Build an ITFM Improvement Roadmap

Though more integral to organizations than ever before, IT is often seen as a technical function rather than a strategic enabler. IT must improve the way it communicates the direct link between its expenditures and its critical services by maturing its IT financial management (ITFM) practice. Our comprehensive methodology can help IT find an entry point into enhancing its financial savvy and boosting its role as a strategic force in the organization.

IT’s finances have become more complex as technological advancements have accelerated, but its financial management practices range from immature at best to absent at worst in most organizations, hampering its ability to make the case for itself. IT must build a transparent, strategic, and sophisticated approach to financial management to prove its value as a strategic partner.

1. Think systems, not components.

IT financial management is not a collection of unrelated processes but a single system of interconnected moving parts – an error, inefficiency, or gap in any will have knock-on effects elsewhere within that system. IT must adopt a systems thinking approach to financial management to keep all the individual parts coordinated and ensure the smooth running of the system.

2. You don’t always need to think big.

As they work to improve their ITFM practice, IT leaders might be on the lookout for higher-profile achievements to showcase. That instinct would be misplaced: often, the early wins come in the form of low-effort, low-cost improvements that facilitate better communication and governance and lay the foundation for future improvement.

3. Prioritize transparency at every stage.

Ultimately, the end goal of improving IT financial management is to make better decisions for IT and communicate IT’s value to stakeholders. However, IT’s finances are not independent of the rest of the organization, requiring collaboration and communication to ensure everyone’s needs are met. Prioritizing ITFM transparency will make improvements more visible to other business units, encouraging buy-in and greater consideration.

Use this step-by-step blueprint as your entry point into improving ITFM.

Our research includes five phases of guidance and a simple-to-use template and workbook to get a full picture of your organization’s ITFM practice and the path to improvement. Use our comprehensive framework to ensure IT’s finances are governed efficiently, transparently, and with future improvements in mind, while demonstrating its value to the organization’s overall strategic plan.

• Understand your context by identifying constraints, opportunities, and assumptions.
• Identify your current state by running our IT financial management capability maturity assessment, reviewing the results, and discussing them with your team.
• Identify your target state by setting subdiscipline targets, priorities, and success metrics.
• Identify improvement tactics and assess their effort, cost, and feasibility.
• Develop an improvement roadmap by prioritizing tactics, setting a timeline, and preparing for executive buy-in.