Case Study: CHRISTUS Health achieves streamlined, transparent IT planning with Apptio IT Planning

How CHRISTUS Health transformed IT planning

CHRISTUS Health, a $5B not‑for‑profit Catholic health system with more than 60 hospitals and 30,000 employees, faced a slow, manual IT budgeting process as it shifted from decentralized to centralized governance. Annual planning took 5–6 months and relied on spreadsheets, email-driven reviews, and limited visibility into spend—especially unmanaged SaaS “shadow IT”—making it hard to align budgets with operational demand or hold budget owners accountable.

The IT finance team implemented Apptio IT Planning (and Apptio Cost Transparency) in a rapid 6–12 week rollout, training managers to own their budgets and feeding GL, payroll, contract, and asset data into the system. The result: major time savings and fewer version/email issues, better forecast accuracy and visual dashboards, surfaced SaaS contracts for governance and security, stronger business‑unit accountability, and the ability to reallocate funds quickly for priorities like an EMR upgrade.

CHRISTUS Health

Stephanie Rendon

Director of Finance