- Greg Holmes, Field CTO for EMEA at Apptio (an IBM company), says intelligent automation must be backed by financial rigour to scale.
- Financial controls — ROI measurement, cost transparency and governance — turn pilots into sustainable programs.
- Without clear chargeback models and TCO oversight, automation projects risk wasted spend, stalled adoption and compliance gaps.
- Aligning automation with finance teams creates measurable value and helps organisations avoid costly mistakes.
Why financial rigour matters when scaling automation
Intelligent automation projects often begin with technical promise: a bot, a workflow, or an AI model that can cut hours from manual tasks. Greg Holmes, Field CTO for EMEA at Apptio, argues the common gap that stops these pilots from becoming enterprise‑wide programs is not technical — it’s financial.
When organisations treat automation as an IT or engineering experiment without financial oversight, they expose themselves to creeping costs, duplicated efforts and unclear ownership. The result: initiatives stall, expected savings never materialise, and leadership loses confidence.
Key areas to focus on
1. Measure ROI from day one
Set clear success metrics before you build. Track cost‑savings, time reclaimed, error reduction and downstream business impact. Treat each automation like a product with a business case that must prove value over time.
2. Make costs transparent
Visibility into licensing, cloud consumption, maintenance and support prevents surprises. Finance teams need an accurate view of total cost of ownership (TCO) so they can prioritise automations that deliver the best return.
3. Define chargeback and ownership models
Who pays for an automation, who benefits, and who is responsible for ongoing support? Clear chargeback or showback models align incentives and reduce requests for redundant or low‑value automations.
4. Governance and lifecycle management
Automation is not “set and forget.” Strong governance ensures automations are maintained, updated and retired when they stop delivering value—avoiding hidden risk and compliance issues.
Why this matters now
Apptio’s perspective, voiced by a senior technical leader, underscores a broader trend: organisations that combine engineering skill with financial discipline scale faster and unlock more value. Those that don’t risk wasted budgets and stalled transformation programs.
Leaders should treat intelligent automation as a cross‑functional initiative led jointly by technology, finance and the business. That means embedding financial checkpoints into the automation lifecycle, from pilot through enterprise roll‑out.
Next steps for teams
Start small but plan for scale: build pilots with clear business cases, involve finance early, define ownership and reporting, and measure outcomes continuously. This approach turns isolated wins into durable, measurable transformation.
By linking automation efforts to financial rigour, organisations can move beyond hype and ensure automation delivers predictable, auditable business value—just as Greg Holmes recommends.
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