Obtain visibility and control over IT Service Costs
The Real Cost of IT Services
A lot of organisations find it very hard to measure the real cost of IT services. Services such as data centres, applications, email and networks can be hard to define and even harder to cost. In large part this is because accounting systems and accounting disciplines are not setup to either define or report on these types of services. Without a great deal of time and effort it can be very difficult for organisations to establish fully effective IT cost control mechanisms.
We solve this problem by running a specially configured IT cost allocation model that we call MetresisTM. The model is designed to present IT costs in a manner that provides for inter and intra organisational comparison. This allows IT and Finance professionals not only to see what the real costs are but also to see where in the organisation the most cost efficient use of technical services exists and what technologies underlie that efficiency. The result is demonstrably lower cost, more effective IT.
IT Cost Transparency
The advent of Cloud computing and specifically its highly transparent, pay as you go usage model has provided a new imperative to solve “The Real Cost of IT” question. MetresisTM answers this question in a straight forward and rapid manner using the power of community based knowledge. MetresisTM harnesses the knowledge resident in your people and provides them with the means to very rapidly describe the composition of individual IT services and allocate validated costs to them.
This community based approach provides a very rapid solution because it relies on the knowledge and experience of people rather than detailed and expensive technical connections into machines. It is an approach that leverages an important, existing asset – people whilst at the same time creating a consensus view.
The key consensus is often that between the finance team and the IT team. MetresisTM provides the basis for this consensus. Once obtained it is very easy to establish valid IT benchmarking measures between different parts of an enterprise. Once effective benchmarking is in place then it is very often the case that IT cost reduction will follow. See below for an example of this in the area of WAN.
IT Cost Transparency – Here is the Problem
Here are some symptoms:
- Endless demand for IT services from the organisation
- Ever rising IT costs
- Over engineered and costly solutions
- No easy way of matching demand for IT services with supply
IT Cost Visibility – Here is the Solution
Here Is How It Is Done
The community delivers and helps to validate the information required. This drastically reduces the implementation time whilst also providing a common platform for and shared understanding of, the composition of services and associated costs.
Compare And Identify Best Practice
MetresisTM is specifically designed to share information and then to collaborate to achieve results. Very often the collaboration is around sharing best practice within an organisation. The chart below is based on a real case where the sharing of WAN costs within a group structure using MetresisTM clearly identified some substantial cost saving opportunities.
A wide discrepancy in WAN costs by division clearly exists. A drill down into the underlying service detail would allow the question, why are the costs so different to be answered. Starting to investigate the differences either internally or (anonymously) externally can lead to substantial efficiencies based on best practice elsewhere. The illustration below is an example of the type of efficiencies that can be gained as a result of having the means to compare.
Example Result: Metresis™ -
Top Level Annual IT Service Costs Baseline 2009
Metresis™ is currently delivered as part of our Consulting Services.
Contact Us to see how others have used MetresisTM to drive new IT efficiencies.