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Hey everybody, and welcome back to the
Operational ITAM Podcast.

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I'm Bill Van Nort, and today we're going
to fix a meeting.

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You know the one. Procurement has a better
price.

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Finance wants the saving. The application
owner says the replacement won't be

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ready. Asset management has found a
licensing condition nobody put in the

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business case. And somebody has written,
"All stakeholders aligned," at the

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bottom of the slide. That's optimistic.

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They've all received the slide.

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Here's the question. When those people
disagree, who actually has the

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authority to decide what happens next?

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Because a renewal can move through every
department, collect every comment,

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and still reach its deadline without
anyone owning the decision.

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The contract renews. The meeting recurs.

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Apparently, only one of those things
required a signature.

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Today begins The Decision Table.

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Who Owns the Renewal Decision?

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Good morning, good afternoon, or good
evening, wherever you're listening

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from. This is the show where we take the
unglamorous machinery of enterprise

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technology and make it make sense.

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Grab your coffee. In episode fourteen, we
challenged the bill before

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negotiating the discount. We separated
price, quantity, and terms.

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Now we're leaving the Grid and doing the
operating-model work I promised.

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Who uses that evidence, who can commit the
business, and who checks whether

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the result actually happened?

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ITAM, or IT asset management, connects the
technology estate to its

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ownership, rights, obligations, costs, and
lifecycle.

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FinOps connects technology consumption and
cost to business value through

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collaboration. That's consistent with the
FinOps Foundation's current

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framework. They overlap. Neither becomes
the other just because both have a

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spreadsheet open. The Foundation's twenty
twenty-six framework update puts

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explicit attention on executive strategy
and decisions across technology

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categories. Its Intersecting Disciplines
guidance describes coordination

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between FinOps and functions such as asset
management, procurement, finance,

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security, and architecture. It allows
different organizational arrangements.

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You don't have to merge departments to
begin.

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My opinion, clearly labeled: start with a
decision that matters, and make the

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working arrangement prove itself there.

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You can discuss reporting lines afterward.

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Preferably after somebody has demonstrated
that the arrangement can produce

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an answer. The counterargument is fair.

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Some organizations need structural change
because authority is genuinely

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fragmented. A meeting won't repair
conflicting mandates.

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But working through one decision exposes
exactly which authority is missing.

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That's a better basis for escalation than
a general complaint that nobody

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collaborates. Let's work a case.

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This is a fictional company, with invented
prices and explicit assumptions.

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It isn't a client story or an industry
benchmark.

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All amounts are U.S. dollars.

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The company runs customer support on a
software service with a renewal quote

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of six hundred thousand dollars a year.

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A competing service offers the required
subscription scope for four hundred

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eighty thousand a year. The first slide
says, "Save a hundred twenty thousand

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dollars annually." Then the delivery
estimate arrives.

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A hundred twenty thousand dollars to
change platforms.

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That estimate includes data conversion,
implementation, overlapping

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subscriptions, training, and the internal
effort assigned to the project.

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For now, assume the estimate is complete
and the migration finishes on

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schedule. We'll test that assumption
shortly.

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In the first year, the alternative's
subscription and transition total six

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hundred thousand dollars. The recurring
price is lower.

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The modeled first-year total is the same.

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Finance also needs to distinguish cash
payments from internal capacity.

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A salaried employee's project time can be
a real economic cost without

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becoming an additional payroll payment.

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Record it once, and say what kind of cost
it is.

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That's the position when our meeting
starts.

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There may be a good reason to move.

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But the original slide has skipped the
work required to get there.

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Before inviting anyone, write the decision
in plain language.

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For this case: should we renew the
incumbent, migrate to the alternative, or

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pursue a shorter bridge arrangement while
we resolve a specific uncertainty?

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Then write the deadline that preserves
those choices.

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The renewal date may be too late.

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The notice clause, procurement lead time,
migration schedule, and any

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required approval come first.

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This is episode nine's renewal clock, now
attached to a decision somebody has

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to make. I would ask the service owner to
explain the business requirement.

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Which customer interactions must keep
working?

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What would acceptable performance look
like?

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Which integrations and historical records
are essential?

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The requirement needs to be clear enough
to test against either supplier.

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Asset management brings the entitlement
position and lifecycle evidence.

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An entitlement is the documented right to
use something.

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What have we bought? Which terms apply?

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What is assigned or deployed, and what
would change under each option?

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If we retain part of the old service,
identify that obligation explicitly.

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FinOps brings the consumption pattern and
its cost drivers.

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What is the service actually doing?

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What changes if demand grows, falls, or
shifts into a more expensive feature?

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A forecast should describe the business
behavior that produces the bill.

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Procurement brings the executable
commercial options.

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Quote validity, notice requirements,
minimum commitments, renewal provisions,

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and the route to a signed change.

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Legal reviews the interpretations and
obligations that need legal judgment.

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Security and privacy review the relevant
controls and data handling.

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They can prepare their findings before the
meeting; everyone doesn't need to

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sit through every discussion.

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Engineering or architecture validates
whether the alternative can work in our

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environment. The delivery lead establishes
whether the migration can happen

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with the people and time available.

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The service owner accepts the operational
outcome within their authority.

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Those may be different people.

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Finance agrees how the options will be
compared and how any benefit will be

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recognized. It should be possible to
follow the numbers back to the

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organization's financial records.

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Finally, identify the person with
delegated authority to approve this

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decision. Their authority must cover the
spend and the tradeoffs being

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accepted, or the decision needs
escalation.

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A budget holder cannot simply waive a
legal obligation or override a security

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requirement outside their authority.

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That person needs a recommendation they
can act on.

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"Everyone should review" is an assignment
that can survive indefinitely

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without ever being completed.

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Now we put the evidence together.

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Same service. Same scope. Same comparison
period.

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Dates on the source records. Someone
responsible for resolving each material

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gap. Suppose the usage report shows fewer
active people than the license

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register. Don't average the counts.

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Find out what each one measures.

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A monthly active-user report and a count
of assigned licenses are answering

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different questions. Seasonal use, service
accounts, people on leave, and

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retention requirements can explain part of
the difference.

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So can genuinely unused assignments.

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Episode thirteen gave us FOCUS, the FinOps
Open Cost and Usage Specification,

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as a way to make billing data more
comparable.

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That helps this meeting. It doesn't turn a
billing record into proof of

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entitlement or tell us whether a customer-
support workflow can move safely.

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Keep those evidence types linked, with
their limits visible.

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If a report excludes a subsidiary, say so.

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If the contract interpretation is
unresolved, give it an owner and an answer

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date. A green cell shouldn't conceal an
unanswered question.

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You also need a route for disagreement.

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If the service owner says migration takes
six months and the proposal assumes

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three, that's a decision input.

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Ask what would make the shorter schedule
credible.

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Additional people? Reduced scope?

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A different cutover? Price those options
and test the consequences.

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If nothing supports the shorter schedule,
change the model.

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The spreadsheet doesn't get a vote on how
long the integration takes.

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What if nobody will accept the decision
authority?

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Then your next action is escalation, with
the consequence made explicit.

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This option expires on this date.

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This notice must be sent by that date.

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Here is what happens if nobody acts.

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Ask the executive who owns the relevant
budget and service to name the

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authorized decision maker, following the
organization's delegation rules.

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Don't quietly assign yourself authority
because everyone else is busy.

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And don't interpret silence as approval.

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Your contribution is to make the
unresolved choice visible while there is

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still time to resolve it. There is also a
difference between someone

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challenging the evidence and someone
withholding a decision.

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A licensing specialist can say a proposed
use isn't supported by the

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agreement. The decision owner then needs a
lawful alternative, different

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terms, or a different proposal.

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Calling that specialist uncommercial won't
change the license.

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I would rather have that disagreement in
preparation than discover it after

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the purchase has become somebody's success
story.

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Let's take a quick break. If the difficult
part in your organization is

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deciding who owns the work, I've built a
resource for that in the Operational

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ITAM Store. It's called Roles and
Operating Cadence.

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The product includes role charters with
authority boundaries and assessment

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exercises, plus a workbook for service
catalog, assignments, cadence, and

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workload. There are Word, PDF, and offline
HTML resources.

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Use it to work through who is accountable,
what they can decide, and how the

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work gets reviewed. Adapt it to your
organization.

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A role description still needs an actual
person with the authority and time

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to carry it out. You can review the
contents and selected preview at

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operational I T A M dot com slash store.

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This is my paid resource, and buying it
supports the show.

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The exercise at the end of this episode is
free and uses records you already

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have. If this conversation would help
someone who owns your next renewal,

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send them the episode. You can also visit
operational I T A M dot com for the

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podcast, transcripts, and practical
resources.

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Alright. Back to the decision.

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Before we finish our fictional case,
consider two real purchasing mechanisms.

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Microsoft's S Q L Server licensing
guidance says licenses with Software

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Assurance, or qualifying software
subscription licenses, include Azure
Hybrid

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Benefit. Software Assurance is Microsoft's
coverage program that provides

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specified benefits alongside eligible
licenses.

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That can change a cloud comparison.

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But you need the applicable product terms,
license eligibility, quantities,

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assignments, and coverage dates.

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You also need to establish whether rights
are already supporting another

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deployment and which simultaneous-use
conditions apply.

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A setting that enables a billing benefit
doesn't establish that you're

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entitled to use it. The asset specialist
validates the rights.

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The cloud team validates the deployment
and consumption.

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Finance compares the costs. Procurement
checks the agreement.

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Same decision, different evidence.

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Now Amazon Web Services. Its Compute
Savings Plans exchange lower eligible

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usage prices for an hourly spending
commitment over a one-year or three-year

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term, as described in the AWS Savings
Plans documentation.

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If engineering plans to reduce or retire
workloads, buying against

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yesterday's consumption can leave you with
a commitment the future workload

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doesn't use. Eligible usage elsewhere
might absorb it, subject to the plan's

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scope and sharing configuration.

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That needs checking. AWS also documents
limited return provisions.

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Don't build a long-term exit strategy
around a short purchase-return window.

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The practical question is what consumption
will remain after the approved

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architecture changes. Check that before
buying the commitment.

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Keep technical efficiency, commitment
utilization, and invoice reduction

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separate in the benefit report.

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These are current vendor mechanisms, not
assumptions about our fictional

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support-service contract. The common
lesson is why a low rate can't settle

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the decision on its own. Back to our case.

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We're comparing three years, using
constant prices, the same required service

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scope, and no discounting. This is an
illustrative cost comparison, not a

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complete investment appraisal.

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Finance would add the organization's
treatment of timing, taxes, inflation,

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and other material factors. At six hundred
thousand a year, staying costs one

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million eight hundred thousand dollars
over three years.

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The alternative costs one million four
hundred forty thousand in

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subscriptions, plus the hundred twenty
thousand transition.

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Total: one million five hundred sixty
thousand.

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That puts the alternative two hundred
forty thousand dollars lower in our

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base case. It is a modeled difference, not
a saving we've realized.

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Then procurement returns with a revised
incumbent offer.

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A three-year renewal at five hundred forty
thousand dollars a year, fixed for

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that term, for the same required scope.

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For this illustration, assume the supplier
will contract on those terms.

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The incumbent's three-year total is now
one million six hundred twenty

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thousand dollars. The alternative remains
one million five hundred sixty

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thousand. The difference has narrowed to
sixty thousand dollars over three

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years. Nobody did anything wrong.

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The evidence changed. Our recommendation
needs to change with it.

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Now test the migration assumption.

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In an illustrative delay scenario,
additional overlap and delivery effort add

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ninety thousand dollars beyond the
transition cost already included.

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The alternative becomes one million six
hundred fifty thousand dollars.

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That's thirty thousand more than the
revised incumbent option.

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We haven't proved migration is bad.

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We've identified what could reverse the
cost ranking.

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The project team must tell us whether that
delay scenario is credible and

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what could prevent it. Don't invent a
probability to make the arithmetic look

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sophisticated. Cost isn't the only
acceptance test.

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Can customers still reach support during
cutover?

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00:14:15,340 --> 00:14:18,060
Can the team retrieve the required
historical records?

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00:14:18,360 --> 00:14:21,660
Does the replacement meet security and
accessibility requirements?

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00:14:22,200 --> 00:14:26,100
Establish how those questions will be
tested and who can accept the result.

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A valuable capability might justify paying
more.

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So might a credible reduction in
operational risk.

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Describe the benefit and its evidence
without manufacturing a dollar value.

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The executive should know what the
organization is buying with the

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difference. For our support service, I
would ask whether the change improves

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something customers or staff actually
experience.

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Can an agent find the right case history?

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Does the workflow reduce a verified source
of rework?

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00:14:52,680 --> 00:14:57,180
Establish the baseline and an acceptance
test before calling the new feature

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valuable. A feature demonstrated by the
supplier is a candidate benefit.

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The service owner still has to establish
whether it solves their problem.

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For our worked case, assume testing hasn't
yet established that the

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replacement can handle a required
integration.

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The incumbent meets the present business
requirement.

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The revised price is contractually
available.

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00:15:17,060 --> 00:15:20,520
The authorized owner chooses the three-
year renewal, accepting that

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00:15:20,520 --> 00:15:24,220
commitment, with a funded evaluation of
the alternative before the next

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00:15:24,220 --> 00:15:27,660
contractual decision window. That is our
fictional outcome.

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Another organization, with different
evidence, could responsibly choose

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00:15:31,460 --> 00:15:34,660
migration. Now record the actual
authorization.

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Which service and legal entity?

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00:15:37,120 --> 00:15:39,660
Which offer and term? What spending limit?

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00:15:40,100 --> 00:15:42,420
What conditions must be met before
signature?

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Who implements the change, and when will
the outcome be reviewed?

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Record the rejected alternative and the
reason.

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In this case, the unresolved integration
and the narrow base-case advantage

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mattered. That protects the organization
from having to reconstruct the

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00:15:57,580 --> 00:16:00,280
decision later from a collection of
meeting invitations.

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A conditional approval needs a condition
someone can verify.

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If legal clearance is required, identify
the reviewer and the document.

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If testing is required, identify the
acceptance criteria.

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Don't leave a phrase like "subject to
satisfactory checks" floating above a

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purchase order. And a bridge arrangement
is only an option if the supplier

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actually offers it and the authorized
parties agree.

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Price the extension, preserve necessary
rights and support, and write down

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what the extra time will accomplish.

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Otherwise, you've bought another deadline
with the same unanswered question

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attached. The meeting isn't finished when
the order is signed.

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In our case, procurement checks the
executed order against the approved

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offer. The service owner confirms the
expected service and configuration.

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00:16:46,300 --> 00:16:49,220
Asset management updates the entitlement
and renewal records.

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00:16:49,980 --> 00:16:52,800
Finance verifies the billing and the
agreed benefit treatment.

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The revised incumbent price is sixty
thousand dollars a year below the

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earlier six-hundred-thousand-dollar
renewal option.

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That is not automatically sixty thousand
below last year's actual spend.

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Those might be different baselines.

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00:17:06,360 --> 00:17:08,480
Carry the comparison label into the
report.

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00:17:08,480 --> 00:17:12,380
And don't let multiple teams count the
same benefit independently.

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00:17:13,020 --> 00:17:17,020
Procurement's negotiated reduction and the
service owner's lower forecast may

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00:17:17,020 --> 00:17:21,660
describe the same change. Give the change
one traceable record, credit the

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00:17:21,660 --> 00:17:24,480
contributors, and have finance validate
the result.

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00:17:25,000 --> 00:17:26,980
Now establish the review rhythm.

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00:17:27,320 --> 00:17:30,840
My recommendation is to fit it to the
decision's risk and deadlines.

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00:17:31,260 --> 00:17:34,680
A routine renewal inside approved limits
may need a short review.

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00:17:34,680 --> 00:17:39,300
A material migration or uncertain
commitment needs closer attention.

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00:17:39,780 --> 00:17:43,500
Set a review date and specific triggers
for returning to the decision owner.

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00:17:43,860 --> 00:17:47,920
Those triggers could include a failed
acceptance test, demand outside the

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00:17:47,920 --> 00:17:52,700
approved forecast, a missed notice
milestone, or a changed commercial offer.

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00:17:53,120 --> 00:17:57,600
Give each trigger an action. An alert
without an owner is just another thing

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00:17:57,600 --> 00:18:01,580
people can acknowledge. You don't need a
new committee for every invoice.

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00:18:01,580 --> 00:18:05,920
You need a reliable way to identify the
decisions that cross boundaries,

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00:18:06,200 --> 00:18:09,040
assemble the evidence, and reach someone
who can act.

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00:18:09,440 --> 00:18:13,200
For a smaller organization, one person may
carry several of these roles.

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00:18:13,680 --> 00:18:16,620
Keep the questions separate even when the
chairs aren't.

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00:18:16,900 --> 00:18:21,140
Bring in specialist review where the
rights, obligations, or risks exceed

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00:18:21,140 --> 00:18:23,360
that person's expertise or authority.

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00:18:23,840 --> 00:18:25,640
Which brings us to today's principle.

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Accountability.

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00:18:27,660 --> 00:18:30,000
Shared work still needs clear decision
authority.

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00:18:30,000 --> 00:18:34,240
Being accountable means explaining the
choice, arranging the work that makes

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00:18:34,240 --> 00:18:36,940
it real, and returning to the evidence
afterward.

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00:18:37,380 --> 00:18:41,140
It doesn't require pretending you
personally know every license term or

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00:18:41,140 --> 00:18:43,620
migration detail. Class dismissed.

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00:18:44,340 --> 00:18:48,120
Here's your homework. Set aside about an
hour, using information you're

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00:18:48,120 --> 00:18:49,760
already authorized to access.

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00:18:50,180 --> 00:18:54,280
Choose one upcoming renewal. Write the
decision and the last date that

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00:18:54,280 --> 00:18:57,720
preserves your options. Name the person
authorized to decide.

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00:18:57,720 --> 00:19:02,640
List the available options, the evidence
each one still needs, and the person

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00:19:02,640 --> 00:19:04,420
responsible for supplying it.

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00:19:04,520 --> 00:19:07,480
Use the same scope and comparison period
for the costs.

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00:19:07,960 --> 00:19:11,240
Then write the condition most likely to
change your recommendation.

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00:19:11,820 --> 00:19:13,480
Don't write "more information."

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00:19:13,880 --> 00:19:15,820
Write the specific missing answer.

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00:19:16,120 --> 00:19:19,420
Finish with the implementation owner and
the evidence you'll check after

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00:19:19,420 --> 00:19:23,400
approval. Take that page to the decision
owner before the meeting is booked.

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00:19:23,780 --> 00:19:27,300
If you want help making those
responsibilities repeatable, you'll find
my

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00:19:27,300 --> 00:19:31,080
Roles and Operating Cadence resource in
the Operational ITAM Store.

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00:19:31,400 --> 00:19:32,620
The link is in the show notes.

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00:19:33,060 --> 00:19:35,440
You can complete today's homework without
buying it.

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00:19:35,660 --> 00:19:39,320
As we continue at The Decision Table, the
next question is how to prove the

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00:19:39,320 --> 00:19:42,160
value of a decision after the presentation
is over.

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00:19:42,540 --> 00:19:46,660
What changed, who benefited, and what can
finance actually verify?

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00:19:46,960 --> 00:19:49,120
That's the direction I want to explore
next.

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00:19:49,420 --> 00:19:52,860
The case files are open. One situation,
one page.

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00:19:53,220 --> 00:19:55,760
The constraint, what you did, and what
happened.

335
00:19:55,760 --> 00:19:59,600
Remove company names and sensitive details
before sending it through the

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00:19:59,600 --> 00:20:03,200
website. Send me one worth working, and
I'll build an episode around it.

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00:20:03,500 --> 00:20:06,780
I'm Bill Van Nort, this is the Operational
ITAM Podcast.

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00:20:07,320 --> 00:20:10,620
Put the choice in writing. Give the owner
usable evidence.

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00:20:10,920 --> 00:20:13,480
Come back for the result. I'll talk to you
next week.

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00:20:13,820 --> 00:20:14,140
Take care.