goodhead Posted April 25, 2007 Posted April 25, 2007 we have just been told that our IT budget is going to be cut by 20% this year cos the government is not coughing up enough money. Curious to know whether is is happening in other IT depts around the uk. It sucks. we had it all planned out what we wanted to spend our money on this year.
Ric_ Posted April 25, 2007 Posted April 25, 2007 If mine had only been cut by 20% I would be happy... when you receive a 50% cut you will REALLY get annoyed! I can no longer perform any of the development work that we planned and will only just be able to afford to carry out maintenance works and just about stick to the 3-year replacement cycle.
MkII Posted April 25, 2007 Posted April 25, 2007 Check the results of the recent poll ...would have been interesting to see how much budgets have changed, as you say. Ours went down from C£60k last year to C£15k this. That's XCurric; Descreet IT AND Support Maintenance, Development and Consumable spend.
alan-d Posted April 25, 2007 Posted April 25, 2007 Just had ours and got what I asked for. I won't publish how much - no time to read begging letters
MK-2 Posted April 26, 2007 Posted April 26, 2007 Ric: cut by 50%, pffffft. try having an ict co-ordinator spend nearly 90k in one shot on IWBs and leave us with absolutely nothing for 3 years. and then come back to us this week to ask about another 10 IWBs to be installed. Nighty night budget!
localzuk Posted April 26, 2007 Posted April 26, 2007 Well, mine is about a quarter of what we had last year. Much less than expected, even though I knew it'd be bad. Just have to struggle along with what I've got!
ICTNUT Posted April 26, 2007 Posted April 26, 2007 My budget has been going down at a rate of about 10k per year.
ThatBoringBloke Posted April 26, 2007 Posted April 26, 2007 We have been give £18k to spend on Hardware. It must be spent on hard ware, and our Leased PC's cannot come out of this pot of money, that comes from elsewhere. At the minute I'm a little unsure about what we are going to spend the money on! Other than peripherals and replacing a few staff laptops ( they'll get the cheapest ones I can find!) I'm lost! Our lease replacement cycle is inplace and funded elsewhere. Guess I'll just have to wait and see what our 'ICT Strategy Team' meeting decides is wanted. If we ever have a meeting that is!
contink Posted April 26, 2007 Posted April 26, 2007 Not sure entirely what's happening with the budgets of my other two schools but the one I've just started with has dropped 20% owing to one child leaving and the magic 30 children in a class line was crossed the wrong way (well from a budget point of view). Luckily we've been able to improvise but in real terms what this means is the maintenance will stack up enough to make a visit cost effective. @MK-2: I feel for you I really do... I was lucky enough to have an ICT coordinator who listened when I said "bad idea" and he's not ashamed to admit I was right. My advice would be to take a 3 year plan to SMT and cut that idiot off at the knees.. You'll have enough to worry about with projector bulbs, etc.. in your old lot without having to add more to the pile.
Gatt Posted April 26, 2007 Posted April 26, 2007 Not sure what my budget is yet Just had to wade thru the pervious years spend - all logged onto FMS incorrectly so my spending was mixed with other depts I had to calculate: how many PCs will i buy this year? 8O how many toners 8O How many printers 8O etc etc Which was fun - my head was like mince by the end of the day..
DSapseid Posted April 26, 2007 Posted April 26, 2007 Whats a budget??? I am only allowed to purchase toners and replacement pc components without asking permission!! I now cant do anything i had planned to do this year as we have just a new ICT suite with 65 machines that have eaten all my budget I just keep spending until im told to stop and i spend about £100+ per week on toner alone 8O
accura2000 Posted April 27, 2007 Posted April 27, 2007 Well, lucky me i guess, extra 25K this year, probably go down next year though. We completed our last 3 year plan in 16 months. We have the luck of all admin people here listening to me. I generally get what i want!
ThatBoringBloke Posted April 27, 2007 Posted April 27, 2007 Well, lucky me i guess, extra 25K this year, probably go down next year though. We completed our last 3 year plan in 16 months. We have the luck of all admin people here listening to me. I generally get what i want! What happens in three years time though when the kit needs replacing and there isn't the budget?
zag Posted April 27, 2007 Posted April 27, 2007 Everytime the head or senior management asks for something new, I give them a revised budget. Surprisingly this seems to work and our budget has been ok this year and past years.
Kained Posted April 27, 2007 Posted April 27, 2007 Budget, now i have heard of myths that mention such things like spending budgets and it department budgets, never seen one mind 8O
accura2000 Posted April 27, 2007 Posted April 27, 2007 I have a conginence plan for that in place, everything is on a cycle, things are due to replacement every year so it keeps to cost down. In other words, no real three year replacement to a degree just a build up of yearly costs. Never been a problem.
GrumbleDook Posted April 27, 2007 Posted April 27, 2007 erm ... we have a nice budget. We have got everything that was asked for and it is tied in nice and neatly with a long term IT plan. In the recent survey it was in the top bracket. We break our budget down into 12 different cost centres and allocate money to each area. Yes, we do have to move money around during the year as some things get put on hold and other things brought forward, and we have been over budget the last two years ... but that is due to other projects not actually in the budget ... and we even saved money compared to what the overspend could have been.
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