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IT Department! Receive a Budget or NOT.

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by whatme?

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Just wondering if anybody ( I expect so) has the same problems I have. A few years ago I was asked to come on board and create an IT department for a state wide government legal entity. This would conist of Wan, Lans, wireless technology ( the entire infrastructure) and the creation of a large central database. I did my case studies, planning, testing and implentation of same. During the planning stages I brought forth a 5 year budget on what minimum and expected costs to be. This was met with great favor and I was told to proceed (by the Board). Our entity is governed by a Board, then CEO. I was named CIO. This has worked great for 2 years. Budgets were met and I have yet to exceed. This year, with cuts all over, our CEO decided that I did not need a budget and that he could handle the funds in a better way.Understand here that do get along with him but he runs a one man show and excludes everybody. His attitude is...if it ain't broken, don't fix it" does not work for me or our department. Our entire research and development came to a screaching halt. We can't even order a hard drive without him asking, do we need it? Of course, if we just want to order some spare parts, that is out of the question. Our database development has been stopped .
I could do a few things at this point.
Sit back and wait for our equipment to fail and the eventual collapse of trhe department. or
Keep pressuring to try to get some funds for a basic operation. or
What else?
I am sure others have experienced the same. What have you done to alleviate the problem?

4 replies

by bryan.walthall

It seems to me that you have a control freak for a boss, or at least one who is under a lot of pressure from on high to keep the spending to a minimum.

I've been through something similar to what you're going through. I tried fighting city hall to get more money, but I continually lost out. The only way I was able to get more money was to start an audit trail (for covering my behind) and hold on for the ride. Pretty soon, pressure will come from the user community about old and failing equipment, slow networks, and that great new "whizz bang" technology out there. Your boss will hear of it and all of a sudden do a 180 on you and ask you why YOU weren't on top of this. Then you pull out your documentation and say that it is impossible to do so with NO BUDGET.

Basically, the only way the guy is going to learn is if he goes through some pain. I'm sorry to be a cynic in this instance, but that's how I see it.

Regards.

by whatme?

Basically, that is what I am doing. Tried tellinh hime and the board that the only way to keep on top of our network was to have some sort of policy in place for Preventative Maintenance. It seems like what they vote on today they vote down tomorrow.
It does make a person quite frustrated.

by oldefar

While normally I would agree that this looks like micro management, I don't know that this applies in your case. Titles aside, the degree of control exercised by any given level is directly tied to size and scope of responsibility. It is not micro management when the top guy of a small operation does not delegate IF he does not have other more important work to focus on.

My guess is that your organization was formed before you became a province. The legal aid provided was to an under represented minority against interests in Ottawa. Becoming a province changed that - residents became a majority, the judicial system became more local, and they gained Ottawa representation. The sponsors who provided funding for your operation are probably looking hard at whether continued support is appropriate, and the new provincial government is probably looking at how to organize its operations.

Under such circumstances, your budget may have ceased because no money is available until the dust (or snow) settles. Your organization's continued existence may be under review, so spending money on a former strategic plan makes no sense.

You should give consideration to how your organization will be funded in the future. What will the cost per person in the province be for the organization to continue, and is that a reasonable cost? What value will your organization bring to the citizens now that they have a province of their own?

by chris..

I work for a very small non-profit organization. While we are not bleeding edge we are current. The issue I face is not as extreem as what you have not, but I've been there (5 page justification for 2 18GB server drives!!!) and honestly the only solution I've found is to set up two budgets.

First you scope your operations cost... data lines, power, personnel, spares and general failure slush for hardware replacement after a hard failure.

Second you scope out your Capital budget. Most times Developement and upgrades fall here.. talk with your Finance folks for more info on what can be capitalized.

This lets your boss know what you expect for the next fiscal year and if he has to cut something he can start with Cap or Project funding. This also does some cool stuff for your finance folks and they'll be happier for having that data already broken down for them.

In the mean time, your boss will still be a penny pincher, but you have to tell him that if you can't have a solid OP's budget that you can't be responsible for the funcitonality (or disfunctionality) of the environment.

And don't worry, sooner or later it will be his system that tanks and he'll feel some of the pain. Also if you want to be a bastard about it, take your OP's/Cap budget to the board first!

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