Charging
The decision whether to charge is a strategic decision to be taken with due care. Charging not only increases the operating costs of the IT service provider, but also increases accountability, exposure and transparency. Customers can compare what they get from IT with what they have to pay, and they can more easily compare their in-house IT provider with alternatives. Charging provides a means to influence customer behaviour, shaping demand and usage to match capacity, thereby reducing costs and risk. Without charging, many customers and users will see
IT services as free and will make demands on these services with little interest in the financial or operational implications. The introduction of charging helps change attitudes.