Role:

As an Operations Manager I manage the day to day activities from the department itself, including buying licenses, re-hosting licenses from one server to another server, negotiating with vendors, contract management and reviewing internal procurement processes. We work with the legal team to get documentation, license agreements and access to ARM tech for the providers. In the case of buying new licenses, it is up to me to decide whether to progress with the request or not.

Who Needs Your Buy-In and Why?

Engineering managers and senior to principal engineers (which can also be engineering managers and directors) often need my buy-in, usually this is if they want to increase the number of software licenses, buy new software, and deliver ARM test case to the EDA vendors we collaborate with they need our help.

How to Can People Get Your Buy-In:

In the case of buying new licenses, I have to be convinced on the return on investment. Whomever is looking to gain my buy-in needs a to tell a compelling story to convince me of this return. For a test case, this does not involve money, but they still need to justify why they need to deliver this. We have a set of templates and guidelines they have to follow – which includes outlining how much it is going to cost, what the value of the project is to ARM, and the amount this will be used by the number of people.

A common mistake people make is that they get too wrapped up in the technical details and forget about the commercial aspect of the decision. An engineer may say that a tool is fantastic and will save us time – but it may be very expensive and the cost does not justify the technical benefit to the project. We always need to keep ROI (Return on Investment) in mind, if a project has a return of £10m, we don’t mind spending £100,000 on a tool but I need to clearly see the commercial benefit. Our main concern is people buying things they won’t use or buying more than they need for a project.

Whose Buy-In Do You Need and Why?

We work with engineers and pitch their request to senior management – TSG (Technology Strategy Group) Management. They decide if they will buy the software or not. The board of senior directors decides. Examples of the things we need to get their buy-in on are buying new licences, renewing licenses and providing test cases.