Member Spotlights

September 2022 Member Spotlight: 

Curtis Cutler, Senior Manager, IT Finance, Smithfield Foods

What led you to becoming a TBM Council member?

"I was led to become a council member at a TBM conference, and learning it was “free” made it an easy choice!  The TBM community is a group of like minded people passionate about sharing best practices to advance the TBM mindset.  Connecting technology cost to business value can be hard to articulate and socializing challenges/opportunities with community members provides a lot of satisfaction."

How does TBM Council membership and/or TBM Connect offer you value?

"When I am faced with tough decisions throughout my TBM journey I can easily find helpful resources on TBM Connect.  I also find that TBM council members make themselves available to bounce ideas off each other. 

In addition, it takes a lot of time to get someone with no knowledge of TBM up to speed, and the resources the membership provides help me take a very organized approach.  

The TBM Conference is a well-organized event, and I am looking forward to attending in person for the first time in 3 years, November 2022, in Austin, TX"

How has TBM Council membership improved your application of the TBM practice and contributed to driving business value for your organization?

"My first introduction to Council membership was when I took the Certified Technology Business Mgt Executive (CTBME) course and attained the CTBME credential.  This course taught me how to connect the dots with what TBM has to offer, and provided me the chance to build an immediate network. 

I am a CPA, started my career in Accounting, then migrated over to Finance and IT Finance roles.  There was always something missing in my mind as I worked side by side as a Finance/Accounting person with IT executives.  Once I learned about TBM it opened up my eyes to so many opportunities to better contribute to my organizations, helping bridge the gap between IT and the business.  I also recommend that Council members actively engage in a TBM working group.  That is the best way to help you learn and grow in this space."

August 2022 Member Spotlight: 

Paul Matthews, Finance Director, University of Pittsburgh Medical Center

July 2022 Member Spotlight: 

Shonna Thompson, IT Investment Manager, US Department of Veterans Affairs

What led you to becoming a TBM Council member?

"I became a council member because my previous Director, Sandra McGill from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), encouraged the team to become a member and purchase the book to understand how TBM would bring value to CDC and other federal government agencies. Sandra attained funding for the TBM Executive Foundation course and had it taught in Atlanta on the CDC campus. In attendance were over thirty-five technology leaders across the CDC who wanted to learn “what is TBM” and how it can help shape their IT portfolio. After taking the course, five of my team members, including myself, and others, passed the exam and obtained our CTBME. Now we are armed with this newfound information, allowing our team to start “value conversations” about IT spending, service consumption, and the tradeoffs of reducing costs while still delivering quality goods and services to business partners and customers. In the past, we were buying and buying; now, with TBM, we are thinking about agility and making better-informed business decisions to provide cost-effective services and products."

How does TBM Council membership and/or TBM Connect offer you value?

"The TBM council and TBM Connect are communities that allow practitioners from many different industries to share their knowledge and expertise. There is a wealth of information on TBM Connect and I have learned what works for others and can ask for advice from those with similar problems or issues. Even though we all have different goals for our organization, in the end, we are all trying to run the best organization. There's nothing like having access to the movers and shakers who make things happen and the abundant access to beneficial information. TBM Connect is an excellent resource for finding solutions to any problem or issue I have experienced at work. "

How has TBM Council membership improved your application of the TBM practice and contributed to driving business value for your organization?

"Being a member of the TBM Council has helped me develop expert knowledge to help shape the Veterans Affairs IT Standard Investment Portfolio. Learning about the demand and supply of how our partners are consuming goods enables us to maximize funding for future products and services to serve our Veterans better. Putting TBM into practice, we have made informed decisions about the products and services and gained the trust of IT and finance leaders to justify technology costs. TBM tools and taxonomy provide a framework to make decisions based on facts to redefine our processes and ensure that customers receive quality services. I have expanded my skill set, stayed informed on industry trends, and evaluated IT portfolio spending to determine the business needs and wants since becoming a member."

June 2022 Member Spotlight: 

Melvin Baranyk, Director, Technology Business Management, The Canada Life Assurance Company

What led you to becoming a TBM Council member?

"When our organization first started applying the TBM framework I wanted a way to gain knowledge outside of a course or reading a book. I valued having a community in which I could participate. "

How does TBM Council membership and/or TBM Connect offer you value?

"As a member of the TBM Council, I have the chance to give back to the community. As essential as it is to learn from others, I also wanted to have a chance to tell our experience. I hope that some of my insights have helped them progress TBM inside their companies as much as others have benefited me."

 

How has TBM Council membership improved your application of the TBM practice and contributed to driving business value for your organization?

"As a member of the strategy community, I've had the good fortune to work with people from diverse organizations to help promote the TBM discipline. These connections have resulted in talks that have given me new perspectives on certain opportunities. Hearing real-life instances of how comparable issues were overcome has helped me extend my perspective and rethink how I approach certain subjects."

April 2022 Member Spotlight: 

Monica Braun, TBM Practice Manager, Marshfield Clinic Health System

What led you to becoming a TBM Council member?

"'Community' is what led me to become a member.  At the time I became a member, our organization felt as if we were on an island, thinking through every IT management strategy on our own such as, standards – validating what we had created aligned with industry standards and Knowledge - growing knowledge about managing the business of technology.

Ultimately this was at a time in which the overall content within TBM was new to us and this was a stepping stone to at least be like someone else … adopt something someone else was doing."

How does TBM Council membership and/or TBM Connect offer you value?

"Networking, education, and standards rise to the top of the list of the value we consistently rely on from our participation in TBM

• In terms of Networking, our go-to people are those within the TBM landscape.  We collaborate for therapy J, to learn from each other, to talk about different tooling’s, how teams are managed and reporting structures.  The networking community is very open and willing to share which makes it fun to work with.
• Within Education – There are many options for education, which for me have been valuable to get certified in different areas, but also the education offered to others who may be on the receiving side of TBM.  The wiliness to have the TBM council educate different team levels allows for easier buy-in at all layers. The conferences stand out as an opportunity as they are filled with so much great education, product demonstrations and networking opportunities.

• From the perspective of Standards – TBM has provided taxonomies which allows us to jump past many basic steps of defining what certain services are and how to align.  Also, standards provide an architecture of how IT services should align and where the costs best fit.  This has allowed for us to use this data and make hierarchical decisions and cost alignment decisions with little discussion."

How has TBM Council membership improved your application of the TBM practice and contributed to driving business value for your organization?

"The TBM Council membership not only provides me value to be better at my job, but allows me to service my organization in an all-encompassing management of technology.

• With defined taxonomies we have been able to internally benchmark/trend our service costs without getting distracted at the new shiny service.  And having the defined basics has allowed us to stay consistent.           
• The taxonomy was a base for us to align our IT organization to.  We aligned our staffing model, along with our APM, Service catalog, PPM tool categorization to the business services defined in the taxonomy and the healthcare taxonomy. 
• This allowed for a collaboration on ideas, and a baseline to start from
• This additionally allowed and allows for collaboration on how to categorize new Applications or services coming into the organization
• The overall foundational work the TBM council has provided to help communicate the importance and educate the importance of what TBM is, and how it is useful has been very meaningful to communicate the business value in which we are trying to drive … and that we do have a means to our madness"

What led you to becoming a TBM Council member?

"Becoming a member in the TBM Council has been important to me since I started in TBM years ago. I am very passionate about TBM and wanted to be a part of a community that felt the same way. I knew that if I wanted to be active in the TBM community, the membership would allow me to not only interact with others, but be at the forefront of the TBM framework."

 

How does TBM Council membership and/or TBM Connect offer you value?

"The value of the membership is endless. Ranging from workgroups and communities to the education opportunities, there is no shortage of support for your TBM journey. I found enormous value in being a part of the different workgroups and learning how other organizations handled similar challenges towards achieving their TBM goals. I also appreciate being a part of a committee that continually works to maintain the standards for the TBM Taxonomy."

 

How has TBM Council membership improved your application of the TBM practice and contributed to driving business value for your organization?

"The TBM Council membership has given us the ability to utilize a standard framework and taxonomy that drives us towards our desired end-game. It keeps us attached to the market and provides us with the necessary material to push through our challenges and succeed at providing cost transparency for our stakeholders."