3 quick wins to maximise your remaining budget in the Public Sector

Particularly within the Public Sector, organisations and departments often have the potential to maximise value from their budget at this time of the year. With the end of the financial year fast approaching, you may be in the fortunate situation of having some remaining budget to use. 

The approach to Public Sector budgets tends to be a “use it or lose it” approach: companies’ funds will disappear before the new financial year if they remain unallocated. This runs the risk of being granted less funding thereafter, if it looks like the full budget is unwarranted. So why wouldn’t you utilise it?  

We've put together a guide covering three quick wins for ways you can make the most of your budget before the year end, and set yourself up successfully for the next financial year. We have worked with numerous organisations (especially within this industry) who have used this framework as a way to spend effectively.

1. Invest in additional development time to get inflight projects over the line  
   
   We all know what it’s like to be working on projects that are necessary, but are also high pressured, tedious and just seem never-ending. Often, it means the smaller tasks can end up falling through the cracks. Whether this is due to a prioritised focus on more urgent service demands and senior leadership priorities, or just simply not having enough time, it makes sense to get them completed before the new financial year begins. This way, you won’t have ever-growing backlogs continuing to build up into the next year with no plans to address them. Your spare funds would be valuable in this space, as they could be assigned to areas that need resources to help with project completion; this will mean you can bask in the satisfaction of a higher ROI for the end of the year, as well as collaborating with a motivated team who work with greater efficiency.

   Some quick wins could be upgrading to the latest ServiceNow release, which is often put off until the instance is outdated. This then means developmental mistakes due to rushing an upgrade out of the door, needing a partner to remedy the situation entirely – something which will likely cost more in the long-run! Alternatively, a Platform Health Check may be beneficial: this provides an in-depth assessment of your current instances, how they are functioning, errors you may be overlooking and where there is space for improvements.  
   
   

2. Focus on accelerating your time-to-value 
   
   A crucial thing to remember is you are measured on your time taken to produce value. Time to value is the time it takes from when your internal customers/stakeholders approve a product or service to when they actually start attaining value. The less time this takes means a better customer experience and a quicker pay back for your business case: a low measure is an accurate indicator of project delivery and smooth operational performance.

   TTV is therefore a key performance indicator, as it shows that the organisation is maximising its investment; in our world this would relate to an organisation’s use of its ServiceNow licenses. Investing in a specialist partner will be hugely beneficial in decreasing your TTV; it can allow you to turn your instance around, making sure you’re not wasting your time, money or resources. Our Advisory and Strategy service will allow you to work with a bespoke implementation plan for your enterprise, helping you to meet deadlines faster. 
   
   

3. Get a head start on next year’s platform management contract 
   
   Putting time and money into your platform management support contract now can lay the foundation for gaining additional support throughout the following year. Ensuring you’ve got the right partner to help do more than just keep the lights on will grow the value of your platform.  

   A platform management service that can provide governance as well as technical services is the most favourable, as it enables you to feel the benefits of partnership and advisory engagement on top of the technical support and engineering. It’s imperative that your ServiceNow platform keeps up with your evolving business requirements; equally, making headway in this area will give you peace of mind, as you’ll be proactively planning for the future before even entering the new year.

   To learn more specifically on Unifii’s Platform Management Services, read our blog here. 
   
   

Summary 

There are so many ways you could choose to use your budget on top of the ones we’ve outlined above. However, we have categorically seen our Public Sector customers gain maximum value from going down the routes we have suggested. It’s worth developing a forward-thinking Responsible Investment (RI) strategy, too; thinking ahead to the next year will help you avoid running into the same questions and challenges in the future. Is there anything you can do to begin contemplating a strategy for the next fiscal year? How can you plan proactively so you aren’t stuck for ways to allocate your budget? 

We can help you answer these questions. Investing in a specialist partner will always be valuable, as your platform is analysed by experts who know ServiceNow inside out. 

For more information and a free consultation on how Unifii could potentially help, please contact one of the team here.