The metrics in our TBM Awards nomination form (see question #8) are designed to help you perform an exhaustive analysis of the results you’ve achieved with TBM. It is not necessary that your answers are precise. Instead, use these to examine your TBM program and capture the results in which you are confident.
You should be comfortable in talking about the benefits you claim, even if you cannot be certain about their precise values and you have instead provided reasonable, informed estimates. We will not use your raw answers as the sole basis of evaluating your program; instead, they will help us view your program holistically.
Reduction of time to your benefit realization
In general, how much have you accelerated (as a percentage of overall time) the time it takes to begin realizing the benefits of your investment decisions or changes. For example, if IT investments that would normally take 9 months to begin paying off now take 6 months with TBM, your answer would be 33% (3 months off of 9 months). This reduction might be due to direct factors such as reduce planning timeframes or indirect factors such as TBM enabling an agile development model.
Overall IT cost reduction
How much have you reduced your overall IT spending? For example, if your total IT budget prior to TBM was $100 million and TBM has helped you reduce it to $90 million, your answer would be 10%. You may answer this based on what your expected costs would have been if your budget growth was linear in prior years. For example, if, without TBM, your budgeted spend would have been $110 million this year but was only $100 million (due to TBM), your answer would be 9% ($10M ÷ $110M).
Reduction of time taken to answer ad-hoc questions about overall costs
In general, how much have you sped up your answers to questions from internal customers or stakeholders about IT costs. For example, if it took 2 days on average to answer questions before TBM and it now takes only 3 hours, your reduction in time is 93% (45 hours / 48 hours).
Reduction in actual spend to plan variance
In general, how much have you been able to reduce variances in actual spending vs. plan (or budget), on a quarterly or annual basis. For example, if your annual variance was 3% of your annual budget and is now 1%, your reduction would be 66% (2% out of 3%).
Shift from Run-the-Business to Change-the-Business
In general, how much money have you been able to reduce in run-the-business (i.e., “keep the lights on,” “business as usual,” “maintain and operate the ongoing systems and environment” or “operations & maintenance”) to fund additional change-the-business programs (i.e., “grow the business,” “transform the business,” “development, modernization & enhancement”). You may use Gartner’s definitions of run-the-business and change-the-business or refer to the definitions in the glossary of the members version of the TBM book (). For example, if you reduce run-the-business spending from $250 million to $200 million and used the entire $50 million to fund additional change-the-business spending, your answer would be 20% ($50M ÷ $250M).
Coverage across Reserved Instances / Savings Plans / Committed Use Discounts
How much of your public cloud infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) servers do you have included under reserved instances (RI), savings plans, committed use discounts or similar mechanism to reduce compute rates (prices)? For example, if 800 of your servers are covered by reserved instances on AWS, out of an average total of approximately 1,000 servers, your coverage rate would be 80% (800 ÷ 1,000).
Cloud costs allocations (including untaggable spend such as support charges) back to cost centers
How much of your public cloud spending do you do you charge or allocate back to the cost (or budget) centers that are responsible for cloud consumption? For example, if you spend $1 million per month on public cloud services and you charge $750,000 out to the cost centers that are consuming those cloud services, your answer would be 75% ($750K ÷ $1,000K). Such charges or allocations could be made via a bill of IT or direct chargeback or via a TBM cost model whereby costs are allocated to the applications and services that are consuming them, so long as the end consumers are held accountable. To answer this question, ask yourself how much of your public cloud costs are being borne by those who consume them.
Annual public cloud costs savings
How much have you reduced your annual spending on public cloud services that you would attribute to the adoption of TBM OR how much has this adoption helped you reduce overall IT costs? For example, if your total public cloud spending prior to TBM was $10 million and TBM has helped you reduce it to $8 million, your answer would be 20%. OR, if your total IT costs prior to public cloud adoption was $200 million annually and you were able to cut those costs by $10 million annual by adopting public cloud services, your answer would be 10%. Your may answer this based on what your expected costs would have been if your budget growth was linear in prior years. For example, if, without TBM, your budgeted spend would have been $12 million this year but was only $10 million (due to TBM), your answer would be 17% ($2M ÷ $12M).
Reduction in actual public cloud spend to plan variance
In general, how much have you been able to reduce variances in public cloud spending vs. plan (or budget), on a quarterly or annual basis. For example, if your annual public cloud budget variance was 10% ($1M on a $10M budget) two years ago and was just 2% ($240K on a $12M budget) last year, your reduction would be 80% (8% out of 10%).
Reduction in time taken to answer ad-hoc questions about cloud costs
In general, how much have you sped up your answers to questions from internal customers or stakeholders about public cloud costs. For example, if it took 2 days on average to answer questions before TBM and it now takes only 3 hours, your reduction in time is 93% (45 hours / 48 hours).
Increase in on-premise to public cloud migration decision speed (Eg: 2x, 5x, 7x)
In general, how much faster are you able to make public cloud migration decisions? If it took 3 weeks before TBM and just 2 days now, your increase would be about 10X (21 days ÷ 2 days).
Reduction on migration cost overruns
In general, how much have you reduced cost overruns when migrating on-prem workloads to public cloud. For example, if you experienced, on average, 10% cost overruns before and only 2% today, your reduction would be 80% (8% out of 10%).
Reduction in on-premises infrastructure TCO spend
How much have you been able to reduce your on-premises infrastructure and operations (I&O) spending on a total cost of ownership (TCO) basis (including all OpEx and CapEx for internal labor, external labor, outside services, hardware, software, facilities, network charges, etc.)? For example, if I&O spending was $400 million two years ago and just $320 million last year, your reduction would be 20% ($80M ÷ $400M).
Time saved in annual budgeting process
How much were you able to shorten the annual budgeting process, from start to finish? For example, if you normally began on August 1 and finished on December 15 (about 19 weeks) but you now begin on September 1 and finish on November 30 (about 13 weeks), your time saved is 32% (6 weeks ÷ 19 weeks).
Increase in forecasting cadence
How much have you increased the cadence by which your team forecasts its annual IT spending? Answers should be in the format “before cadence vs. after cadence” such as “monthly vs. quarterly” or “quarterly vs. semi-annually.”
Increase in discretionary spend
How much have you been able to increase the amount of discretionary spending (i.e., non-mandatory)? For example, if your discretionary spend was $200 million before TBM and is $250 million now, your answer would be 25% ($50M ÷ $200M). For the definition of discretionary spending, refer to its definition in the glossary of the members version of the TBM book ().
Reduction in FTEs needed for Investment planning processes
How much have you reduced the number of full-time equivalent (FTE) employees dedicated or mostly dedicated to investment planning processes? For example, if your investment planning team went from 5 FTEs to 3 FTEs, your reduction is 40% (2 FTEs ÷ 5 FTEs).
Shift from grow-the-business to transform-the-Business spending
In general, how much money have you been able to reduce in grow-the-business (i.e., increased capacity) to fund additional transform-the-business programs (e.g., digital transformation, wholly new product spaces, business model changes). You may use Gartner’s definitions of grow-the-business and transform-the-business or refer to the definitions in the glossary of the members version of the TBM book (). For example, if you reduce grow-the-business spending from $150 million to $120 million and used the entire $30 million to fund additional transform-the-business spending, your answer would be 20% ($30M ÷ $150M).
Reduction on non-performing investments (projects/products)
As a factor of dollars invested, how much have you been able to reduce or eliminate investments that were no longer on-time/on-budget/on-scope or equivalent? For example, if $30 million of investments were non-performing (or underperforming) two years ago but only $5 million did the same last year, your answer would be about 83% ($25M ÷ $30M).
Reduction in IT spend on vendors
How much have you optimized your spending on IT vendors and suppliers, when considering like-for-like business demands? For example, if you spent $100 million on your major vendors and suppliers last year but only $80 million this year, your reduction would be 20% ($20M ÷ $100M). You may answer this based on what your expected costs would have been if your business demand was consistent with or linear from prior years. For example, if, without TBM, your vendor spend would have been $120 million this year but was only $105 million (due to TBM), your answer would be about 13% ($15M ÷ $120M).
Annual reduction in employee hours in billing (showback) and/or chargeback (also charge/recharge) activities
How much have you reduced the amount of employee time (total man-hours) dedicated or mostly dedicated to billing/showback/chargeback processes? For example, if your TBM team spent 120 hours per month before and is spending 40 hours per month today, your reduction is 67% (80 hours ÷ 120 hours).
Reduction in IT spend on apps
How much have you optimized your spending on business applications, when considering like-for-like business demands? For example, if you spent $200 million on your application portfolio last year but only $180 million this year, your reduction would be 10% ($20M ÷ $200M). You may answer this based on what your expected costs would have been if your business demand was consistent with or linear from prior years. For example, if, without TBM, your application spend would have been $220 million this year but was only $185 million (due to TBM), your answer would be about 16% ($35M ÷ $220M).
Annual reduction in employee hours in lean portfolio management (agile funding process) activities
How much have you reduced the amount of employee time (total man-hours) dedicated or mostly dedicated to lean portfolio management processes? For example, if your LPM team spent 80 hours per month before and is spending 55 hours per month today, your reduction is 31% (25 hours ÷ 80 hours).