Apptio extends ServiceNow integration to support smarter IT decisions

Apptio announced its first certified solution in the ServiceNow store, designed to help speed up IT decision-making. This integration with ServiceNow provides users with a near real-time view of the actual technology cost structure of their organization.

The company said that by combining top-notch operational data from ServiceNow with IT cost modeling software from Apptio, technology leaders are now able to make smarter investment decisions faster.

Apptio said that for the demand for such products, in today’s rapidly changing market, decision makers and teams need to make wise choices and maximize investment.

However, many people find that there is a huge gap between the importance of data in making budget decisions and their confidence in existing data. The company said that this finding is supported by recent research by Harvard Business Review.

Making quick decisions based on data requires dealing with complex challenges in IT financial management-that is, understanding the complete topology and cost of IT investments and measuring the return on those investments.

Apptio solves this problem by using ServiceNow’s ability to automatically discover changes in IT assets and their interrelationships. This information enables Apptio to create detailed and accurate cost models that are automatically updated as the speed of business changes.

The company stated that this is the level of speed, confidence and fidelity that Apptio and ServiceNow’s joint customers have been demanding.

Apptio’s ServiceNow integration includes seven connectors that bring information into Apptio and a new connector that publishes data back to the ServiceNow dashboard, and is now available as a certified solution in the ServiceNow store.

The ingress connector maps the ServiceNow data set directly to ApptioOne, which allows cost modeling based on consumption data. The company says this helps create a trustworthy, timely and accurate total cost of ownership.

The egress connector then pushes this defensible application TCO data from Apptio back to the local ServiceNow dashboard to provide visibility to stakeholders across the enterprise.

Apptio said that this new level of two-way integration allows users to view not only the operational data and metrics of top applications, but also the continuously updated fully burdened cost structure.

Scott Chancellor, Chief Product and Technology Officer at Apptio, said: “Apptio’s mission is to help our customers cope with the increasingly severe challenges they face, providing them with credible information that allows them to make decisions at the speed of modern business needs.

“This new integration with ServiceNow is a natural extension of that mission and provides unprecedented transparency to the organization’s IT costs.”

Customer Oshkosh commented on the announcement. Jared Petersen, Senior Director of Digital Technology Strategy, said: “Apptio and ServiceNow are both important partners of Oshkosh Corporation in advancing our digital transformation journey and helping us make trustworthy technology investment decisions.

“For organizations like us who want to better understand the actual IT costs from a business perspective, this deep level of integration is a huge victory.”