542 Part IV • The Information Management System
- Understandable:An understandable chargeback system reports use in business terms that user-managers can relate to
their own activities, not just customer order, invoice, or report relate more to business activity than does the number of
computer input/output operations performed or machine cycles used. - Prompt and Regular Feedback:Changes should be reported soon after the activity to which they are related so that use
and cost can be closely linked and total costs can be accurately monitored by those who can control the costs. - Controllable:The activity for which business managers are charged must be something they can control. For example,
charge for rerun computer jobs because of operator errors would not be controllable. Further, business managers must have
a choice to use alternative services or to substitute one kind of usage with another (for example, switching between two
alternative database management systems or trading computer time for data storage). - Accountable:Managers responsible for generating IS activity must be identifiable and must be held accountable for their
changes. Otherwise, the charges are meaningless and useless. - Relate to Benefits:Managers must see a link between costs and benefits so they can balance the value of the IS services
against what is being spent. - Consistent with IS and Organizational Goals:Charges should be designed to achieve the goals set for the business and
the goals of the IS organization. Thus, charges should encourage use of important information technology services,
efficient use of scarce technology and services, the desired balance of internal and external sourcing of IS services, and
development of systems that comply with accepted architectural standards.
FIGURE 13.5 Characteristics of Good Chargeback Systems
written with an external supplier, an SLA explicitly defines
client expectations (here, the business unit) for a specific
type of IT service, and procedures to be followed when
there is an IT service delivery failure.
At a minimum, an SLA should include the following
elements:
- A simple definition of the service to be provided
(e.g., help desk support) - The name(s) and contact information of IS personnel
to contact for this service - A table listing the services to be provided and their
costs (e.g., how quickly different types of problems
will be responded to, and the costs associated with
providing this type of service level) - Escalation procedures (e.g., who to contact if the
agreed-upon service response is not being provided) - A sign-off page for the appropriate business client
and the IS liaison preparing the SLA document
IT Service Management with ITIL
In recent years, IS leaders have also adopted other
process-oriented approaches to help their IS depart-
ments improve their internal delivery of IT services. In
particular, several organizations have begun to imple-
ment processes based on best practices that are part of
theInformation Technology Infrastructure Library
(ITIL).
First developed in the late 1980s by a branch of the
British government, ITIL version 3 documents more than
two dozen processes that describe how various IT
processes should be performed to ensure outcomes such
as the following:- adequate computer capacityexists for new IT appli-
cations or other IT infrastructure changes - tracking of a computer incident(e.g., a service
interruption or security breach) from the time it
first appears until a system change is made to per-
manently fix the problem - formal change managementprocesses are followed
for changes to any component of an IT system
The overall objective is for IT operations staff to
better anticipate service delivery impacts before an IT
infrastructure change is made, and to more quickly and
effectively resolve delivery problems after they are
detected. For example, after using ITIL guidelines to
restructure their handling of help desk calls, the broker-
age firm Pershing reported reducing the time it took to
respond to incidents by 50 percent (Worthen, 2005). ITIL
also provides a common language for operational
processes that enables better tracking of service delivery
and root-cause analyses of chronic service delivery
problems. A common language enables better communi-
cations across internal IT staff as well as with contractors
and suppliers. An ITIL implementation can also foster
a culture in which IT services are considered more from