Cost Management Software

𝗪𝗵𝘆 𝗧𝗕𝗠 𝗶𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗺𝗼𝘀𝘁 𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗿𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗱 𝗰𝗼𝘀𝘁 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗿𝗼𝗹 𝘀𝘁𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗴𝘆? Everyone talks about FinOps when it comes to cloud cost control. But TBM? It’s the only framework that provides a structured way to align IT spending - both digital and non-digital - with business value. Today most IT cost-cutting efforts focus on cloud costs. But what about on-prem data centers, networking, end-user computing, software licensing, IT service management, and physical infrastructure? That’s where TBM shines. Unlike FinOps, which primarily focuses on cloud cost management, TBM covers all IT spend - digital and non-digital. That means: ✓ On-prem data centers (server costs, cooling, power, maintenance) ✓ SaaS and enterprise software (license costs, renewals, shadow IT) ✓ Network infrastructure (bandwidth costs, MPLS, SD-WAN optimizations) ✓ End-user computing (desktops, mobile devices, IT support costs) ✓ IT services & outsourcing (managed services, BPOs, contract negotiations) This is what makes TBM different - it breaks IT costs into layers: ✓ Cost Pools – The raw IT expenses (hardware, software, labor, facilities, etc.). ✓ IT Towers – Logical groupings like compute, storage, network, and applications. ✓ Products & Services – The services IT delivers (e.g., CRM platforms, cloud storage, collaboration tools). ✓ Business Units – The actual consumers of IT resources (sales, marketing, HR, etc.). This multi-layer mapping gives granular visibility into IT spending. This enables CIOs and CFOs optimize across hybrid IT environments. 𝗪𝗵𝘆 𝗜 𝗹𝗼𝘃𝗲 𝗧𝗕𝗠? Most organizations optimize reactively - shutting down workloads, cutting headcount, or delaying upgrades. TBM forces a proactive, data-driven approach by integrating: ✓ Cost transparency – Mapping IT costs to business units, services, and outcomes ✓ Showback/chargeback – Assigning costs directly to business teams for accountability ✓ Unit economics – Measuring IT efficiency per unit of business value (cost per transaction, cost per API call, etc.) ✓ Benchmarking – Comparing internal IT costs with industry standards to identify waste The result? ✓ IT isn’t just seen as a cost center - it becomes a strategic partner. ✓ Cost-cutting doesn’t compromise performance or innovation. ✓ Businesses make smarter investment decisions, balancing cost, quality, and value. Why TBM is still underappreciated? TBM doesn’t promise quick fixes. It requires a mature cost culture, strong leadership, and deep integration into financial planning. And the truth is - many companies don’t want to do the hard work. They’d rather cut budgets blindly than ask the harder question: "Is this IT spend actually driving business value?" The companies that do embrace TBM gain full control over IT costs - cloud, data center, software, infrastructure, services, everything. TBM is about spending right, not spending less. #TBM Technology Business Management (TBM) Council

Transforming Cloud Spend: The Playbook Behind Our Million Dollar Savings While most companies watched their cloud costs balloon by 30% last year, we did the impossible: we cut ours by 30%, saving millions of dollars without sacrificing growth or performance. Gartner projects cloud spending to reach $678B by 2025, and McKinsey highlights that many organizations typically overspend by 20–30%. Here's the exact playbook we used: 1️⃣ Treat Cost Optimization Like Gold Mining We approached cloud cost management as if we were panning for gold. Every weekend (usually as weekdays are packed with plenty of critical business deliverables), we dedicated time to deep dive into our cloud spend: - Where is each dollar going? - Why is this resource costing so much? - Is there a more efficient way to achieve the same outcome? 2️⃣ Establish Clear Cost Ownership We assign accountability for cloud spend across teams and link budgeting directly to business outcomes. This drives a culture where every team member becomes a stakeholder in cost efficiency. So you develop/deploy your service and explain the cost (and specifically spikes) every week and month. 3️⃣ Integrate Cost Management into Development Processes: We have embedded cost considerations into the software development lifecycle. For instance, require cost impact assessments as part of the design and architecture reviews along with technology stack trade-offs, we take deep interest into why not aspect of any new tech stack. 4️⃣ Implement a Real-Time Alert System - Automate Cost Tracking & Anomaly Detection Waiting for monthly bills is reactive. Instead, we set up personalized alerts via WhatsApp, Slack, and email. Whenever our daily cloud spending increases by as little as 10%, we’re immediately notified. 5️⃣ Make Dashboard Reviews a Daily Habit Our workday begins with a quick review of our cloud cost dashboard. This 10-minute ritual helps me: - Spot concerning trends before they escalate - Identify which services are driving costs - Create tasks to investigate significant deltas (I keep these tabs open from the billing dashboard until I've resolved them) 6️⃣ Continuously Evaluate Alternative Services We regularly engage figuring out alternative services and platforms, and this evaluation helps us to: - Leverage competition and learning different alternative services - Explore potential cost benefits of multi-cloud strategies - Challenge our assumptions about which provider offers the best value 7️⃣ Take Ownership at the Leadership Level We could delegate cloud cost management, but we found that when leadership takes direct ownership, the impact is far greater. While our cloud costs were projected to grow by 70% this year (following industry trends of ~30%), we instead achieved a 30% reduction - representing a 50% improvement against expectations. What #cloud cost optimisation strategies have worked for your organisation? #cloudoptimization #cloudspend

Imagine you’re filling a bucket from what seems like a free-flowing stream, only to discover that the water is metered and every drop comes with a price tag. That’s how unmanaged cloud spending can feel. Scaling operations is exciting, but it often comes with a hidden challenge of increased cloud costs. Without a solid approach, these expenses can spiral out of control. Here are important strategies to manage your cloud spending: ✅ Implement Resource Tagging → Resource tagging, or labeling, is important to organize and manage cloud costs. → Tags help identify which teams, projects, or features are driving expenses, simplify audits, and enable faster troubleshooting. → Adopt a tagging strategy from day 1, categorizing resources based on usage and accountability. ✅ Control Autoscaling → Autoscaling can optimize performance, but if unmanaged, it may generate excessive costs. For instance, unexpected traffic spikes or bugs can trigger excessive resource allocation, leading to huge bills. → Set hard limits on autoscaling to prevent runaway resource usage. ✅ Leverage Discount Programs (reserved, spot, preemptible) → For predictable workloads, reserve resources upfront. For less critical processes, explore spot or preemptible Instances. ✅ Terminate Idle Resources → Unused resources, such as inactive development and test environments or abandoned virtual machines (VMs), are a common source of unnecessary spending. → Schedule automatic shutdowns for non-essential systems during off-hours. ✅ Monitor Spending Regularly → Track your expenses daily with cloud monitoring tools. → Set up alerts for unusual spending patterns, such as sudden usage spikes or exceeding your budgets. ✅ Optimize Architecture for Cost Efficiency → Every architectural decision impacts your costs. → Prioritize services that offer the best balance between performance and cost, and avoid over-engineering. Cloud cost management isn’t just about cutting back, it’s about optimizing your spending to align with your goals. Start with small, actionable steps, like implementing resource tagging and shutting down idle resources, and gradually develop a comprehensive, automated cost-control strategy. How do you manage your cloud expenses?

𝐎𝐩𝐭𝐢𝐦𝐢𝐳𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐜𝐥𝐨𝐮𝐝 𝐜𝐨𝐬𝐭𝐬 while enhancing engineering excellence? 𝐘𝐄𝐒, 𝐩𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐞.  New Relic just launched 3 powerful innovations to help manage cloud spend, optimize telemetry data, and improve service reliability. Here is what I am excited to explore: ✔️ Cloud Cost Intelligence: A detailed view of multi-cloud costs to understand trends, reduce waste, and plan smarter investments. ✔️ Pipeline Control: Maximizing the quality and value of telemetry data while ensuring security, compliance, and cost control. ✔️ Service Architecture Intelligence: Bringing clarity to service, infrastructure, and incident management with customizable catalogs, scorecards, and maps. Cloud complexity is increasing and something that I'm starting to dread a bit, but the right tools can turn cost challenges into opportunities for efficiency and innovation. Call me an optimist :) What are your thoughts on these new capabilities? 👉 Learn more here:  https://lnkd.in/gGSKrhmi #NewRelicNow #IntelligentObservability

❄️ Snowflake was really productive just before the Christmas holidays and delivered a lot of presents in form of new features. 🎁 💰 One of them is new unified Cost Management page providing Account Overview dashboard, bringing all cost related features into this single page. Now you can find under this page also Resource Monitors, Budgets and Consumption page. They are available as separate tabs. 📈 Account Overview dashboard provides high level insights into the cost of using #Snowflake. Providing an overview in both dollars and credits with the top contributors to your spendings (warehouses and queries). It could be a good starting point for getting better understanding of your cost contribution and place where to start looking for candidates for possible optimizations. 🧑💻 You can also see the cost projection for rest of the month with possibility to setup a budget right from this place. The new Cost Management page can be found under Admin menu in Snowsight and you need to have at least ACCOUNTADMIN or ACCOUNTADMIN + ORGADMIN roles. Account Overview comes in preview and you can learn more here 👇 https://lnkd.in/eFCXFFNc

Review you knowledge of SAP S/4HANA’s Controlling (CO) Module and its key components: ●What is Controlling in SAP S/4HANA? The Controlling (CO) module helps businesses track costs, optimize spending, and analyze profitability. It works seamlessly with other SAP modules (Finance, Sales, Production, etc.) to provide real-time insights for smarter decisions. ●Key Components 1️⃣Cost Tracking Basics - Cost Elements: Track where money is spent (e.g., salaries, materials). - Cost Centers: Monitor costs by department, team, or location (e.g., HR, IT). 2️⃣Projects & Internal Orders - Track short-term projects (e.g., marketing campaigns) or capital investments using Internal Orders. 3️⃣Activity-Based Costing (ABC) - Allocate overhead costs based on activities (e.g., machine hours, labor hours). 4️⃣Product Costing - Calculate production costs (materials, labor) and analyze variances between planned vs. actual costs. 5️⃣Profitability Analysis (CO-PA) - See what’s profitable! Analyze profits by product, region, customer, or sales channel. 6️⃣Profit Centers - Evaluate performance of business units (e.g., product lines, regions) like mini-companies. 7️⃣Overhead Management - Distribute indirect costs (e.g., rent, utilities) to departments or projects using automated rules. 8️⃣Investment Management - Plan and track capital expenditures (e.g., new machinery, infrastructure projects). 🟡Best Practices ✨️Use Fiori apps (e.g., "Manage Cost Centers") for a modern, user-friendly experience. ✨️Migrate to Account-Based CO-PA for simpler profitability reporting. ✨️Automate repetitive tasks like cost allocations using template-based rules. _______________ 📚Do you know that>> SAP S/4HANA in Controlling provides: 🔸️Real-Time Data: No delays—cost updates from sales, production, or procurement appear instantly. 🔸️Universal Journal (ACDOCA): One unified table for finance and controlling data (no more messy reconciliations!). 🔸️Simple Processes: Legacy tools replaced with modern Fiori apps and intuitive analytics. 🔸️Smart Insights: Use SAP Analytics Cloud (SAC) for predictive cost modeling and dashboards. #SAPS4HANA #ControllingModule #CostAccounting #FinanceManagement #ERP #ManagementAccounting #ProfitabilityAnalysis #CostOptimization #DigitalTransformation #BusinessIntelligence #COPA #CostCenter #FinanceProfessionals #SAPCommunity

🚀 How CanMet Design Streamlined Product Management & Costing with OpenBOM for SolidWorks! Time is money. 💰 That’s exactly what John Cowle from Canadian Metal Design and Products realized when his company implemented OpenBOM to replace spreadsheets and manual cost calculations during their product development process. Before OpenBOM, their workflow struggled with: ❌ Manual BOM management slowing down processes ❌ Disconnected CAD and non-CAD data (labor, paint, assembly) ❌ Tedious cost estimation, leading to wasted hours With OpenBOM integrated into SolidWorks, they achieved: ✅ Instant BOM extraction directly from SolidWorks ✅ Granular product definition beyond CAD, capturing all cost drivers ✅ Real-time cost calculations, saving hours of manual work As John says: “Time is money. With OpenBOM, you click on a button, go get you coffee and when you're back everything is done”. OpenBOM is helping Canadian Metal save money by making precise cost calculation and by doing so, impacting their profitability. 🎥 Watch John’s full story here: [link in the comment] #SolidWorks #Manufacturing #PLM #OpenBOM #DigitalThread #ProductManagement #CostEfficiency

Your 180-person startup just burned $2.7 million on software subscriptions last year. You have 102 different SaaS apps. And here's the painful part: you're paying for at least 15 you don't even use anymore. This isn't a cautionary tale. This is the actual average for companies your size. Here's how it happens: Marketing buys Asana. Engineering already has Jira. Operations just signed up for Monday.com. All three solve the same problem, but nobody's coordinating. You're now paying $40K/year for three project management tools when one would do. Then Sarah from sales leaves the company. Her $8,500/year enterprise software seat keeps auto-renewing because nobody thought to check. Multiply that by 12 departed employees and you've lost six figures to "orphaned subscriptions." The math gets worse when you dig deeper. Software turnover in startups exceeds 50% every two years. Half the tools you bought in 2024 are gathering digital dust today. But the invoices keep coming, and they're buried in a credit card statement nobody audits. When I audit indirect spend for growing companies, Shadow IT consistently represents 18-23% of total software costs. That's real money you could reinvest in product development or your next hire. The fix starts with visibility: • Centralize software procurement through one approval process • Run quarterly audits of all active subscriptions • Map every license to an active employee • Consolidate overlapping tools ruthlessly • Set calendar reminders for every renewal 45 days out One client saved $340K in year one just by implementing these five steps. No headcount cuts. No feature sacrifices. Just eliminating waste they didn't know existed. If you're a founder scaling past 50 employees and you don't have clear visibility into your software stack, you're likely hemorrhaging cash right now. I help startups implement exactly this kind of spend control without slowing down your velocity. If you want to see what's hiding in your tech stack, send me a message.

🌟 NEW FEATURE 🌟 to help you stop wasting your budget on tools no one uses, and to start managing your tech stack with intention. Most teams track software costs, but few track how those tools are actually being used operationally. That’s where budgets get wasted: ↳ Renewing software no one relies on. ↳ Buying new tools that overlap with what you already have. ↳ Losing track of renewal dates and overpaying. Spreadsheets and finance tools help with costs—but they don’t tell you why you’re paying for them. That’s why we built Tech Stack Cost Tracking inside Puzzle’s Tool Canvas. ↳ ✅ Track costs in one place ↳ ✅ See which tools your team actually uses ↳ ✅ Cut redundant subscriptions ↳ ✅ Budget with real operational use cases Software spending should be intentional, transparent, and ROI-driven, and now it can be. 🎥 Watch the back half of the video to see the feature's highlights in action.