The IT Towers component provides insight into costs of IT Resource Towers and Sub-Towers. You can determine how spending on the IT Resource Towers and Sub-Towers compares to budget.

Common source systems

The IT Towers and Sub-Towers are defined in Apptio's TBM Unified Model (ATUM). This taxonomy is loaded with every new Cost Transparency project in the IT Resource Towers Reference List.

You will need to allocate any values not allocated via Labor, Fixed Assets, or Vendors to the IT Resource Towers and Sub-Towers. To do this, you will need to:

• Map your cost centers to the IT Towers and Sub-Towers
• Define an actual percent allocation if a cost center maps to multiple IT Towers and Sub-Towers
• Defined a budgeted percent allocation if a cost center maps to multiple IT Towers and Sub-Towers

Questions to consider

• Do you have only one or a few cost centers? Or is it too difficult to map your cost centers to IT Towers and Sub-Towers? Could you map your account codes to IT Towers and Sub-Towers instead?
• Who will help you map cost centers to IT Resource Towers and Sub-Towers?
• Are there certain cost centers or IT Towers and Sub-Towers where you anticipate struggles defining the allocation percentages?

The presentations below will explore in more detail the data elements used in the Other Cost Pools and IT Resource Towers configuration of the Apptio Cost Transparency Foundation implementation.  It will take a look at how your data will be reflected in the application reporting, and make recommendations on some data configuration best practices.

Required columns

The table below lists the data sets and specific data elements from those data sets that are required. There are many other data elements you may wish to include. Please refer to your Configuration Workbook for more details on all data elements.

In addition, there are columns for a tower owner, quantity, and unit cost target. If you are implementing Benchmarking, you will need to complete the Quantity column. You can download the IT Resource Towers Reference List, update the data, and upload the file as a new data set. You can then map the new reference list to the IT Towers Master Data set. As long as you do not change the list of IT Resource Towers and Sub-Towers, you will be compliant with the ATUM taxonomy.

IT Resource Tower Identifiers

The Other Cost Pools object identifier includes the cost center, IT Resource Tower, and Sub-Tower.

The IT Resource Towers object identifier includes the IT Resource Tower and Sub-Tower.

Columns Required to Link Data Sets

You will also need to consider the ways in which you'll link to the IT Resource Towers Master Data set from other data sets. The table below highlights some specific data elements needed for linking data sets together.

If you do not have sufficient data for allocating between Cost Source and Other Cost Pools, you should leave those costs in the Cost Source object and not allocate without appropriate mapping.