Do you have a budget for IT? Are You Thinking about your IT Budget?
My guess is NO! When ending the year, most practices think about Holiday schedules, catching up on billing for the year, posting payments, running year end reports, etc. Technology is usually the last thing they think about.
If you don’t have an IT budget, your equipment and infrastructure can get lost in ending the year for your practice. Your mission critical equipment gets overlooked and there is very little preparation for new equipment and upgrades. A review of the equipment in your office should constantly be in the forefront of your practice. If not, you end up getting hit with large projects that need to be completed at a cost you did not expect.
Plan you IT
If you don’t already, you may want to create an IT budget. Nothing extravagant, just something that keeps you on a constant “refresh” program. There is no need to wait for a PC to crash. If you wait for a crash, you’ve waited too long. A 36 month refresh program seems to work well, and is an affordable way to keep your equipment running smoothly.
What is in your Budget?
When planning an IT budget, you want to consider everything IT. Below are some of the items you want to include:
- PC’s, servers, switches, hubs, etc.
- Software licenses including Office 365, antivirus, etc.
- Vendor support contracts, i.e. your EMR, diagnostic equipment, etc.
- Phone system cost including monthly bills and support on phone equipment
- IT staff, either inhouse, vendor or both
If you start off with these items, you can get a good feel for what your IT costs are, and you can budget accordingly.
Tier3MD
IT Support for Healthcare
