ICT Management > Budgeting and Funding

Allocating funds for ICT

By Lasa Information Systems Team

When funding ICT remember to look beyond the cost of hardware and software and include maintenance and training costs too.

When calculating the cost of IT always remember that it is not just the cost of the software and hardware that has to be taken into account.

At one advice centre workers explained - "we have to unplug the telephone every time we want to send an email or search the Internet." In a busy agency with only two telephone lines, the advice workers obviously felt that the priority was to give clients access to them through these phone lines. Using one of these lines to access the Internet was felt to be impractical because clients would then have less access to the advice workers and would receive a reduced service. If the additional cost of an extra telephone line had been anticipated when the agency bought the computer, their service could have been expanded rather than reduced.

Most of the expenditure on ICT is needed for things other than hardware and software.An easy equation to follow is the 70/30 ratio. That is, 70% of the expenditure is needed for:

• Training
• Ongoing IT support
• Connectivity - connecting equipment so that it works effectively
• Ongoing software licensing
• Maintenance contracts for equipment and any necessary configuration
• Backup arrangements

The smallest proportion – the remaining 30% is for hardware, software and peripherals.

For more information see the Techsoup article Technology Budgeting Basics, Westchester Not for Profit Technology Council article on Technology Planning, and Your non profit needs a Technology Plan by Monte Enbysk.