The ever increasing demand for improved financial control and transparency within IT Financial Management means the CIO is under ever more pressure to explain exactly how their budgets are allocated.

Evermore sophisticated and intelligent solutions are required to meet that demand, which means that IT Financial Management Software is no longer a luxury – it’s a must.

The modern CIO & CFO must explore the advantages of running an intelligent IT Financial Tool. However, for those IT leaders who have traditionally used manual systems, sourcing and implementing the right ITFM solution can be a daunting task.

The ClearCost team has had almost twenty years of experience in firstly working with our clients to identify the problems and then swiftly implementing an IT Financial management software solution that is optimised for your business.

Over the years, we have learned that there are five main questions that our customers need to understand when choosing the best IT Financial Management Tool.

1. How much effort is needed to implement an ITFM solution?

Generally, your new ITFM software can be delivered in a useable and valuable position within 90 days. Factors that can affect the implementation timing include the quality of existing data such as budget information, GL coding, and asset data.

Keeping it simple is the key – trying to track granular details for every small system may not be practical immediately. The most optimal and effective solution may take a little time to achieve – and you could call it an ongoing journey of improvement. So, with help from the ClearCost team, your implementation can be relatively seamless – we are with you all the way.

If you don’t have the team to spare or that have the skillset to implement, ClearCost Professional Services can augment your staff using our in-house team of experts.

2. How much time is involved in operationally maintaining the data?

Our experience has shown us that the amount of time you are currently spending to maintain your existing system can be massively reduced with our ITFM Software. With our solutions, we target 30 minutes per month per cost centre owner to maintain their particular part of the system.

Central ownership of the core model requires a few hours per month, typically from someone in IT Finance or Service Management.

3. Can actual spend data be uploaded from our GL system?

Absolutely – ClearCost provides automated or manual upload facilities that enable actual spend data to be aligned with the budget. That way, you can track your Actual vs Budget spend and support re-forecasting.

4. Does an IT Financial Management tool force IT Leaders to become Accountants?

The most effective IT is run as if it were a business. That means, that IT professionals are already spending time on this using spreadsheets, consulting asset management tools, and writing emails to explain why the actual spend doesn’t match the budget – which is a bit like what an accountant may already do.

IT Leaders who are responsible for spending money need to take ownership of that spend. Having an IT Financial Management tool like ClearCost, makes it so much easier to produce automated reports, to explain spend vs budget with defensible information.

5. How does improved transparency and clarity of our costs help?

The ClearCost ITFM software provides automated straightforward reports that allow fact-based discussions with your consumers. These reports help the consumers to understand that they drive the IT spend, not IT.

With ClearCost, IT Managers can see the actual cost of each service which leads to making intelligent decisions on how to influence them. Analytics of the IT financial metrics may determine that the cost of a system or service is in excess of the value it delivers, then decide to retire it or combine it with an existing system, bringing the budget back into line. You can find out more about Cost Transparency here.

Don’t see your question on the list? Contact Us, and one of our ITFM experts will be glad to answer your questions for you or you can click here to request a demonstration and see how the ClearCost Intelligent IT Financial Management software can help you solve your IT problems.