Budget pressures and increased demands for schools and colleges are here to stay. What helps them succeed? Smart leaders. They turn pressures into opportunities. Often times IT budgets can be seen as “black holes” because the impacts of investments aren’t easy to measure. These smart leaders run leaner, meaner organizations by turning against the old ways and saying goodbye to wasted resources. How? Because they know how to avoid these black holes.
When THE Journal asked a panel of IT decision makers how they know how to budget wisely—to do more with less—when faced with tight budgets, what was the response? The first thing they said was getting full on audits of their assets and knowing which ones are being used.
How does this help? Like this:
- Auditing
Irving ISD audits all their processes and procedures, according to THE Journal interview. This helps the district to streamline work flow and save time and effort. - Usage Tracking
If something’s not being used, get rid of it. It’s that simple. Granular info on everything is essential. Usage by school, by student, by hour—every little bit helps, right? Are some programs used all the time? Some simultaneously? Which ones aren’t used at all? Knowledge is power, and knowing what apps are being used and when they aren’t can empower you to make all sorts of creative decisions on investments. - People vs. Technology
No one wants to make these decisions—they’re hard! Sometimes doing more with less means dealing with less staff. It’s the reality of the situation. Turn those frowns upside down though. Alice Owen sees an opportunity in those tough decisions and states to THE Journal that “Losing personnel can actually be an opportunity to take control” and an opportunity to centralize direction of technology personnel.
In the next post we’ll take a look at managing hardware costs and opportunities to drive them down. Share with us what helps you track how your technology investments are used?
