Service cost management enhancements

The following enhancements are included in this release:

Added global permission for viewing cost models

An administrative-level user can now specify the following global permission to view cost models:

ITBM IT Costing Viewer
Users with this permission can view the cost models. the users can also view the required details of the cost models by changing the fiscal year, fiscal period, and cost type.

Enhanced permissions and user interface for controlling access to specific cost models

In previous releases, BMC IT Business management Suite provided permissions to view, edit or delete cost models. Users with these permissions, and with specific access restrictions could access all cost models in the system. BMC IT Business management Suite now provides a more robust permission mechanism to restrict permission to specific cost models. You can now specify the user(s) that can delete, edit or view a specific cost model.
An administrative-level user can specify the following permissions for users that can delete, edit or view cost models:

ITBM Cost Model Delete
Users with this permission can add, edit, view and delete a specific cost model. This permission works in conjunction with the group of delete users for a cost model. You specify the delete users in the Delete Users field in the Cost Model details pane. Therefore a user with this permission can delete a cost model only if you have specified that user in the group of delete users for that cost model. Additionally if you specify a user with this permission in the group of edit users for a cost model, the user can edit the cost model but will not be able to delete the cost model. Similarly if you specify a user with this permission in the group of view users for a cost model, the user can view the cost model but will not be able to edit or delete the cost model.
Note: Users with ITBM IT Costing Delete permission can add, edit, view and delete all cost models. They do no need the ITBM Cost Model Delete permission.
ITBM Cost Model Edit
Users with this permission can add, edit, and view a specific cost model. This permission works in conjunction with the group of edit users that you specify in the Edit Users field in the Cost Model details pane. Therefore a user with this permission can only edit a cost model if you have specified that user in the group of edit users for that cost model. If you specify a user with this permission in the group of view users for a cost model, the user can view the cost model but will not be able to edit the cost model. A user with this permission cannot delete a cost model.
Note: Users with ITBM IT Costing Delete or ITBM IT Costing User permission can add, edit, and view all cost models. They do no need the ITBM Cost Model Edit permission.
ITBM Cost Model Viewer
Users with this permission can view a specific cost model. This permission works in conjunction with the group of view users that you specify in the View Users field in the Cost Model details pane. Therefore a user with this permission can view a cost model only if you have specified that user in the group of view users for that cost model. A user with this permission cannot delete or edit a cost model.
Note: Users with ITBM IT Costing Delete, ITBM IT Costing User or ITBM IT Costing Viewer permission can view all cost models. They do no need the ITBM Cost Model Viewer permission.

Additionally the following fields are now available in the cost model details pane of a cost modeler window:

Delete Users
Specifies the list of users that can view, edit and delete the cost model. The users in this list must also have the ITBM Cost Model Delete permission.
Edit Users
Specifies the list of users that can edit the cost model. The users in this list must also have the ITBM Cost Model Edit or ITBM Cost Model Delete permission.
View Users
Specifies the list of users that can view the cost model. The users in this list must also have the ITBM Cost Model View, ITBM Cost Model Edit, or ITBM Cost Model Delete permission.

Enhanced capability to lock a cost model for edits

When you have a multiple users accessing the same set of cost models, it is important that the same cost model is not edited by more than one user at the same time. The users run the risk of overwriting each others data. BMC Service Cost Model user interface was enhanced to lock a cost model for other users when a user is in the process of editing that cost model.
The following icons were added to the Cost Modeler window:

Check Out for Edit
Check in

To edit a cost model, you now first click on the Check Out for Edit icon. This ensures that the cost model is not open for edits by any other user in the application. After making the changes, you can click on the Save icon to check the cost model back. If you do not need to save the changes, you can use the Check in icon to release the cost model for all users to edit.

Ability to export cost model to a Microsoft Excel file

You can now export cost model information to a Microsoft Excel file. The following icon was added in the IT Service Cost Modeler window:

Export

New portlet to display ranking of services based on cost of service

A new portlet called Service Cost Ranking was added to display the services within the selected cost scenario listed as per the cost of the services. The portlet lists both business and technical services. The cost of service is derived from the cost models associated with each service.