Benchmark data sources

Benchmarking blends external datasets with your own information.

Industry IT economics data
Source type:
  • Market and research providers that collect IT spend and staffing data across many organizations.
Used for:
  • IT spend as percentage of revenue
  • IT spend per employee
  • IT FTE (full-time equivalent) ratios and similar macro indicators
Characteristics:
  • Based on full fiscal year submissions
  • Normalized to standard industry sectors and size bands
  • Typically refreshed on an annual or periodic cycle, not monthly

IT OpEx benchmarks from the Apptio community

Source type:

  • Anonymized and aggregated customer data, on an opt-in basis.
Used for:
  • Distribution of IT OpEx across Cost Pools
  • Distribution of IT OpEx across Resource Towers
  • Archetype profiles that identify common spend patterns
Characteristics:
  • Input data aligned to TBM Cost Pools and Resource Towers
  • Individual contributors are anonymized
  • Metrics are only exposed above minimum sample thresholds

Infrastructure cost and efficiency benchmarks

Source type:

  • Infrastructure benchmarking programs and large-scale infra studies.
Used for:
  • Unit cost metrics such as cost per server or cost per TB
  • Efficiency metrics such as FTE per 100 servers
Characteristics:
  • Based on detailed cost and volume submissions by Resource Tower and Resource Sub-Tower
  • Uses standard infra tower definitions that align with TBM
  • Often includes multiple years for trend and stability checking
Your own data
Your side of the equation includes:
  • Organizational profile
    • Annual Revenue
    • Annual Operating Expense
    • Average Annual Headcount
  • IT cost data
    • Annual Spend broken down by:
  • Operating Expense
  • Depreciation Expense
  • Capital Expense
    • Annual Operating Expense by Cost Pool
    • Annual Operating Expense by Resource Tower
  • Volume and capacity data by Resource Sub-Tower
    • Device counts, TBs, ports, FTE counts, and similar
Without your data aligned to the same definitions and periods, the external benchmarks are just reference tables.