Eliminating Cost in Client Computing

Client computing (desktops, laptops, mobile devices and client applications collectively known as EUC) can be one of the hardest areas of IT to control. This leads to out of control costs. Platform standardization, application bloat management, virtual desktop initiatives and vendor management are all well known methods to rein in costs. But the difficult aspect is understanding current unit costs and analyzing how much could be saved under various project proposals. By leveraging Technology Business Management (TBM) practices, IT managers can better understand the unit costs in client computing, key cost drivers and how to drastically cut and control those costs.

"Apptio enables us to model the true unit costs of desktops and laptops, and both trend and project those costs on an ongoing basis. Their on-demand delivery model and built-in IT expertise enabled us to easily integrate data from various IT systems, quickly gain visibility into TCO, benchmark against industry metrics, and identify cost saving opportunities that will pay for our Apptio investment within six to nine months." John Shepard, Director Global IT Infrastructure, Starbucks Coffee Company

The Costs of Physical and Virtual Desktops

The high penetration of desktops in most organizations, combined with the fact that many companies also provide employees with both a laptop and a desktop, have driven PC costs to become a significant portion of the IT budget. Even though initial acquisition costs have plummeted, the cost to provision, license additional productivity software, and support a desktop over the life of the PC can easily outstrip the upfront capital expenditure.

Additionally, many companies today use, or are exploring, alternatives to the traditional desktop configuration for some or all of their workforce. Many vendors provide solutions to enable either application virtualization or complete desktop virtualization. While both offer tremendous value and bring down costs at the desktop, they also introduce servers sitting in a data center and the cost of that infrastructure needs to be considered when doing a financial comparison between traditional and virtualized desktop alternatives.

Reducing Desktop Costs and Analyzing Alternatives

Using Apptio's Technology Business Management solution, IT managers can quickly upload their desktop cost data including hardware depreciation, OS fees, application and management software licenses, provisioning costs, support and break/fix labor expenses to drive a fully-loaded cost of providing desktop services to the business. These costs can be compared across the organization, against virtualization strategies or against industry benchmarks to help identify opportunities for cutting cost and improving efficiencies. Organizations that use a TBM system to gain deep insight into their cost drivers find quick savings in the range of $100k to $2M by making better decisions on the use of client computing technology. Making this level of data analysis available to IT managers fosters a proactive, regular process for Cost Optimization at a grass roots level.

Getting Started today Fast Tracks Greater Efficiency

Every business that has implemented TBM has found significant savings and operates at a more efficient cost structure than previously. And every company, upon starting, has faced challenges of incomplete data and competing resources. However, Apptio's DataLink, Inference Engine™ technology and Slowly Changing Schema help companies quickly model their fully-loaded cost structure, make sense of existing data while allowing for assumptions and best estimates where data doesn't exist and provide a seamless path to improving data accuracy as processes mature.

Implementing Proper Technology Business Management Processes

Apptio's TBM solution provides the robust enterprise platform to track the cost of IT at a very granular level, provide the analysis and What If tools to find and justify cost reduction projects and the reporting capabilities to track long-term project success. Apptio provides five TBM applications designed to help Manage the Business of IT: IT Service Costing, Bill of IT, IT Benchmarking, IT Planning and IT Service Performance. These applications help IT and IT Finance managers systematically reduce cost, track the fully loaded cost and quality of IT Services, improve budgeting and planning processes and better communicate the value of IT to all key business stakeholders.