Apptio One Reviews

With Apptio One, we provide IT cost transparency to the end users. We source different data from various sources and maintain them in backend tables. We then perform transformations to align the data, create model allocations, and generate reports.

The main use cases we receive involve obtaining application total cost of ownership (TCO). For example, if you are a CFO and want to know how much your business unit is incurring in costs, we have reports that provide the cost associated with the business unit as well as the budget and forecast. The primary use case involves comparing the budget and forecast with your actuals to understand how much you are incurring for a particular business unit. If you want to drill down further to see what services a business unit consumes, that information is available. Underneath the services, you can also view how much a particular application or project has been used. You can obtain all these levels of granular details, and underneath the application, you can see infrastructure-related items including servers, compute, and hardware. You can see what things are being used and how much employees are related to each of these components.

I would say Apptio One is easy when compared with other solutions. We do not use scripting or complex coding. Instead, we use Excel advanced formulas, lookups, and if conditions.

It is very easy from a developer's perspective. Since this is a no-code, no-scripting approach, developers can generate the required formulas or make transformations as needed. From an end user perspective, it is easy to customize the reports. You are not limited to out-of-the-box reports. You can create numerous visualizations, reports, and dashboards, and we can deliver whatever the user is requesting.

In short, it helps finance, business, and IT people speak in a common language. There is a taxonomy called TBM Taxonomy that is developed at the backend.

With the out-of-the-box Apptio One feature, you get an option for reports at each layer. If I want to view the cost based on the general ledger layer, we have categorization of cost directly based on the general ledger and maintain them in a separate report collection. Underneath that, reports are categorized based on different expense types such as capital expenditure costs and operating expenditure costs, as well as fixed costs and variable costs. All these details can be derived from the ledger. Additionally, we have other layers including the cost pool layer, resource tower layer, business services, and business unit. For each different persona in the organization, we have a set of different reports that they can consume for better data analytics and visualization. This helps leaders make better data insights and take valuable actions based on the reports.

I am mostly concerned about the development side. The development side is very user-friendly, so I would not say there are major factors that the product needs improvement in. However, sometimes with the number of users using the system, there might be a lag in system performance. There might be some slowness for the report to load. If a more significant number of users are consolidating on a single report and that single report has not been promoted to production yet, there is a possibility that it could take some time to load. That is the only challenge I have experienced as a developer.

I have been using Apptio One for five-plus years.

Technical support is good, which I would rate as an eight.

We do have a few alternatives such as Power BI and a few other reporting tools in the market. However, for IT financial management solutions, Apptio One is the number one.

We have different metrics created, and when taking a cost model, it primarily follows TBM Taxonomy, which is based upon the ATUM structure. TBM Taxonomy has several layers. For example, how the cost is derived from the general ledger is the starting point. From the general ledger, it is allocated to various cost pool layers. Cost pool layers include labor distribution, vendor distribution, and fixed asset details. From there, the cost is aligned to the IT resource tower, which includes infrastructure-related costs such as servers, compute, and database items. From there, we allocate this cost to the services, which could be applications, projects, or products. We then allocate this cost further to the application layer and from there to the business services. From there, it goes to the business unit. Ideally, from the business unit layer, you can view the entire cost breakdown down to your general ledger.

Everything starts with the general ledger data, which is the main cost driver for the cost.

We can also show this based on billing data, not just limited to the general ledger. For example, if you want to view cloud spend and have cloud billing data, you can input it into Apptio One and generate reports based on that. This provides end users visibility into how much has been incurred for public cloud and how much has been incurred for on-premises. All these kinds of details can be obtained.

I would rate this review as a nine overall.

We use Apptio One to look at global IT cost transparency, digitize Excel analysis, and gain insight into the current company I'm contracting for.

Apptio One has improved the collection and consolidation of IT spending on a monthly basis, whereas earlier, it was ad hoc Excel and at a high level.

The TBM model and the out-of-the-box reporting are the most valuable features of Apptio One.

The solution's reporting layer, advanced conditional formatting, and reporting features could be improved. You can get good reporting with Apptio One, but other products have more bells and whistles regarding reporting features and complexity.

I have been using Apptio One for five years.

I rate Apptio One ten out of ten for stability

Around 50 users are using Apptio One in our organization, and we have plans to increase the usage in the future.

I rate Apptio One ten out of ten for scalability.

The solution’s initial setup is straightforward.

Around ten people were involved in the solution’s deployment.

We haven't yet seen a return on investment with Apptio One. The solution has helped the internal process and productivity, but we haven't seen any cost elimination directly resulting from using the tool.

Apptio One is an expensive solution.

Before choosing Apptio One, we evaluated the ServiceNow solution. Our company chose Apptio One because of its TBM model and the prebuilt approach.

I am using the latest version of Apptio One. Apptio One is deployed on-cloud in our organization.

Apptio One's maintenance involves validating the model and the monthly data loads.

I would recommend Apptio One to other users. Before choosing Apptio One, users should ensure they align their use cases to achieve specific and measurable targets.

Overall, I rate Apptio One ten out of ten.

We use it to effectively report the overall costs associated with IT in our organization. It is specifically designed for reporting IT-related expenses, and we leverage its capabilities to provide comprehensive insights into IT costs across various countries.

Its most significant value lies in its ease of use which extends to both configuration and the subsequent deployment of additional components.

As a user, I feel the application's market applicability is narrow. It would be advantageous if they expanded their focus. The current use case seems confined, and the application could benefit from a broader range of functionalities. Although they offer solutions that are meant to work seamlessly with proper configuration, users often find themselves having to configure numerous settings independently. Encouraging or providing more out-of-the-box solutions that cater to a wider audience could enhance the overall effectiveness of the application.

I have been using it for five years now.

The product is generally stable, with the primary performance issues arising when multiple users are concurrently working on it. This is due to the nature of the system, where each user working with it initiates the creation of an entire copy of the environment. When there are too many users attempting to manage tasks simultaneously, it can lead to system crashes. Despite occasional occurrences, the overall productivity remains intact.

While it offers scalability, a smaller flow through the system results in a proportionally higher expense. Approximately five thousand individuals actively use the platform within our organization.

The effectiveness of support depends on the case. For general support or first-line assistance, I would rate it around four, as the experience may vary. However, once you become more familiar with the product and establish contacts within the support team, the rating could go up to nine or even ten. Knowing the right person to contact significantly enhances the support experience, and they have excellent resources in that regard.

Positive

The initial setup was straightforward.

In the majority of cases, they offer their software as a service, hosting it externally. In the various workplaces I've been, it has consistently been accessible remotely. Once you're granted access, you essentially have entry to the operational version of the software.

It comes with a considerable cost.

I appreciate the ease of use within the platform. In comparison to Power BI, which I've explored, it appears to be more intuitive and offers superior data structuring capabilities. The simplicity coupled with its apparent power makes it a compelling tool.

I would give it a rating of seven. It's good, but it has its own set of issues. One notable challenge is its specificity to a narrow group of users, limiting its applicability to a broader business audience.