Why

Realised savings proves FinOps ROI to the executive sponsor. Finance does not trust unverified savings claims. “We identified $500K in savings” means nothing without proof that billing actually decreased.

What

Track the savings value of each ticket and validate against billing data 30 days post-implementation.

How

Add Savings Fields to ITSM

Add to ticket template: estimated annual savings, implementation date, verification date (auto-set to implementation + 30 days), verified savings (actual billing reduction), verification method.

Build Verification Query

Compare resource cost in the 30 days before the change vs 30 days after. The delta is the verified saving.

-- Simplified savings verification
SELECT
  resource_id,
  SUM(CASE WHEN period = 'before' THEN cost ELSE 0 END) AS cost_before,
  SUM(CASE WHEN period = 'after' THEN cost ELSE 0 END) AS cost_after,
  SUM(CASE WHEN period = 'before' THEN cost ELSE 0 END)
    - SUM(CASE WHEN period = 'after' THEN cost ELSE 0 END) AS verified_saving
FROM billing_data
WHERE resource_id = 'target-resource'
GROUP BY resource_id

Report Savings Monthly

Aggregate verified savings into the monthly executive report. Show: total identified, total implemented, total verified, and the gap between estimated and actual.

Deliverable Checklist

Savings fields added to ITSM ticket template
Verification query operational (before/after billing comparison)
Monthly savings report integrated into executive summary
Gap analysis: estimated vs verified savings tracked