The Power of Synergy: TBM and FinOps is a dreamteam
In our experience, we see with our customers different approaches when coming to Technology Business Management (TBM). One side is focused on general business finances, and the operating rhythm is based on a monthly/quarterly cycle. The other side is focused on quick, small iterations and requires strong collaboration between finance, engineering, and business teams, where the emphasis is on fast feedback and smart adjustments.
In this article, we combine those two with each other. This way, organizations can combine the strengths of two proven frameworks and provide everyone – connected with IT – with guidance they can utilize to make informed decisions.
Understanding TBM and FinOps
TBM has been long embedded within organizations. It gives companies oversight through annual budgets, overseeing big technology investments, and providing financial reporting with analysis. This has helped organizations to cope with changing demands from engineers, the customers of those organizations, and becoming lasting and predictable for there shareholders.
FinOps is a more recent framework within IT Financial Management. It has been developed due to the need to work with the (often) unpredictable costs of cloud computing. Due to these complex and highly volatile data streams, it has been looking at how they can leverage (near) real-time cost visibility with cross-functional teamwork, combining the agile principles with financial principles tailored to work with all that is introduced in the cloud.
How both framework can work together
TBM provides a broad view of technology spending. FinOps offers deep insights into cloud costs. The combination between FinOps and TBM results in a comprehensive approach to managing, informing organizations entire IT portfolio and giving insights into the decision-making process while aligning business goals with the functionalities and capabilities of both frameworks.
That said, the strength of both shines through most brightly during the following three points:
- Holistic Cost Oversight
TBM’s broad view combined with FinOps’ granular cloud insights creates a 360-degree perspective on technology spending. - Agile Budgeting
The real-time data from FinOps injects new life into TBM’s budgeting process, enabling more responsive financial planning. - Smart Asset Management
Traditional IT asset management principles are being reimagined for the cloud age, optimizing both physical and virtual resources. By embracing the big data of FinOps, the comprehensive inventory list of resources can create transparency for the whole business and can feed business decisions based on data. - Cross-functional Collaboration
FinOps emphasizes collaboration between multiple departments: finance, engineering, and business teams. This collaboration and practices can help the TBM framework with better communication across the whole organization.
The reward with the combination
This synergy is yielding tangible benefits for forward-thinking organizations:
- Smarter Decisions
By blending historical trends with real-time data, companies can make more informed technology investment choices. - Fiscal Responsibility
The accountability-focused approach of FinOps is elevating financial discipline across all tech spending. - Flexibility in Finance
Adopting FinOps’ iterative methods is making TBM more adaptable to market changes. - Lean and Mean
Combining cost-cutting expertise from both camps is leading to more effective optimization strategies.
What now
Implementing this integrated approach requires thoughtful execution. This means that it’s not a plug and play solution. But with thoughtful consideration and guidance, you can leverage both strengths. Start with the following steps:
- Unified Dashboards: Create comprehensive visualizations that capture both traditional IT and cloud-specific financial metrics.
- Collaborative Planning: Institute regular strategy sessions that bring together TBM and FinOps teams.
- Knowledge Exchange: Promote cross-pollination of ideas and skills between TBM and FinOps professionals.
- Cross-Training: Encourage knowledge sharing between TBM and FinOps professionals to build a more versatile team.
- Cohesive Governance: Establish a unified framework that aligns principles from both worlds.
You can always invest in tooling that can handle the diverse needs of both disciplines, but that’s a whole other world. This is because those tools are – most of the time – expensive and need some time to get working. The abovementioned steps ensure you get insights and get talking with the different teams. This way you can set up a culture that thrives on cross-function collaboration where organizations get the prerequisites for the tooling needed.
What’s next?
As cloud adoption continues to grow, the synergy between TBM and FinOps becomes increasingly crucial. By leveraging the strengths of both approaches, organizations can create a robust framework for managing technology costs, optimizing cloud spending, and driving business value. We call this: Technology Value Management.
This powerful combination enables companies to make more informed decisions, maintain financial accountability, and adapt quickly to the changing landscape of cloud technologies. In the end, the goal is clear: maximizing the value of technology investments while maintaining financial control and alignment with overall business objectives.
By embracing this synergy, organizations position themselves to thrive in the cloud era, balancing innovation with fiscal responsibility and paving the way for sustainable growth in an increasingly digital world.