Case Study: First Citizens Bank achieves faster, more accurate IT planning and an 80% reduction in budget variance with Apptio IT Planning

How First Citizens increased IT planning accuracy and agility

First Citizens Bank, founded in 1898 and headquartered in Raleigh, NC, operates more than 550 branches with roughly $33B in assets and ~6,200 employees. Its IT team faced a complex challenge: supporting a large legacy brick-and-mortar network while delivering more efficient, transparent technology spending and escaping a slow, error-prone budgeting process built on hundreds of spreadsheets and 45-day cycles.

First Citizens implemented Apptio IT Planning (followed by Apptio Cost Transparency and Benchmarking) to centralize GL and HR feeds, load historical actuals, and plan at the labor, asset, and contract level. The change reduced budget variance by 80% (2016), moved forecasting from two to four quarterly cycles plus monthly forecasts for depreciation and labor, generated a first-draft OpEx in hours, and let the team rework a major reorganization in three hours instead of days—freeing funds for growth and shifting IT finance into a strategic advisory role.

First Citizens Bank

Will Leaming

IT Finance Manager