Accountability and disclosure are common and increasing demands on IT in the Government sector, as is the growing shift to Shared Service IT operations.

We have worked with clients where centralizing the IT functions and costs from various departments into a shared service provider model has demanded support through the transitioning period to the end goal – all with a single seamless and consistent costing and allocation/charging system.

Many departments do not allocate their costs but still have the same universal need that all IT groups share – to communicate the fact their budget is driven by demand from end user Departments. Setting appropriation and budget submissions around this fact provides complete transparency which aids the executive in their reviews and determinations. Adjusting budgeting practices to reflect this in a way meaningful to non-IT management in Government is an increasingly important part of the IT financial management systems.

As to is the need for performance measures across IT that are meaningful, accurate and repeatable – something the ClearCost system and our methodology embed in the IT groups reporting practices.

The final factors that we take into account in planning and implementing an effective solution for our Government clients are service maturity, financial drivers and politics. We have encountered many variations on these and are able to ensure an appropriate solution is designed to address these important yet less obvious key success factors.