Often, business and technology leaders will find themselves in budget discussions involving technology spending. While each party understands dollar amounts, in meetings they rarely speak the same language. IT leaders state their budget in terms of computing, storage and data center necessities. Business leaders want to talk about products, markets, and services. So, how do we get them to speak the same language?
Spending metrics are the start and end point for IT value analysis for a lot of organizations. While it’s certainly not wrong to look at the IT actuals and budget, we’d like to argue that this is simply an invitation to dig deeper.
Run IT like a business with the Technology Business Management framework
This is where Technology Business Management comes in. The Technology Business Management framework allows organizations to align IT with their business goals and run the IT department like a business. This is a new perspective, given the fact that IT used to be a stand-alone business unit; it was never part of the main business goals. But whether you like it or not: technology has become part of virtually every organization’s foundation. Every other business unit and employee needs access to hardware, software, and applications, especially while working from home.
IT actuals and budget don’t give you the insights you need; or give you defensible metrics you can use. The Technology Business Management framework provides a foundation to base optimization decisions, trade-offs, complexity, and variable spending upon.
Creating an understanding between the business and IT with the Technology Business Management framework
As IT is becoming one of business’ primary processes, it should be managed as such. The Technology Business Management framework is used for making decisions by CFOs, CTOs, CIOs, and their teams. It lays the groundwork for defining the processes, data, tools, and people to manage the business of technology.
Use of the Technology Business Management framework
While growing your business, thanks to the Technology Business Management framework, both the business and IT can look at innovation possibilities through a common lens. Technology Business Management even allows for business-agility discussions by adapting the IT cost structure to the appropriate cost variables.
By connecting IT and business, using the Technology Business Management framework and its common taxonomy that both parties understand, you can start the right conversations. Using Technology Business Management, IT can show value through business optimization, while the business can align its activities to its IT spending.
In this blog, we’ve covered the Technology Business Management framework. We’ve written 3 more blogs on Technology Business Management; you can find them here:
- Technology Business Management Taxonomy
- Technology Business Management model
- Technology Business Management Benefits
Frequently asked questions about Technology Business Management
What is Technology Business Management?
Most organizations struggle with the way the growing cost of technology (IT) is being managed. With the introduction of Technology Business Management (TBM) by the TBM council, business and technology leaders now have a standard model (or language) to jointly manage IT spending for both running and growing the business. In many industries, IT becomes the company’s primary process and needs to be managed as such. TBM provides a framework for understanding the relationships between the business’s primary processes and the level of IT spending.
Why is Technology Business Management important?
Technology Business Management allows for a seamless connection between the business and IT. Your IT department can provide your business managers with a detailed IT bill so demand can be shaped with the right cost indications in mind. You are able to show differences between business units, time periods, and budget/expenses, which allows you to have the right conversations. We’ve gathered 7 more benefits of using Technology Business Management in this blog.
What is the Technology Business Management framework?
The Technology Business Management framework allows organizations to align IT with their business goals and run the IT department like a business. IT actuals and budget don’t give you the insights you need; or give you defensible metrics you can use. The Technology Business Management framework provides a foundation to ground optimization decisions, trade-offs, complexity, and variable spending upon. Both IT and the business can look at innovation possibilities through a common lens, thanks to the Technology Business Management framework.
