Cost accounting for shared IT infrastructures

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In recent years, determining the “value of IT” has become a priority for IT managers and Chief Information Officers (CIOs). This broad topic has been extensively discussed in Information Systems literature but poses tangible challenges in IT cost accounting. Modern corporate information systems are distributed, making detailed measurement of resource demands on IT services costly and impractical. The prevalence of indirect costs and the difficulty in establishing adequate allocation rates lead to significant issues, including free-rider problems, which have been largely overlooked in academic discussions. Dr. Brandl introduces a method to estimate resource demand for service requests within a distributed IT infrastructure. This method utilizes load tests and measurements typically conducted during the deployment of new information systems. Cost allocation keys can be derived from the number of service invocations per user or department alongside the corresponding estimators. While this approach offers a streamlined method for determining usage-based cost allocation keys, questions remain regarding the accuracy of these estimators, particularly when addressing different service types and fluctuating workloads.