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Reality Check: IT budget planning

Editor’s Note: Welcome to our weekly Reality Check column. We’ve gathered a group of visionaries and veterans in the mobile industry to give their insights into the marketplace.

As 2012 comes to a close, and even with all the projects and final daily activities to be completed, it is time to organize the 2013 budget. Based on technology trends, we, IT people, begin budget planning. The question is: what are the business departments’ plans?

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This question should be answered because IT teams need to know how best to optimize business processes using technology. What new laws will impact business processes? What innovations do business departments intend to have in their scope of work?

IT people must ask. Most of the time, we must help our business departments by showing them how technology can improve their lives. Is it easy? It depends on how the IT department is viewed inside the company, how well IT employees understand their company’s business, and how IT helps, and is part of, the company’s governance.

It is not an easy job, but we have to face it. So IT teams’ approach should be as business consultants who are always available to listen and help their business departments.

Let’s organize the 2013 budget. In this budget, let’s contemplate not only technologies but also business ideas. What about business departments’ plans? If we involve business departments in our budget planning, then this question will be easily answered!

Cibele Andrea de Godoy Fonseca is CIO at the Brazilian construction company Andrade Gutierrez.

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