Independent schools often overlook the importance of budgeting for projects that impact all aspects of school life and play a crucial role in the efficient daily operations and communication within the community. If you're here, it's likely you recognize the immense value in budgeting for this hugely impactful project!
A New Way - Budgeting for Success
Some leaders in the IT community within schools began searching for a better approach. These were typically Heads of IT from large schools with substantial resources, ensuring they could succeed without financial constraints. They consulted with experts outside the education sector to determine appropriate budgeting and were advised to allocate $1000 per student. While these were large, complex schools using costly project resources, this figure provides us with a useful starting point.
Lets Break this Down
I've listed a graph and all of the percentages that might act as a starting point to divide the budget and offer a good idea on what the budget will be spent on. I'll put out another article talking about factors that will affect your percentages and overall budget.
Systems 35%
In this budget diagram, "Systems" refers to software systems and any initial setup costs. This includes initial training and optional initial hypercare support, so it encompasses more than just software. Once the Student Information System (SIS) is live, ongoing expenses are likely to be mainly software-related.
Other systems in this budget, could include Enrolments, a school app, Single Sign-On for parents, a portal, newsletters, co-curricular management, finance systems, and more. These systems should come together and meet the needs of the school.
Project Resources 35%
I'm referring to the roles of a project manager, business analyst, and potentially a project sponsor within this budget category. Schools might be tempted to use internal resources or hire someone for these roles. However, the risk is that an internal project manager could become overwhelmed with other school projects and get distracted by the school's daily chaos. I recommend engaging a part-time IT project manager (3-5 days a week) from outside the school to maintain focus and ensure consistent communication despite the school's busyness. Additionally, a direct hire may lack the confidence to hold the team (including senior executives) accountable.
At Parker IT, I hire former Heads of IT from independent schools in hybrid roles, combining project management and technical implementation. Their experience with schools, brings cost efficiencies in areas like reducing the number of people needed in meetings, eliminating the need to explain how schools operate, and enhancing overall time efficiency as they can work in multiple areas.
Data Migration 10%
This involves cleaning, correcting, and translating your data from multiple systems into the new systems you intend to use. This process often takes longer than expected. Poorly executed data migration can lead to the failure of entire SIS projects. While the SIS vendor will provide support, it is usually minimal. If you want all your school's historical data to be properly cleaned and correctly integrated into the new SIS, it's essential to budget appropriately for this task.
Finance 5%
Finance is an area of high risk and resistance to change. Often, finance departments are viewed as old and outdated. While this might sometimes be true, their resistance is not without reason. The nature of their work allows for much less leeway for incorrect data than any other department in the school. In most areas, if someone makes a mistake, it may go unnoticed for a while, depending on its impact. However, in finance, mistakes are noticed almost immediately by everyone. Therefore, it's crucial to budget for additional training and support for the finance team to ensure they are completely confident that their workload will not become overwhelming when the new systems go live.
Additionally, finance is prone to scope creep. Ensure that finance consultants stick to the project brief, and any work outside the original scope might need to be funded from a different budget.
Governance 5%
Governance early in the project involves making sure that the project team haven't missed anything significant and are setting themselves up for success. In later stages this might be working on major issues that might derail the project and providing high-level guidence.
Unknown 10%
Budgeting should include provisions for addressing unknown issues or incorporating elements that were initially out of scope due to the limited information available when the project began. This budget can also cover situations where an area was underfunded based on your environment's needs. For example, you might decide that the project team needs to be slightly larger and include a part-time role dedicated to overseeing the quality of the implementation and independently reporting issues. The need for this additional budget can arise from various reasons, primarily to manage unforeseen challenges.
Contigency +10%
Once you have your budget, I recommend adding a contingency of 10% on top of that. Although I have been fortunate to have never had to rely on a contingency, there will be schools that will need one. We all know it is easier to have a contingency fund and use it if necessary than to lack one and have to request additional funds.
Working with a Smaller Budget?
You may ask can I do this with less budget, and the answer is yes. The choices that you make will directly impact on the budget, the quality of the outcome, the time it takes and the end result.
Smaller budgets are sometimes a blessing as it will restrict your choices and force the team down well worn paths. I'll be covering more in the next article.
コメント