Manager, Strategy Advisors - Apptio

Introduction
Apptio an IBM company is the leading technology spend and value management software provider. Its AI-powered data insights empower leaders to make smarter financial and operational decisions. A pioneer and category leader in Technology Business Management (TBM) and FinOps Apptio works with thousands of customers partners and community members worldwide. Visit www.apptio.com.

As the Manager of Customer Success Advisors (CSAs) at Apptio you will be required to maintain a reduced portfolio of customers within the Americas and be responsible for managing a team of Customer Success Advisors. The Customer Success Advisory team’s focus is to provide consultative guidance to our most strategic customers to ensure successful adoption and expansion of the Apptio product suite. You will bring your experience leading developing and supporting teams to ensure your team of direct reports provides a high level of customer engagement. You will partner with the global leaders at Apptio an IBM Company across Customer Success Professional Services Field Sales Account Management Marketing Products Engineering and Support to foster partnership and industry expertise to ensure every customer realizes full value from their investment with Apptio.

This position is part of Apptio’s extended leadership team with specific responsibility for a portion of the Customer Success team in America’s. With deep multi-domain expertise and an understanding of customer challenges and Apptio Solution best practices CSAs leverage their strategic leadership and operational capabilities to help customers create value against their corporate objectives while driving operational excellence and program governance. CSAs engage broadly across organizations focusing on C-Level executives and other IT and Business leaders. Your job is guiding this group of exceptional talent to provide that value and expertise to each of their assigned portfolios in accordance with Apptio’s best practices.

CSAs are customer-directed specialists solely focused on creating wildly successful customers through large scale programs involving change management innovation and developing processes and capabilities that make the Apptio Solutions internally sustainable. For all levels of customer TBM Cloud and/or Agile maturity CSAs will help to accelerate and mature practices related to the Apptio Solutions which encompasses Business and IT Strategy Cloud Technology and Operational Management and Financial Performance Management.

Your Role and Responsibilities
Customer Advocate

• Maintain a reduced portfolio of customers as a CSA: work closely with customers to understand and drive use cases with measurable value outcomes tied closely to your client’s corporate objectives
• Drive user adoption across the customer organization by understanding their specific challenges and helping them to operationalize and realize benefit from their deployed Apptio solution
• Understand and document customer process workflows that apply to Apptio solutions and implement strategies that integrate Apptio to those processes
• Identify risks to the customer achieving their stated business goals and develop then execute appropriate mitigation plans
• Mentor customers’ ability to become “insight hunters” by helping them uncover nuggets of information that will drive measurable and client agreed to value
• Create a personalized Customer Adoption roadmap that aligns corporate goals what is possible key business initiatives KPI’s and a practical implementation timeline
• Serve as liaison between our customers and various Apptio teams to ensure that needs / requirements critical to customer success are understood and effectively communicated including gathering customer product feedback to shape product roadmap development

Strategic Consulting

• Evangelize Technology Business Management (TBM) and FinOps
• Engage regularly with customers via workshops operational and business reviews to evaluate needs and strategic direction and align with a clear roadmap
• Use storytelling to highlight customer value augmented with technical expertise by demonstration in the product
• Find mentor and develop client process owners into TBM and/or FinOps Champions
• Align customers to the growing TBM and FinOps market and the standards being developed to support consistency and success in rolling out Apptio Solution Processes. Standards such as those vetted and published by the TBM Council ( http://tbmcouncil.org )
• Provide timely account or executive summary status reports both to customers and Apptio management
• Develop and maintain long-term relationships with stakeholders in the account portfolio where appropriate by networking between customers partners and Apptio

Thought Leadership

• Work globally with CS peers the Global CS Practice and cross-functionally within the Americas to develop and drive change initiatives; identify and validate key problems and present workable solutions to management; in collaboration with other leaders
• Understand the business and technical problems the Apptio solutions address. Stay current on product roadmap as well as understanding the scenarios features and functions within each of the products and how these are applied to address business and technical problems; maintain a high level of understanding of the competition and the differentiators between Apptio and its competitors
• Develop on your own and support/drive your team to create internal and external facing collateral (content) to:
  • Support customer adoption efforts
  • Expand the knowledgebase & best practices leveraged by Apptio Teams
  • Continuously improve the maturity of our customer base in best practices related to the Apptio solutions/suite of products
• You and your team will contribute internally to the Customer Success organization by sharing technical / domain knowledge and advancing best practices and advisory skills including but not limited to:
  • Lead and contribute to internal projects and initiatives
  • Serve as a Subject Matter Expert (SME) for specific domain or process area
  • Contribute thought leadership and best practice on how to “Run IT Like a Business”

You :
Innovation

• Have an inquisitive mind and passion for learning about customers industries and innovative approaches to doing things which include but not limited to:
  • Organizational change management and transformation including methodologies and governance
  • IT industry drivers trends and technologies
  • Organizational efficiency and operational excellence
  • Driving innovation in TBM Cloud and Product management
  • Translation of business initiatives and challenges into actionable roadmap and solutions

Leadership & Influence

• Strong self-starter with the ability to build a network within Apptio and your assigned portfolio of customers
• Lead develop and serve your directs: provide direction to the team on CS operations with on-going feedback and coaching on their performance. Identify gaps in knowledge and capability for both individuals the team and the CS Advisory function as a whole and work with other CS leaders to ensure those gaps are filled
• Serve as a mentor and coach to help your direct reports better guide customers in TBM and FinOps adoption.
• Ensure the performance of the CSA team: regularly observe direct reports on the performance of their jobs to ensure they maintain the standards expected from an Apptio CSA. The role will require the successful candidate to identify and resolve any areas for improvement within their team’s function
• Align with other Customer Success functions: drive operational efficiency and alignment across the Customer Success functions by working in close collaboration with other Customer Success Manager/Leaders for the Advisors CSM’s Premier TAM and Professional Services on appropriate initiatives and activities to drive customer results
• Coordinate with the Account Management and/or Field Sales Rep Functions: working alongside Account Managers to ensure alignment with the efforts of the Account Management team to maximize retention adoption expansion and customer satisfaction
• Demonstrated ability to communicate present and influence credibly and effectively at all levels of a customer’s technology organization

• Motivate and inspire a multidisciplinary internal Apptio team to solve customer challenges without direct management responsibility

• Creatively solve problems with limited input and resources in a fast-paced high-pressure environment
• Credible and effective C-level advisor/coach especially with regards to the TBM and FinOps disciplines

• Strong teamwork facilitation and soft skills such as listening and empathy with the ability to:
  • Balance conversations within groups
  • Offer suggestions and improvements to process and work effectively with all personalities
  • Drive towards building consensus

Technology Delivery

• Working knowledge of IT delivery frameworks and methodologies (i.e. ITIL Waterfall Agile etc.)
• Operational knowledge of IT Portfolio management (i.e. SAFe Scrum and Kanban)
• Consultative approach including the ability to translate customer needs into measurable outcomes
• Experience with implementing and supporting enterprise solutions (CRM ERP CMDB etc.)
• Apptio product knowledge with ability to quickly learn and demonstrate product capabilities in response to customer opportunities and needs

Required Technical and Professional Expertise

• Demonstrable managerial experience leading multi-disciplinary teams of five or more
• Experience holding direct teams accountable to quarterly metrics or targets
• 10+ years Program Management Portfolio Oversight or Consulting experience

Business Domain Focus

• Specific knowledge and application of either Cloud computing and/or Scaled Agile Framework plus: IT services and financial management including budgeting cost allocations capital & operating expense handling program portfolio management and application / infrastructure support.
• Operational knowledge of IT Portfolio management including traditional and agile delivery methodologies including SAFe Scrum and Kanban.

Preferred Technical and Professional Expertise

• Most successful candidates having 15+ years in Big-4 consulting or within the IT Finance and/or technology industry as CIOs/SVPs/Directors
• Consultative style and ability to communicate technical concepts to people of all backgrounds and skill levels
• Ability to turn data into action to make strategic recommendations
• Proven ability to build and maintain strong relationships with a diverse set of internal and external constituencies including C-Level Leaders and Senior Level executives
• Excellent organization program/project management time management and communication skills
• Strong skills in data analysis/manipulation
• Ability to lead cross functional business and technical teams to provide timely issue resolution
• Strong understanding of business processes and their integration into enterprise applications
• Willingness to ‘roll up one’s sleeves’ and assist wherever needed
• Team player who will innovate to continue improving the way Apptio serves its customers
• Ability to travel up to 25% of the time
• Must have working knowledge of several of the following areas:
  • IT Financial Management
  • Cloud Management
  • IT Service and Portfolio Management
  • Asset Management
  • Vendor and Contract Management
  • IT Project and Portfolio Management
  • IT Infrastructure Management
  • Strategy and Planning
  • Application Portfolio Management
  • Agile Methodology
• Experience with cloud-based/SaaS solution offerings a plus