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4 Key Takeaways from ITFMA ’19 San Antonio

Aug 01, 2019 | By Amy Robertson

Bill of IT Planning, Budgeting & Forecasting

It has taken me over a week to unpack my experience from the latest ITFMA conference in San Antonio. I’m grateful for the amount of valuable insight and networking opportunities these events have to offer. For everyone who wasn’t there in person, this post gives a brief recap of the experience and offers some content you may find valuable.

Here are a few of the biggest highlights from the event:

Highlight #1: Feedback from Nicus IT Finance Boot Camp attendees

The 2-day Nicus IT Finance Boot Camp continues to be one of the best ways – if not THE best way – for practitioners to learn the core principles of IT Finance.

On day one, attendees focused on foundational knowledge like IT spend breakdown, IT finance calculations, and exercises demonstrating the practitioner’s tactical framework (multi-layer views of IT costs, forecasting/budgeting/actuals, and service costing). Then on day two, attendees took a deep dive into best practices around Bill of IT/showback/chargeback, cost modeling techniques, and creating value within the organization and user community.

And based on feedback from our latest group of attendees, this was one of our best bootcamps to date!

Here are just a few fun notes we captured in follow-up surveys from attendees:

  • “This bootcamp was awesome!”- Kathy Litzinger, University of Alabama at Birmingham
  • When asked what attendees found most beneficial, Callie Martin (State of Minnesota) noted, “Real-life examples and helpful analogies that are directly related to my role and organization.”
  • Marbella Ponce, UTMB Health, added, “Rob is obviously very knowledgeable but also a great speaker and has a great ability to make it understandable and relatable.”

Highlight #2: There were spirits! (both spooky and consumable)

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That’s right. We heard some interesting stories about unexplained noises in the night at the famous Menger Hotel in San Antonio.

The hotel has been rumored to be haunted for decades, and it’s a regular stop for “ghost tours.” On top of that, several ITFMA attendees reported spooky phenomena that turned them into believers! I was still skeptical… but decided to sleep with a nightlight just to be safe.

That said, there were other kinds of spirits attendees were happy to encounter – mainly the top-notch frozen margaritas from the Nicus solutions presentation (“Elevate IT and Expand What’s Possible with Nicus ITFM Solutions”). If you missed this presentation and are interested in learning more, email us at info@nicus.com.

As for the margaritas… the brilliant minds of the world still haven’t figured out a way to send via email (looking at you, Elon Musk).

Highlight #3: Premiering fresh session content

Rob Mischianti’s session “Know Your Audiences: Providing Insights that Create Value to Stakeholders” was a hit (as we expected). We asked Rob to cover this content again in a webinar this week. If you missed it, you can watch on-demand now or download the presentation deck here.

Highlight #4: Insights from partners and customers

It’s always enlightening to hear from industry experts, which is exactly what attendees can expect when they join a session with Nan Braun, CEO/Founder of Thavron Solutions and Ginger Allen, Sr. Director IT Business Management at GuideWell/Florida Blue.

Nan and Ginger led an engaging, actionable session titled “Changing the Value Conversation” – sharing insight and experience on how to stop defending costs and start demonstrating value.  We loved it so much, we’ve invited Nan and Ginger to share their insights with our followers…coming soon. Stay tuned!

Couldn’t attend the event? You can still get content!

Nicus session slide decks from this event are available for download. If you didn’t get a chance to attend – or if you did and want to revisit and share the knowledge you gained – take advantage of the Nicus presentations still available on our website.

Until next time, San Antonio…

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