The most effective TSMs start with a business conversation. Before you get into technology data, Assessment grades, or IT Plan items, you should understand what your client is trying to accomplish as a business. Goals give you that foundation.
Strategy Overview gives you a couple of ways to capture client goals, depending on how much structure you want.
Option 1: The Goals plan template (recommended)
The marketplace includes a Goals template that gives you a dedicated, structured place to track your client's business objectives. This is the best approach for most vCIOs because it keeps goals as a living document you can update and reference across TSMs.
The template organizes goals into three timeframes:
Short Term Goals: what the client is focused on right now
Medium Term Goals: priorities for the next several quarters
Long Term Goals: bigger strategic objectives they're working toward
For each goal, you capture the item name, its status, and the desired outcome, a clear statement of what success looks like. For example, a goal like "Maximize Operational Profitability" might have a desired outcome of "Leverage technology to drive efficiency and reach the target net profit of 17.5% by reducing legacy overhead."
Adding Goals to a client
Navigate to the Plan Module from the left navigation
Find the company where you want to add goals
Click the page icon next to the company name
Choose from a template and select the Goals template from the marketplace
Name it "Goals" (keep it simple, this is an ongoing document, not a dated snapshot)
Click Create
Adding Goals to your Report
To show Goals in a TSM Report:
Open your draft Strategy Report
Click Settings at the top of the Report
Navigate to Current Report Settings
Click Add Part
Set the Type to "Plan" and select your Goals from the dropdown
Give it a label (e.g., "Goals" or "Business Goals")
Enable it for Build, Display, and Presentation modes
Click Save
The Goals part shows live data. When you update goals in the Plan Module, the Report reflects the changes automatically. You can also edit goals directly from within the Report.
Option 2: Use the Executive Summary
If you want something simpler, you can capture client goals directly in the Executive Summary part of your Report. Just include a few lines about what the client is focused on before diving into your technology recommendations.
This approach works well when you're getting started or when a client's goals are straightforward enough that a dedicated plan would be overkill. The trade-off is that goals captured in the Executive Summary live inside a single Report rather than as a standalone document you carry forward, so you'll need to reference or copy them into future Reports yourself.
You can always start with the Executive Summary approach and move to the Goals template later as your process matures.
Using Goals in your TSM
Goals are most powerful when you reference them throughout the meeting. Instead of presenting technology recommendations in isolation, tie them back to what the client is trying to accomplish:
"Your goal is to open a second location by Q3, here's the infrastructure that needs to be in place to support that."
"You want to reduce operational overhead, and standardizing your email platform eliminates the support burden of managing two different systems."
"Your team is growing 20% this year, and your current server infrastructure won't support that without an upgrade."
When clients see that your recommendations connect to their own priorities, they're more likely to engage, approve projects, and see the value of the TSM process.
Keeping Goals current
Review goals with your client at every TSM. Business priorities shift. A client who was focused on growth six months ago might now be focused on cost control. Updating goals keeps your TSM conversations relevant and shows clients you're paying attention to their business, not just their technology.