TBM Council Awards

We’re excited to announce many new features and enhancements to the TBM Council Awards program for 2025, including:

1) Enhanced Award Categories – six organization-based categories covering the key components of TBM, emerging technologies, and industry trends that organizations from around the world can relate to.

2) New Individual-Based Award – introducing the TBM Professional of the Year award, the TBM industry’s top recognition for an individual in our space.

3) Regional Recognition – to showcase more of the amazing TBM stories from organizations across the globe, one of our new organization-based categories (the TBM Pioneer Award), will name one winner from each of the following regions – Americas (“AMS”), Europe, Middle East & Africa (“EMEA”), and Asia-Pacific (“APAC”.)

4) Guided Submission Support – the TBM Council’s Research & Standards team created expert guidance for category questions to help submitters craft impactful applications.

5) Access to Judges’ Scoring Criteria – to ensure submitters have full transparency into the scoring process, we’ve made available the official scoring criteria judges use to rate submissions.

During the application process, our judges evaluate how nominees make strategic business decisions in real time using TBM. They seek examples of improved organizational alignment and accelerated, data-driven decision-making.

Judges assess nominees based on concrete outcomes of cost efficiencies, realigning budgets from run-the-business to transform-the-business, investing in innovative initiatives, optimizing spend, and displaying measurable return on investment (ROI).

Judges consider the increased level of confidence teams gain from TBM and how executives leverage the data to provide value-led conversations with their business partners.

After submitting your initial nomination on this page, you’ll be sent an email with a link to the full award application form to fill out.

After the full application form is submitted, it’s reviewed by our panel of judges. After being evaluated by judges, finalists will be announced (up to three finalists per category) and then a different panel of judges will evaluate finalists to choose a winner for each category, who will be announced at the annual TBM Conference, November 10-12, 2025, in Miami, FL.

Any organization that has embraced TBM can apply! Throughout the 13 years of our TBM Council Awards program, we’ve had applicants with various levels of TBM experience, including:

• Early adopters that have recently begun their TBM journey and are already driving business value, optimizing IT investments, and improving transparency.
  
• High-maturity organizations that have leveraged TBM to deliver transformative outcomes across their operations and push the boundaries of TBM to extend beyond traditional cost transparency.
  
• All organization levels that have had innovative integrations of TBM data, principles, and frameworks with key business initiatives, like sustainability, risk management, workforce and product management, and more.

Yes, the TBM Council’s Research & Standards the TBM Council’s Research & Standards team created expert guidance for category questions to help submitters craft impactful applications.

You can see this guidance below each question on the full application form.

Each category-specific question is scored on a four-point scale. To ensure submitters have full transparency into the scoring process, we’re making available the official scoring criteria that judges use to evaluate submissions.

You can see this criteria for each question on the full application form.

At TBM Council, we take the notions of transparency, fairness, and impartiality very seriously.

We’ve taken multiple steps to ensure all submissions are judged equally and free from bias, including:

Data anonymization of submissions – Before judges evaluate their assigned submissions, we anonymize all applications, which means all individual and company names are removed from the application submission. This ensures judges won’t recognize who or what organization they’re reviewing, which allows their focus to stay on the content and quality of the application.

Access to judges’ scoring criteria – Submitters will have visibility into the same scoring criteria that judges will use to evaluate submissions.

Transparency of assigned judges – The names, titles, and current employers of all judges will be made publicly available on this website.

The TBM Council Awards judges are carefully chosen from our global boards, Standards Committee, Strategy Communities, and past award winners, taking into consideration their expertise in the designated award categories their assigned to, their extensive experience in TBM, and their noteworthy influence within the TBM Council.

This process ensures judges have the necessary knowledge and background to accurately evaluate submissions and recognize global recipients across specific aspects of TBM.

Judges are members of the following global TBM Community groups:

• TBM Council Board of Directors
• TBM Council EMEA Regional Advisory Board
• TBM Council APAC Regional Advisory Board
• Standards Committee Leaders
• Strategy Community Leaders
• Past TBM Council Awards Winners

Winners and finalists will be recognized at the 2025 TBM Conference, November 10-12, 2025, in Miami, FL where thousands of TBM practitioners and executives come together to share experiences, collaborate, and master skills to navigate tech investments with data-driven decisions. You stand to receive third-party validation that you can use internally to bolster your TBM program and externally for PR.

For participating in the 2025 TBM Council Awards program, applicants will receive the following recognition: *

All participants:

• Free and/or discounted TBM Executive Foundation Course and Certification **

Finalists:

• Story card (similar to a condensed case study)
• Mention in our official TBM Council press release (example)
• Recognition on TBM Council branded social media channels
• Finalists’ graphics for use on social media, email signatures, company websites, and more
• Free and/or discounted passes to TBM Conference **
• TBM Council swag **

Winners:

• Personalized trophy presented at the TBM Conference
• TBM Council branded case study (example)
• Invitation to participate in TBM Council’s “TBM Tuesday” as a featured speaker
• Mention in our official TBM Council press release (example)
• Recognition on TBM Council-branded social media channels
• Winners’ graphics for use on social media, email signatures, company websites, and more
• Free and/or discounted passes to TBM Conference **
• TBM Council swag **
• Optional donation in your company’s name to Java Joy, a special program of the Extra Special People, Inc. charity.

* Recognition assets are subject to change.

** Contingent on the organization’s guidelines on receiving free and/or discounted passes to conferences, and TBM Council approval.

There will be up to three finalists per category, and one winner per category.

For the TBM Pioneer Award, one winner (three in total) will be chosen from each of the following three regions: the Americas (AMS); Europe, Middle East & Africa (EMEA); and Asia-Pacific (APAC.)

For the six organization-based categories, you may apply for up to two award categories.

If you apply to more than one category, you’re eligible to be named a finalist for each category, however, you may only be named as a winner for one category.

Yes, you’re allowed to apply for up to two of the six organization-based awards, plus our new individual-based award, the TBM Professional of the Year award.

Yes! For the six organization-based awards, if you know of an organization that deserves recognition for their TBM journey, please include their contact details so we can reach out to secure their application.

For the new individual-based award (TBM Professional of the Year), you may nominate yourself or another individual with whom you’ve had direct working experience (e.g., a current or former colleague) or with whom you’ve worked as a consultant, partner, delivery vendor, etc.

For the six organization-based awards, neither IBM nor Apptio business units are eligible to apply for any award. However, IBM and Apptio employees are encouraged to nominate their customers or clients.

For the new individual-based award (TBM Professional of the Year), the below individuals are not eligible to apply. If you’re part of one of these groups, we encourage you to nominate other individuals you’ve worked with who have strong TBM experience, but are not part of the groups below:

• Employees of TBM Council staff
• Employees of Apptio
• Employees of IBM
• Employees of TBM software providers
• Employees of TBM service providers
• Employees of TBM Council Ecosystem Members or sponsors outside of TBM practices that are run internally for their organizations

For the TBM Pioneer Award, there will be a total of three winners, with one winner named from each of the following three regions: the Americas (AMS); Europe, Middle East & Africa (EMEA); and Asian Pacific (APAC.)

If you choose to apply for this award, the location of the business unit or operation that accomplished the TBM result you’re highlighting is the region you would apply for.

For all other 2025 award categories, there will be one winner, which can be from any region of the world.

The Technology Business Management (TBM) Conference is the most important engagement of the year for transformational technology and finance leaders and practitioners. Hosted by TBM Council, in partnership with Apptio, this event brings together more than 1,500 global tech leaders and practitioners for keynotes, best practice presentations, trainings, and more to share how business value is delivered by breaking open the ‘black box’ of technology costs and tying investments to outcomes.

The TBM Council Awards live, in-person ceremony, takes place on the first night of the TBM Conference.

You can learn more about the 2025 TBM Conference here.

The TBM Conference is hosted by the TBM Council in partnership with Apptio, an IBM Company. Its subject matter covers TBM best practices and related frameworks such as FinOps and Agile methodology, as well as what products are available to help build and execute successful TBM programs.

Yes, please visit the official TBM Conference website for additional information.