Member Spotlights

September 2023 Member Spotlight: 

Justin Graff, IT Service Strategy Manager, Marshfield Clinic Health System

What led you to becoming a TBM Council member?

"The TBM Taxonomy initially led me to the TBM Council. Work I was involved in related to IT Costing efforts had a co-worker and I looking for a way to catalog and categorize costs which was to be shared back with the customer. Our first attempt was good, but left us with a few bruises as it was difficult to support and defend. Knowing we needed to do better, we dug into a few industry-specific costing frameworks, but nothing seemed to meet our needs. They were either too difficult to understand or didn't speak the language of the business. While becoming more familiar with the IT Financial Management practice we stumbled across the TBM Council/TBM Taxonomy/ATOM Model. I'm not sure which one was our Ah-ha moment as it took a while to understand their relationship to each other. The taxonomy was exactly what we were looking for, but we quickly realized the real value was the community of professionals which were at our disposal."

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

"A membership is valuable in may ways. First, the TBM Council's pursuit in establishing and constantly improving a taxonomy and surrounding practices is key as it ensures maturity over time. We know technology evolves but so does business. Keeping pace with both ensure relevancy and usability. Industry involvement is also important as it creates by-in. The TBM Council empowers its members through this community/framework to contribute and take ownership. They offer many opportunities to be heard either through attending conferences, participation on committees and/or being a voice in the community. The true value of the TBM Council is a forum/gathering/community of professionals willing to share and support each other."

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

"As a member and working with several other organizations, we were able to establish the Healthcare Taxonomy 1.0 Extension which was the first extension to the TBM Taxonomy. Membership has allowed me to help shape this effort and include the perspective of my organization. I was fortunate to help lead the cohort to update it to the Healthcare Taxonomy 2.0 Extension. Working with and learning from other organizations to improve the taxonomy while being able to include the perspective of my organization helped in its adoption. At the same time, we were creating the second healthcare extension we were also reorganizing the structure of IT. The taxonomy was a valuable tool to aid in this reorganization. With applications and services mapped to the taxonomy and solution ownership also mapped to the taxonomy we were able to manage and track the shift of responsibilities. Keeping key items such as application portfolio, service catalog, departments/cost centers tagged with the taxonomy helps make the needed relationships for things like reporting, ownership, and accountability.

The TBM Taxonomy has been very valuable in leading the IT Service Management practice. Having a good understanding of both IT Costing and IT Service Management helps shape your customer connections through service delivery and service measurement. Just like in IT Costing you need to speak the language of the business; in service management the customer is central. There are lots of synergies in these practices which when working together are valuable."

August 2023 Member Spotlight: 

Jane Daniel, TBMO Finance Lead & Product Owner, Kaiser Permanente

What led you to becoming a TBM Council member?

"I have been the Finance Director for our TBM Office since 2018. I wanted to learn how other companies are working with the ATUM taxonomy and how they use TBM to analyze their business. I also share our learnings with others. We have been using service costing as the basis for chargeback for years and have much to share about our journey."

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

"By becoming a TBM Council member, I can participate in the standards organization meetings and attend various seminars on technology management initiatives. Listening to industry experts and discussing issues with my peers gives me new perspectives to consider for our business."

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

"I wanted to learn more about the intersection of TBM and FinOps, so I became FinOps certified and joined the TBM for Cloud Strategy Community. This has allowed me to bring new insights to our business. I can discuss industry best practices for managing and reporting on external cloud spend. The TBM Council is a great place to share your own experience and to learn new skills."

June 2023 Member Spotlight: 

Andrew Dawdy, TBM Consultant, MetLife

What led you to becoming a TBM Council member?

"When I first began my career in TBM, I joined the TBM Council to engage with the broader community of practitioners and to gain as much foundational knowledge as I could."

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

"Participation in both the TBM Council and TBM Connect was extremely useful in accelerating my initial understanding of TBM principles (alongside some fantastic mentorship across the years) and has continued providing value by allowing ongoing engagement with the community. The various classes, webinars, and committee meetings that are offered through the TBM Council have facilitated many productive discussions and provided ongoing education opportunities."

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

"Membership in the TBM Council has opened the door to countless opportunities to engage with others across the globe and to learn from one another. Whether it be ideas around granular formulas, modeling best practices, or general lessons learned from other companies' TBM journeys, everything I've been able to leverage to expand my own knowledge and apply to my work has enabled me to increasingly drive business value in my organization."

May 2023 Member Spotlight: 

Kyle Castro, ETBMA/ACE | ISD Analyst IV, Navy Federal Credit Union

What led you to becoming a TBM Council member?

"I joined the TBM Council because I have good faith in the business value delivered by putting TBM into practice. We have experienced this first-hand. As a council member, I am able to 'learn from the best', which deepens my understanding of TBM and IT Finance concepts. It also inspires me to share my learnings and experiences with my fellow TBM Practitioners. "

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

"The sharing of best practices, working towards standards, and having a solid common understanding of IT Finance concepts have been helpful in my role as an analyst. Learning form my peers' advice, discussions, and sharing of experiences give me new insights and perspectives. There are key tips & tricks that I've picked up from the community and fellow practitioners through the years, which I continue to use to this day."

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

"Knowing that we're not alone in some of the challenges we face & knowing that other practitioners have navigated through these challenges encourage me. Learning about my peers' success stories also drives me to push forward and innovate in my organization. Being part of the TBM Council and an active member of TBM Connect helps me stay in-tune with new developments in the realms of TBM and IT Financial Management. At the end of the day, these ideas become best practices and distilled learnings, which I use in my role for the benefit of our organization."

April 2023 Member Spotlight: 

Ana Paula de Oliveira, Manager, Planning & Demand Management, The Canada Life Assurance Company

What led you to becoming a TBM Council member?

"My journey to becoming a TBM Council member was sparked by my recent promotion at a large insurance company, where I need to take on the subject matter expert role for Technology Business Management in my area. As my new role required me to have an in-depth understanding of TBM, I realized the importance of staying up-to-date with the latest trends and best practices in the field. Joining the TBM Council was a no-brainer as it provides access to a vast network of TBM experts and resources, enabling me to enhance my knowledge and expertise in this critical area. As a TBM Council member, I look forward to sharing my experiences and learning from my peers to drive better business outcomes for my organization."

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

"Joining the TBM Council and engaging in the TBM Connect community have been an incredibly valuable experience for me. Through these resources, I have been able to learn from the experiences of other members, gaining valuable insights into their TBM journeys and real study cases. This has provided me with a unique perspective on how to approach similar challenges in my own work. In addition, the training opportunities offered through the TBM Council have allowed me to stay current with the latest trends and best practices in TBM. Overall, being a member of the TBM Council and participating in TBM Connect have been instrumental in my professional development, and I look forward to continuing to learn and grow through these valuable resources."

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

"As a new member of the TBM Council, I have already experienced significant benefits in my ability to apply TBM practices and drive business value for my organization. Although I am still in the early stages of my new role, the knowledge I have acquired through my involvement in the TBM Council has given me a better understanding of how to leverage the TBM framework within my area. The insights and best practices shared by other members of the TBM Council have also enabled me to identify opportunities for improving operational efficiency and optimizing spending on technology. I am excited to continue my involvement in the TBM Council and to leverage the knowledge and resources available to drive even greater business value for my organization."

March 2023 Member Spotlight: 

Phyllis Owens, Management & Program Analyst

What led you to becoming a TBM Council member?

"When I entered my position, I was not familiar with Technology Business Management  toolset but after my organization decided to adopt a more responsible way of managing cost, we realized just how TBM could help make this a reality. I was selected as the Project Manager responsible for implementing TBM in my organization and the rest is history. I dived right into learning as much as I could about TBM, how other organizations used TBM to improve their cost allocations, and shadowing anyone who could provide me information about TBM which ultimately led me to becoming a member of the TBM council. "

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

"The TBM Council membership has been a great resource by providing knowledge which I use in my current position within my organization to consistently and reliably deliver in real-time an authentic way to explain how technology investments provide business value to other departments in my organization which in turn helps leadership adopt policies and procedures that account for IT spend.  In today’s working environment there is an expectation for businesses to become more transparent in several areas, financial responsibility being one. Being on the TBM Council provided the resources and disciplines needed to provide a roadmap for business to achieve that. The council provided the tools needed to learn and understand how valuable the Technology Business Management methodology is at delivering IT accountability to businesses, both big and small. The council has also provided opportunities to network with both government and industry partners creating a community which fosters learning, comrade and a culture which has been extremely beneficial to my career. "

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

"Since implementing Technology Business Management methodology or TBM within my organization, we have seen a significant improvement in how we account for IT dollars.  In the past we didn’t have the accountability we needed to manage our IT properly.  We didn’t necessarily have a uniform way for various department to understand how their IT spend cost the organization as a whole nor did they understand how old or outdated inventory affected the bottom line .  We were often working off of incorrect or stale data, dealing with improper ordering and mismanagement of IT inventory, putting us at a disadvantage when it came to certain financial decisions pertaining to how and where dollars could most effectively been distributed.  Now after implementing and utilizing TBM, we can see a difference in how departments treat their IT dollars.  Business units as well as leadership use the TBM data to make well informed decisions while also creating a culture that is more accountable when it comes to technology and finance.  TBM has helped make sure we are properly and efficiently managing resources such as Cloud Strategy and Agile Project Management by properly facilitating a way to allocate cost associated within these activities."

February 2023 Member Spotlight: 

Anna Radke, Head of TBM Office, Zoetis Inc.

What led you to becoming a TBM Council member?

"As part of our digital transformation, our technology organization (Zoetis Technology & Digital - ZTD) is advancing how we manage the Business of IT, building new capabilities to drive transparency to our technology spend and drive efficiencies in how we optimize our services and total cost of ownership.  To support these objectives, we chose Apptio as a mechanism to drive this transformation, which led me to joining the TBM Council.

I considered the TBM Council and ecosystem as part of total package offer to us. As our ZTD organization focuses on innovation and productivity, prioritizing TBM was a key step that would allow us to better understand our spending and help achieve these objectives which are key to our transformation."

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

"Directly via sharing others experience with TBM journey , challenges, and successes.  In the beginning during first TBM virtual conference I realized TBM Taxonomy, discipline and usage of Apptio as a tool by our users, will be a process. It will take the time.  Majority of other companies were in full mode of TBM taxonomy 2 years after implementation."

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

"We are still the beginners 6 month after go live. We are maturing our processes. TBM membership  allows me to imagine where ZTD can be in the next 3 months, 6 month and even in 2 years. 

Being a member of TBM Council has allowed us to learn and follow TBM's standardized taxonomy, while incorporating Zoetis' in-house hierarchical structures to make TBM more immediately understandable and consumable by our leaders. As a start, to get our community of user to be more familiar with Taxonomy, we setup ZTD Hierarchy and Account Category, slowly moving to Cost Pool concept and better mapping, which allowed to achieve one of our main goal of appropriate financial control, optimization and rationalization of spending in regular run cost and investments. We quickly expanded this capability to the level of cost center managers."

January 2023 Member Spotlight: 

Yuji Kumasaka, IT Governance Senior Manager, H2O Retailing Corporation

What led you to becoming a TBM Council member?

"When Apptio was introduced in Japan, I learned about TBM and the TBM Council from Mr. Naritsuka Apptio Japan. After that, I read TBM books to understand more about TBM, and I joined TBM Council because I wanted to learn more about TBM.

In the past, I have been an IT consultant for a long time, and I have tried to solve IT management accounting problems. I found TBM's approach consistent and organized with what I had previously experienced."

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

"I was surprised that TBM books are available here in PDF format. Reading it in detail, I found some differences from the one I got from amazon. This is because we wanted to promote the book as a Japanese version. I also have a good memory that when I participated in TBM Conference, Jon Sobber's book was introduced, and I could purchase it at a discount.
I am very aware of the need for scripture to promote TBM and make it available in Japanese to disseminate this concept widely."

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

"Although TBM is still in its infancy in Japan, the application of TBM Practices has provided us with sufficient insights to persuade our stakeholders in particular.
We are investing more in IT than ever in our company, and we increasingly need to engage in dialogue with the business and finance departments to make this investment worthwhile.

New theories of IT investment management, such as FInOps and SfAE, are emerging, but we believe that the TBM approach is at the heart of these new theories.
We are currently implementing Apptio, and I realize the power of visualization and various insights gained by practicing TBM. I hope there will be a place where we can share this information, and I hope that many contents will be accessible in Japanese to promote the spread of TBM in Japan further."

December 2022 Member Spotlight: 

Sasha Dunford, Head of TBM Office, Nationwide Building Society

November 2022 Member Spotlight: 

Neil Anson, Global IT Finance Architect, Eisai Corporation of North America

October 2022 Member Spotlight: 

Adolfo Valencia, Service Taxonomy & Architecture Specialist, ABB Information Systems Ltd

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. 

What led you to becoming a TBM Council member?

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

"The greatest value of TBM Council membership has been the community. While I can go through training and read about best practices, the ability to connect with and learn from peers that have actually done the work and seen the results is invaluable."

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

"I've connected with peers through the TBM Council for years. Any time that we've considered a change in our TBM program I've sought out TBM Council members that have done something similar and tried to gain insight from them. A few changes we've implemented as a result of these conversations have been monthly forecasts for IT, extending our forecast process to other shared services, adopting the TBM taxonomy extension for Healthcare, simplifying our infrastructure costing model, and establishing formal governance for TBM."

July 2022 Member Spotlight: 

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

What led you to becoming a TBM Council member?

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. "

June 2022 Member Spotlight: 

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

What led you to becoming a TBM Council member?

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?

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"

March 2022 Member Spotlight: 

Matt Erickson, Sr. Manager, IT Governance and Controls, Hub International