I hear you. Corporate finance itself is generally always a cost center. We operate on shit software and it’s a reason we pretty much try use Excel for everythin

I hear you. Corporate finance itself is generally always a cost center. We operate on shit software and it’s a reason we pretty much try use Excel for everything. It’s the only decent software we have. The two cases you mentioned do have drastically different risk profiles. One wipes up the company’s revenues and the other just loses email. It’s like comparing certain death to a broken toe. And I’d take a broken toe if it saves my life every day of the week. When budget dollars are limited these two things can be mutually exclusive. Also, it could be 1) the company is trying to sale and but hold on all infrastructure purchases 2) the company is in talks to outsource the help desk 3) any number of things that finance knows confidentially. I’ll leave it there. My point is, yes it seems difficult to get things approved. Plead your case in terms of cost/benefits and risk financially, operationally, and relatively to your teams goal. Accept “no” as leadership taking all the information you’ve shared and still deciding they were ok accepting the risk you brought to their attention.