. The company saves money and employees can work on machines they’re already familiar with.

In practice, it’s rarely as easy as that. If you are considering implementing BYOD, there are a few things you need to consider first. BYOD is often harder to manage from an IT standpoint and usually leads to unexpected costs.

Traditionally, data security has been treated as a capital expense. Even if they’re regularly updated, firewall and antivirus programs have only been purchased–and thought about-every few years. In the past, this was enough to keep your business safe.

But cyber threats are advancing and evolving at a breakneck speed. Letting your data security decisions be dictated renewal dates is no longer acceptable to keep your business protected. Shifting your data security decisions to be part of your business operations, rather than just a capital expense, will keep you safer and make budgeting easier.

This post is the last in a series about budgeting for IT costs. Previous topics include budgeting for equipment and budgeting for people and growth. 

The final piece of building your annual IT budget is to determine how much you should budget for IT support.  CIO Magazine lays out some good rules of thumb in this article.  On average, they found that SMBs spent 6.9% of revenue on IT.  Keep in mind that this is total IT cost – not just support.   

Today's post is from PTG CEO Reed Wilson. 

Last month, I focused on how to plan for people and growth. This month I’d like to shift the focus on planning for your equipment needs in your annual budget (maintenance renewals, new, upgrades and replacements.)