This story begins in a cold, dark office owned by a CIO named Ebenezer Scrooge, a man whose heart was as tight as his IT budget. Scrooge cared for nothing but profit and penny-pinching.

Poor Bob Cratchit, the long-suffering IT Finance Manager, sat shivering at his desk.

Excel sheets flashed across his screen like twinkle lights, version after version, each one contradicting the last.

Bob saw the truth of things: no one knew where the money was going.

But Scrooge did not want to hear of “visibility” or “value.”

“Bah! Humbug!” Scrooge barked.

“IT spend is a cost, Bob. And we shall treat it as such!”

That night, as Scrooge prepared to retire from his desk, he was visited by a strange apparition…

The Ghost of Apptio Costing Past.

Shining like an old ledger newly dusted, the ghost swept Scrooge through years gone by.

Together they saw:

Cloud invoices unaccounted for

Software licences paid twice over

Forgotten servers humming in dusty corners

Business units secretly spinning up their own tools

Scrooge trembled.

“I did not know…”

“You did not look,” replied the ghost, and vanished.

No sooner had he caught his breath than a second spirit arrived…

The Ghost of Apptio Billing Present.

This ghost was cheerful yet firm, wrapped in the glow of real-time dashboards.

He showed Scrooge how Apptio brought clarity to the here and now:

Transparent IT billing

Every cost tied to a service

Clear allocation back to departments

Cloudability showing optimisations Scrooge never believed possible

Bob Cratchit’s face appeared in the dashboard light, tired, hopeful, still buried beneath endless spreadsheets.

Scrooge felt a pang.

A very small, very unfamiliar pang.

Before he could speak, the room chilled.

A third figure approached: silent, solemn, cloaked in shadows.

The Ghost of Apptio Planning Future.

The ghost said nothing.

It simply lifted a spectral hand and revealed a terrible sight:

A future where the business saw IT as nothing but a black hole.

Where innovation stalled.

Where Scrooge was remembered as the CIO who could’ve transformed everything,

but didn’t.

“Spirit!” Scrooge cried.

“Tell me these shadows may yet be altered! What must I do?”

The ghost extended a glowing screen.

There, Scrooge saw it all:

Budgeting connected to strategy

Spend aligned to value

IT and finance working as one

Future investments justified with clarity

Bob Cratchit smiling for the first time in years

As the vision faded, Scrooge awoke with a start.

He felt changed, transformed, renewed.

The next morning, Bob Cratchit arrived to find Scrooge standing proudly beside a new Apptio dashboard.

“Bob!” Scrooge cried.

“I have seen the truth! No more guesswork, no more chaos!”

“We shall understand our past, command our present, and prepare for our future!”

Bob blinked.

Was he dreaming?

Was this visibility?

Real life visibility?

Scrooge beamed.

“Merry Christmas!” he declared, patting Bob on the back.

“From this day forward, we shall honour our IT spend!”

And Bob, dear, patient Bob, finally had what he’d always wished for:

a clear view of past, present, and future IT spend, all in one place.

And thus ends the tale of An Apptio Christmaths Carol,

where perspective was gained, budgets were understood,

and Scrooge no longer feared an auditors visit.