IT Budget This assignment has two parts. For this assignment, you are the Chief

IT Budget
This assignment has two parts. For this assignment, you are the Chief Information Officer, or CIO, of Reynolds Tool & Die. Review the Course Scenario and the additional information below. To complete this assignment, you will:
Create a Microsoft® Excel® spreadsheet proposing the Reynolds Tool & Die company’s IT operations’ annual budget, including maintenance, licensing, and any proposed new investments, such as hardware, software, cloud services, and/or outsourcing.
Create a 1- to 2-page executive summary defending your budget choices in terms of innovation and efficiency.
Save your IT budget as a Microsoft Excel document. Format your executive summary according to APA guidelines and save it as a Microsoft Word document. Submit both documents.
Part 1: Spreadsheet
The example spreadsheet on the following page is a rough suggestion of an annual, itemized budget. You will create your budget in Microsoft Excel. Your budget headings may vary, but your budget needs to be as specific as possible. Within each category, you should include purchases for the IT strategic plan. For example, if, as the CIO, you are contemplating moving applications to a cloud solution, your budget needs to reflect that process. If you are implementing or expanding VMWare as a virtualization solution, your budget needs to reflect those purchases.
The actual numbers can be approximate. A little research can point you in the right direction. For example, desktops run about $200-$300. You can use approximate figures for items such as licenses, maintenance agreements, servers, etc. Just make sure you have some justification (i.e., references) for the numbers you use.
Part 2: Executive Summary
Your executive summary needs to explain your budget. Possible headings include:
I. Predictable Annual Expenditures
Simply put, fixed operational expenditures keep the lights on. They are mainly hardware and software maintenance items, licensing, etc. These are expected costs of doing IT business. If, however, you are purchasing more hardware or software that will require additional annual maintenance and license agreements, you’ll need to defend those purchases and the annual expenditures that will remain for the company.
II. New Purchases
Any new purchases you recommend need to be justified. Why are you purchasing them? What benefit do you expect from the purchases? You’ll need to justify the purchases relative to the previous competency assignments—Reynolds’ business situation and goals. For example, how will a new investment in hardware, software, or services achieve a competitive advantage for the company? What do you think the company needs to purchase to achieve its expansion goals? How much will outsourcing cost?
III. Special Projects and Long-term Strategic IT Investments
As CIO, you need to look at technologies in the context of long-range strategic planning. Think of this section as your wish list. The investments in this category may not help the organization achieve its short-range goals, but they’re considered a long-term investment in innovation to remain competitive. For example, a manufacturing facility may consider artificial intelligence and robotics as a long-range plan.