Federal CIOs and IT Service Providers are experiencing "downward pressure" on budgets(1) while customers and leaders alike are requiring increased transparency into the cost of IT services(2). Unfortunately, for many organizations the lack of fidelity around IT costs make it difficult for IT service providers to show value to customers while also reducing leadership's ability to make informed decisions(3). Our own experience in the Federal CIO space suggests cost models for IT services ("Chargeback" models), when implemented, are often out of sync with other models within the organization and are almost always incongruent with IT service cost frameworks of other Federal organizations and industry. Finally, we've also found that the IT metrics that are collected are geared towards offering a service provider with the information they need to best deliver their capabilities, but are rarely collected with cost or transparency in mind.
Over the course of our presentation, we will discuss how standardized, data-driven models can not only increase transparency and bolster credibility and defensibility around the cost for IT services, but also lead to potential cost savings as well as provide additional insight into an organization's IT spend. We will also discuss how the process of implementing these models can be transformative for organizations from a data collection perspective, as new data sets, processes, and automations are created to support these costing efforts. Finally, we will discuss how these models can "set the stage" for greater transparency in other areas of an organization such as lifecycle cost estimation and portfolio management.