Rethinking EOFY IT spend: Why smaller wins matter 

As June 30 approaches, IT teams are working through a balancing act of budgets, timelines, and operational demands that aren’t slowing down.

“It’s typically our biggest quarter,” says Warwick Smith, Account Manager at Truis. “By this stage, it can become a bit of a juggling act.”

With limited time and competing priorities, the challenge for IT leaders isn’t doing more, it’s doing what will move the needle most. 

In this article, we share where teams are focusing their budgets and efforts to deliver immediate value to set them up for the year ahead.

Key takeaways

• EOFY isn’t about large-scale transformation, it’s about making one meaningful, practical improvement that delivers real impact.
  
  
• Small targeted actions like strengthening cybersecurity, validating recovery responses, or addressing infrastructure gaps can reduce risk and improve stability.
  
  
• With hardware delays and pricing volatility, planning ahead and making informed purchase decisions is more important than ever.

What EOFY really looks like for IT teams

At this point in the financial year, we’re seeing IT leaders balancing a mix of pressures:

• Remaining budget to allocate
  

• Compliance and security pressures

• Time constraints

• Potential resource limitations

• Strategic planning for the year ahead 

These competing demands can create pressure to act quickly and to take on too much, too quickly. While large-scale transformation projects have their place, EOFY isn’t always the right time to execute them. 

Instead, we’re seeing our customers using this period to focus on practical improvements now, while planning more complex changes for the upcoming financial year.

What IT teams are prioritising this EOFY

1. Strengthening cybersecurity posture

One of the most consistent priorities we’re seeing across our customers is the focus on improving cybersecurity measures. 

Warwick says more organisations are turning to regular penetration testing as a practical way to assess their current systems and identify vulnerabilities. 

“One of our customers did a penetration test and then made a lot of changes to their infrastructure,” he says.

Why it matters: Penetration testing provides a clear and actionable list of vulnerabilities, making it easier for teams to prioritise improvements and reduce risks quickly.

Many organisations are also ensuring they align with the Essential 8, a series of baseline mitigation strategies designed to strengthen security resilience from cyber attacks. Rather than treating it as something to tick off a list, EOFY is an opportunity to assess where your organisation stands and weave these strategies into your team’s regular workflows.

This can also include validating backup and recovery processes, ensuring critical systems can be restored quickly if needed. These targeted actions help reduce risk without requiring immediate large-scale changes.

2. Planning around hardware constraints

Hardware procurement is another priority we’re seeing teams focus on, and it's becoming more complex. Ongoing DRAM shortages are impacting both supply and cost, with lead times often extending well beyond what teams may be used to.

“It’s as bad as I’ve seen it,” Warwick says. “We’re seeing very short quote validity, and even then, pricing can change.”

Why it matters: These constraints are forcing IT leaders to rethink their project timelines. Projects that once took a few months to finalise can now stretch significantly longer due to delays in sourcing equipment.

This then has a flow-on effect:

• Projects need to be planned for well in advance

• Purchases may need to be brought forward

• Budget decisions need to factor in uncertainty

“If a customer has a project they’re working on with a baked-in assumption of ‘here’s my timeline based on getting the equipment quite quickly’, I now let them know it’s going to be months before the equipment comes,” Warwick says.

Add on time to work on the hardware, ship it, and install it and for a period of user testing and migration means that “all of a sudden the thing they thought they’d have done in three or four months, it actually becomes more like six or seven,” Warwick says.

“This impacts when you need to order, so laying all of that out can help them bring forward the purchase from when they thought they needed to.”

In some cases, organisations are choosing to order earlier to secure supply and pricing, even if delivery and invoicing falls into the next financial year.

Warwick says this is also true for customers who don’t necessarily have projects planned but are wanting to top up their buffer stock or replace older hardware earlier.

“We’re seeing quote validity getting quite short, even one or two weeks validity and even then, if the vendor changes their mind, then all bets are off and we’ve got to requote,” Warwick says.

“I let customers know if they want to go ahead and replace storage or get those new networks or top up their buffer stock, this is what I’ve seen happen with the price.

“I help them assess what they do now versus what they push down the line.”

3. Reducing pressure on internal teams

Many of the IT teams we work with say they often feel stretched, especially in environments without built-in redundancy or after-hours coverage.

Why it matters: Addressing these gaps doesn’t need a full overhaul. Small improvements can significantly reduce operational pressure, leaving more room for strategic thinking and project-led focus.

This might include:

• Identifying capacity or performance bottlenecks

• Reviewing ageing infrastructure before it becomes a risk

• Adding support to help monitor systems around the clock

• Improving monitoring and visibility across systems 

“We can provide managed services and monitoring where we're like an extension of the team,” says Warwick. 

“Say John Bloggs clocks off at 5:00 p.m., and your equipment's still running and it gets to 2:00 a.m. and there's a problem…this is where we can provide solutions that essentially are an extension of their team.”

These types of improvements help teams shift from reactive firefighting to more practical, strategic work.

Progress over transformation

EOFY doesn’t mean transformation. For many teams we work with, it comes down to making smart, meaningful improvements to strengthen their environments today and setting a solid foundation for the future.

At Truis, we work alongside our customers to help them prioritise what matters most and help them take practical steps forward that work for their business needs. 

If you’re looking to make valuable progress before June 30, get in touch with our team today.