ClearCost

[Sorry, our new website for ClearCost.com.au is not quite ready - you will have to make do with this one for the time being.]

ClearCost is a Business Management System for IT and business that delivers absolute transparency and control over the cost of IT in any organization.

» accurate allocation/billing information for each Business Unit/User that clearly links the IT budget and actual spend with their Service usage

» crystal clear reporting that presents all direct and indirect cost contributors to each Service

» comparitive and detailed analysis that help identify efficiency gains achieved or opportunities for improvement in IT operations and investments

» Service Catalog pricing including Unit Costs and profiled volumetrics that drive the cost of Services

» supporting data to identify cost changes when negotiating end user demand changes or Service Level changes - and the ability to model variations to that to achieve optimised outcomes

» budgeting support - presenting clear and concise information that shows "every dollar spent by IT is related to demand from the Business for Services and particualr Service levels"....and the ability to model variations to achieve consensus on final costs

» more reliable, maintainable and sustainable 'service' financial systems that tie in with your General Ledger to support your IT business (means NO SPREADSHEETS)

» to engage your key managers in financial accountability in a way that they "get it"

» to feel truly in control of the financial management of your IT Service business

ClearCost integrates the Service Financial Management processes of IT groups and presents unique and highly relevant analysis on all aspects of the IT investment. ClearCost comprises modules to address each of the following:

IT Budgeting/Re-forecasts (what we spend)
- includes operating, capital and headcount budgeting (alternatively supports import or export to/from corporate budgeting systems)

Activity Catalogue (what we do)
- through Activity Based Costing, map budgeted resources/external costs & indirects to activities performed and capacity generated.

Service Catalogue (what we deliver)
- business view of what IT delivers underpinned by Activity Catalogue. including service unit pricing (IT Service Costing & Pricing)

Usage/Demand (who uses what)
- ties budgeted usage to budgeted services

Asset Capacity (what the technology generates)
- operational view of physical (or virtual) assets, their capacity and what services depend on those. A simple CMDB or mapped to your existing CMDB.

Contract Management (external obligations)
- contractual arrangements and management of those, (eg Maintenance or Lease contracts), linked to budget and to assets where relevant.

....all delivered in an easy to use form that the IT manager/professional can understand and use, while being built on a foundation of strong, defensible financial practices.

Presented in ClearCost as an 'operational model' of the IT group's resources, activities, technology, services and drivers, the database lends itself to support for planning, what-if scenario modelling, market comparisons and benchmarking as well as supporting day-to-day information analysis of a Service Management driven IT group.

ClearCost replaces the myriad of spreadsheets and other bespoke sources typically used by internal departments to prepare and manage service financial data not typically maintained in the General Ledger. This tool supports a single set of financial data to produce multiple outcomes:

• Detailed budgeting documentation for informed budget review and revision
• Financial budget information required by corporate accounting
• Activity based budgeting & costing and total costing principles to accurately determine service costs
• Costing and service pricing information required for charging/transfer pricing
• Usage allocation of Services across "customer" units within the organisation
• Activity mapping to better depict technical and governance processes supporting the organization's objectives, with contribution to IT control objectives (CobIT) and ITIL
• Capital expenditure reporting
• Contract Register management with asset links for maintenance and lease contracts
• Supports virtualization of IT processing platforms for standard pricing
• Asset configuration and capacity costing database
• Benchmarking or performance metric information required to measure IT functions

Designed for use by the management team, ClearCost captures data direct from the authorized Cost Centre or Functional line managers. This tool recognizes the iterative process of budget setting and supports the dynamics of budget adjustments in a managed process.

ClearCost does not conflict with the role of Corporate Financial systems, rather it fills a gap not well serviced and still ties in with the standard Budgeting processes and systems, avoiding redundancy of data capture.

ClearCost was originally developed to meet the complexities of IT Budgeting and Service Charging - as more IT groups moved to cost recovery or chargeback models, the need for purpose built tools grew. The tool can also support the needs of other internal service providers (HR, Procurement, Accounting, etc).

Current users include blue chip finance, insurance, corporate, government and educational organisations, predominately in Australia but also in New Zealand, Malaysia & Singapore.

General functionality:

• Multi-user
• Security to the Cost Centre and Account Code level
• Intuitive user interface (including colour coding for "out of balance" checks)
• Data importing for client data tables (e.g. Chart of Account codes, cost centres)
• Data exporting to various Financial Accounting systems
• Template of Service-types for quick start (including ITIL framework)
• Extensive range of reporting
• Online Help

The package pricing models follow: