The growth of cloud has transformed how organisations manage their IT estates. Flexibility, scalability, and speed-to-deploy are all part of the cloud promise — but so too are complexity, waste, and rising costs.
FinOps has emerged as a discipline to help organisations tackle that challenge head-on: a way to bring financial accountability to the cloud, align IT and finance, and ensure decisions are driven by real usage and value.
There are some excellent commercial FinOps platforms in the market — tools like Apptio Cloudability, CloudHealth, and others that offer rich features for visibility, optimisation, and cost control.
But what about organisations who aren’t quite there yet?
What if you’re just starting out on your cloud journey?
What if you know you’ll invest in a commercial platform eventually, but it’s not the right time yet?
Or what if you see the potential of those tools — but don’t need their full functionality right now?
That’s exactly where the Azure FOCUS Toolkit fits in.
A Toolkit for When You Need Action, Not Complexity
The Azure FOCUS Toolkit was designed for organisations who want to take cloud cost management seriously — but don’t want to wait six months, justify a new SaaS subscription, or roll out an enterprise tool they won’t fully use.
It’s not intended to replace the Apptios of the world. In fact, for organisations that have already invested in a FinOps platform, we’d say: you’ll definitely benefit. But for those in an earlier stage of cloud maturity, the toolkit offers a more accessible, faster way to get going — and get value.
So Why Did We Build It?
We created Azure FOCUS because too often, we saw the same pattern repeat:
- Clients knew Azure was costing more than it should, but couldn’t pinpoint why.
- They were exporting raw billing data and manually manipulating Excel sheets.
- There was no consistent or repeatable reporting — just one-off analysis.
- Teams wanted to adopt FinOps practices, but didn’t have the tools, time, or headcount to make a start.
There was a gap between knowing FinOps matters and being able to act on it meaningfully.
We wanted to bridge that gap.
What the Azure FOCUS Toolkit Does (and Doesn’t Do)
Let’s be clear about what the toolkit is — and what it isn’t.
It doesn’t:
- Replace enterprise-grade FinOps platforms
- Offer complex multi-cloud visibility
- Include every bell and whistle a commercial tool might have
It does:
- Use native Microsoft Azure capabilities (plus Databricks and Power BI) to build a fully automated daily cost reporting system
- Create a dashboard that can be fully customised to reflect what you care about — subscriptions, services, departments, tags, etc.
- Elevate the “Azure export + Excel pivot table” workflow into something far more useful, powerful, and repeatable
- Allow you to take control of cost insights without needing a new vendor relationship or external licensing
Outside of minimal storage charges, it relies entirely on Microsoft-native tooling. That means no separate platform to procure, no new login for your team to manage, and no data leaving your own environment.
From Static Reporting to Living Insight
One of the biggest limitations we see in early FinOps adoption is the “one-time analysis” trap — the tendency to export a month’s worth of data, crunch the numbers in Excel, present a slide or two, and then move on.
That’s helpful in the moment, but it doesn’t drive ongoing maturity.
The Azure FOCUS Toolkit changes that. Once deployed, it sets up:
- Automated daily refreshes of cost and usage data
- A customisable Power BI dashboard that evolves with your needs
- Consistent reporting that supports conversations with engineering, finance, and procurement
It gives teams a shared, repeatable view of what’s happening — and helps bring FinOps principles to life across functions.
To Access the toolkit – Click here
Consultancy-Backed, If You Want It
Some teams are confident they can run with the toolkit themselves — and that’s great. Others want more structured support, particularly if they’re trying to:
- Align engineering and finance stakeholders
- Set cost optimisation targets
- Design chargeback or showback models
- Build governance and tagging maturity
That’s why we offer expert-led consultancy in parallel with the toolkit rollout. It’s not about implementing a new system — it’s about embedding FinOps thinking into your day-to-day cloud operations.
Together, the toolkit and the consultancy track create a strong foundation for:
- Cost awareness and ownership
- Process improvement
- Ongoing optimisation
- A practical roadmap toward a more advanced FinOps capability
A First Step Toward Something Bigger
We see Azure FOCUS as a starter pack with staying power.
For some, it will be the beginning of a longer FinOps journey that eventually leads to investing in an enterprise toolset. For others, it may be all they need — especially if their cloud usage is stable, their team is small, or they’re simply looking for a more intelligent way to manage Azure costs without adding complexity.
Either way, the point is this: you don’t need to wait until you’re “ready” to do FinOps.
You can start where you are, use what you already have, and make meaningful progress right now.
Designed to Fit How Teams Actually Work
The feedback so far has been consistent: the toolkit fits neatly into the realities of how modern cloud teams operate. It’s:
- Lightweight and practical
- Built on familiar Microsoft tools
- Easy to evolve as your environment matures
- Low-friction to adopt, with no licensing hurdle to clear
And perhaps most importantly, it gives organisations control over their Azure cost data — without locking them into a solution they’re not ready for.
Final Thought: It’s Not About the Tool — It’s About the Mindset
FinOps isn’t a product you buy. It’s a capability you build.
The Azure FOCUS Toolkit is just one way to help accelerate that journey — by giving teams the visibility, repeatability, and confidence to start asking better questions and making better decisions.
It’s not a silver bullet. But it’s a solid first step — and for many, the step that unlocks everything else.
To Access the toolkit – Click here
