Top 10 Tech Trends: Keeping Pace with Innovations

Despite those pressures, budgeting for infrastructure investments is a challenge, according to Hammel. At Memorial Hermann, how capital dollars are allocated is determined at an annual meeting. The items that are up for consideration have been prioritized by leadership across the organization, in addition to investments that need to be made to keep the operations up and running. “There is always more that people want than we have money for,” she says.

According to Podesta of Fletcher Allen, there is always a portion of the capital budget to keep the infrastructure running, which he terms “keeping the lights on.” He estimates that just keeping the IT infrastructure current accounts for about 20 percent of the capital budget, and which must be in place before considering new investments. That’s a greater portion of the budget dollars than just a few years ago, and it will continue to take an even greater share in the foreseeable future, he says. But he cautions that organizations that push off making incremental infrastructure investments today run the risk of facing huge expense when something needs a major replacement down the road.