The executive sponsor: what the digital estate costs to build and run
Owns the budget that builds and maintains the network across every site, and shares the running of it with an MSP. Does not operate the network — needs to know what it costs to build, what it costs to keep running, who does what, and what the organisation gets for it.
An illustrative example: a VP of Finance and Digital Services at a multi-site health organisation, co-managing the estate with its MSP.Pillars and Domain Services
The sponsor doesn't run the network, but funds every part of it — and needs to see where the money goes.
The business
Its roadmap and budget: new sites, more staff, new services — what it will need, and when.
Digital assets
Connections, capacity and access — the network pillars.
Digital services
Security, operations, updates and maintenance — changes made on behalf of the Domain Services.
Domain Services
The services people actually use: records, phones, scheduling, imaging.
The network
Physical network, transport, power, data centre, network services and monitoring — the connections, capacity and access everything runs on.
The organisation around it
Organisation, people, finance, compliance and operations — who owns what, what it costs, what is owed, and how it runs.
What the business uses
The business services and applications that staff, clinicians and customers rely on, each linked to the assets underneath it.
What SurroundNet answers today
Marked plainly: what works today, and what is coming next.
What did it cost to build?
Each project’s cost chain — estimated, planned, committed, actual — from purchase orders, invoices and labour, rolled up to the budget.
Are we on budget?
Budgets on your chart of accounts: allocated, committed, actual and variance, with forecasts computed rather than typed, by account code.
What do we get for it?
Value delivered per asset, your Digital Maturity Index, and a business review with proposals for next year.
Are we meeting our obligations?
The regulations that apply, worked out from your site addresses and industry, with each control’s evidence and sign-off.
What does the estate cost to build and run, by pillar, site and Domain Service?
The estate cost view brings together project build costs and run costs — support contracts, licences, subscriptions, your MSP’s invoices and your usage statement — by pillar, by site and by Domain Service.
Who did the work?
Every project, work order and invoice line shows who carried it out — your team, your MSP or a contractor — traced back to the change that asked for it.
Are we spending to budget, pillar by pillar?
Budget against spend for each pillar, alongside the chart-of-accounts view of allocated, committed and actual.
Who looks after what — our team or the MSP?
The co-management split is agreed per pillar: your team, your MSP, or shared — recorded, not assumed, and the basis of the managed-support part of your agreement.
Will it meet our needs in five years?
The business roadmap runs as a project: demand by year — connections, capacity and access; security, operations, updates and maintenance — linked to your Domain Services and pillars, with a proposed budget and a five-year view of whether the estate can meet the need. End-of-life refresh by year sits alongside it.
From first conversation to source of truth
- Talk to us with your MSPBring the budget question you most need answered.
- Map the estate to pillars and servicesSites, assets and business services from your onboarding templates and discovery.
- Agree who looks after whatYour team, your MSP, or shared — recorded, not assumed.
- Review togetherA business review with value, maturity and next year’s roadmap.
If a peer sponsor is asking the same questions, you can introduce them — with their consent.