The White House Summit on Technology Business Management

Yesterday I was deeply humbled to attend a meeting at the White House to raise awareness for the Technology Business Management discipline alongside the world’s leading public and private sector CIOs and CFOs. The purpose of the White House Summit on Technology Business Management was simple: federal IT and finance leaders wanted to learn how to effectively manage the more than $90 billion of our taxpayer technology spending by replicating the success of TBM adoption in the private sector.

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As the TBM Council president, attending a meeting of more than 200 public sector IT and finance leaders helped cement the power of the movement we started with TBM. This discipline built on standards, education, and collaboration has become the universal standard to manage technology spending.

As the founder and technical advisor to the TBM Council, Apptio role’s in the evolution of TBM extends much further than the software it creates. Led by the voice and conviction of early Apptio customers, we separated the TBM Council from Apptio more than five years ago to create a truly independent industry body dedicated to supporting IT leaders in their journey to run IT like a business. The TBM standards created in partnership with Apptio have now been adopted by thousands of organizations around the world as technology has transformed in the age of hybrid IT. It’s for this reason that we received a very special invite a few weeks ago.

Led by Chris Liddell, Director of Special Initiatives at the Office of American Innovation, the Office of Management and Budget invited the TBM Council and several of its members to present on TBM best practices and learnings that could be applied to the US Federal Government. Public sector CIOs and CFOs were curious about how they could leverage the TBM discipline to ensure they were serving as responsible stewards of our taxpayer dollars.

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During yesterday’s White House Summit on Technology Business Management, I was joined by TBM Council chairman and ExxonMobil VP of IT, Mike Brown who presented to the group on how he’d leveraged Apptio to change the conversation on IT with his business partners. We also heard CIOs from the State of Washington, AIG, Newport News Shipbuilding and the University of Pennsylvania speak on a panel focused on how they enable value conversations within their business based on the transparency that TBM provides. And finally, we all witnessed a spirited discussion by CFOs of technology divisions at Key Bank, JPMorgan Chase and Stanley Black & Decker on the strategic value IT finance leaders can provide to their organization through smart governance of technology investments.

Every moment of the half-day long summit was thought-provoking, but there were a few standout takeaways from the event:

  • The Administration’s top three priorities relative to technology include: improving service delivery and experience, reducing cybersecurity risks and spending taxpayer dollars wisely. TBM is situated at the center of these priorities and drives them all forward.
  • Perfection is the enemy of progress. This sentiment was echoed throughout the day as many private sector CIOs advocated for the adoption of “minimum viable product” relative to TBM deployment with improvements and enhancements coming over time through use.
    Financial leaders are equally responsible for driving customer satisfaction and shareholder value. Viewing technology investments through this lens is an essential element of serving successfully as an IT finance leader.
  • The goal of TBM adoption in the public sector is to gain deep transparency into technology spending, benchmark against industry peers and optimize the value of every taxpayer dollar spent on technology.

This event built upon the work many public and private sector Council members did last year to create a federal-specific TBM taxonomy and I was honored to witness and participate in the discussion. Knowing that the Federal Government sees value in the work we are doing at Apptio and the TBM Council is what drives us to continue innovating and spreading the word daily. The transformative role of TBM is clear and we are privileged to be a part of the emergence of TBM in the public sector.

We ended the day with a panel of federal IT executives from the General Services Administration, Department of Justice and the Office of Personnel Management sharing more about their experiences with TBM thus far. It was thrilling to hear how federal IT leaders have already found success with the TBM methodology and taxonomy and I look forward to continuing contributing to their future TBM initiatives.

To all of the hard working government officials who recognize the value of TBM and invited us to be a part of the White House Summit, thank you. I consider it a privilege and an honor to support the hard work you’re doing on our behalf. I am dedicated to continuing evangelizing and supporting the TBM discipline in the public and private sector and invite any existing Apptio customers and TBM Council members to join me.

To view the complete federal TBM taxonomy or learn about how Apptio can support public sector IT leaders, I invite you to visit our website to read the IT COST Commission report.

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