In the ever-changing IT landscape, the continued growth and proliferation of applications poses a substantial impact on the bottom line. The presence of redundant applications not only results in wasted spend but also introduces unwarranted risks and misalignment with strategic goals. Often, applications are acquired without a clear understanding of actual business needs, leading to a landscape where end-of-life considerations are neglected, posing potential risks to the business. Organizations need a way to manage risks, reduce costs, and align with the business.

ServiceNow’s Enterprise Architecture (formerly Application Portfolio Management) provides a holistic perspective on the application landscape. Within the Enterprise Architecture Workspace, enterprise architects gain a valuable vantage point to assess applications supporting business capabilities. Leveraging streamlined workflows, they can integrate these insights into overarching roadmap planning, ensuring a strategic alignment that saves costs by retiring redundant applications, mitigating risks associated with end-of-life software or hardware, and guaranteeing that the applications within the environment effectively contribute to supporting business strategies.

Apptio is pleased to announce a joint solution with ServiceNow to further provide the benefits of reducing costs to the business. Apptio provides cost optimization of your application portfolio, providing the tools and insights needed to make informed decisions and streamline operations. ServiceNow EA leverages those costs for further rationalizing your application portfolio along with other indicators such as customer satisfaction, technology lifecycle risk, technical debt, number of incidents and usage. The combined solution helps safeguard your business against unnecessary inefficiencies.

In this blog post, we delve into how this integration helps users by leveraging Apptio’s industry-leading solution to deliver a single source of truth for costing data, provide a swifter time to value for users, and foster a relationship that drives more trusted and informed decision-making in ServiceNow’s Enterprise Architecture.

Single Source of Truth for Costing Data

At the heart of effective IT cost management lies the need for a unified and accurate view of costing data. Apptio provides a single source of truth based on general ledgers and seamlessly integrates with ServiceNow’s CMDB and CSDM to consolidate all operational consumptive, cost-related information. This consolidation ensures that decision makers have a comprehensive understanding of direct and indirect costs, paving the way for more precise financial planning and strategic allocation of resources.

ServiceNow Native Dashboards

This partnership improves the quality of your application spend data as cost information is updated in near real-time in native ServiceNow dashboards. Enterprise Architects, and other users, can easily reference this data in the current EA environment they rely on, making it simple to get more consumptive data and analytics to drive informed cost optimization decisions.

Quicker Time to Value for Users

Time is of the essence in today’s fast-paced business landscape. Apptio’s integration with ServiceNow streamlines processes and reduces complexities, offering users a quicker time to value. With seamless data synchronization, users can harness the power of both platforms without grappling with extensive implementation timelines. The result is an agile and responsive IT environment that adapts swiftly to changing business needs.

Trusted Decision-Making Through Relationship Synergy

The Apptio-ServiceNow relationship isn’t just about integration; it’s a collaborative force that amplifies decision-making capabilities. The partnership creates a robust ecosystem where data flows seamlessly both ways between platforms, fostering trust and reliability in decision-making processes. With a shared commitment to excellence, organizations can confidently navigate the complexities of IT portfolio management, ensuring that every decision is grounded in accurate and up-to-date information.

Realizing Holistic Insights

Apptio’s role as the single source of truth for cost data extends beyond mere cost calculations. It provides organizations with holistic insights into the entire IT landscape, enabling them to make informed decisions that align with strategic goals. ServiceNow’s EA provides a complete picture of the application estate, including the underlying technology and business relationships. Whether undertaking an application rationalization program, migrating applications to public cloud, or ensuring critical applications are not at risk from outdated technology, EA plays a vital role in partnership with Apptio helping to reduce risk and lower costs, and better align the application portfolio with organizational strategy.

The integration of ServiceNow’s EA with Apptio isn’t just a technological feat; it’s a strategic imperative.  Apptio emerges as the single source of truth, propelling organizations towards quicker time-to-value, and fostering trusted decision-making through a symbiotic relationship with ServiceNow. As you embark on the journey of IT portfolio optimization, let Apptio and ServiceNow be your guiding light, offering a transformative partnership that elevates your organization’s IT cost management practices. Learn more about ServiceNow Enterprise Architecture, or visit the ServiceNow store to install the Enterprise Architecture Workspace and Apptio Application TCO app.