Budgeting Process and Approach: Advice and Insight From Your Peers Mal Mead, Chief Information...
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Transcript of Budgeting Process and Approach: Advice and Insight From Your Peers Mal Mead, Chief Information...
Budgeting Process and Approach: Advice and Insight From Your Peers
Mal Mead, Chief Information Officer
Sedgwick, Detert, Moran & Arnold
Werner Gehrke, Information Technology Director Archer Norris
Maryanna Bell, IT Director
Steefel, Levitt & Weiss
ILTA Northern California Regional Event
San Francisco, September 27, 2006
An example of a bad budget
Don’t let the tail wag the dog
Strategic Plan
Budget
Your Budget Should Reflect Your Strategic Goals
Maybe your firm’s got a overall strategic planMaybe NotMaybe you should just address improving your department’s performance via the budget
“Gap” AnalysisUses a graphical representation to highlight SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats)
Compares firm’s performance to previous year, other firms, or the state of technology
Focus on graphics and on “gaps” makes it easy to get the attention of upper management
Also a good tool for sharing evaluation with IT staff
Network
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Security
Backup Plan
Disaster Plan
Software Distribution
Network Mgmt
Backbone
Wide Area Network
Server reliability
Network OS
Firm Last Year
Firm This Year
Legal Industry
Other CriteriaDesktop
OSPCsNotebooksPrinters
ApplicationsWPDMSCRMEmailIntranetExtranetInternet Lit SupportLegal Research
More CriteriaAdministration
FinancialTime EntryBudgetingConflictsDocketingHRRecords
CommunicationTelephoneVoice MailVideo ConferencingRemote Access
But wait, there’s more…Service
Help DeskTrainingStaff QualityVendor RelationsBudget ManagementProject Management
39 total criteria, plus some I would add
PDAsMore variations on Practice Support
Going from graphs to numbers
One more thing: can you walk it like you talk it?
Do your people resources match your budgetary resourcesDo you have a portfolio of projects that you can actually accomplish in the coming year? Should you break down projects over multiple years?
Major Projects 2000
0
5
10
0 5 10Technical Difficulty
Val
ue
to F
irm
Office 2000
Blackberry
Network Mgmt
Voice Mail
Time Entry
Budgeting System
Windows 2000
0
5
10
0 5 10Technical Difficulty
Val
ue
to F
irm
Why plan?Allows you to set the agenda by defining the categories you want to evaluate and budget for Begins to develop a culture of project management – the notion that everything can’t be done at once, but that over time you can get thereKeeps management focused
Example of “Big Firm” Budgeting