Plan IT Spending Without Surprises With IT Budgeting and Planning

There's no single right number, because it depends on your industry, how many people you have and how much your business relies on technology. Rules of thumb based on a percentage of revenue are a rough starting point at best. A budget built from your actual devices, software and plans is far more useful, because it shows what you need to spend and why. For typical support costs, see our guide to managed IT services pricing.

It depends on how they're used and whether they still get security updates from the manufacturer. Computers that slow your team down or can't run a supported operating system often cost more to keep than to replace. BCA tracks each device's age, warranty and support status and plans replacements so they're spread across years instead of all landing at once.

Recurring costs come back every month or year: support plans, software subscriptions, licenses, internet and phone service. One-off costs happen once or occasionally: new computers, a server, an office move or a new system. Recurring costs are easier to predict, but they creep up as subscriptions are added. One-off costs are where most surprises come from, which is why replacement planning matters.

Technology lifecycle planning is included in BCA's Complete plan. If you're on another plan or not yet a BCA client, budgeting and planning can be scoped as a project on its own, and BCA gives you a clear quote before any work begins.

IT budgeting focuses on the numbers: what you'll spend, on what and when. A virtual CIO owns your technology direction more broadly, including the roadmap, vendors and regular planning meetings, and the budget is one part of that role. If you want someone to build and track the budget as part of ongoing leadership, a vCIO covers it.

Often, yes. Common savings come from licenses nobody uses, overlapping tools that do the same job, subscriptions on the wrong tier and renewals that went through without anyone reviewing them. The budgeting process finds these, and BCA explains what each change would save and whether it affects anyone's work.

Many IT costs scale with headcount, such as support plans, software licenses and computers, so budgeting per user makes it easier to plan for growth. BCA's own plans are priced per user per month. Some costs don't scale that way, such as servers, network equipment and internet service, so those are planned separately.