Businesses are dedicating more and more of their budgets to IT expenses. With 2015 approaching, you may be wondering how much of your budget should go towards improving your tech infrastructure. And once you’ve figured out how much you can spend on IT, you’ll have to decide how much to invest in each specific area (security, cloud computing, etc.).

To assist you in making these tough decisions, let’s take a look at where other companies are putting their IT dollars, as well as the benefits of investing in each area. A recent ComputerWorld survey asked business owners which areas in IT they planned on increasing expenditures in the coming year, and this is what the poll found:

• 46% will dedicate more funds toward improving their cybersecurity
• 40% plan on migrating to the cloud
• 38% will spend more money on running big data analytics
• 35% are going to invest in improving their mobile technology

Security:

You don’t have to be some no-name mom-and-pop shop to be vulnerable to cybercriminals. Last year, Target’s security was compromised and tens of millions of customers had their credit card numbers and email addresses stolen, and more recently Home Depot suffered a similar breach.

To avoid a similar, customer confidence-destroying fate as these two retail juggernauts, it makes sense to dedicate the big slice of your IT budget to making your system more secure.

The Cloud:

Sometimes spending money is a great way to save money. By investing in migrating infrastructure to the cloud, companies will cut costs associated with having servers on-site, no longer needing to hire tech support to maintain such hardware, and electricity bills will shrink significantly.

Another benefit to cloud computing: as your needs fluctuate, you can easily scale your cloud service to meet your needs. In contrast, with on-site hardware, you could be wasting money on more machine than necessary and it takes a lot more time and capital to scale up. Any money that your business spends initially on moving up to the cloud will eventually pay for itself in future savings.

Analytics:

You have to be part clairvoyant to successfully run a retail business, able to understand your average customer’s thought process and predict what it will take to keep them coming back to your establishment. Collecting data will help, but unless you know how use this data it’s all just a bunch of numbers. Investing in analytic tools will allow you to squeeze meaning out of that data and capitalize on trends in your market.

Going Mobile:

A poll conducted at last year’s Global Leadership Conference found that 34% of business leaders believe more than half of their employees will be remote workers by 2020, and 25% believe more than three-quarters of their employees would be remote workers by that year.

By investing in mobile infrastructure such as remote access tools, secure WiFi networks, and mobile device management systems, businesses can reap the rewards of remote workers, which include having access to deeper talent pool and being able to get work done more efficiently.

Are you ready to plan your IT budget for 2015? Looking to invest in some innovative IT solutions? Give us a call at {phone} or send us an email at {email}. {company} will review your existing infrastructure to help you create a strategic plan for the upcoming year!