Digital Fuel, a specialist in software for managing service-level agreements (SLAs), will today launch a suite that can monitor the cost as well as performance of IT and business-service provisioning.

The new ServiceFlow Cost Management suite is primarily aimed at third-party IT and business service providers, such as outsourcers and managed services firms, as well as companies’ internal shared service support arms, said Digital Fuel. In addition to allowing firms to track whether they are meeting agreed service levels, it also lets them track how much each service is costing and whether it is provided on budget.

The suite is also designed to automate the financial processes associated with providing a business or IT service – such as desktop management or helpdesk support – and includes integrated functionality for developing service requirements, assigning operational service budgets, managing the cost and price of the service against the agreed budget, and billing customers.

Tom Schaefer, executive vice-president of marketing at Digital Fuel, said the expanded capabilities to monitor key performance indicators (KPIs) for both cost and service levels would help service providers and internal support departments to increase profitability and provide a more flexible service to end-users.

“Extending SLA management capabilities to include cost helps both supplier and customer to track the consumption of services against their budgets far better,” said Schaefer. “It gives you more insight into the usage of a service so you can cross-charge more effectively; and business units get a better view of their costs and can adjust behaviour quicker.”