ITFM Isn’t Sexy — But It’s Essential

One of the things I care most deeply about, and see consistently undervalued, is governance. 

Now, I get it. “Governance” sounds like a 10-letter f-word to many organisations.

It conjures images of paperwork, slow decision-making, and being told “no” by committee. Not exactly front-page stuff in the digital transformation playbook.

But here’s the thing: I sat around a board table recently, wearing a different hat, and the topic of governance came up. Everyone agreed — it’s the 25th hour of the 8-day week. We all know we should focus on getting the basics right. We want better visibility, better controls, better confidence in the way decisions are made and dollars are spent.

But the business? It keeps pushing in the other direction:

“Bigger, better, faster, cheaper!”

Sound familiar?

This is where governance has to evolve — and where IT Financial Management (ITFM) earns its keep.

It’s not about slowing the business down, it’s about making sure we’re not building speed on a shaky foundation.

Governance today isn’t just boardroom ritual; it’s about arming tech leaders with the visibility and control they need to lead strategically, not just operationally. 

ITFM is a foundational player in technology governance.

1. Audit Your Patch: Know What’s Yours

Before you can manage, optimise, or cut, you need to own.

Take stock.

What actually falls under your delegation of financial authority?

What’s floating around the edges, unclaimed, under-managed, or invisible?

• Shadow IT? Count it.

• Contracts hiding in other business units?  Bring them home.

• Vendors flying under the radar?  Time to land them.

And don’t just think “tech stack.” Think critical services.

What’s your organisation actually running on, and which parts are yours to own, support, or rescue when things go sideways?

If you don’t know what’s in your remit, you can’t govern it.

And if you can’t govern it, you can’t protect the business or deliver value.

2. Do you have the commercials, a Contract or a Handshake?

You’ve identified the vendors and systems your team supports but do they actually have contracts in place? And if so, are those agreements:

• Still current?

• Fit for purpose?

• Aligned with what’s actually being delivered?

These aren’t silly questions. Plenty of organisations, especially in local government and mid-sized enterprises, are still operating on handshakes, outdated agreements, or long-expired contracts no one’s revisited since the platform was first stood up.

Some vendors haven’t provided an updated contract in years. Some agreements rolled over silently. And in a surprising number of cases, no one knows where the paperwork is at all.

This leaves you exposed on multiple fronts:

• Commercial risk: unclear terms, unverified costs, and no leverage to renegotiate

• Service risk: no enforceable SLAs or KPIs

• Compliance risk: expired insurance, outdated data handling terms, or missing audit trails

Governance isn’t just about knowing who your vendors are it’s about knowing what they’re contractually committed to deliver, where they support your critical organisational systems, and what your organisation is on the hook for in return.

 “we’ve worked with them forever” is not a contract.

3. Get the Metadata Managed

A contract sitting in a folder (or someone’s inbox) is not governance.  

To be valuable, the metadata needs to be captured, maintained, and easy to access. At a minimum, you should be tracking:

• Contract purpose and scope

• Start, end, and review dates

• Payment and cost schedules

• Vendor contact and escalation details

• Total contract value vs actual spend to date

• Any variations, extensions, or side agreements

• And who owns it internally from a technology, business and process perspective.

Because here’s the reality: in many organisations, tech is managed by portfolios, not people. Ownership is fuzzy, responsibility shifts and when renewal time rolls around, no one knows who’s meant to review the deal until the invoice lands. 

If you want real control, the detail needs to be available at a moment’s notice. Not after a week of internal email chains and calendar archaeology.

You know you're winning when the vendor isn’t calling you to renew and you can pull up a history of everything you need on the turn of a dime!

Now that’s governance.

4. Analyse What You Find & Tell the Story Behind the Spend

Once you’ve got your vendor, contract, and cost data in one place, it’s time to start asking questions because data on its own doesn’t solve anything. Insight does. And insight comes from pattern, context, and the ability to ask: what does this actually mean for us?

Start here:

1. What is the spend across AI? Infrastructure?

2. What is the total technology spend for my operations or HR or sales team?

3. Who are the vendors supporting my critical systems? 

4. Where are we duplicating tech?

5. What could we standardise? 

6. What’s behind the increase in Vendor X’s costs this year?

7. Which vendors carry the most risk?

   
   

When you can move from “we’re spending a lot” to “here’s what we’re spending, why, and what we plan to do about it” technology teams stop feeling like a cost / overhead to the business. 

They start driving the internal agenda.

Governance That Works

ITFM isn’t flashy. 

It won’t win you a standing ovation. But if you want to lead with credibility, make smarter decisions, and avoid budget ambushes disguised as BAU?  

This is the work.

The visibility.

The structure.

The ability to say, “Here’s what we’ve got, what it costs, and whether it’s worth it.”

This isn’t about adding red tape. It’s about cutting through the noise and running tech like the strategic engine it’s meant to be.

And the bonus?

When governance is done well, then vendors know where they stand, executives know where the money is going, and you’re not digging through email threads to find out who signed what three years ago.

If you’re ready to move beyond spreadsheets and build a system that works for you and not just your auditors. 

It's time!

Got questions or want to compare notes?

Let’s talk.