|
IT chargeback is generally regarded as a necessary evil through which central IT costs are, as accurately as possible, divided among the organizational units that benefit from them. In this
study of IT chargeback practices at ten large U.S. firms, we examined the impacts of chargeback on three anticipated outcomes: (a) IT resource consumption, (b) business unit performance evaluations, and (c)
business unit attitudes toward IT. We found that chargeback can and does result in reduced resource consumption when charges are based on usage. Nonetheless, we found that business unit managers sense they
have no control over their IT charges. Although business managers believe this lack of control over IT charges has no significant impact on their performance evaluations, it does affect their attitudes
toward the IT unit. Respondents at six of the ten firms felt that the IT unit was not doing as much as it could to control its own costs. At the other four firms, respondents believed that negotiations with
the core IT unit led to more effective IT investments on the part of both IT and business units. At these firms, chargeback facilitated fruitful negotiations about IT costs, services, and use. Based on these
findings, we offer recommendations as to how firms can design and use chargeback systems to generate positive attitudes and economic returns. |
