Technology is not a broken pipe.

According to Gartner Overall IT expenditures are projected to grow 6.8% this year to $5 trillion worldwide.

Despite IT being the core of any business - marketing, sales, customer relationship management, benefits and payroll - many still treat their IT spend like a broken pipe. "When it leaks (or breaks), I'll call a plumber".

This mindset leads to delaying critical upgrades to both infrastructure and security, as well as reducing the value IT can provide to the bottom line.

We met with a company last month that despite a nationwide footprint of cloud, datacenters and warehouses had no official IT budget. Reasonable quarterly and annual upgrades had lapsed and they are a few generations behind the current best practices in cyber security, remote access and disaster recovery. Sadly, it seems this firm has decided IT is nothing more than a drain on their otherwise profitable operation.

Don't be overwhelmed by the information gathering process.

Here are list of things CIO, CTO's can do to win over management when forming an Annual Budget.

1) Compare your current technology platforms to those in use by State and Local Governments. Sure they have "unlimited funding" but you can benefit from the processes and resources they have applied to their own technology selections - the Request for Proposal (RFP). Public sector buyers usually make their RFP process and awards open to all. This gives you a chance to see what the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) and Complexity is to deploy a product or service you may be considering.

Search Google for terms like Filetype:rfp Palo Alto Networks or Town of Wilmington Office 365 E5 Licensing to get real numbers you can use to estimate your budget. You'll learn a lot about how Partners sell and service IT.

2) Find a technology partner who will do most of the work for you. CIO, CTO's are busy. Internal meetings, day to day issues. Find a local technology partner who has working relationships and discounts with major tech vendors like Dell, Cisco, HP, Nutanix, etc. Have them refresh the ideal projects and quotes you would like to implement today if you had the budget approved. Be fair with them and state "We are seeking pricing for budgetary purposes only". This way everyone will feel good about the likelihood of a delayed sales cycle.

3) Document all major outages from the previous 12 months. Get an Reason for Outage (RFO) for each major incident the company has faced in the past 12 months. This includes cloud providers as well as service providers such as OKTA and DUO, as well as any onsite hardware that is managed internally or by a vendor. Clearly state the impact each of these outages had on the business when presenting your budget.

4) Do not underestimate Cyber Security in your budget. Palo Alto CEO Nikesh Arora stated last month "Over the last few years, most of our customers have ended up spending more on cybersecurity than on IT". Huh? Isn't Cyber Security just part of IT? Yes and no. Cyber Security can include the people, processes and solutions to build your Security Platform, but also cyber insurance, ransoms that have been paid, as well as recovery time from an attack! Do not leave your company without a plan to detect, prevent and recover from a cyber attack in your budget.

5) Add IT Training costs to your budget. You will never finish training your IT Deptartment and Employees on the latest technologies and best practices. In your annual budget add expenses for continuing education, vendor or industry certifications as well lab compute resources and hardware. Your IT Team must have a sandbox and a staging environment. There also needs to be training for Financial, Human Resources and the entire workforce. This includings training for phishing, spyware and social engineering attacks! Many companies are still cutting corners in training. The results include unauthorized wire transfers, loss of patient or employee data, stolen trade secrets or systems encrypted by ransomware. Training defeats disaster.