Get Instant Access
to This Blueprint

Cio icon

Implement an IT Chargeback System

Explain IT costs in ways that matter to the business.

  • Business units voraciously consume IT services and don’t understand the actual costs of IT. This is due to lack of IT cost transparency and business stakeholder accountability for consumption of IT services.
  • Business units perceive IT costs as uncompetitive, resulting in shadow IT and a negative perception of IT.
  • Business executives have decided to implement an IT chargeback program and IT must ensure the program succeeds.

Our Advice

Critical Insight

Price IT services so that business consumers find them meaningful, measurable, and manageable:

  • The business must understand what they are being charged for. If they can’t understand the value, you’ve chosen the wrong basis for charge.
  • Business units must be able to control and track their consumption levels, or they will feel powerless to control costs and you’ll never attain real buy-in.

Impact and Result

  • Explain IT costs in ways that matter to the business. Instead of focusing on what IT pays for, discuss the value that IT brings to the business by defining IT services and how they serve business users.
  • Develop a chargeback model that brings transparency to the flow of IT costs through to business value. Demonstrate how a good chargeback model can bring about fair “pay-for-value” and “pay-for-what-you-use” pricing.
  • Communicate IT chargeback openly and manage change effectively. Business owners will want to know how their profit and loss statements will be affected by the new pricing model.

Implement an IT Chargeback System Research & Tools

Start here – read the Executive Brief

Read our concise Executive Brief to find out why you should implement an IT chargeback program, review Info-Tech’s methodology, and understand the four ways we can support you in completing this project.

1. Launch

Make the case for IT chargeback, then assess the financial maturity of the organization and identify a pathway to success. Create a chargeback governance model.

2. Define

Develop a chargeback model, including identifying user-facing IT services, allocating IT costs to services, and setting up the chargeback program.

3. Implement

Communicate the rollout of the IT chargeback model and establish a process for recovering IT services costs from business units.

4. Revise

Gather and analyze feedback from business owners, making necessary modifications to the chargeback model and communicating the implications.

Implement an IT Chargeback System preview picture

About Info-Tech

Info-Tech Research Group is the world’s fastest-growing information technology research and advisory company, proudly serving over 30,000 IT professionals.

We produce unbiased and highly relevant research to help CIOs and IT leaders make strategic, timely, and well-informed decisions. We partner closely with IT teams to provide everything they need, from actionable tools to analyst guidance, ensuring they deliver measurable results for their organizations.

What Is a Blueprint?

A blueprint is designed to be a roadmap, containing a methodology and the tools and templates you need to solve your IT problems.

Each blueprint can be accompanied by a Guided Implementation that provides you access to our world-class analysts to help you get through the project.

Need Extra Help?
Speak With An Analyst

Get the help you need in this 4-phase advisory process. You'll receive 10 touchpoints with our researchers, all included in your membership.

Guided Implementation 1: Launch
  • Call 1: Make the case for IT chargeback
  • Call 2: Assess maturity and need
  • Call 3: Establish IT chargeback governance

Guided Implementation 2: Define
  • Call 1: Set up the chargeback program
  • Call 2: Determine chargeable service units, cost estimates, and pricing
  • Call 3: Compute chargeback amounts

Guided Implementation 3: Implement
  • Call 1: Communicate IT chargeback
  • Call 2: Recover costs for IT services

Guided Implementation 4: Revise
  • Call 1: Revise the chargeback model
  • Call 2: Communicate chargeback model changes and implications

Authors

Jason Petrovic

Ryan Smith

Visit our Exponential IT Research Center
Over 100 analysts waiting to take your call right now: 1-519-432-3550 x2019