As you’re planning your SMB’s budget for 2022, don’t skip over tech spend or wait until the rest of the budget is counted for before allocating your leftovers to I.T. Your I.T. spend should be a top priority for 2022 and the years to come. Here’s why.

The need for technology and cybersecurity won’t be going away in 2022. Instead, 53% of companies (and 54% of businesses with 1-99 employees) are increasing their I.T. budget for the new year. While 35% plan on keeping their budget the same.

The 12% planning on decreasing their I.T. spend for 2022, hopefully, have a good reason and good luck on their side. Decreasing your tech spend is a risky game for a variety of reasons. One major reason is cyber threats. As they are the fastest growing crime at the global level!

Another is for updating outdated hardware, adding more hardware (hiring new employees next year?), or implementing new software or procedures.

From the 2022 State of I.T. study, the top three drivers for I.T. budget increases for companies with 1-99 employees include:

1. Need to upgrade outdated I.T. infrastructure.

2. Increased security concerns.

3. Increased priority on I.T. projects.

One obvious reason to increase your I.T. budget for 2022 is the increase in cyberattacks. Therefore, your budget should reflect the resources required to defend and protect against cyberattacks.

Does your budget allow for that now?

If not, let’s get it there, or else you may be in danger of becoming a cybercriminal’s next victim. (May be is an understatement, it is very likely you will be.) Because of this, it’s important your I.T. budget allocates enough resources to cover threat detection and responses, performance monitoring, information and identity protection, and security awareness to name a few categories.

Let’s break those categories down further:

• Threat detection and response - Do you have enough in the budget to cover 24/7 security monitoring, real-time threat alerts, internet content filtering, threat remediation, DNS blocking, and an endpoint protection program?

• Performance monitoring - Such as firewall management, AV & patch verification, deploying remote updates, failover testing, and preventative maintenance.

• Information and identity protection - Such as drive encryption, ID verification for requests, multi-factor authentication, and a password manager.

• Security awareness - This includes ongoing staff training resources so that your staff can defend against threats like phishing and protect your organization from threats caused by bad user cyber practices.

A report by Gartner, predicts that by 2025, threat actors will have weaponized operational technology environments successfully enough to cause human casualties! Likely ending with the CEO. Meaning cyber attacks aren’t just after your organization’s data and money but will go as far as physically harming people within your organization.

Your I.T. budget for 2022 should include updating your hardware if it is more than four years old. If you’re thinking four years old, yeah right, it’s hardly been used. Well, think again. A poll by Microsoft found that 90% of consumers would consider taking their business elsewhere than do business with a company using outdated equipment. And outdated equipment is classified as four years and older. If losing business isn’t enough to make you update your hardware, let’s talk about a few more reasons updated hardware is more important than you think and why your budget for the year should include upgrades.

Consumer perception - Following along with the comment mentioned earlier. Consumers take note of who they do business with. And if you’re not up to their standards, then they likely aren’t going to do business with you. This is because they are trusting their personal and billing information with you and that you will keep it safe from the hands of cybercriminals. However, cybercriminals and consumers know that outdated tech leads to increased security issues and simply appears less safe. More on security below. Consumers also care about your technology because they don’t want to deal with slow websites, broken processes, inefficient communication, and other technology that makes the sale or experience with your business difficult and time-consuming.

Security - You probably wouldn't believe me if I said that you are spending more money on your outdated hardware (remember 5+ years and older) than you would if you bought new devices for your office, would you? Well, it’s true. A quick breakdown of increased costs comes from more I.T. expenses due to their higher failure rate, they require more energy because newer tech is more energy efficient, so expect a higher energy bill. Also, among small businesses with 50-99 employees, the average cost of repairing a PC 4 years old or older is $521 per year (TechAisle).

Efficiency -If you’ve ever worked on a laptop or computer that’s a couple years old, you know they get slower and slower over time. As your computer gets slower and slower, you probably get more and more frustrated. The simplest tasks take you longer to complete than they should or maybe you’re on a roll creating a presentation or writing a document, but your device can’t keep up. This stops your train of thought, and who knows if that awesome thought will return. Aside from that, newer devices have the capability to do more and hold more storage. Not to mention, outdated tech becomes incompatible with newer software and other technologies.

If you’ve reviewed your company goals for last year and noted what was missed and why - was it due to your technology? Or a shortage of staff members? Or insufficient technology to accomplish those goals?

If yes, then consider increasing your I.T. budget for the new year to allow for more resources to accomplish your company goals.

So what should be included in your I.T. budget for the year? Let’s break it down.

First, ask yourself a couple of questions:

1. What do you want to accomplish through technology in the next year?

2. Do you plan on adding new hires?

3. Does your current technology allow you to achieve your business goals for the following year?

Then break down the I.T. budget into sections. Such as:

1. Support/Maintenance - This includes how your I.T. infrastructure will be maintained. Will you use internal technicians or use external resources such as an MSP?

2. Hardware - This includes costs for your current equipment and any new equipment you will be adding. Don’t forget to include costs of devices for those new staff members in 2022. Or new firewalls, servers, cables, etc.

3. Software - Micorosft 365 licenses, antivirus, and other overall software will be considered here. You wouldn't consider marketing or accounting software for your I.T. budget or software used specifically for another department as that will be included in that department’s budget.

4. Cloud services - Any costs associated with cloud hosting or other cloud services will go here.

5. Backup and disaster recovery (BDR) - Do you use an outsoucred backup service? Include that here. Any other costs associated with back up and disaster recovery will go here as well such as disaster recovery planning or training.

6. Projects - This includes costs associated with any projects for 2022 that do not happen every year. Such as undergoing updates and upgrades, or new software that will be will be time-consuming and involve planning to execute successfully.

Remember to allocate more spend for a section if you are planning on implementing a new solution for one or more of the sections in the new year. And don’t forget miscellaneous expenses!

If you need help creating and sticking to your I.T. budget for 2022, consider consulting an MSP to help your organization stay on track. An MSP can meet with you to discuss your needs and goals for the new year, then analyze your current business processes to ensure your technology and budget are on par for the upcoming year.

Aside from technology consulting, you may want to allow your I.T. budget to include an MSP versus allocating spending for support/maintenance, hardware, cloud services, and BDR through internal resources.

Not to mention, outside of the I.T. budget, with an MSP you don’t need to use more resources for other parts of the budget such as hiring or firing in-house technicians, training, insurance, and other on-boarding/off-boarding related expenses that you would need to include in your budgets with in-house staff members handling your I.T.

Related:

• What is Managed I.T?

• This is What the I.T. Department Actually Does

• Why Your I.T. Strategy is Ineffective

• 5 Ways SMBs Handle Their I.T.

• Buying Managed I.T. Services 101