After a decision has been made that a particular technology is affordable, the next step is to prepare a detailed budget. A budget needs to take account of both the immediate and the ongoing costs associated with the chosen technology.
There are essentially four components to a technology budget: the list of goods and services needed to be purchased, the cost of each item, the timeline showing the schedule of payments, and any expected savings to be achieved by adopting the new technology. Except in the case of items that are only to be used on one occasion and then disposed of, most items of technology will require ongoing funding to maintain and reuse them. When securing funding for technology it is important to ensure that funds are also secured for the life of the technology to pay for ongoing maintenance and reuse.
Items to list in a budget
Depending on the type and scope of the technology being considered, items that might be included in the budget for a proposal can include the following:
- hardware (purchased or leased) - for example, computers, monitors, printers, scanners, photocopiers, fax machines, communications equipment, electronic voting devices, touch screens
- software (licensed, purchased or leased) - for example, office automation, database, finance, personnel, proprietary, internet, communication
- hardware upgrades
- software upgrades
- communications - for example, network charges, satellite links, cabling, radio, telecommunications
- peripherals - for example, keyboards, modems, speakers, amplifiers, disk drives, disk writers, backup storage devices, ergonomic aids, emergency power supplies
- consumables - for example, printer ink and toner, paper, disks
- support - for example, repair technicians
- maintenance - for example, maintenance technicians
- salary - for example, salaries of staff who will be partly or wholly dedicated to working with the new technology
- consultants - for example, project management consultants, technical consultants or independent auditors
- transport - for example, transport from place of purchase to place of storage and transport from place of storage to place of use
- energy - for example, electricity for operating the technology and associated lighting and air conditioning, power generators for emergency use or use where local power supplies are unreliable
- storage - for example, storage when in use and storage between uses
- training - for example, training full time and casual staff to use the new technology
- public information - for example, conducting a public education campaign on use of a new electronic voting system
- documentation - for example, system specifications, technical maintenance manuals, user manuals, training manuals
- printing - for example, documents designed to be used with the technology, such as machine readable ballots or forms
- back-up systems - for example, alternative systems such as manual systems to fall back on if technology fails, as well as systems for backing up and storing data in the event of system failure
- disposal costs - for example, costs associated with disposing of or selling obsolete technology
- depreciation and amortisation estimates (see Depreciation and Amortisation Policies)
Estimating costs
Once all the possible items of expenditure have been identified, costs need to be assigned to each one. Costs should be estimated for the expected life of the equipment or project.
For more detail on ways of estimating costs, see Affordability.
Project timeline
Not all costs payable on new technology will be needed up front. After the initial purchase and set-up costs, there will be ongoing maintenance and development costs for the life of the project. In order to calculate the budget required over time, a project timeline will be necessary, showing significant milestones and payment schedules.
Where the project involves a testing and/or evaluation stage, it is desirable to make progressive payments dependent on achievement of set milestones. If there is provision for halting a project should the system fail to pass essential steps, the payment schedule should be structured so as to minimise the cost to the election management body.
Where a system is to be used for an election or other important event, it is useful if possible to delay final payment to the suppliers until after the successful completion of the project. This is a useful way of ensuring the suppliers' commitment to the project through to completion. Another way of ensuring supplier commitment is the use of penalty clauses, to be invoked if crucial milestones are not met.
The project timeline should extend up to and ideally past the expected life of the technology. This will enable all of the expected costs to be identified and will also indicate what costs can be expected when the technology is due to be replaced or upgraded.
For an example of a project timeline, see Project Development and Implementation Methodologies. This timeline can be used to identify points in the project schedule where it would be appropriate to make payments for system implementation and maintenance.
Possible savings
The budget prepared for implementation of new technology should identify any offset savings that can be achieved in the course of the project. For example, where a technological solution is being implemented to replace a manual process, the cost of the new system can be offset by the savings achieved by ceasing the old system. In some cases, the cost of the new system may be less than the old system, leading to a net saving. This is the easiest kind of new system to sell to funding authorities.
It is likely that, in the short term, a new system will incur greater costs than the old system. This is particularly true where there is a phase-in stage where both the old and new systems are run in parallel before converting fully to the new system. In addition, there will often be significant one-off set-up costs at the commencement of a new system. In these cases it is particularly important to calculate the likely cost of the project over its whole life, as well as the likely savings, when it is more likely that net savings may be achieved in the longer term.
