Apptio collaborates with Microsoft to deploy financial decisioning platform

Apptio has announced a collaboration with Microsoft to deploy its financial decisioning platform.

The technology business management (TBM) SaaS application provider will host its platform on Microsoft Cloud to help enterprises migrate and optimise workloads.

"Cloud adoption, and the wide variety of services and consumption models present, have given enterprises the flexibility to keep pace with the demands of the digital economy," says Lumentum SVP and CIO, Ralph Loura.

"However, that flexibility can lead to surprises when the invoice arrives. The collaboration between Microsoft and Apptio will help enterprise leaders consume Microsoft cloud services with the visibility and control they need, and their companies are counting on."

Apptio says every function in the enterprise, including finance, HR, supply chain and marketing, has a business management application enabling them to streamline processes and deliver insights. It says building the next generation data-first application for CIOs is a top priority for both Apptio and Microsoft.

"Through this collaboration, Apptio will offer customers a modern business management application for IT, that lets customers who migrate to the Microsoft cloud utilise data to make real-time decisions, optimise their investments and provide compelling insights," the company says.

Apptio will use Dynamics 365 for human capital management (HCM), enterprise resource planning (ERP) and other financial and operational data sources in its cost and planning engine.

The company will also enable automated extraction of transformed data from Power BI for customisable analytics, insights, reporting and application development. Apptio says its technology spend data will enhance the Dynamics 365 business management system, so enterprises large and small can get a holistic view of their technology investments.

"Microsoft offers cloud services for enterprises from Office 365 to Azure to Dynamics and is one of the most strategic partners for CIOs, CFOs and CDOs," says Apptio CEO, Sunny Gupta.

"We're excited to partner with Microsoft, and further deeply integrate Apptios business management applications for technology leaders to help customers manage, plan, and optimise their technology investments and accelerate customer's journey to Microsoft Cloud platforms.

As part of the strategic collaboration, Apptio will deepen its support for Microsoft Cloud platforms by:

• Providing financial recommendations and insights to analyse on-premises to Azure migrations.
• Driving infrastructure and application total cost of ownership (TCO), optimisation and decisioning.
• Optimising spend on platforms including Microsoft Azure, Microsoft 365 and Dynamics 365.
• Generating sprint, feature, and product unit economics to enable P-L formulation for new digital development.
• Creating insight-first applications for IT by integrating with Dynamics Financials, HR and project data, and exporting data to the Microsoft Power BI platform.
• Having the Cloudability SaaS solution run on the Microsoft Azure platform.

The initial go-to-market will provide Microsoft Azure customers with Apptio Cloudability, including Apptio's intelligent discovery, utilisation and cost management software for enterprise SaaS applications.

"Customers are accelerating the deployment of cloud-based services and solutions to gain efficiencies, reduce costs, engage customers in new ways and facilitate better decision-making based on data-driven insights," says Microsoft VP, Global ISV Partners, Casey McGee.

"With the availability of its financial decisioning platform on the Microsoft cloud, Apptio can deliver significant benefits to customers, across a wide variety of industries, who are looking to transform their business."

Apptio will be available via the Microsoft Azure marketplace. Both companies will collaborate in joint marketing and selling efforts.