BASF Digital Solutions
nicetec netinsight supplies data for BASF's cost allocation
Today, this is only processed via a central SAP® system. nicetec's netinsight forms the basis for complete IT billing for all subsidiaries and departments, as SAP® itself does not offer any functions for IT finance management and IT service billing.
Transparent billing for the highest demands
Determine all IT consumption data from a large number of globally distributed systems, enable cost-covering, transparent and cost-by-cause billing and make further IT business planning more transparent: This is what the IT finance management platform netinsight from nicetec has been doing this for BASF IT Services Holding GmbH, the IT service provider of the BASF Group, since 2005.
However, the IT service provider's areas of responsibility are constantly evolving, and with them the requirements for service billing.
Against this background, the contractual basis for the use of netinsight was changed to an enterprise license - combined with the conclusion of long-term support and maintenance agreements.
BASF's requirements for its information services are extremely demanding.
Against this backdrop, it is a very demanding task to create a cost-covering billing and budget planning system that is based on the costs incurred and provides the greatest possible transparency for customers.
The catalog of services offered by BASF IT Services Holding GmbH comprises a large number of different services
Collectors gather data from 60 data sources
The cost allocation is now handled by just one central SAP® system.
netinsight from nicetec forms the essential basis of the complete IT billing for all subsidiaries and departments, as SAP® itself does not offer any functions for IT finance management and IT cost allocation.
As a so-called PDC system (Process Data Collection), netinsight reliably collects and allocates all IT consumption data from the globally distributed BASF subsidiaries - with around 90,000 users - for the SAP® system and feeds it into an audit-proof billing system.
The collectors merge the required data from 60 data sources and assign them to product definitions and customers.
An important data source for the PDC is the user data management system with master and personal data.
Before the introduction of netinsight, various in-house developments from different individual companies or departments were in use for the recording and billing of individual IT products.
Most of these solutions had grown historically, were tailored to specific requirements and therefore lacked flexibility.
Those responsible realized early on that it would be difficult to create product definitions for the IT services if they had to be considered in billing in isolation according to departments and individual billing solutions.
A central and integrated solution is essential for creating new, comprehensive product catalogs and the associated pricing and billing.
Detailed breakdown of all costs
Whereas in the past, IT services were more heavily lumped together, the netinsight approach enables much more detailed presentations and billing.
This primarily includes:
- Asset-related offsetting,
- E-mail inboxes and
- Telephony (landline, fax, mobile, pool devices for different users).
"More and more services are being presented in detail and transparently. When the PDC system was introduced in January 2005, around 250,000 billing data records were generated every month; this figure has risen to around one million today," explains Wolfgang Kaller, Head of the Corporate Systems & Portals team.
Another benefit of netinsight: the solution offers investment protection and grows with your requirements.
In addition, the modular IT finance management platform has features that provide users with greater clarity and better display options.
"The modularity of the netinsight system and the ability to quickly implement changed billing modalities are also helpful in this context," explains Wolfgang Kaller.
Individual, needs-based presentation of all factors
"A particularly important advantage of integrating netinsight is the additional transparency that our customers have gained," explains the head of the Corporate Systems & Portals team.
"The data from the PDC is visualized very clearly via the 'Webinfo' customer portal.
This allows our customers to see at the end of each month which costs have been incurred and, for example, to make target/actual comparisons.
BASF's IT experts are pleased to report that the implementation costs remained well below the original budget.
In view of the constantly growing demands, BASF IT Services Holding GmbH and nicetec agreed on the content of the further long-term cooperation in 2010.
One key point is to replace the individual licenses of the netinsight platform with a comprehensive, flat-rate company license.
This means that extensions to new users in the BASF Group can be realized much more cost-effectively in the long term.
The second key point concerns the support and maintenance agreements.
In addition to the netinsight solution, nicetec will also continuously update the development tool associated with this platform in the future.
The areas of responsibility of BASF IT Services GmbH and therefore also the requirements for cost allocation are constantly evolving. Today, this is only handled via a central SAP® system. nicetec's netinsight forms the basis of the complete IT allocation for all subsidiaries and departments, as SAP® itself does not offer any functions for IT finance management and IT cost allocation.
