ROYAL OAK – Janet Tyler, the COO of Red Level, talks about how IT people can sell their budgets to the “C” level decision makers, particularly when the early reports claim that IT budgets will be down in 2017.

The key, she says, is effective communication—and a little persistence— that can do a lot to open both minds and checkbooks when it comes to IT budget increases. Red Level has three ideas that might just help you get the resources you need, and to make the process (almost) painless

  1. Think like a CFO. You’re an IT person; it’s your job to deal with data and the tools and methods that manage it. Believe it or not, that gives you something in common with your CFO, because they’re interested in data too, but only of a certain kind: Hard numbers. Chances are your department is perceived primarily as a cost center—and even if that isn’t fair, it’s still a fact you have to work with. If you try to see your activities and your department from a CFO’s point of view, you may be able to identify their possible objections in advance—and to overcome them proactively.
  2. State your needs simply and clearly – and back them up. Finance people hate ambiguity—and they really hate uncertainty. Try to define your project’s scope, resource requirements, and benefits as simply and clearly as you can, with a precisely-determined price tag. Support your requests with as much factual and statistical documentation as you can manage—and make sure that they are presented in clear language that non-IT people can understand.
  3. Demonstrate dollars-and-cents value. You know the real value that IT provides to your company – but chances are your finance people don’t. It isn’t always easy to quantify your value in concrete terms, but by all means do it to the greatest extent possible. If you can identify ways that your planned improvements and activities stand to boost revenue, reduce waste or increase productivity and back them up with sound statistical projections, you’re probably much more likely to find a willing audience for your request—and increase the chances of a favorable response.

If you need further ammunition, a 2017 report provides more suggestions for successfully defending IT budgets. But the way we see it, the best defense is a good offense, and more is usually better than less. So why not see if these ideas help you get past your next – or current – budgetary dry spell? It probably can’t hurt to try.

To listen, click on https://soundcloud.com/podcastdetroit/m2-techcast-53-janet-tyler-red-level-monthly-report

To contact Janet, click on http://www.redlevelnetworks.com/blog/author/janet-tyler-coo