Case Study: Blue Shield of California achieves strategic IT finance transformation and cost transparency with Apptio

Blue Shield of California uses TBM to focus on strategy, not costs

Blue Shield of California, a major healthcare plan with 3.3 million members and $18 billion in annual revenue, faced persistent IT financial-management challenges: manual, spreadsheet-driven reporting, line-of-business budget pressure, and limited visibility for senior leaders into whether IT delivered business value. These issues made IT seem like a cost center rather than a strategic partner and hindered longer-term financial planning.

Blue Shield implemented Technology Business Management (TBM) using four Apptio applications (IT Planning, Cost Transparency, Business Insights, Vendor Insights) to automate data collection, enable rolling forecasts, track contracts and project-driven operating costs, and foster proactive budget conversations. The result: faster, more accurate forecasting and variance analysis; stronger CFO and business-unit trust in IT’s value; identification of $6M in misallocated costs; funds redeployed for innovation; TBM extended beyond IT to cover 60% of operating expense; and more outcome-focused, fact-based decision making across the organization.

Blue Shield of California

Qian Wang

Senior Manager for IT Finance