The Cost of Not Investing in Technology

Technical debt costs US companies an estimated $2.41 trillion annually. This is part one in a four-part series exploring the consequences of not investing in technology.

As CFO of DataKinetics, my role extends beyond adding and subtracting figures in a ledger. When evaluating technology investments, I’m not just looking at a row of expenses—I’m examining how these decisions align with the company’s strategy, impact our growth, and help us seize new opportunities.

While you may see a compelling technical solution, I see the revenue it can unlock, the compliance and reputational risks it can mitigate, and the competitive edge it can help us maintain. In this four-part series, I’ll offer insights and language to communicate more effectively with your finance team, highlighting the real costs of standing still and the powerful case you can make for moving forward with the right technology investments.

1. Know the Business

Understanding your mainframe environment and its technical intricacies is not enough. You need to know how and when money moves through the business. There are hundreds of weird and nuanced facets that prevent software revenue from showing up as expected in the books.

Understanding your company’s revenue recognition rules, seasonal cycles, financial performance, and customer expectations can help you time your requests more effectively.

2. Saying No to Strategy Costs Revenue

There’s a saying that resonates with me: ‘Even a crappy CFO is good at cutting costs.’ But the flip side is also true: It takes a strong CFO to grow revenue. Simply saying “no” to spending may keep costs low in the short term, but it can also shut down new revenue streams and slow growth.

In a typical business, the key metric is revenue growth. Yes, of course, everyone is happy to increase profit and cash. But it’s really about revenue on the top line, with profit as the bottom line.

When seeking funding for tech investments—especially on mainframes that handle critical, large-scale transactions—position your request as a strategy to protect or enhance revenue. Emphasize what’s lost if we fail to invest: revenue left on the table, customers going elsewhere, and competitive opportunities slipping through our fingers.

Saying no to waste is good, but saying no to strategy carries major risks. The risk of doing nothing has real consequences.

3. Try Fear

Fear is a powerful motivator. Don’t be shy about articulating the negative consequences of not investing. Instead of saying, “It would be nice if we had this upgrade,” try, “Without this investment, we cannot upsell or cross-sell effectively, and we risk losing revenue and irritating our customers.” Make the stakes clear—lost deals, upset clients, reputational damage, and missed growth opportunities.

Consider using vivid, fear-based analogies: “If we don’t invest now, we’re like hunters who fail to secure enough food for winter. Without new revenue streams supported by improved systems, the whole organization starves—no payroll growth, no travel budgets, no conferences, and no hiring. With the right investment, we arm ourselves to ‘hunt’ more effectively and sustain the company’s momentum.”

4. Use Company Examples

Let’s say your company runs one million customer invoices each month, but needs two million invoices next month. Everyone wants accurate and timely invoices, and you have the processing power to run two million invoices in a typical month without trouble. But what if most of your transactions happen on the last day of the quarter (month three)? Maybe finance doesn’t realize it, but you can’t get all two million transactions through in 24 hours.

This is an opportunity to demonstrate how a technology investment solves a real, looming problem. “Without this upgrade, our systems can’t scale. We’ll create delays, frustrate customers, and lose revenue. Do we really want to face the board and explain why we fell short on something we could have fixed in advance?”

5. Flip the Script

Let’s say that your request concerns training a team. Budget decision-makers often worry about investing in training or tools for staff, and may ask, “What if we train them and they leave?” Your best response is, “What if we don’t train them, and they STAY?”

The cost of an underskilled, underequipped team is enormous, leading to inefficiency, errors, and an inability to capitalize on new opportunities. Position investments in people and technology as methods to retain talent and improve productivity, not just another expense. My reason for this is simple: happy and productive staff will help drive revenue growth naturally.

Getting to Yes to Grow Revenue

Securing approval for your technology budget is about demonstrating how your proposed investment can safeguard revenue streams, enhance efficiency, and stave off threats that come with outdated systems and missed opportunities. By framing your request in terms of profit and strategy—and tapping into the fear of lost revenue—you engage with your finance team on a level beyond expense control and feature/functions.

Stay tuned to explore more tactics for navigating budget discussions, building stronger business cases, and ultimately securing the technology resources needed to drive success.