The Art of Strategic IT Budgeting: Aligning Tech Investments with Business Goals

By One Source

Despite economic uncertainties, industry projections indicate an increase in IT spending for 2024. This year, IT leaders report that their organizations are focused on enhancing user experiences (both customer and employee), fortifying cybersecurity defenses, improving operational efficiency, and generating revenue (while cutting costs). Consequently, business leaders are prioritizing investments in these areas.

Are you trying to achieve some of these goals? Here are some tactics our technology advisors have seen working for clients recently.

Improving Operational Efficiency

By investing in the right technologies and services, businesses can streamline processes, automate repetitive tasks, and empower employees to focus on higher-value activities, boosting overall productivity.

Improve Efficiency with AI

When it comes to boosting efficiency, we have to talk about this year’s buzzword, AI. Most IT leaders have begun to think through how they’ll be utilizing it, and some are even piloting AI in specific areas of their business. We’ve seen the most success with clients implementing AI within their customer experience applications. AI and automation can help call center agents eliminate repetitive tasks, enhance data analysis, intelligently route calls, and provide self-service options for support.

Improve Efficiency with Outsourced Support

One client recently brought on Communication Lifecycle Management services specifically to improve operational efficiency for their staff. Many of One Source’s clients are multi-location businesses, with a need to manage connectivity at hundreds or thousands of locations. If a circuit goes down at one location, a member of the IT team could spend valuable time away from their day-to-day roles, delaying routine maintenance, upgrades, or special projects. Multiply that by several dozen outages, and your whole team is now under water. Outsourcing wireline support to our team alleviates those mundane tasks. We now monitor network operations, detect service disruptions, and work with carriers to restore service on behalf of this client, giving them valuable time back in their day for more strategic initiatives.

Enhancing User Experiences

You know what they say – it’s easier to keep a client than acquire a new one. Aligning technology investments with customer-centric objectives directly impacts customer satisfaction, leading to increased retention rates and loyalty.

Improve User Experience with Omnichannel Solutions

Customers expect flexible, frictionless support from the brands they support. Omnichannel solutions allow customers to contact you via the channels they’re most comfortable with, without losing continuity or context should they need to switch channels. Behind AI, this has been one of the topic CX-related topics we’ve discussed with clients recently.

Improve User Experience with AI

Twice in one post! This year, it’s time we admit that no one wants to talk on the phone. An overwhelming majority of millennial and Gen Z buyers want self-service support, with no agent involvement at all. If self-service support is difficult to access, these buyers can become frustrated – and 38% of them are likely to abandon resolving the issue if they can’t do it themselves. Generative AI can make that an easy-to-use experience. It comes with a learning curve (we all saw the AI chatbot that allowed a website visitor to “buy” a 2024 Chevy Tahoe for $1), but if set up correctly, businesses are primed to give consumers easy to access self-service support options.

Cutting Costs

Effective IT budgeting ensures resources are allocated judiciously, minimizing unnecessary expenses. One Source excels at helping IT teams find areas where they can realign their technology spend, enabling IT leaders to reallocate spend to strategic initiatives.

Here are a few starting points to uncover reallocation opportunities in your budget:

• Check for zombie devices
• Renegotiate carrier rates
• Right-size UCaaS instances
• Analyze cloud spend
• Get rid of POTS lines

Cutting costs in any of these areas could help fund a more innovative project. Recently One Source helped a client save over $30,000 a year by identifying and eliminating zero-use devices. The client was then able to reinvest that spend to update their network infrastructure.

*Contact us for free wireline, wireless, or cloud cost analysis!

Fortifying Cybersecurity

Of course, all the improvements gained from these projects could be impeded by a cybersecurity incident. That 6-figure savings you found from during a wireless analysis? It could go down the drain after an attack. The average cost of a cybersecurity breach has steadily increased over the years, reaching a global average cost of $4.45 million in 2023. Ensuring that you’re well protected and well prepared to act in case of an incident is crucial in the year ahead. One Source technology advisors have seen an uptick in security posture assessment requests in the past 3 months, indicating that clients are trying to get a clear picture of where they’re at and where they need to go to provide adequate protection for their organization.

Your role as an IT leader puts you in a unique position to educate your fellow business leaders on how technology updates can help them reach these goals. Real-world examples through proofs of concept or free assessments can help leadership better understand the impact of not taking action.

Interested in learning more about how One Source can help? Schedule time with us below.