Allocate costs to support chargeback objectives.
Companies must then decide how to allocate these costs to the business units, taking into consideration the objectives of the chargeback initiative and the user decisions to be influenced. The choices range from very straightforward approaches that involve dividing total storage costs among the user community based on size (number of employees, number of servers, etc.), to more sophisticated allocations based on actual usage that more effectively link user consumption with costs.

An even more accurate approach involves the establishment of a service-level catalog that defines how much users are charged based on the volume of services consumed at a given service level. This option is very helpful in fostering conversations with business users in terms they can understand. It drives them to choose only the services that they truly feel are critical, or choose services whose costs are in line with the value of that service level for them.

Clear invoicing makes users aware of the link between actions and costs.
The last step of the implementation methodology involves developing an invoice that communicates costs to the users. Clarity of the invoice is extremely important for user acceptance, as users won’t pay for what they don’t understand. Users must clearly understand how their actions link directly to costs and how they can directly control these costs.

The most successful organizations carefully consider chargeback objectives when developing the invoice. One best practice is to draw attention to the resource consumption that you specifically want to influence. The financial services company mentioned above used the chargeback invoices to highlight the utilization conditions they were trying to avoid. When utilization dropped below a certain threshold, users would see a flashing red box in their online invoice.

Expertise in designing the chargeback invoice is critical and requires a deep understanding of end-user issues and chargeback objectives. The leading global technology services company needed a highly effective and reliable chargeback invoice in order to accurately bill its clients. The increase in clarity and accuracy of the client billing process has led to more satisfied customers and a greater ability to anticipate changing customer demands and acquire new customers.

Leverage existing tools to ensure accuracy and minimize investment.
Many successful organizations have already implemented storage-management software tools that can track and report utilization of storage resources. While organizations have had these tools for some time, many have not yet exploited the full capabilities of the software. Companies that have successfully implemented chargeback often leverage existing software to capture accurate usage data. This software is critical for the gathering, storage and management of the required chargeback data. Using a tool to provide integrated asset and utilization reports across multivendor storage increases the probability of capturing accurate usage data for chargeback purposes and more fully utilizes existing software investments.