Digital acceleration is the next chapter for many enterprises that initiated digital transformation over the years preceding and during the pandemic. Digital acceleration entails a rapid transformation process and plan that reaches into every facet of an organization, catalyzing change and business model evolution. Digital acceleration is at the top of most enterprises’ priority list — 69% of boards of directors report they want to continue the acceleration, says Gartner researchers.
As a CIO and/or technology leader who is initiating and or sustaining momentum around a digital acceleration effort, it is critical to build the value between IT and the business.
“TBM creates value and trust through actionable insights when it comes to IT total cost of ownership,” says Bharat Amin, EVP & CIO at Huntington Ingalls Industries, Inc. and one of my fellow Technology Business Management Council board members.
Transparency
Transparency facilitates a clear view. As described in
Todd Tucker’s, Technology Business Management: The Four Value Conversations CIOs Must Have With Their Businesses, transparency replaces skewed subjectivity with motivational objectivity, powering transformation by giving necessary facts and information to decision-makers at all levels of the organization. Amin acknowledges that TBM has enabled his organization to “shift from Cost to Value to drive (the) Strategic Enterprise Portfolio.”
Value through transparency means that each resource within the organization has data and costs clearly associated with it — a TBM model, supported by the TBM Taxonomy, includes costs, resources, towers, services, and consumption unified around finance, technology, and business perspectives. This aids in digital acceleration initiatives by helping recruit the right people and roles to sustain transparency and ensure organizational alignment.
Data
“Data creates value through actionable insights when it comes to total IT cost of ownership. I believe cost transparency builds trust and that is what TBM is all about,” says Amin. Data quality and sources from financial, technology, service, project, and business fuels transparency in the TBM model.
The TBM model is built in layers, beginning with financial data. Costs and other resources are then layered up through the model. Modeling is dependent on the highest quality of data available, which impacts decision-making down the road. With so much riding on the data, correctly allocating costs and resources is the hardest aspect of modeling. In the real world and in most cases, data is far from perfect; therefore, a model should also support allocations not based on consumption data, which can include approximations for resource consumption, estimates, or even-spread allocations, explains Tucker.
TBM is ideal for digital acceleration because it requires a business-first focus and a measurement of what matters. Through high-quality data and optimal transparency, organizations can pursue accelerated initiatives with empowered actions.
For more information about how TBM can help you in your business processes, here are previous articles I have written on the topic for The National CIO Review.
