Nicus logo
Doodles

ITFMA ’19 New Orleans: Post-Conference Highlight Roundup

Apr 29, 2019 | By Amy Robertson

ITFMA ’19 New Orleans: Post-Conference Highlight Roundup

New Orleans never disappoints and neither did last week’s ITFMA event! The Financial World of Information Technology Conference was loaded with fresh insights, actionable content, and of course, a variety of world class cuisines and libations.

In case you missed it, we rounded up a handful of the biggest highlights for you here…

Nicus Customer Sessions: Insights & Takeaways

Several Nicus customers were among the industry thought leaders who spoke at last week’s conference. Below is a quick summary of each session, along with the insights and takeaways they delivered.

Surviving and Thriving Through an ITFM System Implementation

Speakers: Ginger Allen, Senior Director, IT Business Management, GuideWell/Florida Blue & Nan Braun, CEO/Founder, Thavron Solutions

This session was an informal “fireside chat” between Ginger Allen from GuideWell Holdings, the parent company for Florida Blue (the Florida-based Blue Cross and Blue Shield plan) and moderator Nan Braun, founder of Thavron Solutions (a vendor-neutral ITFM tool implementation consultancy).

The discussion revealed details behind Ginger’s implementation of the Nicus ITFM solution to manage her organization’s annual IT spend of roughly half a billion dollars.

Here are three of the biggest takeaways from Ginger’s first-hand implementation experience:

How to Make Bad Data Good Data

Speakers: Jennifer Hughes, Deputy Controller & Derek Martinez, Accounting Manager – State of Colorado Governor’s Office of Information Technology

Data struggles are one of the biggest barriers to growth and maturity for most ITFM practices. But setting out to fix problematic data is easier said than done.  

Jennifer Hughes and Derek Martinez from the State of Colorado delivered a session dealing with this exact problem – explaining how they conquered their data issues and what you can learn from their experience to do the same…

Transform IT from Perceived Cost Center to Valued Business Partner

Speakers: Nicholas Kaliszewski Director, IT Financial Management, Erie Insurance Group

This session detailed Nicholas Kaliszewski’s journey to elevate IT through cost transparency at Erie Insurance Group. He delivered a wealth of information throughout the 45-minute presentation, but here are three key points that stood out above the rest…

Life with ITFM Tools: The First Year

Speaker: Matthew Campagnoli, Finance Director, State of Colorado Governor’s Office of Information Technology

To replace a legacy system comprised of outdated software, traditional spreadsheets, and paper hardcopy forms, the Colorado Governor’s Office of Information Technology (OIT) implemented three key modules of the Nicus solution set.

This session detailed OIT’s journey working with an ITFM solution for the first time, and what they learned over the first year after implementation…

The Nicus ITFM Bootcamp

What makes IT Finance different from any other finance job? The devil’s in the details and understanding the finer points of what makes IT Finance unique is crucial for success.

This workshop is designed to get professionals new to the world of IT Finance up to speed quickly and easily. In the 2-day curriculum, students get the chance to dissect different types of IT spend, examine technologies deployed in a corporate data center facility and its operation, and deep-dive common accounting practices used by IT Finance professionals.

Additionally, this workshop discusses the emerging challenges facing all IT Finance organizations as they support a modern-day CIO, plus several detailed calculation exercises with answer keys and explanations.

3 Key Sessions Led by Nicus Chief Evangelist Rob Mischianti

Here’s a brief summary of the content that Nicus co-founder Rob Mischianti delivered at ITFMA ’19 in New Orleans.

A Practitioner’s Guide to Cost Modeling

The material in this session was targeted to ITFM practitioners and leaders interested in either… 1) building an accurate IT cost model for the first time, or 2) refining and improving an existing cost model. The presentation included a thorough explanation of current cost modeling best practices from the ground up, including:

Delivering Value with IT Finance

Informed decision-making is the core objective of IT Financial Management, and the key to delivering value. But to enable better decisions and deliver maximum value, IT leadership must reframe their relationship with the business in two crucial ways:

  1. Extend capabilities to analyze and report costs
  2. Translate insights into a common language the business understands

This session served as a guide for IT Finance to do both of those things – elevating its status as a valued, trusted partner to the business.

Everything You Need to Know About Data

IT Finance and ITFM solutions have a huge appetite for accurate and complete data. Required data often includes detailed content from financial systems, complex configurations and usage data from IT management applications, business metrics, and much more; a mature IT Finance operation can easily consume data from dozens of sources. This session examined common data sources, along with collection methods, automation, structure, content, and practical and effective usage. 

Up Next: ITFMA in San Antonio, TX (July 15-19)

It might go without saying, but we are thrilled to see everyone at the next upcoming ITFMA event in San Antonio, TX. If you missed all the fun in New Orleans, this is your chance to make up for it… registration is still open at the link below!

Register Now

Get actionable insights and updates about ITFM in your inbox.