Using ITFM to Assess the

Value of Your IT

anafee white paper

Table of content

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Foreword ......................................................................................................................................................1

1 anafee ....................................................................................................................................................2

1.1 anafee ................................................................................................................................................................................ 2

1.2 The main functionalities of anafee ......................................................................................................................... 2

1.3 Example of an application scenario using IT services ..................................................................................... 3

2 Management of the IT service portfolio and master data ..................................................4

2.1 IT service catalogue structure................................................................................................................................... 4

2.2 Specification of services.............................................................................................................................................. 5

2.3 Organisation of services in service units .............................................................................................................. 6

2.4 Account management and SLA management ................................................................................................... 6

3 Planning and budgeting .................................................................................................................9

3.1 Planning of required quantities and service quantities ................................................................................. 9

3.2 Allocation of costs...................................................................................................................................................... 10

3.3 Identifying the overall costs of an IT service (TCO) ...................................................................................... 13

3.4 Price calculation and tariff management .......................................................................................................... 13

3.5 Simulation and “what-if analyses” ....................................................................................................................... 15

4 Usage-based allocation and charging of IT service costs ................................................ 17

5 Reporting ........................................................................................................................................... 20

6 Project controlling .......................................................................................................................... 22

7 Modular offer creation .................................................................................................................. 24

8 Active controlling of services...................................................................................................... 25

8.1 Integrated platform for global business services .......................................................................................... 25

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Foreword

The demands placed on IT and shared services in companies have transformed significantly over the past few

years - more transparency, competitive service-orientation with measurable performance, and sustainable

cost limitation play an essential role in these new demands.

This requires the establishment of standardised cost and performance structures via a universal financial

management system, which ensures a high level of automation in planning, controlling and evaluation of all

services.

anafee is a high-performance, flexible, and scalable tool precisely tailored to the specific requirements of

global business services. This whitepaper explains how the software works using various application scenarios

from the field of IT services; it can also be used in a similar way for further shared service centres.

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1 anafee

anafee is the leading standardised solution for value-focussed controlling of global business services in

companies. The core task of the software is to align the scope, costs, and use of administrative business

functions with the company’s actual business process and to assign these to a unique cost carrier.

anafee establishes a comprehensive financial management system and creates seamless cost and

performance transparency across the entire life cycle of internal services. The solution meets both the

needs of the service recipient and of those performing said service. This enables companies to plan,

control, and assess the costs and performance of all cross-departmental functions (IT, finances, HR,

procurement, logistics, facility management etc.) for the first time on a central HTML5 web-based platform

using a range of economic criteria.

1.1 anafee

The anafee product suite rises to the challenge of heightened corporate requirements by enabling the

controlling of administrative core functions in a cost-transparent, benefit-orientated, and economical way.

In addition to intuitive user guidance, it also features multi-client capability, currency management and

continual comparability of planned and actual costs as part of its standard functions. These enable

continual standardisation and central controlling of shared (business) services on a global level.

The central control element is the service catalogue. Planning is supported by simulated scenarios and

sensitivity analyses. Flexible comparisons of various time periods, comparisons of planned targets and

actual results, as well as service-cost comparisons with the external market (benchmarking) enable

efficient controlling, well-founded make-or-buy decisions, and sustainable cost optimisation.

1.2 The main functionalities of anafee

Analysis of all relevant cost drivers within service structures

Definition of a flexible, needs-orientated service portfolio to create a central service catalogue

(e. g. purchased components and services, technical services, business services)

SLA management (framework agreements, service level agreements, operational level agreements)

including catalogue management (product specifications and life cycle management)

Mapping of customer-specific service prices (tariffs)

Non-central planning, simulation, and forecasting of service costs and quantities

Calculation and recalculation of unit costs; determination of service prices taking into account

different currencies

Monitoring of deviations from planned/actual targets, monthly recalculation

Customer-tailored invoicing with details on consumption quantities and charged costs

Report designer for creating individual customer reports, also using graphical elements in the

formats XLS, PDF or HTML

Presentation of performance relationships and value flows along the entire value creation chain

(service layer model)

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Reporting of all sales, costs, and contribution margins per service, organisational unit, and billing

period

Comprehensive support for transfer pricing through documentation and long-term storage of

invoicing prices and how they were derived

Quick and easy to read consumption quantities from the pre-systems via “Mediation Devices” (a

certified module is used for SAP)

Gathering of cost receipts and organisational structure from upstream systems (e. g. SAP)

Financial project controlling

Modular creation of service and project offers

1.3 Example of an application scenario using IT services

anafee supports effective IT controlling based on benchmarks and other data which demonstrate the

contribution to value creation of company IT. This enables all IT costs to be determined precisely, planned,

tracked at any time, viewed in terms of cost drivers, and assigned to performance-related organisational units

on a causal basis.

Entries into the leading ERP system (e. g. SAP) as well as invoicing to internal and external IT customers are

performed automatically. The cost and performance transparency generated encompasses the entire IT value

creation chain from external suppliers (outsourcing) to service recipients (specialist areas).

The following section will explain a selection of anafee’s main characteristics using these processes of an IT

service division:

Management of the service portfolio and master data

Calculation and simulation

Planning and budgeting

Usage-based allocation and charging

Reporting and dashboarding

Account and SLA management

The significance of the individual steps for IT in using anafee will be described using illustrations from the

workplace environment and the integrated reporting portal.

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2 Management of the IT service portfolio and master data

2.1 IT service catalogue structure

An IT department provides services to users in the company’s specialist departments. These are a central topic

in anafee. The services are quantitatively measurable service units which can be assigned to specific users or

user groups and can be categorised in two ways: Business services are services (products) which are directly

consumed by the business (e. g. a workplace including PC, monitor, printer and network access). Technical

services are services (precursor products) from which the business services arise (e. g. individual network

access or a monitor).

Business services include individual technical services, for example:

Provision of hardware and software components at the workspace

Access to application systems that map business logic and support business processes

(for example, ERP systems or groupware)

Support services

The reading of information concerning which service was used when and by whom is termed “mediation” and

is transferred in anafee onto so-called “Mediation Devices”. These are configured in such a way that they

contact a variety of data sources on a daily, weekly or monthly basis and collect consumption information.

Sources include asset management systems, project time-tracking, ERP, and problem and incident

management.

A selection is then made from the list of identified services. The services most in demand in terms of quantities

form the basis by which the service catalogue is defined.

Fig. 1: The standard services are precisely specified here for the “PC Type Class Standard” group.

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Fig. 2: Example of a framework agreement with the organisation.

2.2 Specification of services

The business services visible to customers as well as associated technical services - located in levels upstream

in the value creation chain - will be described in detail (see Fig. 1). The following properties, for example, are

relevant:

Title/description of service

Billing unit and batch size

Service scope

Requirements for service performance

Optional extensions, exclusions, operational and service times, maintenance windows,

obligations to co-operate, escalation levels, etc.

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2.3 Organisation of services in service units

The services are grouped and hierarchically organised in accordance with their production process in cost

accounting.

A group of services is subordinated to a cost centre that is seen to be responsible for creating the services.

This central workspace of anafee thus represents the inside view of IT and focuses on the transparency of

costs in the production of IT services.

The resulting tree structure then acts as the foundation for the entire ongoing calculation model and thus

forms central cost accounting.

2.4 Account management and SLA management

The management of customers and their organisational structures takes place in another workspace -

organisational management - which is adopted in a standardised procedure from the ERP system (e.g. SAP)

or another leading system. This procedure determines which tariff is to be used to charge a customer or

customer group for services. The accounting process is fully automated and is based on an imported interface

in the ERP system.

Budget thresholds expected of specific organisational levels can also be defined. Compliance with these

thresholds can be ascertained at a glance via anafee Reporting, which ensures continual, comprehensive

controlling of defined budget limits.

Framework agreements form the basis of service delivery to specific specialist areas or group companies (see

Fig. 2). The detailed characteristics of the service performed for the service recipient are determined in service

level agreements (SLA). These are transparent and can be accessed using any conventional browser in the

web portal.

Fig. 3: A unit list describes what a service (such as PCs) comprises and is characterised as a mandatory

component in anafee.

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Fig. 4: The exact, cascading structure of an IT service and its components can be followed using the drill-down

view. Components of the “Standard User Workplace Environment” and “Helpdesk” can also be found in

addition to the primary costs, which can be directly allocated to the product “PC Type Class Standard”. These

in turn can be broken down into individual components.

Fig. 4.1: The PC-type class standard in the Visual Service Analyzer.

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Fig. 4.2: The service helpdesk as a component of the PC-type class standard in the Visual Service Analyzer.

Fig. 5: Clear overview of cost types and their distribution.

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3 Planning and budgeting

The gradual standardisation and transparency of costs and services realised through use of anafee means all

the requirements for long-term, strategic planning are met. The consistent management of services, costs and

consumption quantities through a uniform controlling platform enables economic planning of IT services and

costs to be performed for the entire company. The time dedicated to planning and budgeting, which can be

immense, is thus significantly reduced.

3.1 Planning of required quantities and service quantities

anafee not only helps with cost planning, it can also be used to manage the quantity of performance units

which can be realised in accordance with the planned time and expenditure. This means Controlling can always

keep costs and services under check and undertake prompt adjustments to the largely step fixed cost

structures.

The requirements of customers expected during a billing period can be specified centrally for each IT product

(see Fig. 3-5) or planned non-centrally, that is, by the departments themselves which are receiving the services.

Fig. 6: The planning of quantities - in this case: desktop device services - can be performed independently by

the customer.

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If the planning quantities are specified centrally by the IT division, anafee supports IT controlling using

comprehensive evaluations concerning the consumption of business services, technical services or

transactions in the preceding planning period. This makes it transparent which anomalies have arisen between

planned and actual figures concerning quantity and cost development across several periods. The results can

then be taken into account for the current planning period.

Non-central quantity planning can be performed directly in anafee as a web-based task. In contrast to the

tool traditionally used for planning - Microsoft Excel, which is not multi-user capable - anafee does not require

spreadsheets to be sent to service recipients. Instead, each specialist division has access to the portfolio

specified in the IT service catalogue and is able to store the required service quantities independently (see

Fig. 6). The central platform enables all ordered service quantities to be consolidated automatically.

Investment and budget planning, calculation of overall costs for IT services (TCO), and price calculation for

services can be performed iteratively on the basis of planned volume demand.

3.2 Allocation of costs

Using anafee enables full apportionment of overall IT costs to defined services. The aim is to exactly calculate

the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) - the overall costs of each IT service - in order to manage cost trends upon

the basis of services.

The following section will show costs being allocated to various positions in the defined tree structure, which

include (amongst others):

Leasing rates or depreciation for hardware and software

Personnel costs

Material costs and joint costs, such as office space costs.

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The costs can be stored manually or imported at regular intervals from an accounting system (e. g. SAP or any

other ERP system). An automated standardised procedure is used in anafee to import costs from SAP;

subsequent billing data can be exported to SAP for accounting purposes by the same method. The allocation

of costs from an ERP system is basically a subsequent assignment of costs based on the cost centres/cost

types in the ERP system. This happens automatically via “cost filters” using predefined criteria at a chosen

point within the cost carrier structure in anafee.

Fig. 7: Static cost allocation based on expert knowledge: primary costs should be distributed as follows in

the “Desktop Device Service” section: 10 % to “PC Type Class Standard”, 20% to “PC Type Class” Executive,

10 % to “Laptop Class Standard” etc.

Fig. 8: Dynamic cost allocation using sales volumes: e. g. depreciations can be dynamically distributed

depending on the number of desktops weighted as “I”. The weighting can vary across different devices.

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Fig. 9: Cost allocation in accordance with the principle of financial viability: secondary costs are distributed in

the same way as dedicated primary costs which have already been allocated across the entire “Desktop Device

Services” section.

A range of distribution mechanisms are built into anafee for cost allocation, which can be put to use

depending on the purpose:

Static allocation based on expert knowledge (see Fig. 7)

Dynamic allocation using sales volumes (see Fig. 8)

Allocation based on the principle of financial viability (see Fig. 9)

Fig. 10: Top-down allocation of cost types: anafee shows which costs come together to form overall costs.

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Fig. 11: Bottom-up allocation approach to service costs: “D10001-PC Type Class Standard” comprises a variety

of components. The cost rate is calculated by adding together the components plus any apportionments.

3.3 Identifying the overall costs of an IT service (TCO)

The calculation process applies the defined distribution rules and calculates the total cost of ownership, which

can be based on either a top-down or bottom-up approach. The bottom-up allocation approach compiles

costs via a multi-level value creation chain, which involves the individual components being combined in a

unit list and then brought together in a service product (see Fig. 10-11).

3.4 Price calculation and tariff management

Prices are devised following the identification of costs and are managed using an individually definable tariff

model. This enables any number of tariffs to be stored, each following their own rules with respect to pricing

for implementation of surcharges or discounts for service centres or customer segments (see Fig. 12-13). The

prices for services (hereinafter referred to as “IT products”) can be calculated based on the identified costs or

they can be issued as fixed prices, which means anafee provides you with the foundation for creating audit-

compliant documentation for all topics of transfer pricing.

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Fig. 12: anafee enables a variety of tariff models (in this case: “standard tariff” and “allocation tariff”) to be

stored for each service, such as the IT Product “D10001-PC Type Class Standard” as shown here, or a product

area.

Fig. 13: The result of these rules can be seen in the product price. The example shows three tariffs with their

specific set value for the product “PC Type Class Standard”. The resulting calculation shows which price will

be charged in the various tariff models.

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Fig. 14: Example of a Desktop Device Service product catalogue as seen by a customer.

The IT Product catalogue intended for the external view (as seen by the customer) is managed in anafee within

a dedicated structure and can be expanded accordingly in line with customer requirements. The structure of

this product catalogue is not aligned with production but is rather based on the consumption of the IT

products (see Fig. 14). It thus represents the external view of IT - in contrast to cost accounting (internal view

of IT) - and is a major interface for adapting an IT service offering in line with requirements.

3.5 Simulation and “what-if analyses”

The main priority when planning IT budgets and services is ensuring the highest possible level of investment

security. In practice, however, plans and actual circumstances often deviate considerably from each other after

only a short time. Correcting this imbalance requires numerous planning phases over the course of a year,

which can put an enormous strain on an IT department’s resources. Minimising the risk of poor investments

requires forward-looking planning processes, which can react flexibly to foreseeable developments in the

company as time progresses. Simulating potential scenarios is thus a major consideration for IT planning.

These simulations and “what-if analyses” are made possible in anafee thanks to a unique form of scenario

management in which, within the scenarios (layers), only the differences against the basic scenario are

compared. On one hand, this leads to very low quantities of data needing to be stored and/or modified

punctually, and on the other hand, the all-important link to the basic scenario can be maintained.

An example: In the standard scenario, IT services are charged using a planned cost tariff, which aims to

simulate how the expenditure of the specialist areas would change if an external market price tariff were

applied. A new scenario is stored for this purpose which is a “derivation” of the basic scenario. Only one rule

is modified in the derived scenario, which causes IT services to no longer be charged using the “planned costs”

tariff, but rather using the market price tariff. If the basic scenario changes over time, e. g. due to charging on

a monthly basis, the “market price perspective” is always carried along in parallel. This info is then always on

hand for comparative reports and analyses, as well as the implementation of benchmarks (see Fig. 15).

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Fig. 15: Scenario comparison: comparing billing for the IT Product “PC Type Class Standard” according to the

planned tariff and market price tariff. The modification within the scenario was previously only performed by

means of a punctual adjustment upon allocation of the tariff model.

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4 Usage-based allocation and charging of IT service costs

One of the core issues in efficiently managing IT costs concerns which company divisions have used services

(and how many) and the costs which have arisen as a result. The “method” still widely used - by which services

are billed based on flat-rate criteria and inflexible distribution keys (e. g. department sizes or CPU times) - has

two main disadvantages. One is that customers have difficulty in understanding the costs on the invoice and

thus have little opportunity for managing them. The other disadvantage is that the IT department is unable

to precisely identify what is behind these costs. These aspects mean there is no well-established administrative

basis upon which to effectively and sustainably contain costs.

In anafee, the allocation of costs to where they originate is fully automated just like the billing process itself.

Once in operation, anafee will automatically allocate all services/service volumes provided as well as costs to

the service recipients in question.

Every invoice recipient (such as a head of a cost centre) receives a clear and comprehensible invoice listing all

the IT services used, including volumes consumed, individual price, and overall price. Since IT service processes

are aligned with technical processes when the service itself is defined, invoicing for said service can also be

formulated using the internal customer’s own specialist language to ensure better comprehensibility. The

invoices are generated automatically and can be sent monthly by email, for example. The anafee client also

enables current and past customer invoices to be consulted. The layout of the invoices is customisable and

can incorporate the company’s corporate design (see Fig. 17).

The invoicing process can be divided into three stages:

1. Interface stage

Time-controlled mediation processes retrieve invoice-relevant information from the various data sources

and use QS processes, such as a master data check etc., to verify it. Verification may lead to data provision

being rejected or requiring correction by a supervisor. Once the data supply has passed through the

“input quality gate” the next stage begins.

2. Settlement calculation

This stage involves the transaction data being processed with the master data through application of the

accounting rules, after which an assessment of the volumes is performed. This process is also

accompanied by a series of "check reports". Before passing onto the last stage, where data is passed onto

the main ERP system, an accounting simulation is often performed, which allows a last check of monthly

accounting and ensures the third stage has valid data with which to work.

3. Data preparation for analysis and ongoing processing by third-party systems

This ranges from the automatic creation of interface files for BATCH processing in SAP, through to the

activation of WEB services for ongoing processing of the accounting results in any chosen third-party

system.

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Fig. 16: All invoices can be created and sent automatically in anafee with all documents being stored and

managed centrally. Document design can be modified in accordance with your firm’s corporate identity.

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5 Reporting

The creation of detailed, comprehensible reports for customers and management is one of the core tasks of

IT controlling and helps convey a sense of integrity and quality to the customer receiving an invoice. As such,

the preparation of gathered information and generation of analyses are a significant part of anafee.

The results of reporting are a significant indicator of the contribution performed by IT within a business

process. anafee enables a seamless representation of service relationships and value flows along the entire

value creation chain (service layer model).

In addition, reports on sales, costs, and contribution margins per service, organisational unit, and invoice

period generate direct control signals to aid needs-orientated planning of volumes and costs for future IT

services, which are in harmony with the company’s commercial targets.

anafee facilitates quick and convenient creation of customer-specific reports, such as:

Which organisational unit (legal unit, departments, cost centres, employees) has utilised which

product? And how often? How high are unit prices and costs?

How do costs and sales for the products develop over a certain time period?

How high is the contribution margin?

How are costs and sales developing for the individual services or service groups?

How do they compare with the planned scenarios or the previous year?

What are the cost drivers of your services?

Fig. 17

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Fig. 18

Figs. 17 - 18: The anafee reporting tool enables the user to create meaningful reports as a Pivot table (Fig. 17)

and as a list (Fig. 18) with an intuitive user interface, which can be integrated into the Office environment at

any point. The example shows a report on sales volumes and charged costs across all levels of the customer’s

organisational structure.

All relevant information can be offered in customisable reports in the form of lists, Pivot or interactive graphics,

which can easily be transferred to the world of Office using a range of export options (see Fig. 18-19). If a user

has the corresponding access rights, they can configure each report so it matches their personal preferences

and then save it as a personal favourite. Personal favourites can be shared with colleagues or entire groups

of users thus enabling reporting to be quickly adapted in line with the requirements of our customers and

individual users. Making adjustments to meet changing requirements is quick and easy and can be

accomplished by the user themselves or key users.

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6 Project controlling

anafee lets you map every single one of your financial project controlling processes. You can plan your

resources with the various skill levels of project staff in mind and control costs over the course of the project.

The extensive cost carrier structure in anafee means you can compile the required resources modularly and

then receive a convenient and detailed cost breakdown.

Fig. 19: The clear project structure in anafee lets the user keep an eye on all their projects. The individual

project details can be edited at any time by those with sufficient authorisation.

Fig. 20: Project costs can be allocated to individual organisational units using an accounting rule which can

be edited at any time.

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Fig. 21: Modular offer creation (see Chapter 7) gives you the option of creating offers for your projects to be

made available to the company in PDF or a Microsoft Office format.

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7 Modular offer creation

Increasing emphasis is being placed on how IT should align itself with the services on offer within customer-

and service-orientated corporate approaches. anafee gives you the option of quickly and easily responding

to business requests for new services and projects. You can create individual offers using the Business Service

Calculator (or Business Project Calculator) by bringing together all the components from your existing cost

carrier structure as well as a description and incorporation of the people responsible for said offer.

Fig. 22: The simple interface of the Business Service Calculator and Business Project Calculator enables you to

quickly and intuitively create new services and projects including all the required information.

Fig. 23: To aid in the creation of offers for services or projects, anafee gives you the option of quickly compiling

costs and service components from your existing structure in a modular and easy-to-understand form.

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This enables detailed offers to be quickly generated, which can be simply sent as a PDF or Office document.

Once commissioned by the company, you can adopt the service or project into your production environment

with a single click of the mouse.

8 Active controlling of services

anafee facilitates data analysis, the recognition of potential, as well as the corresponding controls via a

seamless and highly integrated platform. The interactive design options for the calculation and accounting

model in the core processes (planning, forecasting, and accounting) in conjunction with reliable interface

technology, robust quality assurance processes, and detailed analyses provide a holistic solution for the active

and effective management of IT services, service organisation, and your customers. Deviations from the plan

can be identified at any time to allow suitable counter-measures to be initiated. Analyses of cost structure

and trends show how fit-for-purpose the service organisation is and can be used to document the

performance of controls which are in effect.

The high level of automation and individual customisation of this solution to match each user’s requirements

increases the awareness of service supervisors with respect to operationally significant aspects in service

delivery. This ultimately leads to close-knit processes and continuous improvement of IT service management.

8.1 Integrated platform for global business services

anafee is not only suited to use in IT service areas - it can also be used for all shared services centres (SSCs) -

and it supports optimal use of synergies between several SSC clients (multi-client capability). For example,

organisational data or cost types, tariff models etc. can be used jointly and only require one-time, central

management. At the same time, the anafee solution takes the characteristics of every service centre into full

account. Service catalogues, for example, are strictly separated from each other in their specific forms.

A sophisticated authorisation concept offers each user the insight and information they need to complete

their tasks, which, of course, can be provided in their preferred language and currency. The vast range of

personalisation options means each user can access the information important to them with a single click of

the mouse and in the most suitable format.

Think global, act local – anafee provides SSC managers with their own area in which they can focus on

observing and taking action. It presents service relationships from the perspective of the SSC in terms of

receiving and providing services. From a customer’s point of view, of course, the focus is on the service

relationships with all SSC areas and anafee presents a consolidated view of all volumes and costs arriving at

operative areas from all directions.

In addition to these approaches which are based on the different perspectives of users, the entire service

network can also be analysed and continually optimised on a general management level across all customers

and SSC clients.

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About the PMCS.helpLine Software Group

PMCS.helpLine Software Group is the provider for digitized service processes. The group supports

organizations with software solutions and consulting services in digitizing their business. PMCS.helpLine

headquartered in Bad Camberg employs more than 250 employees at eight European locations. With the

solutions helpLine and Serviceware, companies can digitize and automate their processes in IT and Customer

Service Management. The financial management software anafee generates transparent cost and

performance structures for IT and shared services. The offer is complemented by a strategic consultancy for

the digitization of customer interaction. Moreover, PMCS.helpLine implements solutions based on the

products of leading technology partners which help organizations to manage and secure data, IT systems and

devices.

For further information about anafee please visit our website www.anafee.com

Contact

PMCS.helpLine Software Group

Carl-Zeiss-Straße 16

65520 Bad Camberg

Germany

Phone: +49 6434 94 50-0

E-Mail: contact@pmcs-helpline.com

Web: www.pmcs-helpline.com

4401/08/17/04/EN

Copyright © PMCS.helpLine Software Group. All rights reserved.