Comment Think Like the Boss (Score 1) 226
Percentage of revenue, cost per employee and so forth are handy metrics for comparison, but only after you've figured out what you think the budget should be.
Consider what you'll need to spend just to 'keep the lights on' This covers things like annual support contracts for any software you own, preventive maintenance for your hardware, etc. Present this to the boss(es) with a short description of each item, what it cost you last year, what you think it'll cost you next year, and an explanation for any changes year-over-year. For a company as small as yours, I'd expect this to be a single page, at most.
After you've dealt with that, get a little fancy. Consider presenting a "project portfolio". This is a buzzword for a particular approach to justifying IT expenses, wherein the IT department presents a list of potential and existing projects (the "portfolio") from which management can then choose where to invest funds. To do this, you should summarize those projects you have in mind that will either a) enable your employer to make more money or b) enable your employer to spend less money. A decent summary will consist of a nice little table of these, with estimated costs, estimated benefits (both in dollars, and any 'soft' benefits that aren't easily quantified), an estimated time to completion, risks related to undertaking the project, and risks the company will be exposed to if you don't undertake the project. Again, I would guess that in a smaller company, this would be a page or two of mostly text, in a nice table.
Those will give you a good start. Once you've got those documents ready, you'll be able to have a discussion with the boss that will address business opportunities, and how IT (that is, you) can help the company with those opportunities.
Consider what you'll need to spend just to 'keep the lights on' This covers things like annual support contracts for any software you own, preventive maintenance for your hardware, etc. Present this to the boss(es) with a short description of each item, what it cost you last year, what you think it'll cost you next year, and an explanation for any changes year-over-year. For a company as small as yours, I'd expect this to be a single page, at most.
After you've dealt with that, get a little fancy. Consider presenting a "project portfolio". This is a buzzword for a particular approach to justifying IT expenses, wherein the IT department presents a list of potential and existing projects (the "portfolio") from which management can then choose where to invest funds. To do this, you should summarize those projects you have in mind that will either a) enable your employer to make more money or b) enable your employer to spend less money. A decent summary will consist of a nice little table of these, with estimated costs, estimated benefits (both in dollars, and any 'soft' benefits that aren't easily quantified), an estimated time to completion, risks related to undertaking the project, and risks the company will be exposed to if you don't undertake the project. Again, I would guess that in a smaller company, this would be a page or two of mostly text, in a nice table.
Those will give you a good start. Once you've got those documents ready, you'll be able to have a discussion with the boss that will address business opportunities, and how IT (that is, you) can help the company with those opportunities.
