DevOpsDays Baltimore - 2017. Or How to actually win the budget argument for the people you need. Have you heard, "I'm going to need you to reduce your IT budget by 10% this year over last year" from an executive who didn't know the business impact of this request? Did your budget help you or hinder you in fighting him off?

1. Prepared by: Eli Senter
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2. 2 copyright 2016 N. Dean Meyer and Associates Inc.
Investment-based Budgeting
Budget for what you want to sell,
not just what you want to spend!
N. Dean Meyer
best practices in financial management

3. Slides by these guys….
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4. Audience….
4
IT
Manag
er
CFO/
COO
Targe
ts

5. 5 copyright 2016 N. Dean Meyer and Associates Inc.
Traditional Budgets
How They (Don’t) WorkDELIVERABLES
Project 1
Project 2
Service 1
EXPENSE CODES

6. Traditional Problems: Game
playing
 Budget Padding
 Cutting fat
 Loss of trust
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7. Traditional Problems:
Micromanagement
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 “Do you really need
another admin?”
 “Is that training
necessary?”
 “Monitoring tools… I
thought that was what
admins are for?”

8. Traditional Problems: “You Cut”
 “Just do what is best for the business…”
 Abdication of responsibility
 Divorce from business goals
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9. Traditional Problems: “Missed
opportunities”
 Not suggesting new projects
 Constrained innovation
 Or worse, eating your seed corn.
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10. Traditional Problems: “Black
hole syndrome”
 Lack of perceived value
 You cost too much
 You suck
 Lack of demand signal
 Poor “more with less” solutions
 Unrealistic expectations
 “We already gave you all that money!
What are we getting for it?”
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11. 11 copyright 2016 N. Dean Meyer and Associates Inc.
Traditional Budgets
How They (Don’t) Work
 Micro-management
 Game playing
 “You cut”
 Lost opportunities
 “Black hole” syndrome, lack of perceived value
 Poor decisions
 Allocations ≠ Utilization
 Unrealistic expectations

12. Chargeback and Allocation
Schemes
 Also fail.
• So. What can we do?
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13. 13 copyright 2016 N. Dean Meyer and Associates Inc.
Fresh Perspective
 Business within a business
 Clients = market

14. 14 copyright 2016 N. Dean Meyer and Associates Inc.
Obvious Conclusion….
 You don’t get budgets/allocations to pay your costs
 You get money to
buy your products
and services

15. 15 copyright 2016 N. Dean Meyer and Associates Inc.
Investment-based BudgetingDELIVERABLES
Project 1
Project 2
Service 1
EXPENSE CODES

16. 16 copyright 2016 N. Dean Meyer and Associates Inc.
Negotiate the Rows
Submit the Columns for TrackingDELIVERABLES
Project 1
Project 2
Service 1
EXPENSE CODES

17. Chargeback and Allocation
Schemes
 In investment based
budgeting:
 Budgets can be related to
business decisions
 By turning the ‘checkbook
over’ to internal customers,
demand signal can be
used to convert
departments to
entrepreneurships
 Turn budgeting circus…
um…process… into a
meaningful discussion
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18. 18 copyright 2016 N. Dean Meyer and Associates Inc.
More Information
www.FullCost.com
NDMA Inc.
203-790-1100
Dean@ndma.com