Case Study: Freddie Mac achieves consumption-based IT cost transparency and major savings with Apptio

How Freddie Mac IT Used Data to Change the Dynamic with the Business

Freddie Mac, the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation, faced a major visibility problem: IT costs were buried in legacy spreadsheets and allocated to business units through fixed percentages, leaving front-line managers unable to see how their consumption drove expenses. The lack of service-level costing and imperfect operational data made IT a “black box,” hindering cost control and business decision-making.

Freddie Mac implemented Technology Business Management (TBM): a service catalog, automated cost model and consumption-based showbacks that mapped costs to applications and business capabilities. By improving data, engaging business units, and moving from showbacks to monthly chargebacks, the program delivered measurable impact — near-accurate costing within 1–2%, relinquished unused storage, major reductions in dev/test environments, about $500K annually in mainframe hosting savings and up to $5M in potential platform outsourcing savings — while shifting the conversation from IT taxes to business value.

Freddie Mac

Kevin Brown

TCO Group Manager, IT Asset Management Organization