How to Get Finance Buy-In on TBM Data
TBM Therapy - Issue #2
The Question: What do you do if a Finance leader won’t support your program?
What’s Going On: I sit in IT and our IT CFO will not support any numbers Finance didn’t produce. Our model ties out to the GL at every level, but Finance wants nothing to do with the analysis we produce.
What I’m Afraid Of: I’m worried our TBM program gets dissolved if we can’t get their buy-in.
As much as we think Finance only cares about the accuracy of numbers, in situations like this, I’m guessing it’s a messy mix of authorship and politics. Said plainly, Finance doesn’t trust the number because:
they didn’t have a hand in producing the number
it feels like shadow Finance, and that signals that they aren’t adequately serving their customer
To be fair, most IT Finance teams are simply an extension of the FP&A function. And historically FP&A doesn’t go as deep into the operational data and context that ITFM and TBM centers on. So their pushback is coming from a “we are responsible for financials" and “all that analysis isn’t part of my job”. So the better approach is to articulate the gap between what Finance is expended to produce and what IT needs to deliver efficiently and effectively. This is easiest if you point to very specific use cases or problems you are trying to solve. For example:
We have a list of applications we want to retire and need to understand how much that’s going to impact our budget next year.
We have several projects kicking off this year and need to understand how this will affect our Run budget over the next few years.
We need the Business to rationalize [software licenses, device counts, etc.], so we want to show them how much it’s costing them.
When they understand the specific problems you’re chartered to solve and they agree that detailed analysis isn’t on them to do (or they don’t have the capacity to do it), they will validate the gap (and the need for your team). You’ve resolved the shadow finance objection.
Okay, now that Finance feels less threatened by your existence (haha), you have to address the authorship problem. Thankfully they are on your side of the table now, so you just need to turn your laptop towards them and walk them through how you built the model. I love the strategy of getting broad support from the IT Finance leader, but then getting an analyst on their team that can be their “right hand person for all the TBM stuff”.
Don’t work backwards, start from the bottom (the GL). At each stage, acknowledge the data source you’re introducing and the related data transformations. Be clear about where transformations are more assumptive or limited by poor data. That builds trust and likely creates another ally for resolving those model challenges.
From there, partner with the Finance team to determine how engaged they want to be with the analysis you publish and/or the executive readouts your team is doing. This ensures that they aren’t a detractor in meetings or public forums when you present numbers; effectively resolving the authorship problem.
A few additional things to consider:
the playbook may slightly change based on how long the program has been running, what executive sponsorship currently looks like, and in what context Finance sees the information TBM produces.
if you genuinely can’t get time with the IT Finance leader. Ask your CIO to force the meeting. Don’t let them force the agreement, the mandate is for them to get in a room with you. Once they get you an at bat, it’s on you to knock it out the park.
Hope that helps!
Gboyega
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