Case Study: Caesars Entertainment achieves faster, more predictable IT budgeting and cost transparency with Apptio

How Caesars improved IT budget variance and predictability

Caesars Entertainment, a global casino‑entertainment leader undergoing a major modernization after a voluntary reorganization, faced a legacy‑driven IT landscape and slow, spreadsheet‑based budgeting that obscured true costs and made it hard to secure C‑suite buy‑in for large transformation projects. CIO Les Ottolenghi and his team needed better cost transparency to reduce run costs, reallocate funding to growth initiatives, and ensure accountability across dozens of properties and IT owners.

They deployed Apptio TBM solutions—starting with Apptio IT Planning—which was up and running in 4–5 weeks and became the single source of truth for 35 budget owners. The result: budgeting time shrank from six months to about four weeks, budget variance on hardware/software R&M improved from 9% to 4%, automation increased reporting fidelity, a New Jersey data‑center consolidation is projected to save ~$500K annually, and nearly $800K in dormant software licenses were uncovered and reallocated.

Caesars Entertainment

John Dermody

Vice President of Business Management