Configuring ROI flashboards

As a manager, you can use the ROI console to compare the projected costs for various IT service management operations prior to implementing BMC Helix ITSM with the actual costs incurred after the installation. This information helps you to determine how much money has been saved by using the BMC Helix ITSM applications. This information is displayed in a series of flashboard graphics.

The ROI data is collected by the ROI flashboard component based on the following information:

  • The customer company selected by the user in the ROI console.
  • The date range specified by the user in the ROI console.
  • A set of parameters that are configured from the Application Administration console a user with ROI Admin privileges.

To configure the flashboards, you need the numbers used by your organization for creating estimates and projections. If you do not have this information, you can get it from the appropriate area manager.

To display the ROI data in ROI flashboards, you need to configure the costs of the following flashboards:


 To configure a Cost of Failed Changes flashboard

In BMC Helix ITSM: Change Management, unsuccessful change requests are considered failed changes. The Cost of Failed Changes flashboard graph compares the baseline cost of failed changes that was estimated prior to implementing BMC Helix ITSM: Change Management with the actual costs incurred after the implementation.

Important

To perform the procedures described in this section, you need ROI Admin permissions.

  1. From the Application Administration console, click the Custom Configuration tab.
  2. From the Application Settings list, select ROI Console > Configuration > ROI Administration Console.
  3. From the ROI Administration console, select the ROI flashboard graph that you want to configure, and then click Configure Metrics.
    To calculate the information displayed in the graphs, the ROI flashboard uses the data gathered from the user (by way of the flashboard interface), as well as data from the various configured parameters. The formulas used by these calculations are described in the following table.

The values used in the formulas are:

  • A = Cost (per hour)

  • B = Effort (in hours)

    Important

    Although the user can enter a date range that includes a day of the month, the day of the month is ignored and only the month and the year are considered. For the purpose of system calculations, Start Date is always assumed to be the first day of the selected month and year, and the End Date is always assumed to be the last day of the selected month and year. For example, if the user entered May 21, 2009 as the Start Date and July 10, 2009 as the End Date, the system uses May 1, 2009 as the Start Date and July 31, 2009 as the End Date.

  • D = Number of Unsuccessful Changes (user-provided data in configuration screen)
  • F = Effort Input
  • G = Changes that have failed (this number is calculated by the system)

The following table explains the Cost of Failed Changes flashboard calculations:

Flashboard graph

Formula

Baseline cost of failed changes (PctCstFC)

A x B x D = PctCstFC

Actual cost of failed changes (ActCstFC)

The formula used to calculate the actual cost of failed changes depends on the parameter that you select in Effort Input.


Specify Effort Estimate

A x B x G = ActCstFC

Use Baseline Effort

A x F x G = ActCstFC

You must configure the following variables for this flashboard:

Variable

Value

Company

The customer company to which the rest of the parameters described in this section apply. If they apply to all companies, select Global.

Cost (per hour)

The labor cost from addressing failed changes used by your organization to create a baseline estimate.

For example, if your organization estimates that the labor for a failed change costs 95 dollars per hour, then enter 95. If your organization estimates that labor cost resulting from failed changes would be 50 euros per hour, then enter 50, and so on. The default setting for this parameter is 100.

Important: This field is an integer field only. You cannot enter a specific currency.

Effort (in hours)

The number of hours to recover from a failed change used by your organization to create a baseline estimate.

The default setting for this parameter is 25.

Number of Unsuccessful Changes

The estimated number of unsuccessful changes per month, used by your organization to create baseline estimates.

The default setting for this parameter is 15.

Effort Input

Select from the list as follows:

  • Specify Effort Estimate—Select this option if you want to specify the Effort Estimate. This activates the Effort Estimate field in the Cost of Failed Changes configuration dialog box. This is the default selection for Effort Input.
    The default number of hours is 20.
  • Use Baseline Effort—Select this if you want the flashboard to use the same value for Effort Input that you specified in the Effort field. Use this option if you believe that the time it takes to recover from a failed change has been unaffected by the implementation of BMC Helix ITSM.

Effort Estimate (in hours)

The estimated number of hours to recover from a failed change.


To configure a Cost of Incident Handling flashboard

This flashboard graph compares the baseline incident request call handling costs that were estimated prior to implementing BMC Helix ITSM: Service Desk: Incident Management with the actual costs incurred after implementation.

Important

To perform the procedures described in this section, you need ROI Admin permissions.

To calculate the information displayed in the graphs, the ROI flashboard uses data gathered from the user (by way of the flashboard interface), as well as data from the configured parameters.

  1. From the Application Administration console, click the Custom Configuration tab.
  2. From the Application Settings list, select ROI Console > Configuration > ROI Administration Console.
  3. In the ROI Administration console, select the ROI flashboard graph that you want to configure, and then click Configure Metrics.

The formulas used by these calculations are described in the following table.

The values used in the formulas are:

  • A = Cost (per hour)

  • B = Baseline Effort (in hours)

    Although the user can enter a date range that includes a day of the month, the day of the month is ignored and only the month and the year are considered. For the purpose of system calculations, Start Date is always assumed to be the first day of the selected month and year, and the End Date is always assumed to be the last day of the selected month and year. For example, if the user entered May 21, 2009 as the Start Date and July 10, 2009 as the End Date the system uses May 1, 2009 as the Start Date and July 31, 2009 as an End Date.

  • D = Estimated Requests (number of)
  • F = Effort Estimate (in hours)
  • G = The actual number of incident requests that were closed during the date range specified by the user (calculated by the system)

  • H = Cumulative effort of all the people who worked on incident requests during the date range specified by the user (calculated by the system)

    For the date range specified by a user, four incident requests were marked closed. Out of the four incidents, three incidents took one hour each from one user to handle (3 incident requests x 1 person each x 1 hour, or a total of 3 hours), and the fourth incident took two people each for two hours to handle (1 incident request x 2 people x 2 hours each, or a total of 4 hours).
    Therefore, H = 3 + 4, or 7.

The following table explains the Cost of Incident Handling flashboard calculations:

Flashboard graphs

Formula

Baseline cost of incident handling (ProjCstIH)

A x B x D = ProjCstCH

Actual cost of incident handling (ActCstIH)

The formula used to calculate the actual cost of incident handling depends on the parameter that you select in Effort Input.


Specify Effort Estimate

A x F x G = ActCstCH

Use Baseline Effort

A x B x G = ActCstCH

Calculate Cumulative Effort

A x G x H = ActCstCH

You must configure the following variables for this flashboard:

Variable

Value

Company

The customer company to which the rest of the parameters described in this section will apply. If they will apply to all companies, select Global.

Cost (per hour)

The labor cost from incident handling used by your organization to create baseline estimates.

For example, if your organization estimates that the labor from incident handling costs 95 dollars per hour, then enter 95. If your organization estimates that the labor from incident handling costs 50 euros per hour, then enter 50, and so on. The default setting for this parameter is 100.

Baseline Effort (in hours)

The average number of hours required to handle an incident request used by your organization to create baseline estimates.

The default setting for this parameter is 3.

Estimated Requests (per month)

The number of incident requests received on a monthly basis used by your organization to create baseline estimates.

The default setting for this parameter is 750.

Effort Input

Select from the following options:

  • Specify Effort Estimate—Select this option if you want to specify the Effort Estimate. This activates the Effort Estimate field in the Cost of Incident Handling configuration dialog box. This is the default setting for Effort Input, and the default value is 3.
  • Use Baseline Effort—Use this option if you believe that the time it takes to recover from a failed change has been unaffected by the implementation of BMC Helix ITSM.
  • Calculate Cumulative Effort—Select this option if you want the flashboards to calculate the Effort Input value by totaling the effort of all people who worked on incident requests during the date range specified by the user.
    Important: Use Calculate Cumulative Effort only if your organization is tracking effort in the Incident Management feature of BMC Helix ITSM: Service Desk.

Effort Estimate (in hours)

The estimated number of hours to complete an incident request.


To configuring a Cost of Outages flashboard

The cost of outages flashboard graph compares the baseline cost of outages that was estimated prior to implementing BMC Helix ITSM: Service Desk with the actual cost incurred after implementation.

Important

To perform the procedures described in this section, you need ROI Admin permissions.

To calculate the information displayed in the graphs, the ROI flashboard uses data gathered from the user (by way of the flashboard interface) as well as from the various configured parameters.

  1. From the Application Administration console, click the Custom Configuration tab.
  2. From the Application Settings list, select ROI Console > Configuration > ROI Administration Console.
  3. In the ROI Administration console, select the ROI flashboard graph that you want to configure, and then click Configure Metrics.

The formulas used by these calculations are described in the following table.

The values used in the formulas are:

  • A = Cost (per minute)
  • B = Monthly Outages (in minutes)

  • C = Number of months calculated by the system, based on user input

    Important

    Although the user can enter a date range that includes a day of the month, the day of the month is ignored and only the month and the year are considered. For the purpose of system calculations, Start Date is always assumed to be the first day of the selected month and year, and the End Date is always assumed to be the last day of the selected month and year. For example, if the user entered May 21, 2009 as the Start Date and July 10, 2009 as the End Date, the system uses May 1, 2009 as the Start Date and July 31, 2009 as the End Date.

  • G = The total amount of outages during the date range specified by the user (calculated by the system).
  • H = The estimated number of minutes lost to outages on a monthly basis that is used by your organization for creating baseline estimates.

The following table explains the Cost of Outages flashboard calculations:

Flashboard graph

Formula

Baseline Cost of Outages (ProjCstO)

A x B = ProjCstO

Actual Cost of Outages (ActCstO)

The formula used to calculate the actual cost of outages depends on the parameter that you select in Outages Input.


  • Specify Estimated Outage
A x H x C = ActCstO
  • Calculate Resolution Time
A x H = ActCstO
  • Calculate Cumulative Outage
A x G = ActCstO

You must configure the following variables for this flashboard:

Variable

Value

Company

The customer company to which the rest of the parameters described in this section will apply. If they will apply to all companies, select Global.

Cost (per minute)

The estimated outage cost per minute used by your organization to create baseline estimates.

For example, if your organization estimates that outages cost 95 dollars per minute, then enter 95. If your organization estimates that outages cost 50 euros per minute, then enter 50, and so on. The default setting for this parameter is 10.

Important: This field is an integer field only. You cannot enter a specific currency.

Monthly Outages (in minutes)

The estimated outage minutes per month used by your organization to create baselines estimates.

The default setting for this parameter is 10.

Outage Input

Select from the following options:

  • Calculate Cumulative Outage—Select this option if you want the system to use the total number of minutes lost to outages for the specified date range. This is determined from examining the closed incident request records that also have related CI Unavailability records. For each CI Unavailability record, the system calculates the duration of the unavailability and then adds that amount of unavailability to the running unavailability total for the specified date range. This is the default selection for Outage Input. The Calculate Cumulative Outage option is dependent on Asset Management.
  • Specify Estimated Outage—Select this if you want the system to use the number specified in the Estimated Outage field to calculate the actual outage cost. When you select Specify Estimated Outage, the Estimated Outage field appears below the Outage Input field.
    The default value is 100.
    The Specify Estimated Outage option is not dependent on Asset Management.

Estimated Outage (in minutes)

The estimated outage minutes per month used by your organization to create baseline estimates.

 

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