9 Tips to get IT funding approval from tight fisted CFOs
Across the board Chief Finance Officers and Comptrollers are refusing requests and freezing budgets. Unfortunately, IT is a department where you are almost always spending money and not seeing a clean path to an ROI (return on investment). This makes CFOs unlikely to part with capital and approve the projects, technology, or hiring that you need. 
Here are some ways to help align your proposals with business goals.
1-Identify the CFO Priorities. You are all on the same team. Find out what the CFO is trying to accomplish this year/next year. Show them how what you are proposing aligns with those goals. Are they expecting 50% growth YoY? You need to get your team and infrastructure ready to scale to handle it!
2-Contractual RPO/RTO. You have a specific recovery point objective / recovery time objective. What is the cost of missing this?
3-Contractual performance goals. Know if you are pushing the limits of having to reimburse or lose customers.
4-Employee Satisfaction / Retention. Most CFOs understand that employee turnover is an expensive task. It is very possible that many requests you make fall into this bucket.
5-Identify and quantify risk. This can be security, loss of a Key Person (see #1), risk of client loss (due to poor application performance), or potentially inability to handle new clients due to lack of infrastructure. Risk is something CFOs want to avoid.
6-Make it relevant. Did something newsworthy happen that align with your goals? Maybe a major retailer had their servers go down for a day and lost a few million in revenue. Bring that article and share how much you could lose if you had extended periods of unexpected downtime.
7-Cost Savings. Identify projects that require an up-front expense for a mid-term or long-term gain. This could be a Data Center Consolidation or Infrastructure refresh, or Cloud Migration. Architecture rebuilds may save on Cloud Computing or Hardware costs. Slipping in some of these projects with others will often help free up the money you need.
8-Artificial Intelligence, Data Visualization. I do not advocate for taking on projects that are unnecessary (or lying) but sometimes you can use key ‘buzzwords’ in your presentations to make them sound like you are adding additional value to the company (because you are). If you need a piece of monitoring software for example, highlight the benefits of staying innovative and nimble using AI (Artificial Intelligence).
9-Scream Loudly. Kidding (obviously I hope). Remind yourself that the CFO is doing their job, and if you do your presentation correctly it will actually be the CFO’s job to give you everything you need
Remember, a key part of your role as CIO (Chief Information Officer) is the SALES aspect. You must pitch the infrastructure / project/ personnel to the upper management, board of directors, and or CFO to release the funds.
