85 per cent of UK IT directors and managers believe business unit managers treat IT resources like a all you can eat buffet, according to a survey by ALG Software.
The survey, a study of IT Shared Services functions in UK organisations, showed discord between IT departments and business units, with respondents reporting that half of business unit managers believe that IT cross-charges on their departments are unfair.
78 per cent of organisations have centralised IT shared services but only 55 per cent actually have an IT cross-charging process with 64 per cent of these still relying on basic spreadsheets to calculate and allocate IT costs to departments.
Whilst 83 per cent of IT directors and managers believe they have a good idea of which departments consumed IT resources, just 45 per cent of them think that their business unit managers saw IT cross-charging as accurate, with 50 per cent reporting frequent complaints and calls for cost reduction.
“Costing and cross-charging IT Shared Services is a popular trend amongst UK organisations but there is work for the IT Directors to do to give clarity and visibility into how much IT resource is being consumed by each department,†said Mike Sherratt, CEO, ALG Software. “There are substantial opportunities for organisations to reduce costs through cross-charging of shared services, but business unit managers must have confidence in the numbers given to them by IT, so that they can reconcile their IT usage against the cost.â€
Founded in 1990, ALG Software (ALG) is a global provider of Corporate Performance Management (CPM) solutions specifically within cost and profitability analytics and driver-based planning and budgeting. Using ALG software and service solutions will assist organisations in understanding and controlling their costs, improving customer relationships, managing distribution channels, improving responsiveness to changing internal and external market trends and ultimately boosting profitability and shareholder value. In short ALG provides the foundation of profitable strategic and operational decision-making. ALG Software operates across Europe, North and South America, Australia, the Middle East, the Far East and South Africa.