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Onboarding New Users to Apptio for Budget Creation and Variance Analysis

  • 1.  Onboarding New Users to Apptio for Budget Creation and Variance Analysis

    Posted Thu October 20, 2022 04:20 PM
    Edited by System Test Tue November 05, 2024 05:46 PM
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    Earlier this year, I was engaged with a client to utilize Apptio for their next budget build.  Most of the configuration had been accomplished by my colleagues by the time I was brought on board, so it was now my responsibility to train end users on IT Planning functionality and Cost Transparency reporting.  The legacy budget creation process was fraught with multiple spreadsheets circulating and lots of stakeholders using their own spreadsheets with little to no standardization. This provided me insight on how onboarding these stakeholders in Apptio would result in a quick but effective win in that now there is a single source of truth for budget inputs, enhanced version control in a web-based platform, and a single environment with capacity for multiple users to edit the plan at once. 

    During the onboarding/training process, I hosted several demonstration sessions with end users to show how data was entered into IT Planning, highlighting the differences between the Contracts and Assets tabs, as well as showing the sensitivity of the Labor tab.  I also highlighted that IT Planning was not the only Apptio module available to users; variance reporting within Cost Transparency allows for periodic comparison of plan versus actuals in a quicker timeframe than budget reps were historically able to provide (due to financial system constraints). Later on, the client was able to utilize out of the box vendor dashboards within Cost Transparency in order to present to a specific vendor on utilization, which lead to negotiating more favorable contract terms in the next procurement cycle. 

     

    I'm happy to report that the client and all involved stakeholders still highly utilize Apptio today.  Engagement rates are high and now there is a single source of truth for budget purposes.  This process has been rewarding to replace a highly  manual, decentralized process with a standardized and simplified web-based operation. 

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    A big thanks to @Gustavo Paez, @Charlie Johnson, Luke Starr, and @Jennifer Chadick for helping me reach my goal of completing this process! ​​​​​​
    #ACE
    #Adoption
    #casestudy
    #ApptioforAll

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