Apptio Introduces Next Generation TBM Application to Simplify and Centralize the IT Planning Process

Apptio IT Planning Foundation Replaces the Manual, Cumbersome, and Time-Consuming Process of Budgeting, Forecasting, and Variance Tracking for IT

MIAMI, FLA., TBM Conference – October 29, 2014 – Apptio®, the leading provider of cloud-based Technology Business Management (TBM) software, today announced the public availability of its next-generation Apptio IT Planning Foundation (ITPF) application at the 2014 TBM Conference. It is an enterprise-class SaaS application designed to improve the annual budgeting, forecasting, and variance tracking processes for CIOs, IT finance teams, and budget owners. It’s built on a next-generation TBM architecture designed to automate, centralize, and simplify these complex processes so IT can keep their focus on business priorities.

These themes were discussed in a March 2014 report by Gartner Research VP, Jim McGittigan and Managing VP, Barbara Gomolski, Align IT Budgeting With the Enterprise Strategic Planning Process to Drive More Value. “Often, the IT budgeting process is a detailed, line-item-driven exercise that fails to align with enterprise objectives. CIOs and IT leaders can increase the value that IT delivers by integrating the IT budgeting process with the enterprise strategic planning process.”

“In the past, IT budgeting was a months-long, manual, iterative, and costly process,” said Matt Temple of DIRECTV, an ITPF preview customer. “Our early experiences with Apptio’s IT Planning application have exceeded our expectations. We will have the ability to simply and quickly create one central IT budget that gives our team back the time they need to focus on innovation.”

Regardless of industry, CIOs and IT Finance leaders are universally challenged to be more fiscally accountable and transparent to their business partners. ITPF replaces traditional spreadsheet-based IT planning tasks with a purpose-built budgeting and forecast solution to achieve this transparency. Turnkey features of this new application include:

Real-Time Alignment

• Guided alignment through centralized plan target-setting
• Rapid understanding of IT’s investment mix through interactive analytics

Invisible Workflow

• Automated baseline budget creation, roll-up of budget requests, and flexible approval hierarchies
• Centralization of planning, forecasting, and ongoing plan management into a single source of truth

Options Thinking

• Alignment to business priorities through powerful versioning and scenario analysis
• Investment visualization at all plan versions

“ITPF represents a new class of purpose-built, process-oriented applications that are easy to on-board and produce results quickly. Apptio’s unique unified architecture is able to offer a richness of analytics and automated TBM processes unlike any other application available today,” said Sunny Gupta, Apptio CEO, on stage at the TBM Conference. “IT is now able to connect the dollars of their financial plan to their ‘run grow transform’ strategy instead of wrestling with spreadsheets.”

Apptio IT Planning is a clean and intuitive budgeting and forecasting application that gives IT finance teams back the time they need to support the broader goals of their organization. It offers an interactive plan management system, connecting each team’s operating and capital budgets into one cohesive plan. As a result, IT budgets can be iterated and adjusted much faster, as a whole or within each IT area, to better align the final plan with business priorities. Teams can easily create multiple plan scenarios and compare options without losing sight of budget targets and goals.

Apptio IT Planning is a cloud-based SaaS application that helps CIOs, IT finance teams, and budget owners operate from one process, one system, and one plan. It can also be integrated with Apptio Cost Transparency for budget variance analysis, data-driven budget justifications, and financial benchmarking.

For more information, please visit http://www.apptio.com/applications/it-planning

 

About Apptio

Apptio is the leading provider of cloud-based Technology Business Management (TBM) software that helps CIOs manage the business of IT. Apptio’s suite of applications use business analytics to provide facts and insights about technology cost, value, and quality, so IT leaders can make faster, data-driven decisions. The purpose-built applications help companies align technology spend to business outcomes and automate IT processes like cost transparency, benchmarking, showback/chargeback, operational efficiency, and planning. Powering Apptio’s applications is a next generation, in-memory cost analytics platform that takes data directly from all financial, operational, and billing systems, and powers applications that give customers deep insight. This insight spans infrastructure, applications, and business services, both on-premises and in the cloud. Hundreds of customers, including more than a third of the Fortune 100, choose Apptio as their business system of record for IT.

Apptio is sold through its direct salesforce and its partner network. For more information, visit the Apptio website or the Apptio blog at www.apptio.com.

MEDIA CONTACT

Sarah Vreugdenhil
Apptio
425-974-1331
svreugdenhil@apptio.com