FullCost is the key to transparency, demand management, and to changing your dialog with the business.

Customers expect more of you than you have resources to deliver Clients demand more than your resources can deliver, and blame you when you can't produce all they want. "Do more with less!" Executives demand that you cut costs, but they expect you to go on delivering all that you have in the past. "Cut your budget!" Cost cutting may be a reality, but there are good and bad ways to go about it. You defend your budget with little help from clients If your budget is cut (or doesn't grow to meet business needs), clients suffer. But they don't help you get the resources you need. Lack of perception of value delivered Executives don't appreciate the value you deliver to the business. Strategic relevance You're seen as necessary but not well aligned with the strategic needs of the enterprise. Lack of internal entrepreneurship Your staff are reluctant to suggest innovative ideas for fear of being expected to deliver them without additional resources. Shift spending from KTLO to strategic projects You'd like to reduce spending on marginal keep-the-lights-on services, to free up funding for strategic projects. Funding for infrastructure and innovation It's tough to convince clients to fund your infrastructure and your processes of innovation. "You cost too much!" You get accused of costing too much, even without the facts (such as like-for-like rate comparisons). Mistrust due to lack of transparency Clients don't understand where all your money is going, and suspect you of waste and inefficiencies. Unfair comparisons to outsourcing, benchmarks People compare "apples to oranges" and mistakenly conclude that outsourcing your function will save money. Shared services You're a shared-services organization, and must earn the position of clients' "vendor of choice." Controversies over allocations or chargebacks Business units complain that they're paying more than their fair share of your costs. Setting your rates You charge for your services, and clients complain that your rates are unfair and unmanagable. Make clients accountable for demand management, strategic alignment Perhaps you've established a client steering committee, but aren't getting the anticipated benefits. Changing the dialog with the business You'd like to talk to your peers about strategic investment opportunities, not just defend your costs. Build a culture of customer focus and entrepreneurship Managers think their job is to manage the resources and processes they've been given, rather than please customers and run a business within a business. Teamwork and internal alignment When managers independently set their own priorities, teamwork suffers. The next generation of leaders Managers are technically competent, but have little experience running businesses.

"It was very fortuitous that we'd implemented FullCost when we did. Now [under pressure to cut costs] I can walk into my boss's office and say, `Here's my budget and what things cost. What do you think isn't important anymore?'" J.L. Albert CIO, Georgia State University "Managing IT as a business establishes the CIO as a proven executive who can lead other areas of the business -- administration, operations, even external-facing business units." Perry Rotella SVP and CIO, Verisk Analytics, Inc. "Now, we understand what goes into every rate; we can explain it and look our customers square in the eye when we do." Greg Stoddard CTO, Riverside County, CA "...it was like a mini-MBA. It's given me grounding in finance and changed the way I manage my unit and approach my customers." Cindy Mitchell Director, Applications Engineering, University of Maine

Detailed list of problems....

Top ten reasons why internal service providers need to know the full cost of their products/services....

Comprehensive solution....